A Look Back At The Toybiz Mario Kart 64 Action Figures!

[Music] you know for a character as old and as iconic as Mario there aren't a lot of good action figure something out there for whatever reason there just aren't a lot of fully poseable Mario figures sure plenty of Mario figures exist but most of them are basically just lightly plausible figurines take the popco Mario figures for example don't get me wrong these are excellent figures but they really lack in terms of articulation sure they have articulation but for the most part you can only move their heads in arm so the record some of them can move their legs but overall they're very limited in the amount of poses they can achieve nowadays this isn't much of an issue any more figures like the s.h.figuarts line and of course Jack specifics for Nintendo Line have given us a great selection of poseable Mario action figures but for the longest time that simply didn't exist or at least wasn't common that is outside of a single line a line from the late 90s that defined what a great Mario action figure could be of course I'm talking about the toy biz mario kart 64 action figures these figures released between 1999 and 2000 were some of the first fully realized Mario action figures not only did they cover a vast amount of characters but they were also fully detailed and fully articulated as they have since become iconic in the Mario figure community so let's talk about them welcome to a look back at the toy biz mario kart 64 action figures before we start talking about the figures we should talk about the company that made them toybiz now the history of toy biz is pretty complicated so only focus on the parts that really matter to this line toy biz was a company that focused on making tons of figures from a variety of licenses one of their most popular lines was no doubt their video game superstars line this is the line the Mario Kart 64 figures are apart of the line basically took many of the most popular video games at the time and produced highly articulated well-made action figures of them surprisingly toy bears managed to acquire a lot of Nintendo licenses such as The Legend of Zelda and Diddy Kong Racing and of course Mario Kart 64 it's interesting to note the release year of this line 1999 and 2000 that's three to four years after mario kart 64 was released it's anyone's guess as to why toy biz won with the Mario Kart 64 license but when you think about it outside of Justice standard Mario line it really was the best option for them the line consists of two ways totaling seven figures wave one which was released somewhere in 1999 contained Mario Yoshi and Bowser while wave 2 which was released in 2000 contained Luigi Wario Donkey Kong and a ghost variant rerelease of Mario unfortunately no picture toad figures were ever released in this line so we never got the full roster from the game one of the most notable things about these figures are the accessories they come with being based off of Mario Kart 64 you didn't just get a standalone action figure the figures also came with a fully detailed card as well as an item found in game seriously as great as the base figures are the carts and items really tight as flying together toy biz didn't cheat on the accessories either it looks like nearly as much care that went into the figures also went into the extras despite their somewhat outdated appearance and admittedly lacking articulation by today's standard these figures continue to be praised as one of the best Mario figure sets out there so let's find out just how much truth that statement hole here's the Mariana scent standing up this Mario looks just like Mario did in Mario Kart 64 he spot on to the yard work from the game and is a perfect representation of how Mario looked back then the figure is around four inches tall and has a total of seven articulation points Mario can move his head 360 degrees around he has ball jointed arms his legs can move forwards and backwards and you can twist his wrist this doesn't give the figure that much posing options but it gets the job done and allows Mario to do quite a lot he can sit in this cart he can show a motion you can't get him into too many posing options but for a figure of this size price and age this is more than fine let's talk about this guy sculpt this set as a whole can be kind of divisive some people love them some people don't sure the characters look great but they aren't exactly one-to-one with how we'd expect them to look toy basurin Lee took some creative liberties when making these figures whether or not that's a good thing is up to you I personally like Mario sculpt it's a really nice representation of the character and looks pretty unique when compared to other Mario figures out there though again whether or not that's a good thing is up to you as there's no denying that this figure isn't completely spot-on - Mario and I could see that being a negative to some his head and face are pretty much what you'd expect though there is a seam that runs down his nose which is pretty noticeable there are a few seams on this figure but that's to be expected I'm usually more of a fan of figures that depict Mario with a closed mouth but I think the open mouth works here Mario's expression as a whole is pretty interesting I'm pretty sure he's supposed to look happy but he almost looks angry with the way his eyebrows are position gives him a very determined look which is actually pretty fitting Temari o card is M emblem is indented almost some of the details on this figure are just painted on they almost all have some sort of indentation to them the paint on this figure is really well done besides a few areas where the paint can look a bit messy it's all good Mario's leg articulation does cut into a sculpt though honestly that's a fair trade off most Mario figures such as Jax Pacific's Mario really lack in terms of leg articulation however with this sacrifice sculpt Mario can move his legs forwards and backwards though not too far backwards and this is important as it allows Mario to sit in this cart and his open hands allow them to hold steering wheel and be posed in some pretty dynamic poses Mario shoes are a solid brown color but are well sculpted they do lack sole details but since this figure will be