When I was a kid, I made my own miniatures wargame with Monsters in my Pocket. I played it on the paving bricks in my backyard. You'd pick a 25 point monster as your leader, and then a bunch of other point monsters, and fight by rolling a d6. If your monster was a larger point value, you got to add one to the roll and if you lost the roll your monster was killed. You played until the leader was killed. It was really simple, and I added more complexity as it went along, but it's really indicative of where my hobby tastes went. It's just a different type of small, plastic figures.
It's interesting that the (Japanese original) M.U.S.C.L.E. figures were meant to be painted by the kids. It never occurred to me to do that, but in retrospect it would have been really fun to collect and paint - not unlike D&D/TTRPG miniatures of today.
In the American ads, "And they're PINK!!!!" was the shocking exclamation of the offended dad. So, they were never encouraged or expected to be painted.
These were HUGE in the early 90's in Mexico, they were part of a campaign by the candy company "Sonrics" under the name 'Monstruos del Bolsillo'. They were sold in a cardboard box that had an assortment of lollipops, bubblegum, pixie sticks, a figure, and a mini-comic or a collectible card.
I love all the gross out monster toys of the 80-90’s. Sadly muscle and monster in my pocket was not available in my area. But my ghost busters were able to fight beetle juice and the tales from the crypt toys.
...and then you see a channel with videos like " Prank: I spent my family's life savings on sugar packets! (not clickbait)" get 4 million views in a day. Truly there is no justice.
It's because Toy Galaxy's target demo is people between the ages of 30 and 50 years old. If their content targeted 10 to 15 year old kids they would be much larger due to teens and preteens having way more time on their hands to sit around and watch internet videos all day.
Monster In My Pocket was one of the great obsessions of my childhood. I was, and still am, a sucker for blind bag gimics. I had Monster Mountain, the Monster In My Pocket board game, and a gallon ziplock bag filled with duplicates. I still remember getting #1, and genuinely carried it in my pocket into middle school.
Wow, technically, the Pokemon of the 80s. Monster in my pocket: How many can you catch? Poket Monsters (Pokemon): Gotta catch 'em all! Both have literally hundreds of monsters to collect, a handful of them wrere controversial and had a collectible trading card game. What an odd coincidence.
When Pokémon was first on the news about that episode that triggered light-sensitive epilepsy, it was still being referred to as Pocket Monsters, and I legit thought this was what they were talking about
Collectible really works as a gimmick. Its not just buying the figures, it's about hunting, trading, and getting in touch with the community. Plus, there's the feeling of contentment of finishing the collection. And the blind-bag aspect adds the element of surprise to the collecting.
The ones I purchased all had a see through panel in the front of the box and you knew exactly what you were getting. I was pulling these things out of the bargain bins at KB Toys and K&K Toys. I don't think ever bought any of them at normal retail price.
I knew about the game long before I realized there was a whole toy line around it. Although I think it briefly came back to relevance for fleeting moment because of the whole Pokemon/pocket monster thing. But it very quickly slipped back into obscurity and the figures themselves are crazy expensive these days not to mention far harder to find. The modern ones look so blah too. Completely generic, and why they made commotion when they relaunched back in '06.
Monster in my Pocket was one of those "ahead of their time" type of product, but also fallen into the slump of "quantity over quality". Trying to remember another spin off from that era, A Boy and his Blob. I recalled playing that game on the NES, thinking it was the same. Never did see the Monster in my Pocket game for the NES
Yup, same here. By the time I was aware of the cool NES game prices were sky high and availability was nigh non-existent. Thank goodness for emulation I guess.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I thought it was funny finding a review on TH-cam complaining it was too hard. It had a reputation for being easy at the time, in keeping with a game that comes with a toy. I beat it within the first few days, and never played it again without beating it (which I did upwards of thirty times), until I tried to play it on an emulator. All my Nintendo and Monster in My Pocket stuff (except the comics) went into storage when I went to graduate school and is still costing me $170 a month in rent.
@@scottandrewhutchins Yeah I've heard it's actually fairly easy but again we are talking about an NES game so that's kind of a relative term considering the NES was the console that gave us term "Nintendo hard". As for storage yeah I feel you there. I knew someone that had things in storage for roughly 15 years. It's better not to think about how much money you end up spending on it every year.
In 1994, Monster in my Pocket was a huge thing in Mexico thanks to a candy brand named Sonrics. They had tons of promotions through the years like buy a box of candy and you get a collectible toy. So they had the one named Monstruos de Bolsillo and you got a comic, a trading card and a figurine on each candy box and the goal was to collect them all.
I live in Kentucky but my dad was a truck driver, he went to Mexico every 3 months. He sent me boxes of those sonrics toys. A few still survive in my garage lol
MUSCLE toys were some of my favorite toys ever,and I would give a toe to get my collection back…by 1990, I was just holding on to Transformers and GI Joe. But I do remember when this line came out and it totally made me think about my Kinikumon toys…
In Argentina Monster in My pocket came as a sticker album (figuritas) featuring the full colored (plus background) artwork, the same happened with madballs and garbage pail kids. later there was a re realease of the album in the 2000´s combined with the dinosaurs part.
I had exactly one of these as a kid. It came in a Shreddies box. It was Orobas, who they described as an "oracle." As an adult, I discovered that he's actually a Great Prince of Hell in demonology. I can guarantee you if my mother had known that, she'd have thrown it out or burned it or something.
The monsters designs were amazing. I never saw any of those figures, but i got an sticker album in the 90s from this line called monster club and i was mesmerize by the cool art
I collected the first set of MIMP specifically because they were based on “real” monsters and not just doodles an art team did to fill a toy line. And all though I already knew most of them, I researched the ones I didn’t know in this ancient form of google called an Encyclopedia.
My brother and I would ask our father. We didn't have an encyclopedia so "look it up" would be searching in vain in the dictionary lol Redcap was the one that really confused me as a kid.
