Normal everyday people and school kids who get dumped in toxic waste.. what happens? Well no they don’t die, they get super powers and become super heroes! Kind of like X-men only with more powers but they look a LOT uglier!
There is a running theme in some kids toys and TV shows, isn’t there, where a usually very dangerous activity leads to everything being allright. Remember Gentle Ben – a boy who befriends – a bear! A real life bear! Surely that's not a good thing to put into children's minds!? Well Toxic Crusaders gave me a hankering to find some toxic waste and get myself a super power! Truly! I really thought that I would develop super powers if I just had a little bathe in some plutonium or something…
Toxic Crusaders was originally a TV show that aired in 1991 and was made for Fox network in the US, but it came to the UK the same year, along with the action figures that looked great.
The action figures looked a little like garbage pail kids in some way, they were gross and ugly and their design was quite similar. I had one called Junkyard who was the character that made all the stuff for the monsters (a little like MR T in the A-Team)
The figures were deeply plastic – ironic considering that the cartoon followed a trend of environmentally conscious cartoons of the time – such as Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Swamp Thing, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I loved my character “Junkyard” right up until the point an older boy threw him on a Barbacue one summer. Yep. That happened. And I wish I could have been a mutant super powered 8 year old if only to get the blighter back!
Do You Remember Toxic Crusaders?
Do You Remember Toxic Crusaders?