By all accounts, I had a great toy collection as a kid. I had a ton of action figures along with quite a few playsets. The bigger the toys, the better, including a bunch of classics like Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain, Powermaster Optimus Prime, and V.E.N.O.M.’s Outlaw. But there was a ton that I never came close to owning, creating a list of holy grails that I long to acquire to this date.
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| (Image courtesy of The Beast Is Back) |
These toys were the cream of the crop, the ones that my friends and I drooled over. Though there might have been bigger toys on this list, these were the ones I wished for the most, because besides being big, they were “so freaking cool." I’m pretty sure it said that on the packaging somewhere.
5. G. I. Joe Defiant: Space Vehicle Launch Complex
Yeah, the USS Flagg was big enough to use as an extra bed during a sleepover, but a giant boat was hardly a fun toy. It was too big to move around, and even if you did, you had to pretend it was in the water. Playing with it meant you were just playing with other toys on it instead. Do you know what was cooler than a big boat? A freaking shuttle. GI Joe’s Defiant not only included a gorgeous double-decker space shuttle, but a rolling transport that became a launching pad. Two figures came packed in, Hardtop and Payload, the latter even coming with a manned maneuvering unit and an umbilical card to replicate spacewalks. For anyone hoping to add the Defiant to their collection, you’re stuck with the secondary market. While Hasbro has been making new versions of some GI Joe vehicles through Haslab crowdfunding, like the recent Snow C.A.T. campaign, they are in the 6” Classified scale.
4. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Eternia
Castle Grayskull was the first big playset I owned, and how freaking awesome was that? A green castle with a skull on the front that you walk through to get inside? Then Snake Mountain came along with its comparatively goofy, Muppet-looking face, but with an awesome microphone. Fright Zone followed that, looking minuscule in comparison. But then Mattel brought out the big guns with the Eternia playset, a massive trio of towers with a running monorail that circled all three. The main tower features a snarling wolf face (which I think looks a little too similar to a cat’s), while the other two share designs with Grayskull and Snake Mountain and could connect with those sets. The monorail was motorized and included three different vehicles that could be attached to it. For anyone hoping to add this to their collection, Mattel Creations crowdsourced an updated version of the playset through their Origins line in 2024, but it’s no longer available to purchase on their website.
3. M.A.S.K.: Boulder Hill
While Outlaw was the biggest of Venom’s vehicles, I always thought it was a little disappointing that it didn’t have as many features as Rhino. There wasn’t a secondary vehicle - the cab didn’t even disconnect. But even Rhino was nothing compared to Boulder Hill, M.A.S.K.’s hidden headquarters. The huge playset looked like a normal gas station built into the side of a mountain, but it hid a ton of features. The building itself converts to an armored bunker; the gas pumps and sign convert into defense turrets, and the playset’s namesake boulder can be rolled down its namesake hill to expose a giant cannon that one of the two included figures can man. Like Castle Grayskull before it, a hidden trapdoor on the garage leads to a detention cell. One great selling point for the set is that it was the only way to get Alex Sector (aside from separately sold characters on cardback), one of the main characters of the cartoon. For anyone hoping to add this to their collection, The Loyal Subjects, who are releasing new M.A.S.K. toys this year, teased the possibility of a release during a recent Q&A on Facebook.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Technodrome
TMNT was one of the few lines where the villains got the biggest playset. There was the two-level Turtles lair, but it paled in comparison to the giant metal gumball Krang brought from Dimension X. Adorned with a platoon’s worth of guns on the outside with the giant Eyespy Radar on the top, it was practically impenetrable for the Turtles. But there were plenty of features on the inside too, accessible by swinging open both halves of the sphere, including the now-required trapdoor jail cell. Also like M.A.S.K.’s Boulder Hill set, the eyeball on top can roll down a fold-out slope to bowl over the Foot’s adversaries. With the somewhat silly designs that appeared all over the Turtles toyline, the Technodrome still stood out as the biggest and craziest. For anyone searching for this on the second market, you’re in luck, as a new toy based on the original design is currently available on Amazon.
1. Transformers: Scorponok
Okay, I know everyone is expecting to see Fortress Maximus here. Standing at nearly two feet tall, Fort Max held the title of the tallest Transformer for over 25 years. But besides being tall, he just doesn’t look impressive to me. He’s just a big jumble of gray and blue shapes with red highlights. His city and battle station forms are just him stretched out on his back or folded up into a yoga pose. His Decepticon Headmaster counterpart may be a lot shorter than him, but Scorponok is all character. Like the Deception base that came before him, Trypticon, Scorponok has a beast mode instead of a rolling battle station like Fort Max and Metroplex. Pushing Scorponok along the ground in his scorpion mode made his legs move like they were walking. His base mode had a great look as well, with two gleaming silver towers and a ramp for his partner Fasttrack to ride down on. Fort Max wishes he was as cool as this guy. For anyone searching for an updated version of this figure with the size he demands, Hasbro released the Titan class figure in 2020 (with a reissue in 2024), now with Fort Max’s double Headmaster gimmick.
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