I had so many of these things when I was a kid. I somehow managed to hold onto the Werewolf and Hydra figures over the years but heaven knows what happened to the rest of them. I had no idea the series had managed to remain as active as it did.
I loved these as a kid, and being from the UK it meant I had some of the Dinos and many of the wrestlers. My all time favourite though was 'Spring Heeled Jack'. A take on a Victorian myth I loved it so much I bought the figure at a convention a few years ago and often keep him in my pocket as a source of nostalgia.
I was vaguely aware of MIMP as a teen, but was unaware of how much it resembled MUSCLE... might have scooped up a few if I had realize.! But also completely agree also about the multicolor thing, straight pink MUSCLE was the best! Another great video chock full of info, Dan!
Ah, Monster in my Pocket - my favorite childhood toy named after a euphemism. Also - Mad Balls! I loved those!! Forgot ALL about them. My mom threw out most of my toys when I was in high school, and then the rest when I went off to college. Back then, new toys were coming out every year, and you quickly forgot about the old ones.
I had a neighbor who had Muscle and Battle Beasts, which predated Monster in my Pocket, that and we were too completely inundated by the NES, Game Boy, SNES, Nintendo Power, Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam to notice Monster in my Pocket. Then Pokémon came out and you can imagine how the rest of the story goes. Great Stuff, as always!
Nice! My parents got me a ton of these in a garage sale when i was a kid, including kali and ganesha. I stuck them in a storage locker when i moved out, along with all my other toys and collectibles from my childhood until they decided to stop paying for storage without telling me and i lost them all. Some lucky person out there hit a jackpot full of toys, comics, cards, and vintage video games.... i still haven't forgiven them for that lol
Trash Bag Bunch was a good collectable toyline. They came in bags which hide the toy inside, and the bags dissolve in water to reveal which toy is inside. I only had the robot skeleton though but they looked cool.
I loved these things so much as a kid, I would've had close to the entire first wave. Not many people remember these in Australia so it was nice to see Toy Galaxy covering it. Great video thanks for the nostalgia.
These guys were my fist introductions to so many monsters and myths! It was such a fun line; I regret selling my collectiona few years ago. I'd have loved to have primed and painted some up!
That was a nice trip down memory lane. Appreciate you giving my site as a reference and bringing more eyes to the hobby. I still have about 4,000 of these little guys waiting to be displayed again.
Oh my, the memories you guys just brought back. About 10 years ago one day I just randomly remembered these things. Whenever I asked other friends the same age if they did, they all said no. So glad to see you guys cover this! Great stuff!
I love Monster in my Pocket! Weirdly, despite all the monsters available, my Spring-Heeled Jack figure was my absolute favourite. Being 6 years old and telling the other kids that my favourite monster was Spring-Heeled Jack always got me some confused looks lol
I had completely forgotten about these little guys until now, but the memories of how much I liked Monster in my Pocket are second only to Battle Beasts. Thanks for doing this episode. :)
I was 'too old' (a late adolescent) for these but bought a set, in its own card-paper display, for a friend as a bit of a joke. Funny thing is, after that we agreed they were kinda cool and would admire the display hung on his wall, as we played games on his Amiga.
Muscle was crazy huge where I lived at the time lol but it didn’t last long. Too many other companies impinge on the boat. Hasbro putting out their twist with Transformers “decoys” and what not. I don’t remember the figures very much, but that NES game? Monster in my Pocket on the NES still haunts me. Frustrating to play at times, and I never beat it (this was back when rental places only let you rent by the day, so we got hopped up on Jolt Cola and tried our hardest to beat the game before we had to take it back). That it never fully died in the 90s surprised me. Cool though.
If not for this video, I never would have known this poor franchise still existed and was trying to gain new ground. I thought this whole thing fizzled out in the early 90s. Thanks Toy Galaxy for giving me the background info and new updates as always! Man you guys are awesome. The toy? Not so much. hahaha
Nostalgia hit me back hard on this one! In the 80’s in Brazil they were a big deal, they were a coca-cola promotional deal and I was able to collect the entire gen 1 along with the mountain. Good ole days!
The comic was weird but I remember really enjoying it (not when I was a kid, I looked it up a few years ago). Also, THANK YOU. Seeing the picture of the bug-themed Super Creepies awakened a vague memory, and it turns out they were a toy I had as a kid that I could never find out what they were! =D
Again just another top notch retrospect - still my fav in the biz right now and that's not bashing the fellows out there (quite the contrary, there are some other greats), but rather hailing the level of quality you do. As a kid, I just loved this line. Basically ANYTHING monsters, I got into. This, Mighty Max, Trash Bag Bunch, Ghostbusters, I was that kid with posters of Universal monsters in old 80's movies that you'd go to for help if you were attacked by a REAL monster. Hah! But then again I was an 80's and 90's kid with meant ....anything dinosaurs, aliens, space ships, ninjas, mutants, superheroes, robots, wrestlers, etc....I was ALSO into. Hah! We just ate it all up and I still love so much of it to this day.
I'm so glad that there is finally a comprehensive retrospective on the history of my favourite toy line! From like ages 4 to 8 I was obsessed with these figures and still replay the NES game to this day. Glad to see its still going on in some form, and great video overall.
In Argentina, I only knew this as a collectable sticker album, we also had a Dinosaur in my pocket sticker album BTW. A handful of the stickers where based on the designs for the animated feature that never got turned into a tv series :P And yes, the monster designs where awesome.
I always favored the goofy strange muscle men figures. Like the guy that looked like he was made out of bricks. And also the other dude who looked like he was made out of bricks, but stacked in the shape of an archway with a head. The primary figures that looked like wrestlers with Goofy cartoon expressions really just didn't pique my interest. I honestly think they kind of just... disappointed me. I would trade them away or give them away or throw them away or abandon them. I quit buying them when it seemed like they were not coming up with absurdly bizarre figures anymore
The intros are always superbly written and delivered, intriguing, funny. Even when I'm not interested in the particular topic, I'm immediately hooked. Cheers for everything you do.