standing most of the time that's not that big of an issue usually with merchandise you can tell what time frame it came from and with this figure I instantly think yeah that's Nintendo 64 era Mario it's so cool to have this design made into an action figure as I highly doubt will see something that looks like this come out today of course you didn't just get the figures when you bought these despite reportedly being priced at less than $10 these figures were packed with tons of cool accessories with Mario you get as cart as well as a green shell Mario's card has way more detail than you'd expect it's a red pipe frame styled cart and has all the facets and details needed it even has a seat belt so the figures can't fall out of the cart you can even detach the seat belts and everything and that's especially important as the carts have a pull back motorized feature it works pretty well and is a great addition to the figure however since some of these carts are pretty old and well used the pull back feature on some of them doesn't work that well anymore or at all but that's to be expected the steering wheel also turn and the pedals can move forwards and backwards there's so much to these figures that they really did not need to include but they did and that's so cool the carts also have a small hole either in the front or the back which is used for another one of the sets gimmicks that gimmick being that you can launch the included items out of the cart in Mario's case it's a Koopa shell the Koopa shell sculpt wise looks exactly like it does in the game however pain-wise it's a bit off it should have more of a peach color for its underside but instead it's colored green however it does have the grooves that it should so that's good you also notice that the shell has a long rod sticking out of the back of it you simply insert the item into the hole on the cart and when you release the cart after winding up its pullback feature the shell or any other compatible item that comes with the figures gets launched as far as I know all the items that come with the characters are interchangeable so if you want to launch Yoshi's bananas with Mario's card I'm pretty sure you can do that this Mario is a solid figure the sculpt is great it really does the character and the game justice and the carded item are extremely well done for what are essentially extra auditions if the line was in Mario Kart based and the cart and item weren't included I still would highly praise the base figure as its really well made but the extras just adds that much more to the whole set as for rarity well that's where things get a bit interesting unlike many sets all of the figures in this end more or less have the same rarity to them because of that I'll only be mentioning the rarity of this set once so I don't get too repetitive you can pick these figures up relatively easy well loose that is if you just want the figures and their accessories and don't care about them coming new in the packaging then they're only cost you around 20 to 30 dollars possibly more or less given their condition as the prices really spike when taking into consideration getting the figures mint acquiring these figures mint on card which the packaging completely new and pristine is not an easy task or at least not a cheap task these were very popular toys people back in the day probably didn't take into consideration that they're mario toy may be worth something someday lots of people bought these toys and opened them up which is perfectly understandable I personally collect figures loose and when it comes to older figures don't really care about getting them new in the box but I do know that a lot of collectors do try to get them as much as possible so there's a pretty large demand for these figures new especially considering as time goes on more and more of these will be opened only making the boxed ones even more scarce because of all of that a min one can run you're around fifty to sixty dollars possibly more as though I have seen them go for Less speaking of packaging let's talk about the boxes these figures came in the boxes to the set are absolutely outstanding they follow a pattern seen on other video game superstars line but they have that distinct and iconic mario kart 64 artwork and styling the figures came in large kurtik bubble packaging is the top of the packaging displaced of videogame superstars line logo saying video game superstars presents mario kart 64 the box features like huge mario kart 64 logo atop the classic artwork from the game does the whole styling of the box is based off of and is made to work with that artwork of course the box has copyright information and has the Nintendo logo above the mario kart 64 logo as well as the toy biz logo at the bottom right hand corner the bubble holds and displays the figures and their accessories well it's very easy to look at the included items at different angles which is always a good thing with figures as it makes it easy to inspect them for imperfections and stuff that the paper insert towards the bottom of the box displays character artwork of the included figure as well as the character's name and text that tells you that the card does have the motorized pullback feature as well as what the included item is the box there's a lot of small details that most people probably wouldn't even notice for example behind the figures and accessories you can see a fully detailed race track the back of the box shows a lot more characters specific info it shows artwork of the character as well as a full character description there are also instructions on how to use the cart and accessory and finally there's a small advertisement for the other figures in the set the packaging does vary a bit between wave one and wave two but for the most part it's the same so yeah all in all very nice packaging no complaints here but that's pretty much all there is to say on it so let's move on to the next figure in the set here's the next figure in wave 1 Yoshi Yoshi's articulation is basically what you'd expect you can move his head though it is somewhat limited by his mouth his legs can move back and forth so just like Mario they cut into a sculpt event the way they handled Yoshi's wrist articulation is interesting the figures in