“What? Mega Man’s Taken Over the Bomb?!”

Ah, now here’s yet another blast from the past, one which I bet fewer Mega Man fans are familiar with.
Many of us remember the Ruby-Spears Mega Man animated series which ran in syndication, went to Fox Family, then was released on DVD and then re-released on DVD again more recently. At the time of its original airing, however, there was an action figure line from Bandai of America, sitting alongside their other products of the day as The Tick and, of course, Power Rangers.

What some people may not know, however, is that like those other lines, the Mega Man action figure line had its own commercial. However, to the best of my knowledge, this one did not run on television; instead, it was shown before the animated episodes which were collected and released on VHS by Sony Wonder (and if you like the animated series’ art style, it has some decent covers for collectors).

Recently, someone posted the commercial to GameTrailers, and it has now made their “Featured” list for the day. So here it is, with Dr. Wily narrating in all his non-Scott McNeil-powered glory:

The figures were cool, especially in lieu of any real alternatives at the time. It’s a shame the second wave never made it into production, as Mega Man did have some neat custom armor in the cartoons that would have made for some neat figures.

My own collection of these remains rather poor, unfortunately; when they came out, I was “too old for toys,” but too young to get a job while the toys were around. I did come by an incomplete and slightly-worn figure of Mega Man himself later, but with no Mega Buster. Nonetheless, the line was a good source for some Robot Masters who haven’t seen other releases, such as Snake Man, Drill Man, and Bright Man. Perhaps someday I’ll get around to hunting these down.

LanceHeart