I remember being disappointed that a new MIMP was announced sometime in the late 00's, maybe early '10's, and all that came out were the girl's Puppy and various other animal versions. That said, the one thing MIMP did right over M.U.S.C.L.E. WAS that it was allowed to have a Western mythos. There was no way Kinnikuman was going to be dubbed at the time, too much violence, two of the characters wore a Nazi uniform, and among other things, Kinnikuman's performance of Me Gumino Hito in an episode (song rights and... well, look up the bad "Rats & Star" to see what I'm talking about). But I don't see why the story was "look at all these gross things from space" when they could have just made a Shogun Warriors type comic boom series and named the characters. Giving a name to the weird creatures at least could have helped kids want to collect. Nope. Just M.U.S.C.L.E. Man and Terri-bull (unless you got the awful video game's instruction booklet that named like 4 more of them) And they should have made a deal with BanDai to get more molds for future waves. Kids would have loved the wrestler that looked like a Walkman.
Still got all of these. Except the rare season 3 exclusive that came with the NES game. Sold that for $60 a while back in a moment of need. Ouch. But these were wonderful, I loved collecting them.
@@pious83 Oh yeah! I loved that one! I really loved the fact these were folklore cryptids and legendary monsters more than the weird wrestler guys from MUSCLE, and the colors is what was a big draw. Even more into series 2, I absolutely loved the neon colors. I loved monsters and spooky things as a kid, and this line was everything for me.
@@pious83 Also reminds me of the super Scary Mad Gasser of Mattoon, which I thought was a wonderfully bizarre and creepy monster, until I found out it was based on a story of a random guy who was thought to walk around and randomly spray people in some countryside town. Not quite as cool as the toy.
I do remember coming into posession of a few of the little figures, I did find them kinda neat! I hadn't played the NES game really, but thought I had read in a magazine or something about Nintendo's run-in with that company trying to launch Pocket Monsters here in the US! hadn't heard about the problematic figs, but I could believe it. had no idea the line lasted that long, though! I was definitely more into MUSCLE and Battle Beasts, though (the latter probably my favorite of the pocket-sized toys!!)
I was definitely a big MUSCLE collector, but for some reason MIMP just never landed with me. I did have a few mixed into my big tin of MUSCLE men, but they were gifts from confused grandparents.
I loved monster in my pocket I think it was the bright neon colors they were very stimulating to look at because of this. And I've always been interested in myths and legends, old fables etc. I was a bit too young to get into or understand muscle men but some of my friends had them I remember. I'm going on ebay right now!
I still have an apple carton full of the original Monsters (even the controversial ones!) and had ZERO clue they had presence in any other media after the initial line. Thanks for going so in depth with this!
I would love to see you do an Oddities video about all the weird variants of Monster in my Pocket toys... the Sonrics stuff, the VHS and NES game pack-ins, the Big Boy exclusive, the legendary Mexican bootlegs. There is so much of it.
My brother and I did our best to collect series 1 of these, and came pretty close. Learning about new monsters, and the collection aspect, might have been the best part. The toys themselves were just ok haha.
I seem to remember having some of these at one point - from the first series. I remember thinking that they were like MUSCLE figures,.. but crappy. I never knew that the series’s lived on past that initial line, but I was in High School by then and not the least bit interested in playing with or collecting toys anymore. Thanks for this video, it was a lot of fun!
My big brother and cousins LOVED muscle (And 80s kung fu and action movies) so when I who was a horror and slasher geek got monster in my pocket it was like a dream come true. I could have the wolfman fight that weird dude made out of cubes, or the gillman fight that weird dude made out of spheres.
Great vid! I actually went into this thinking it was going to be about MUSCLE. I got my toys mixed up. I swear I got MUSCLE a figured in my Nestle Quick powder. Anyone else? Also, did MUSCLE make a comeback in the early 2000s with a cartoon show around the time Ninja Turtles and Kirby had a Saturday morning cartoon show?
40 yrs old. I still have my MUSCLE men and the ring. I absolutely loved MIMP. The little booklet that described the folklore-based monsters fascinated me to no end
The fact that no one created a competing line of similar slug figures that looked like slugs is almost criminal. Then again, I can't imagine all figured being required to vaguely resemble Jabba the Hut would give this hypothetical concept much in the way of staying power.
Yeah! I was waiting for this video since I found your channel... Thanks Dan for sharing this! P.S.: OH MY GOD! That's the tv commercial that was made here in Perú... My beloved "Juguete" chocolate by Motta... My childhood! I can't tell you how happy you've made me! I'm sharing this right now...
Do Z-Bots count only as part of Micro Machines, or could you possibly do a whole video just on them? I'm curious, I would love to see one because that was my favorite toyline as a child.
@@fakeshemp9599 Alright, I'm not the only one who loves Z-Bots. They were my favorite toyline not just because of the toys themselves, but they had the most awesome backstory for a toyline. The whole thing about the evil Voids being infected Z-Bots gave me some real food for thought as a 6 year old. The idea that every battle the Z-Bots had to fight their friend and brothers every battle just fueled my imagination. It gave the fights an underlying sense of tragedy. I even wondered if the infected Z-Bots could ever possibly be cured, or were they just mad dogs waiting to be put down. I always wondered why there was no cartoon for them, but as I got older I realized that might be too dark for a show made to sell toys.
I had some of these in my childhood. I actually use the Monster in my Pocket as cheap D&D monsters, since I only had a small allowance and my nearest hobby shop was too far to bike to, but I had a bunch of these. Since there were real creatures, a lot of the monsters already had D&D counterparts, and these were just the right size. I used to try to paint them actually to make them look more real. It was kind of the start of my miniature painting journey actually
I loved those as a kid! I remember at primary school we were all crazy for collecting those, at least the first series. I don't remember the others though: I'm not sure whether they were not imported and distributed in Italy, or simply we had all grown out of them and moved to the next cool thing.
