You Won’t Believe Some of the Movies That Have Gotten Toy Lines

As a general rule, you should never be surprised when a movie studio sells anything to promote their products. It is called the movie business and not the movie friendship for a reason.

But some movies are a bette fit for merchandise than others. Every kid wants a superhero action figure, or a princess doll, or a princess doll that doubles as a superhero action figure. (Now you know why Frozen made $1.2 billion worldwide.) It’s a given that each new Star Wars or Marvel Cinematic Universe entry will get its own line of action figures. Movie merch like that serves multiple purposes. It helps promote those films to a wider audience and it also helps defray the costs of making such massive blockbusters.

But the allure of merchandise money is sometimes too hard to resist for movies that are not Star Wars or Marvel or the obvious fits for their own toy lines. All through the 1980s and ’90s, and even to this today, some genuinely inappropriate films have been turned into entire toy lines.

You’ll find 20 of the head-scratchingest examples below, including some heavily R-rated titles that were totally inappropriate for children, and some bland and boring films that were totally inappropriate for the colorful world of toys. Just be careful: Looking through the pictures might inspire you to head to eBay and pick one or two up for yourself. You’re telling me you don’t want to own Judd Nelson Steel figure? I don’t believe you. Everyone wants to own a Judd Nelson Steel figure.

More Weird Movie Toy Lines: Congo, The Green Hornet, Hook, Independence Day, Police Academy, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, RoboCop, The Shadow, Super Mario Bros., Terminator 2: Judgment Day.