Charge! The History of Hasbro's ARMY ANTS! (1987) 

Never had these, but I did collect the GUTS small toy soldier line from Mattel. I swear, the 80’s was literally a toy buffet.

My stories always had the orange ants the heroes and blues ants the villains. 🐜 🐜 🐜 Now all ants are villains, cannot get them out of my house.

As toy/model channels go none can even compare. Most impressive.

I begged my mother to drive me to the store so that I could get 2 packs of each color. She reminds me every 6 months or so.

Still love how the toys of my childhood had guns and characters smoking

I've had these random figures in my toy collection for 30 years and I never knew what they were from. Thanks to this video, I know now they were Air Raiders - Thanks for solving that mystery.

I wonder if the Army Ants ever battled the Food Fighters? Who would win? 🤔

Hasbro was making some amazing toys that year. I definitely had most of those figures, Battle Beasts were my favorite but the Visionaries holograms were absolute showstoppers at school! I never saw Ninja Warriors around me or I would have had those too!

I always loved toys that were 1:1 scale. Having these little guys duking it out on top of the kitchen table or in the bake yard would have been a blast.

I still have all of mine from my childhood, along with all of their accessories! :) (Same with Battle Beasts and Visionaries!) The 80's were great!

I had the blue Special Forces Team. Loved their squishy guts! I wish I had more for elaborate warfare. I had to mix them with other small figures.

Looks like another superb addition to the Toy Museum...💯✔

I had a few of these. But M.U.S.C.L.E were the main "IT" thick rubber mini figures to have, back then. Oh, and those California Raisins figures. I swear, if you threw one, you could kill someone.

Outstanding. Btw Knockdown was a Joe with BattleForce2000

In my playtime as a kid, the Army Ants (both blue and orange) will always be the mortal enemies of my Battle Beasts. Edit: Haha as seen @4:30

As a kid, my friend and I would arrange both armies at the end of my bed and we would lob the bomb that ozone carried at the other side of the bed. Basically it was a kind of miniature dodgeball game. Fun times!

Wow, you put a lot of work into this video! Great job! Very informative

Army ants and battle beasts were awesome . Especially the battle beasts had the whale play set but dont remember them being around too long. Cool video

Why was this video so amazing? Like I actually wasn't expecting the sheer level of production mad ups 👏👏

Than you for that trip down memorylane! :D Had almost all Termitors back in the day!

Michael thanks for all you do I love your videos and the toy museum keep up the fantastic work

Great History video! I'm loving this!!

Just love your vids. Big fan from South Africa! Difficult to get classic figures here. You ever had the Weirdball collection? Its not the horror heads but full figures.

Thanks for taking me back had these as a kid

Up down hills Kick their tails as we hit the dusty trails Army Ants, we go marching along. We are bad We are boss we've got guts you squish and squash Army Ants, we go marching along. So it's high high hee for the ant artillery shout out your orders loud and strong Grab the Eggs! So wherever we go folks will always know Army Ants, we go marching along

Great memories. Awesome vid! Thanks.

Your reviews are always the best! I had a bunch of these when I was a kid.

Ohh hell yeees !! Almost forgot them..another treasure you found !! Great work michael ! Nerdmastè

I remember going to Toys r us and getting both good and bad guys. My parents hooked it up lol. I remember it was night time coming home looking at em in the boxes so cool 👍🏻

Gosh I love this review so much!

Really great video. This was a joy. Once upon a time I had a handful of the Orange Army figures and I even learned how to play the Caisson Song on the piano because of the commercial. Never made the connection between the names and the later G.I. Joes, that was cool to learn. And will definitely check out that crossover issue, thanks!

I wish i still had my Army Ants! I don't know where they crawled off to, but i only have Loadout now.

Just got some of these for Christmas! They are really cool

That song has been suck in my head sence the 80s

Guts that Squish and squash is the most cursed sentence ever

I vaguely remember these. Thanks for sharing.

Michael I love your videos. Keep em rolling man

I love Bug themed toy lines because with all the types of bugs out there you can make some pretty sick toys Very toyetic

I used to have the Army Ant teams combine forces and take on the few Food Fighters figures I had....

I remember getting these in the 90s in blind bags but they were silver and maybe clear

Loved these toys!!!

These were cool my parents got them for me on Christmas had them all set up having a battle on the table when I came down. I always wondered where they had gotten them from since we never went to toys r Us with the nearest one being an hour away. Course I always thought the blue ones were termites as I never saw the packaging. 😅

Wow! Had completely forgotten about these:)

I would've love this as a child

Yes! 😎👍 🐜🦟 I’m glad you did a feature on Army Ants. They were an odd sort, but I still played with these; I liked the character designs. I was one of those kids trying to collect all of the Muscle Men, so go figure. ... Cobra Commanter... LOL 😏

I remember these in the UK from my local News Agent . They were each individually sold in blind packets and moulded in five alternate colours; blue, green, grey, black, and my least favourite, pink.