MIMP was the one toy that made me act up in stores. I NEEDED them. I got some of those MUSCLE toys at a yard sale and didn't know what they were so they got paired up with my MIMP.
I remember Monster Wrestlers being pretty big in the brief time it existed. The Frosties promotion (and Tony the Coach) was a huge deal on the playground. The actual retail line was a bit more niche, which is possibly why it didn't last more than a year or so (or they were always going to move onto the Sports Stars line straight after), but it was pretty big and had some cool sets. There was a tie-in comic as well (which had a free wrestler on the front of at least the first issue) and, weirdly, a Monster Wrestlers In My Pocket bubble bath, which was a transparent plastic tub of lurid green translucent gel in which was suspended a Monster Wrestler figure (I think they were possibly exclusive colour variants).
I had both. I thought they were really cool. I used the M.U.S.C.L.E figures in the production of a cable public access show. And, yeah, I did paint them and the Monster in My Pocket figures. Unfortunately, when I painted the M.U.S.C.L.E figures it at a time when the formulation of enamel paints were going through a change and it left the figures a bit sticky ever after spraying a matte coat on top of the enamel. This left them prone to getting all kinds of stuff stuck to them when not in storage. I ended up painting the Monsters in My Pocket figures with acrylic paints, and that has stood up over time and is not sticky at all.
I still have a bunch of these on my shelf. As a kid it was so cool to open one of the blind boxes and see what new monsters you'd get. Finding the trading cards at 7-Eleven was fun too. Each card had little history bios on the back that helped you figure out what "Baba Yaga" or "Haniver" were.
I still have all my MIMP figures packed away. I had both the Monster Mountain and Monster Clash at one point, but I do still have 3 of the 4 well-read issues of the comic.
I have a box full of these somewhere in my storage unit... We used to find them on clearance at Toys R Us or Kay Bee, and used them as cheap miniatures for superhero and post-apocalyptic mutant tabletop RPG's like Champions or Gamma World. Good times! Thanks for the video!
What a nostalgia trip! It was so nice to see monster in my pocket figures that I hadn’t seen in decades. I also collected those UK wrestling figures you got in Frosties. Something I completely forgot until I saw it I’m your video.
I LOVED Monster in my Pocket! Easily one of my favorite collectable toys as a kid-- if not my number-one favorite! There's not a lot that I truly regret in life, but losing pretty much my entire collection over the years is one thing that irks me to this day. There was something just so fascinating about those little guys! I really wish I'd taken better care of them.
8:11 The guy says _"disfrutalos con mucho... susto",_ which almost sounds like "disfrutalos con mucho _gusto"._ That would roughly translate to something like "enjoy (the candy) with lots of joy", except that changing the G for an S in the last word makes the meaning something like "enjoy them very scared".
I used to have an old ice cream bucket full of the figures you got from the 25 cent machines in grocery stores, and they were my absolute favorite toys.
When I was a kid, I made my own miniatures wargame with Monsters in my Pocket. I played it on the paving bricks in my backyard. You'd pick a 25 point monster as your leader, and then a bunch of other point monsters, and fight by rolling a d6. If your monster was a larger point value, you got to add one to the roll and if you lost the roll your monster was killed. You played until the leader was killed. It was really simple, and I added more complexity as it went along, but it's really indicative of where my hobby tastes went. It's just a different type of small, plastic figures.
This reminds me of my brother. He had these toys and would create similar type of games with them.
It's interesting that the (Japanese original) M.U.S.C.L.E. figures were meant to be painted by the kids. It never occurred to me to do that, but in retrospect it would have been really fun to collect and paint - not unlike D&D/TTRPG miniatures of today.
You can really spruce up a cheap American toy with minimal effort
I never knew that, I had some as kid and it was never thought of by me or any my friends or classmates
In the American ads, "And they're PINK!!!!" was the shocking exclamation of the offended dad. So, they were never encouraged or expected to be painted.
Painted them with markers back then owo
I didn't know that either but I did paint a few back then
These were HUGE in the early 90's in Mexico, they were part of a campaign by the candy company "Sonrics" under the name 'Monstruos del Bolsillo'. They were sold in a cardboard box that had an assortment of lollipops, bubblegum, pixie sticks, a figure, and a mini-comic or a collectible card.
Fascinating. Thx
y estan bien caros actualmente xd igual es tanta la pasión que hay muchos que hacen customs muy chidos como el bato que vende los mini volcanes
Venia a buscar un comentario que dijera esto! Fueron la neta en su tiempo 👌👍
Yup.
@@carlosaromero5111 ya se! y pensar que cada cajita eran solo 10 pesos!! D:
I love all the gross out monster toys of the 80-90’s. Sadly muscle and monster in my pocket was not available in my area. But my ghost busters were able to fight beetle juice and the tales from the crypt toys.
That, honestly, sounds like something The Real Ghostbusters cartoon and/or the IDW Ghostbusters comic series would actually have done.
But, is. It. Canon?
that fact that this channel doesn't have over 1 million subscribers just goes to show how hard it is to reach that milestone. This channel f'n rocks.
I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments. Not to mention the amount of arduous work he puts into his videos is really unparalleled.
...and then you see a channel with videos like " Prank: I spent my family's life savings on sugar packets! (not clickbait)" get 4 million views in a day. Truly there is no justice.
It's because Toy Galaxy's target demo is people between the ages of 30 and 50 years old. If their content targeted 10 to 15 year old kids they would be much larger due to teens and preteens having way more time on their hands to sit around and watch internet videos all day.
It’ll get there. For now, let’s enjoy being here before everyone else was. 🙂
RolandRED you speak the truth!! Awesome channel and awesome content.
