Oooh, I stumbled upon a doozey this week! Even though I was a die-hard fan of 80s toys and cartoons growing up, most of them were gone by the time I started getting an allowance or going to the toy store with my grandma. Luckily, by then (the mid 90s) a whole slew of comic-based cartoons were hitting the airwaves as their toy counterparts appeared in stores. I was already into comics by then and loved watching superhero adventures, even if they were based on Marvel books (I was a DC kid through and through then). So, the Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons and toys were where it was at for me. Back then you could get a figure for about $5 and if you happened to hit a sale, you could walk out with a bag of figures for what it costs to get one today.
In other words, I have a lot of Spidey toys, including some of the ones from the Spider Force line which included the Avenger Wasp, Beetle, Nazi bee villain Swarm, Tarantula and CyberSpider Spider-Man. Oh, and apparently a Spider-Mobile (or Web Car) too! This is a pretty bonkers line-up when you think about it, but a fun one nonetheless. Notice how pose-y the bodies are. That’s the influence of companies like McFarlane Toys on the industry back then. I know for sure I picked up the Wasp and maybe a few others.
Dude, I JUST read an article from Toyfare #2 (#3? An earrrrrrly issue) about the making of this commercial. Avi Arad supervised it. Y’know, before he got involved in those movie things.