I had these for sure and I remember I used to bite their squishy butts with my teeth when I was a kid 😂

I liked the orange ones best because of their beaks, and my favorite was Bullseye.

Reminds me of the “worms” video games where you had two armies of worms killing each other in hilarious ways

i had dozens of these and havent thought about them in maybe 20 years. thanks for the trip down memory lane. now my only choice is to go to ebay and pay 10x the price to get the complete set again.

I got in trouble for bringing these with me to elementary school.

I still have the orange scuba diver one.

They weren’t always in these exact sets. I had all of the bazooka team and aerial assault team, & mega-hurts pig out, ozone,and at least one other blue guy, but definitely not road rash.

Great! I never heard of them

I actually remember these, nice!

I remember taking trips to Walgreens with my mom and without fail she'd buy me a pack of three every time. I had most of the figures. I regret giving them away a few years back because I took especially good care of my toys as a kid and they still had the accessories. It pains me.

Lol they had a cameo in IDW micronauts

As an entomologist and someone who used to have those toys, I can tell you that the leg inconsistency is not the only anatomical issue with those toys. But they're toys, so they get a pass from me.

Man I remember these. I might still have some.

Michael, Very cute video! Lol Those things are cool. Not sure if I ever owned any of those. Go to love the 80’s!😁👍

I had these they were cool

Man I missed these in 1987 with being into Joes and Transformers. Cool!!!

I do not remember these...I'm sure if I dig deep in my VHS tapes I'd find them. These are cool!

Totally forgot about these until I watched this. I had several of these but oddly enough only of the blue kind. Either I wasnt aware there was an orange kind or I had subconsciously pledged allegiance to the blue army.

I had one of these ants, cast in shiny metallic light blue greenish plastic, and with his butt made out of a clear sparkling (glitter) plastic... =)

Great review.. Almost forgot about these. (side note: use a blacklight to show "glow in dark effects" better. Especially with 80's toys lol) Keep up the good work! Go ANTS!

All of those tiny plastic goodies 😲 from Battle Beasts to Army Ants 🤤 wish I had them all Great video Mr Mercy ✌🏽👍🏽

I hade a few of them most of them was orange but hade a few pink gray and apple green

nice intro, I love your Chanel you got a new subb

I had a few of the european ones you you could pick up at the newsagent, I still have them somewhere 😊

I remember buying a pack of these suckers! They were fANTastic!

Still have mine

thank you Michael Mercy let me know about army ants and then being part of IDW Scarlett Strike Force I'll have to check out that comic

I have not heard of these before , interesting

Army ants are awesome

I'm curious to know if the plastic on your Army Ants has broken down at all like it has on mine. With the exception of my Tron figures, these have gotten the most gooey over the years. Also, I appreciate the "pork chop sandwiches" reference.

@10:32 This guy never stood on his own, lol

Ants with guns, ahhh the glorious 80s

Cool subject

This is amazing cuz we have modern toys just like that but different because we have cheese ball army man I'm not sure if I got the toy right but but I'm really surprised that there was a toy just like that but without the vehicles and the other things

I loved learning about a toyline that I'd never heard of so I thank you good sir. I was wondering if when you have time you could check out an 80s T.V series that I absolutely loved as a kid and it's here on RU-vid. It's a show called Starfleet and is done with puppets. It has the most awesome robot ever called Dai-X. With this in mind I wanted to tap into your considerable knowledge and see if you could find any toy's released because I don't think there ever was. If you don't have the time please, please don't worry. Again Michael this was a f-ANT-astic video. All the best my friend.

Can't remember if I had these or a friend did.

*disney pixar’s a bug’s life 2: War On Earth*

I don't think I ever owned a single Army Ant . but I did have a bunch of monsters in my pocket and battle beasts :)

I had these and mussels, i had alot of the orange one some blue and didn't know they had names, i would make them fight my mussels in my yard

Never heard of these guys but I’ll check out that comic they showed up in

General Mc Anther had a pipe accessory

@3:33 the glow in the dark abdomens were my favorite to play with.

Did we get these in the UK? Can't remember them at all.

So Antz vs A Bug's life

Oh my God I use to have these... might have to start a new hunt.

Lol'd @ '...what the hay?'

What about battle beasts ! Would that be in that group too?

I had a few of these growing up. I was obsessed with them for some reason. I’d never actually play with any of my toys, I’d just collect them and line them up in order and fight with my sisters when they knocked them over.

And they never made an animated special about this.

I wish I had my army ants

Never even heard of these and i like to think myself a pop culture connosieur. The more you know

These remind me of the, tiny little green men toy, it came out a couple years ago.

Great video. I dont remember this toy line. My guess is MUSCLE overshadowed them. Too bad they were not more popular.

Do Barbyard Commandos!