“As long as there have been kids, there have been pockets full of crap.” - Best opening line to a Toy Galaxy video ever!
Monster In My Pocket was one of the great obsessions of my childhood. I was, and still am, a sucker for blind bag gimics. I had Monster Mountain, the Monster In My Pocket board game, and a gallon ziplock bag filled with duplicates. I still remember getting #1, and genuinely carried it in my pocket into middle school.
Wow, technically, the Pokemon of the 80s.
Monster in my pocket: How many can you catch?
Poket Monsters (Pokemon): Gotta catch 'em all!
Both have literally hundreds of monsters to collect, a handful of them wrere controversial and had a collectible trading card game.
What an odd coincidence.
I was JUST thinking that also!
When Pokémon was first on the news about that episode that triggered light-sensitive epilepsy, it was still being referred to as Pocket Monsters, and I legit thought this was what they were talking about
Woah! 😊
I was just talking to my kid about these! So many of his current toys seem to have a similar collectible blind-bag gimmick.
Collectible really works as a gimmick. Its not just buying the figures, it's about hunting, trading, and getting in touch with the community. Plus, there's the feeling of contentment of finishing the collection. And the blind-bag aspect adds the element of surprise to the collecting.
Blind bags and loot boxes. Gambling for kids!!
The ones I purchased all had a see through panel in the front of the box and you knew exactly what you were getting.
I was pulling these things out of the bargain bins at KB Toys and K&K Toys.
I don't think ever bought any of them at normal retail price.
The NES game is the longest lasting legacy of this toy-line I still have.
It’s a decent game and I still play it now and then. 👍
I knew about the game long before I realized there was a whole toy line around it. Although I think it briefly came back to relevance for fleeting moment because of the whole Pokemon/pocket monster thing.
But it very quickly slipped back into obscurity and the figures themselves are crazy expensive these days not to mention far harder to find. The modern ones look so blah too.
Completely generic, and why they made commotion when they relaunched back in '06.
I'm looking for this comment, their NES game is great co op game, simple game, easy to play, and fast paced
Nice! I still have the full comic set, for what little that's worth lol
I believe that was the origin of the double jump.
Monster in my Pocket was one of those "ahead of their time" type of product, but also fallen into the slump of "quantity over quality". Trying to remember another spin off from that era, A Boy and his Blob. I recalled playing that game on the NES, thinking it was the same. Never did see the Monster in my Pocket game for the NES
Yup, same here.
By the time I was aware of the cool NES game prices were sky high and availability was nigh non-existent.
Thank goodness for emulation I guess.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I thought it was funny finding a review on TH-cam complaining it was too hard. It had a reputation for being easy at the time, in keeping with a game that comes with a toy. I beat it within the first few days, and never played it again without beating it (which I did upwards of thirty times), until I tried to play it on an emulator. All my Nintendo and Monster in My Pocket stuff (except the comics) went into storage when I went to graduate school and is still costing me $170 a month in rent.
@@scottandrewhutchins
Yeah I've heard it's actually fairly easy but again we are talking about an NES game so that's kind of a relative term considering the NES was the console that gave us term "Nintendo hard". As for storage yeah I feel you there. I knew someone that had things in storage for roughly 15 years. It's better not to think about how much money you end up spending on it every year.
In 1994, Monster in my Pocket was a huge thing in Mexico thanks to a candy brand named Sonrics. They had tons of promotions through the years like buy a box of candy and you get a collectible toy. So they had the one named Monstruos de Bolsillo and you got a comic, a trading card and a figurine on each candy box and the goal was to collect them all.
I live in Kentucky but my dad was a truck driver, he went to Mexico every 3 months. He sent me boxes of those sonrics toys. A few still survive in my garage lol
MUSCLE toys were some of my favorite toys ever,and I would give a toe to get my collection back…by 1990, I was just holding on to Transformers and GI Joe. But I do remember when this line came out and it totally made me think about my Kinikumon toys…
In Argentina Monster in My pocket came as a sticker album (figuritas) featuring the full colored (plus background) artwork, the same happened with madballs and garbage pail kids. later there was a re realease of the album in the 2000´s combined with the dinosaurs part.
This is where my love of cryptid , fantasy and scifi comes from . I was unsure if anyone else remember thank you for this episode.
This line hit all the 80s-90s feels: toys, board game, card game, video game, and cartoon! Loved this line.
I learned about a lot of mythical creatures from these toys, making me feel very smart when I'd encounter them in other contexts.
Same. They were based on myths from around the world. Very informative for a very young kid who was into mythology and horror
Awesome 😊
I had exactly one of these as a kid. It came in a Shreddies box. It was Orobas, who they described as an "oracle."
As an adult, I discovered that he's actually a Great Prince of Hell in demonology. I can guarantee you if my mother had known that, she'd have thrown it out or burned it or something.
I worked with Orobas lol
The monsters designs were amazing. I never saw any of those figures, but i got an sticker album in the 90s from this line called monster club and i was mesmerize by the cool art
I collected the first set of MIMP specifically because they were based on “real” monsters and not just doodles an art team did to fill a toy line. And all though I already knew most of them, I researched the ones I didn’t know in this ancient form of google called an Encyclopedia.
I had no way at that time to know what a Wendigo, Johtun Troll or Spring-heeled Jack were, but my imagination filled the blanks XD
My brother and I would ask our father. We didn't have an encyclopedia so "look it up" would be searching in vain in the dictionary lol Redcap was the one that really confused me as a kid.
MIMP was the first time hearing about the Windigo.
I had so many of these things when I was a kid.
I somehow managed to hold onto the Werewolf and Hydra figures over the years but heaven knows what happened to the rest of them.
I had no idea the series had managed to remain as active as it did.
