#990 AMERICAN GLADIATORS - FIGURES FROM WAVE 1 (1992)

I recently wrote a very long article about this Mattel figures (and also the ones made by Hornby and other companies around the globe) in the free online magazine Figuras En Acción, so this time, I will just write a few notes about the toyline.

The toys were planed and made in 1990, after the first season of this contest was aired, and before the second one started, and were sold starting in the second season. Although the toyline was originally planned to have 5 gladiators of each sex plus the two male contenders, it was shortened before launching it, and as a result, only four male gladiators and one female gladiator (and the contenders) were made. All were available in single blister packs except the blue challenger which was sold only in combination with Laser. Laser was also available single-carded, maybe the fifth gladiator, Thunder, which was planed but was never released was intended to replace one of these two Lasers.

 

The toys presented in this entry are:

 

LASER (1663) will be shown in combination with the Blue Challenger below.

 

NITRO (4002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 GEMINI (4015)

 

 

TURBO (4017)

 

 

RED CHALLENGER (3995)

 

BLUE CHALLENGER vs. LASER (3970)

 

 

 

The series was a major sales failure, and even today you can find many figures in their original packages for sale.

The figures were intended to be played together with some playsets which were sold apart and that reproduced more or less accurately the events of the TV program. I have the Joust, which I will show some other time, and I must say, it is a lot of fun to play with.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LASER (1663), NITRO (4002), GEMINI (4015), TURBO (4017), RED CHALLENGER (3995) and BLUE CHALLENGER vs. LASER (3970)
• Toy Line: American Gladiators
  
• Year:1992
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figure: Around 10 cm tall