Most monster toys are, naturally, inspired by or represent creatures from established fiction or folklore. But every now and again that relationship gets turned on its head. Take the bulette, for example, one of the rare cases where a random toy has inspired a fictional creature.
The birth of ‘Patchisaurs’
If you grew up in the 1970s and 80s you almost certainly encountered the ubiquitous range of simple plastic monster toys now known informally as patchisaurs.
Jenny Greenteeth stands out as one of the most memorable figures in the fourth series of Monster in My Pocket, the so-called “Super Scary” set. Like the other monsters in this and later series, she exhibits a striking departure from the design aesthetic of earlier releases. The figures in Series 4 were slightly larger than their predecessors, with painted details, and some even glowed in the dark.
The original Boglins were grotesque hand puppets made of very soft flexible rubber. Anatomically they were basically huge faces with legless bodies and tiny arms, that you could manipulate into grotesque facial expressions. I definitely had and one as a kid in the late 80s when they were first released, and remember the soft rubber getting all sticky and gunked up with grime, which shows it was popular and got a lot of play, but probably also explains why it got thrown out at some point!
Star Wars counts, right? Oh yes, Star Wars counts!
This is an impressively faithful depiction of the rancor from Return of the Jedi (1983). The Cambridge Dictionary defines “rancor” as “a feeling of hate and continuing anger about something in the past”. I mean, if you’ve seen Return of the Jedi (if – haha!), you’ll probably agree the rancor monster does seem rather angry about *something*.
Matchbox’s Monster in my Pocket (MIMP) line is going to prove a bountiful source of content for the Monster Toy Blog. We’ve already migrated one MIMP review from the Dinosaur Toy Blog, the plesiosaur-like Nessie. So, let’s start ticking the rest of these mini monster off the list.
Welcome one and all to the Monster Toy Blog, the brand new sister site to the famous Animal Toy Blog and Dinosaur Toy Blog! As this is the first review written specifically for the Monster Toy Blog I wanted to pick something special, and few monsters are as iconic and well known as the Loch Ness Monster.