I loved these as a kid, and being from the UK it meant I had some of the Dinos and many of the wrestlers. My all time favourite though was 'Spring Heeled Jack'. A take on a Victorian myth I loved it so much I bought the figure at a convention a few years ago and often keep him in my pocket as a source of nostalgia.
I remember playing the bootleg game "Batman and Ratman." Didn't know what "Monsters in My Pocket" was too well at the time.
I was vaguely aware of MIMP as a teen, but was unaware of how much it resembled MUSCLE... might have scooped up a few if I had realize.! But also completely agree also about the multicolor thing, straight pink MUSCLE was the best! Another great video chock full of info, Dan!
Ah, Monster in my Pocket - my favorite childhood toy named after a euphemism.
Also - Mad Balls! I loved those!! Forgot ALL about them. My mom threw out most of my toys when I was in high school, and then the rest when I went off to college. Back then, new toys were coming out every year, and you quickly forgot about the old ones.
I used to collect these while growing up in Peru. And yes they came in the "Motta Juguete" chocolate bars. Great memories. Thank you!!
I had a neighbor who had Muscle and Battle Beasts, which predated Monster in my Pocket, that and we were too completely inundated by the NES, Game Boy, SNES, Nintendo Power, Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam to notice Monster in my Pocket. Then Pokémon came out and you can imagine how the rest of the story goes.
Great Stuff, as always!
Monster in my pocket? Nahhh I'm just happy to see you.
Nice! My parents got me a ton of these in a garage sale when i was a kid, including kali and ganesha. I stuck them in a storage locker when i moved out, along with all my other toys and collectibles from my childhood until they decided to stop paying for storage without telling me and i lost them all. Some lucky person out there hit a jackpot full of toys, comics, cards, and vintage video games.... i still haven't forgiven them for that lol
I had Street Fighter variations of these that they gave out at Long John Silvers with the kids meals.
Trash Bag Bunch was a good collectable toyline. They came in bags which hide the toy inside, and the bags dissolve in water to reveal which toy is inside. I only had the robot skeleton though but they looked cool.
I loved these things so much as a kid, I would've had close to the entire first wave. Not many people remember these in Australia so it was nice to see Toy Galaxy covering it. Great video thanks for the nostalgia.
These guys were my fist introductions to so many monsters and myths! It was such a fun line; I regret selling my collectiona few years ago. I'd have loved to have primed and painted some up!
This needs a rebooted line. Loved it
I had a bunch of these littered at the bottom of the toy box. I did have the "Ash" toy but lost it before I knew who he was.
Wait what ash figure
😃 Loved the Spanish commercial! You guys should do that more often. I'd love to see how stuff was marketed around the world.
That was a nice trip down memory lane. Appreciate you giving my site as a reference and bringing more eyes to the hobby.
I still have about 4,000 of these little guys waiting to be displayed again.
Oh my, the memories you guys just brought back. About 10 years ago one day I just randomly remembered these things. Whenever I asked other friends the same age if they did, they all said no. So glad to see you guys cover this! Great stuff!
I love Monster in my Pocket! Weirdly, despite all the monsters available, my Spring-Heeled Jack figure was my absolute favourite. Being 6 years old and telling the other kids that my favourite monster was Spring-Heeled Jack always got me some confused looks lol
I had completely forgotten about these little guys until now, but the memories of how much I liked Monster in my Pocket are second only to Battle Beasts. Thanks for doing this episode. :)
Battle beasts were the shit
I was 'too old' (a late adolescent) for these but bought a set, in its own card-paper display, for a friend as a bit of a joke. Funny thing is, after that we agreed they were kinda cool and would admire the display hung on his wall, as we played games on his Amiga.
Muscle was crazy huge where I lived at the time lol but it didn’t last long.
Too many other companies impinge on the boat.
Hasbro putting out their twist with Transformers “decoys” and what not.
I don’t remember the figures very much, but that NES game? Monster in my Pocket on the NES still haunts me.
Frustrating to play at times, and I never beat it (this was back when rental places only let you rent by the day, so we got hopped up on Jolt Cola and tried our hardest to beat the game before we had to take it back).
That it never fully died in the 90s surprised me. Cool though.
If not for this video, I never would have known this poor franchise still existed and was trying to gain new ground.
I thought this whole thing fizzled out in the early 90s. Thanks Toy Galaxy for giving me the background info and new updates as always!
Man you guys are awesome.
The toy? Not so much. hahaha
Nostalgia hit me back hard on this one! In the 80’s in Brazil they were a big deal, they were a coca-cola promotional deal and I was able to collect the entire gen 1 along with the mountain. Good ole days!
The comic was weird but I remember really enjoying it (not when I was a kid, I looked it up a few years ago). Also, THANK YOU. Seeing the picture of the bug-themed Super Creepies awakened a vague memory, and it turns out they were a toy I had as a kid that I could never find out what they were! =D
Again just another top notch retrospect - still my fav in the biz right now and that's not bashing the fellows out there (quite the contrary, there are some other greats), but rather hailing the level of quality you do. As a kid, I just loved this line. Basically ANYTHING monsters, I got into. This, Mighty Max, Trash Bag Bunch, Ghostbusters, I was that kid with posters of Universal monsters in old 80's movies that you'd go to for help if you were attacked by a REAL monster. Hah! But then again I was an 80's and 90's kid with meant ....anything dinosaurs, aliens, space ships, ninjas, mutants, superheroes, robots, wrestlers, etc....I was ALSO into. Hah! We just ate it all up and I still love so much of it to this day.
Grade 7 memories for me carrying my monsters in my pockets to school. Good times. Another Classic Video Dan & Greg.
I'm so glad that there is finally a comprehensive retrospective on the history of my favourite toy line! From like ages 4 to 8 I was obsessed with these figures and still replay the NES game to this day. Glad to see its still going on in some form, and great video overall.
