It’s not uncommon in today’s world to walk down the toy aisle of any big box store and see action figures from games like Halo, Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokemon, Street Fighter, and Mindcraft. Before the late 1990s, any action figures related to video game properties either didn’t exist or were poorly constructed.
In 1993, toy companies and Hollywood realized that video game properties were an untapped market for releasing action figures. One of the first toy companies that jumped into the market was Hasbro, combining their GI JOE series of action figures with the mega-hit franchise Street Fighter 2. Following the release of the Super Mario Bros: The Movie, toy company ETRL released several action figures based on the silver screen picture. While both the Street Fighter 2 and Super Mario Bros: The Movie toys were not precisely what video game fans were looking for to celebrate their favorite games, companies were getting close.
Read the rest of this article on page 34 by clicking here!
Be sure to sign up to get Old School Gamer Magazine for free by clicking here!