this set all have articulated wrists however since Yoshi's are pretty thin towards put the joint closer to his elbow this is actually a really good design choice as if they put it closer to his hand it probably could have easily been broken Yoshi's paint for the most part is pretty well applied there are some areas that can have some spray over such as the shoes but for the most part the paint seems to stay where it should Yoshi sculpting looks really nice it's headed very round and well detailed his nose is very large but unfortunately again has a somewhat noticeable scene running down in his eyes look great and help give this figure expression and Yoshi has his mouth opened showing his tongue and just like this artwork and that artwork is the one used on Yoshi's boxes so it's probably based off of it I actually really like Yoshi's expression it's simple but is way better than just a stock blank expression one thing that this scent nails is giving the characters a sense of personality of course I've already talked about how Mario looks determined but Yoshi characteristically looks like he's just having fun Donkey Kong looks angry and Wario well yeah you the point they nailed these characters Yoshi has his spikes on the back of his head looking at Yoshi's head from the side here really shows how good it looks this is just a great looking Yoshi his body is more of what you'd expect it's round and curved and he has his shell on it back which is raised and well detailed Yoshi's hands aren't identical to each other one is it more of a gripping pose while the other is opened again like this artwork Yoshi's proportions are pretty accurate his head and body look proportionate to each other however if his shoes are really a huge though looking at Yoshi art from that time that was accurate though it does look kind of strange compared to the Yoshi we know today overall though the sculpted articulation on Yoshi is really excellent Yoshi's card is the same as Mario's except it's a light green color all of the figures in this set pretty much come with the same identical card the only difference being the positioning of the hole for the item and the character specific color Yoshi's accessory is a bit uncharacteristic it's a string of banana one cool thing with these though is that each individual banana can be separated from each other plus there's no limit on how many you can link together so if you had a bunch of these you can make a huge chain of banana interesting how they came in bunches of 6 as that's not quite like the game I'm not sure why they came with Yoshi but they're nice in any toy line it's always good to have a selection of antagonists to balance out like good guys and the ratio is pretty good in this set and of course you can't have a Mario said without having the main bad guy himself Bowser okay I'm just going to say it this figure flat-out looks awesome his detailed scales his great expression his incredible shell honestly this is one of my favorite Bowser figures ever lots of Bowser figures have a pretty flat paint job I mean that's how Bowser appears in most games but this Bowser figure takes a completely realistic approach to his detail for example all his scales are individually detailed which not only looks great but also gives the figures some texture even his eyes are bloodshot it's insane the level of detail that they could put onto this figure he's also quite large Mario's around 4 inches while Bowser is more around 5 inches the way they handled Bowser's tickle Asian was pretty well done too his arms are on ball joint so they can move any way you want he can swivel at his wrist and his legs can move similarly to the other figure and of course he can you about his head it's great that even though Bowser is large and has tons of details nothing had to be sacrificed Bowser comes with an orange red colored card surprisingly he can still fit into it very well despite being larger than the other figures Bowser came with not one but two blue shells a fitting item for the character and they look pretty great too the blue shells were introduced in Mario Kart 64 and their designs were less refined compared to what we see today and that early design is represented on these this makes them really stand out they lack wings and their spikes tick out a lot more to sum it up this is a Bowser figure unlike any other it's simply an impressive toy and is a testament to how high-quality this line really was [Music] let's start way to off with who else Luigi you'll notice that Luigi well doesn't really look like Luigi here well at least not by today's Luigi standards he is roughly the same height as Mario and while his mustache is the correct shape his face isn't long this isn't because Toyota's wasn't accurate it's just that this figure was based off of the models and artwork from before Luigi got all the characteristics we know him for back then he looked a lot more like Mario he looks like this figure and really if that makes this figure even cooler it's a time capsule of a time before the leads he really got much of an identity the figure itself given the time period looks very accurate it's pretty much more of the same with what we saw with Mario for the most part but you share a very similar sculpt well outside of their faces of course Mario has an intense looking face while Luigi looks like he's just having the time of his life I think it suits the two figures very well he has a happy looking expression on his face and sure it may make him look a bit goofy but I think it works also okay his moustache is really big I don't know why but it's really huge not saying that's a bad thing but it looks kind of weird because of that really the rest of his school for like his body is essentially the same as Mario pretty much what I said for Mario's body applies to Luigi his colors in pain are nice he has that distinct Luigi green that we all know and love however again differing from modern Luigi you can see that he doesn't have the dark blue overalls that he does today instead they have more of a standard blue color to them Luigi's card has a green color to it and Luigi's accessory is a mushroom the mushroom itself is kind of interesting not only can it be launched from the cart which is you know not a thing you can