In Argentina, I only knew this as a collectable sticker album, we also had a Dinosaur in my pocket sticker album BTW. A handful of the stickers where based on the designs for the animated feature that never got turned into a tv series :P And yes, the monster designs where awesome.
I always favored the goofy strange muscle men figures. Like the guy that looked like he was made out of bricks. And also the other dude who looked like he was made out of bricks, but stacked in the shape of an archway with a head. The primary figures that looked like wrestlers with Goofy cartoon expressions really just didn't pique my interest. I honestly think they kind of just... disappointed me. I would trade them away or give them away or throw them away or abandon them. I quit buying them when it seemed like they were not coming up with absurdly bizarre figures anymore
The intros are always superbly written and delivered, intriguing, funny. Even when I'm not interested in the particular topic, I'm immediately hooked. Cheers for everything you do.
I remember being disappointed that a new MIMP was announced sometime in the late 00's, maybe early '10's, and all that came out were the girl's Puppy and various other animal versions. That said, the one thing MIMP did right over M.U.S.C.L.E. WAS that it was allowed to have a Western mythos. There was no way Kinnikuman was going to be dubbed at the time, too much violence, two of the characters wore a Nazi uniform, and among other things, Kinnikuman's performance of Me Gumino Hito in an episode (song rights and... well, look up the bad "Rats & Star" to see what I'm talking about). But I don't see why the story was "look at all these gross things from space" when they could have just made a Shogun Warriors type comic boom series and named the characters. Giving a name to the weird creatures at least could have helped kids want to collect. Nope. Just M.U.S.C.L.E. Man and Terri-bull (unless you got the awful video game's instruction booklet that named like 4 more of them) And they should have made a deal with BanDai to get more molds for future waves. Kids would have loved the wrestler that looked like a Walkman.
Still got all of these. Except the rare season 3 exclusive that came with the NES game. Sold that for $60 a while back in a moment of need. Ouch. But these were wonderful, I loved collecting them.
I loved that one of them was straight up Jack The Ripper AKA "Spring Heeled Jack".
@@pious83 Oh yeah! I loved that one! I really loved the fact these were folklore cryptids and legendary monsters more than the weird wrestler guys from MUSCLE, and the colors is what was a big draw. Even more into series 2, I absolutely loved the neon colors. I loved monsters and spooky things as a kid, and this line was everything for me.
@@pious83 Also reminds me of the super Scary Mad Gasser of Mattoon, which I thought was a wonderfully bizarre and creepy monster, until I found out it was based on a story of a random guy who was thought to walk around and randomly spray people in some countryside town. Not quite as cool as the toy.
I would love to see an episode on "Monsters of the Gridiron" cards. I still have a Emmitt Smith and "Lone-Star Sheriff "
The most innuendo-laden toy name ever! 😄
That's because they never made a toy called "Lance in my pants."
@@MichaelMartin-qe5ye they don't need to...this one does just fine ;)
There was a ball in the 90s called "Ballzac". So, no.
I remember this fondly. In Argentina they were mostly known for their sticker collection and other collectibles.
There were figures released by Cromy in Argentina as well. I have around 40 of them. They are pretty rare these days.
I do remember coming into posession of a few of the little figures, I did find them kinda neat! I hadn't played the NES game really, but thought I had read in a magazine or something about Nintendo's run-in with that company trying to launch Pocket Monsters here in the US! hadn't heard about the problematic figs, but I could believe it. had no idea the line lasted that long, though! I was definitely more into MUSCLE and Battle Beasts, though (the latter probably my favorite of the pocket-sized toys!!)
I was definitely a big MUSCLE collector, but for some reason MIMP just never landed with me.
I did have a few mixed into my big tin of MUSCLE men, but they were gifts from confused grandparents.
Looking at their Twitter subscribers, Monsters in my Pocket- 269 followers; Pokémon- 7.7 million.
I loved monster in my pocket I think it was the bright neon colors they were very stimulating to look at because of this. And I've always been interested in myths and legends, old fables etc. I was a bit too young to get into or understand muscle men but some of my friends had them I remember. I'm going on ebay right now!
I used to love these as a kid. It’s where I first learned about a lot of monsters from myth and folklore.
Monster in My Pocket had some pretty neat figures
I still have an apple carton full of the original Monsters (even the controversial ones!) and had ZERO clue they had presence in any other media after the initial line. Thanks for going so in depth with this!
Didn't think anyone other than me remembered these.
We getting an episode on Barnyard Commandos next?
I would love to see you do an Oddities video about all the weird variants of Monster in my Pocket toys... the Sonrics stuff, the VHS and NES game pack-ins, the Big Boy exclusive, the legendary Mexican bootlegs. There is so much of it.
My brother and I did our best to collect series 1 of these, and came pretty close. Learning about new monsters, and the collection aspect, might have been the best part. The toys themselves were just ok haha.
I seem to remember having some of these at one point - from the first series. I remember thinking that they were like MUSCLE figures,.. but crappy. I never knew that the series’s lived on past that initial line, but I was in High School by then and not the least bit interested in playing with or collecting toys anymore. Thanks for this video, it was a lot of fun!
My big brother and cousins LOVED muscle (And 80s kung fu and action movies) so when I who was a horror and slasher geek got monster in my pocket it was like a dream come true. I could have the wolfman fight that weird dude made out of cubes, or the gillman fight that weird dude made out of spheres.
I had the ones from 2006, cant believe. I forgot about them
Great vid! I actually went into this thinking it was going to be about MUSCLE. I got my toys mixed up. I swear I got MUSCLE a figured in my Nestle Quick powder. Anyone else?
Also, did MUSCLE make a comeback in the early 2000s with a cartoon show around the time Ninja Turtles and Kirby had a Saturday morning cartoon show?
40 yrs old. I still have my MUSCLE men and the ring. I absolutely loved MIMP. The little booklet that described the folklore-based monsters fascinated me to no end
I had the entire first series and the volcano wall display. I credit these for my interest in multi cultural folklore and cryptozoology.
