figure line in which the toy guns and vehicles could
be used by children to interact with the television
series.
In 1982, Hasbro’s Playskool division released Glo
Worm, a plush doll that glowed when squeezed, pro-
viding young children with a combined comfort toy
and night light. In 1985, Hasbro released the My
Buddy and Kid Sister dolls, which were partially mo-
torized to serve as imaginary friends. While the line
was not successful, its aggressive advertising cam-
paign created a popular jingle. Far more successful
was Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic teddy bear with a
built-in tape player that “told stories” by moving its
mouth and eyes. Teddy Ruxpin pioneered a whole
new area for toys and novelties in the following de-
cades.
Action Figures Mattel and Hasbro both found
huge success with their attempts to jump on theStar
Warsbandwagon. Novels and films in the “sword and
sorcery” subgenre had been popular at the time.
While the filmConan the Barbarianwas not released
until 1982, Mattel released a toy line in 1981 that was
loosely based on characters and concepts from the
novel. Masters of the Universe, first marketed in a
comic book by DC Comics, featured the war between
the warrior He-Man and the evil sorcerer Skeletor.
The franchise’s first few action figures were released
in 1981, and the line came out in full force in 1982,
but the concepts would be tweaked several times be-
fore the line finally became a huge hit.
In 1983, the FCC lifted a long-standing rule for-
bidding connections between cartoons and toy lines.
As a result, toy manufacturers began producing car-
toons based on their latest lines. When Mattel went
to Filmation, one of the leading animation compa-
nies of the time, to make Masters of the Universe
into a cartoon, Filmation took the unprecedented
route of putting the cartoon in first-run syndication
and airing the new episodes on weekday afternoons,
rather than on Saturdays. The move paid off. The
toys became a top-selling brand for several years and980 Toys and games The Eighties in America
The Masters of the Universe were featured in their own half-hour-long children’s cartoon show, which drove sales of the action figures.
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)