do in the game but it also looks different compared to what the mushroom looks like today its head is more squared its eyes are small and it has some additional oddly placed spots on the top it's always important to have a mushroom included in a Mario action figure line so it's good that this was included so you'd think they'd include it with Mario maybe they want to Luigi to be a little more special another excellent addition to the line even though he's really similar to Mario and shares a lot of Mario sculpt what is different about him looks great it's time to look at an absolute highlight in the set Wario for years this figure has always stuck with me before I even knew what this set was I saw this figure and it was instantly a classic in my eyes let's start with what draws you in the most about this figure his face oh man Wario's head is quite something Wario's face looks actually really off I don't know but I think it's his paint when you stand him next to Mario or Luigi you can really tell something's up here he almost looks pale however he does have some shading which does help his expression is also kind of I don't know off-putting though I do like it because I think it works well with Wario's character he has sort of a dead stare to him which is a bit unsettling though his noses alone time as this his moustache and his eyes look great maybe if his mouth showed a bit more of an expression he'd look fine his ears are correctly pointed and his hair is as well done as Mario & Luigi's his hat is proportionate to his head and is clearly a different mold than Mario & Luigi's which is accurate his body is very round being accurate to his design his overalls are well sculpted and it all looks pretty nice though I feel like his overalls are a bit too light in color they almost appear pink when they should be purple just compared to his cart which is purple and you can really tell the differences in the shade Wario's arms are very straight and stocky they aren't bent or posed like some of the other characters giving Wario a rigid look fitting to his character his hands appear to both be the same sculpt with him having gripping hands his gloves also have the correct W logo Wario's legs can move just like the other figures though this time around they don't really cut into his skull I suppose Wario's more rounded features allow for his joints to appear more flush so that's good and of course he has his Genie light shoes while they are small and thus it appears that he would have trouble standing he actually doesn't really if it wasn't for the face the figure wouldn't have many issues and even then the face can be seen as a positive given how ridiculous it looks Wario really stands as a good example of how this set isn't exactly about accurate to the characters does that makes them unique and pretty cool-looking all things considered Wario looks done but I wouldn't have it any other way Wario came with a purple pipe frame cart as well as two red shells they're basically the same as Mario's green shell with different paint and this time around their undersides are painted correctly a truly classic Wario figure if you can get around Wario's interesting details then this is a great figure honestly one of my favorites in the set the next character we'll be taking a look at today is the king of Kong himself Donkey Kong at first I didn't really like this figure all that much his expression and his proportions just looked off to me but over time I've grown to really like the figure sure yeah he definitely looks strange but I think he has a lot of charm first thing to mention is that this guy like Bowser is pretty large yet again like Bowser he has a lot of detail it's interesting our toy bus could make the larger characters still have tons of detail usually due to budget reasons that's not the case anyway Donkey Kong looks great his expression is the one thing that I think made me not really liked him at first from some if not all angles he looks kind of dumb however when you think about it that is pretty fitting for Donkey Kong and from some angles it does look really good outside of that though he's extremely well done just like Bowser he has a lot of detail and shading it just all looks so great for example here's the back of Donkey Kong's tie you can see that it actually has detail for where the two end parts of the tie connect who would even think to include a detail like that enough figure that's such a small detail but it's so impressive that it was included the designers of these figures really did some incredible work Donkey Kong's articulation is pretty standout he has a lot more articulation than most of the figures in the set he can move at his neck allowing his head to move 360 degrees his arms and legs though are very articulated not only does he have a full range of movement in his arms and legs but he also has some elbow and knee joints that allow for some great posing even his feet have a joint that allows them to move forwards and backwards even his tie can swivel they really went all out on this figure one really interesting thing about this figure is that well we could have gone in a different figure entirely in the place of Donkey Kong what am I talking about well I'm sure you guys have seen this already but in early footage of Mario Kart 64 then under the name Super Mario Kart our magic Hoopoe was seen in place at Donkey Kong could you imagine a magic koopa figure being in the set instead of Donkey Kong but I think Donkey Kong was definitely the greater option Donkey Kong's accessory is what else bananas yeah that's great but they're identical to the ones that came with Yoshi yeah okay there's no way they could have made this figure and not have given him bananas but it does make you wonder why Yoshi had them to begin with obviously it's saved toilets the cost of not having to make another accessory but it is kind of strange despite what I first thought about this figure now that I'm really taking a good look at it it's really impressive he's way more detailed than he needs to be he has standout articulation and nearly everything about him is really well executed I'd like to remind you that these figures retailed for around $10 or under I have no idea how tribes' managed that here's the last figure