5th and 6th grade Monsters in my Pocket were the best!! Did not know there were so many series though! Love this channel!!
The fact that no one created a competing line of similar slug figures that looked like slugs is almost criminal. Then again, I can't imagine all figured being required to vaguely resemble Jabba the Hut would give this hypothetical concept much in the way of staying power.
Still got a load somewhere, think I also completed the Frosties wrestler collection.
I had monster class here in the UK, one of the best you sets I've ever owned, so much playability and the detail on the game board was amazing.
Yeah! I was waiting for this video since I found your channel... Thanks Dan for sharing this!
P.S.: OH MY GOD! That's the tv commercial that was made here in Perú... My beloved "Juguete" chocolate by Motta... My childhood! I can't tell you how happy you've made me! I'm sharing this right now...
Do Z-Bots count only as part of Micro Machines, or could you possibly do a whole video just on them? I'm curious, I would love to see one because that was my favorite toyline as a child.
YES!! DO A Z BOTS VIDEO!!!!
@@fakeshemp9599 Alright, I'm not the only one who loves Z-Bots. They were my favorite toyline not just because of the toys themselves, but they had the most awesome backstory for a toyline. The whole thing about the evil Voids being infected Z-Bots gave me some real food for thought as a 6 year old. The idea that every battle the Z-Bots had to fight their friend and brothers every battle just fueled my imagination. It gave the fights an underlying sense of tragedy. I even wondered if the infected Z-Bots could ever possibly be cured, or were they just mad dogs waiting to be put down. I always wondered why there was no cartoon for them, but as I got older I realized that might be too dark for a show made to sell toys.
I had some of these in my childhood. I actually use the Monster in my Pocket as cheap D&D monsters, since I only had a small allowance and my nearest hobby shop was too far to bike to, but I had a bunch of these. Since there were real creatures, a lot of the monsters already had D&D counterparts, and these were just the right size. I used to try to paint them actually to make them look more real. It was kind of the start of my miniature painting journey actually
I loved those as a kid! I remember at primary school we were all crazy for collecting those, at least the first series. I don't remember the others though: I'm not sure whether they were not imported and distributed in Italy, or simply we had all grown out of them and moved to the next cool thing.
MIMP was the one toy that made me act up in stores. I NEEDED them. I got some of those MUSCLE toys at a yard sale and didn't know what they were so they got paired up with my MIMP.
Terrific episode! Those toys look fantastic! I might have to look them up online. I always enjoy your content Dan! I also love your whacky humor!
I've been binging Toy Galaxy videos for the past couple days. So glad there's a new video I can watch! Keep up the great work!
I remember Monster Wrestlers being pretty big in the brief time it existed. The Frosties promotion (and Tony the Coach) was a huge deal on the playground. The actual retail line was a bit more niche, which is possibly why it didn't last more than a year or so (or they were always going to move onto the Sports Stars line straight after), but it was pretty big and had some cool sets.
There was a tie-in comic as well (which had a free wrestler on the front of at least the first issue) and, weirdly, a Monster Wrestlers In My Pocket bubble bath, which was a transparent plastic tub of lurid green translucent gel in which was suspended a Monster Wrestler figure (I think they were possibly exclusive colour variants).
I had both. I thought they were really cool. I used the M.U.S.C.L.E figures in the production of a cable public access show. And, yeah, I did paint them and the Monster in My Pocket figures.
Unfortunately, when I painted the M.U.S.C.L.E figures it at a time when the formulation of enamel paints were going through a change and it left the figures a bit sticky ever after spraying a matte coat on top of the enamel. This left them prone to getting all kinds of stuff stuck to them when not in storage.
I ended up painting the Monsters in My Pocket figures with acrylic paints, and that has stood up over time and is not sticky at all.
I played that game till it stopped working as a kid lol I’m stoked you added footage
I still have a bunch of these on my shelf. As a kid it was so cool to open one of the blind boxes and see what new monsters you'd get. Finding the trading cards at 7-Eleven was fun too. Each card had little history bios on the back that helped you figure out what "Baba Yaga" or "Haniver" were.
So glad you got around to this series, it was far more influential than it is given credit for.
Please do a videos on yugioh cards,pogs, & bop-it
I still have all my MIMP figures packed away. I had both the Monster Mountain and Monster Clash at one point, but I do still have 3 of the 4 well-read issues of the comic.
Bless this channel for existing!
The first sentence is a straight fact
Kids love to put all sorts of crap in their pockets. It's as hilarious as it is true.
I have a box full of these somewhere in my storage unit... We used to find them on clearance at Toys R Us or Kay Bee, and used them as cheap miniatures for superhero and post-apocalyptic mutant tabletop RPG's like Champions or Gamma World. Good times! Thanks for the video!
What a nostalgia trip! It was so nice to see monster in my pocket figures that I hadn’t seen in decades. I also collected those UK wrestling figures you got in Frosties. Something I completely forgot until I saw it I’m your video.
First, God I love this channel
I still have my set of the trading cards. Loved these. Great ep!
I’ll never forget the 7-11 Slurpee card packs. That was my introduction to monster in my pocket.
I LOVED Monster in my Pocket! Easily one of my favorite collectable toys as a kid-- if not my number-one favorite! There's not a lot that I truly regret in life, but losing pretty much my entire collection over the years is one thing that irks me to this day. There was something just so fascinating about those little guys! I really wish I'd taken better care of them.
8:11
The guy says _"disfrutalos con mucho... susto",_ which almost sounds like "disfrutalos con mucho _gusto"._ That would roughly translate to something like "enjoy (the candy) with lots of joy", except that changing the G for an S in the last word makes the meaning something like "enjoy them very scared".
I used to have an old ice cream bucket full of the figures you got from the 25 cent machines in grocery stores, and they were my absolute favorite toys.