Someone, Please Bring Back the Ruby-Spears Mega Man Toyline!

With San Diego Comic-Con 2023 in the books, including a new look at the third wave of Jada’s Mega Man figures with the first one due very soon, now seemed like a great time to talk toys!

Now, Mega Man was not the only toy line seen at SDCC — far from it! Numerous toy lines from the ’80s and ’90s have been seeing various forms of revivals as of late, and I don’t just mean the heavy hitters like your Transformers and Power Rangers, which have effectively been evergreen brands. I’m talking Biker Mice from Mars, Silverhawks, Street Sharks, Toxic Crusaders, Bucky O’Hare, Roboforce, Sectaurs, Food Fighters, and more!

Of course, even the heavier hitters are getting in on it, too, as we’ve seen with Masters of the Universe Origins and Super 7’s remakes of the ’90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line (versus NECA’s more media-based approach).

But missing among all these other blasts from the past?

Mega Man! The ones based on the Ruby-Spears cartoon, to be precise.

Now, I’ve talked here before about how I missed out on the Bandai line’s original run at retail, and they remain some of the most desired collectibles for me, personally. But what would be even better than just fulfilling that collecting aspiration? How about if someone were to pick up the rights to that version of the characters, and effectively continue where Bandai left off and fill out the rest of what we didn’t get?

Of course, there’s bound to be some overlap. Some of the most popular characters from the cartoon already got toys, such as Mega Man, Proto Man, and Guts Man. Even so, a new line could breathe new life into these characters with the unique cartoon aesthetic, along with greater articulation and more accessories, including more accurately-sized blasters (the ones that came with the originals were quite large, due to their missile-launching gimmicks).

Beyond remaking the originals (that way, even new collectors could have a “complete” line), there’s room for variants as well.

When Bandai discontinued the line, there were three versions of the Blue Bomber that never saw release, each of which were based on one of the special suits he wore in Season 2. There was the Dive suit, for underwater missions; the Sky suit, for when the Rush Jet alone just wasn’t an option; and the Stealth suit, for when jumping and shooting wasn’t the best course of action.

And admit it: Right now, you’re at least thinking about the prospect of buying a Kangaroo Guts Man with removable tail.

Then there’s the vehicles. While we did get the Air Raider (well, someone did… I never saw it on shelves), a re-release of that alongside Dr. Wily’s purple variant would be pretty cool. Maybe a Skullker, aka Wily Machine 4? Or at the very least, maybe the unreleased Land Blazer?

Of course, if you’re going to have the Land Blazer, then you’ve gotta have someone who can blow it up, right? And that brings us to characters that never made it into the line, but I think some of us would have loved to see.

And at the top of the list has to be none other than Vile, Spark Mandrill, and Mega Man X (“What took you so long?”). We’ve gotten numerous X and Vile figures over the years, but never in this form, and Spark Mandrill would be new, too (and maybe he could come with an alternate, more game-like face? He’s already pretty game-like, for the most part).

I think it goes without saying that some of the other Robot Masters who didn’t already get figures in the line would be welcome, too. There are too many to name here, but who wouldn’t want to be able to recreate this scene on their shelves?

And while some designs remained pretty close to the games, like Drill Man, others were certainly more… unique. Like the Air Man who actually had a full head? Can’t beat that.

There are a lot of possibilities with a line like this, especially if it did well. For instance, maybe we could see more minor characters, like Brain Bot or Otto Raptor. Or newly-imagined designs for characters who came after the cartoon’s run, like Bass?

Or maybe just get that playset of Dr. Light’s lab, as a counterpart to Dr. Wily’s version.

It is where X was designed and built, after all — it would be like walking (well, playing) through history!

Though the show only ran for two seasons (well, three, technically, if you’re willing to count “Crime of the Century” as an entire season), but I think there are a lot of possibilities packed into those 27 episodes. And right now, companies like Jada, Kotobukiya, and others seem to have the video game versions of the characters pretty well nailed down. As such, I think there’s room for someone to come in and do something that’s a little more niche, but still fun, desirable, and collectible.

Thanks for reading! And in case you haven’t heard, re-upping our hosting for the next few years took a big bite out of our bank account, so if you like what we’re doing here, and can kick in a few bucks to our Patreon or buy us an E Tank on Ko-fi, we’d greatly appreciate it!