we'll be looking at today it's honestly kind of underwhelming but we've got to cover it it's a ghost variant of Mario well that's what it's called at least in actuality it's just the Mario figure with its shirt molded out of translucent red plastic lazy's yeah kinda but hey all the other figures in the set are so great a variant is pretty understandable one variant doesn't really ruin anything in my eyes if anything it just makes line more interesting and hey after making something like Bowser toy those deserved a cheap variant the sculpt of ghost Mario is identical to the first wave release of Mario no expression changes no stance changes the only difference is the translucent shirt bud wait the card is made out of translucent plastic - that's pretty cool-looking though it doesn't make much sense in the context of the game so the Mario and his cart are just retooling of the original release but the one thing that is original with this release is this item it's a boo I think this is why it's called ghosts Mario in the first place the brew looks nice its faces well detailed and it looks appropriately spooky so besides his accessory there's not a whole lot to say about this guy he's a creative reference to the game but it's just a variant of Mario but trust me even though we've already covered all the figures that we still have a lot to talk about [Music] while we've covered the main figures there's still a decent amount of stuff to go over with this set let's go back and talk a bit more about this sets history so these figures were released in 1999 and 2000 and like many toy lines were heavily promoted before they were released and no place is better at drumming up hype for figure releases then Toy Fair oh yes Toy Fair is a place where companies show off their products sometimes including early test prototypes of their products more on that later to get everyone hyped for their release and thankfully toy biz drop these Mario figures to both the 1999 and the 2000 taifeng and even more thankfully we still have archives pictures and information regarding their appearances at the event so let's take a look at them for the most part at both toy fairs the figures look pretty close to the final releases so why even bring them up well at the - toy fairs toy biz displayed a larger scale versions of the figures they were around twice as large as the released figures all of the figures in the line seem to have larger scale versions of them were these intended to be released were they made simply for display we may never know for sure and that's basically it well it would have been if not for this eBay listing that appeared in late summer of 2015 it was a listing by one of the people who worked on the line and they were selling the larger scale version of Mario somehow the figure only sold for around $60 but the question is who bought it well we actually do know who bought it fellow collector L super sonic you purchased this figure and made a detailed video showcasing it all links a full video in the description below I really can't say much about these larger prototypes outside of the fact that they exist because we really don't know much about them but that alone is really interesting unfortunately according to L supersonic Q the seller said that this was the last mario kart prototypes figure that he had so the whereabouts of the rest of the larger figures remains a mystery if they even exist anymore at all not only does this mean that the rest of the prototypes are technically lost but it also means that the set was split up and considering how special of an item these are that's a shame heck Mario didn't even have his item or card we don't even know if this mario is even the same one that was at Toy Fair there just so much mystery to these larger figures and chances are we're probably never going to get answers however the fact that the larger Mario still exists today gives me hope that the others are out there somewhere maybe in a private collection maybe owned by someone who worked on the line who knows but they've got to be out there somewhere and if we're lucky maybe another one will show up someday [Music] this set is quite the product of its time the almost off-model scopes of the characters coupled with the amazing extras makes this scent incredibly cool you do have to wonder what could have been though of course I'd already mentioned the whole magic Hoopa could have gone in a figure or deal and hey if we're talking about rumored characters why no Marty The Green Swamp figure you guys remember Marty he was a heavily rumored playable character in Mario Kart 64 you know the Green Swamp in Bowser's Castle yeah that's Marty people actually thought you can unlock and play us him in the game and maybe I did too but let's not talk about that it's pretty ridiculous looking back but come on toy biz you could have made a Marty figure jokes aside it really is too bad that peach and toad didn't get figured it would have been really interesting to see toy business takes on the characters given the rest of the set we'll probably never know the true reason as to why they didn't make it into the line but this set will never feel as complete as it should have without them besides peach and toad not being included this said it basically all you could want from a mario kart toy line there have been countless mario correct figures over the years but it's kind of them are just the figures more than to the cars or they're too small etc etc this really is the only Mario Kart said to have more to it than simply being a display item or having a pull back feature while yes these figures can function as that they have a lot more to them even with Jax Pacific now releasing new fully poseable Mario figures these figures still have a lot of charm to them and I don't think that can be quite replicated in another set it's crazy that a sense that people continue to call the best set of Mario figures to this day key not so long ago but that just shows how great these figures are and I think they fully deserve it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Rating: 4.9250274 out of 5

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Id: ade2CajhLn4

Length: 30min 1sec (1801 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2017