7 R-Rated Movie Toy Lines Marketed to Kids
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the action figure toy industry was booming. The now-legendary run of action figure and vehicle toy lines like Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles led the charge of marketing executives looking for secondary profits from studio and network intellectual properties. Even disappointing box office performers like Waterworld, Battlefield Earth, Dune (1983), Wild Wild West, The Shadow, and many others had their day on the toy shelves.
But what is even more interesting is the phenomenon of creating toy lines marketed to children that were based on R-rated movies.
Here we will take a look back and feature seven of the toy lines that were based on R-rated movies and marketed to children.
Before we dive into that list, let’s talk a little bit about what makes an R-rated movie an R-rated movie.
How Do Movies Get an R-Rating?
An R-rated movie is designated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) as one that contains adult material. They use the R-rating to indicate which movies may include content not suitable for children under the age of 17. Typical content considerations that can lead to an R-rating include:
Strong Language — Frequent use of profanity or very strong language.
Violence and Gore — Intense, frequent, or graphic violence.
Sexual Content — Explicit, frequent, or graphic sexual activity.
Nudity — Scenes of nudity in a sexual context.
Drug Use — Depictions of drug use or abuse.
The MPAA rates films through a specific process carried out by the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA). Here’s the general process:
Submission and Viewing — A film’s distributor submits the finished film to the CARA rating board, composed of parents who are not required to have any specific film background. Their main qualification is being a parent with a child between the ages of five and fifteen at the time of joining. Once their children turn twenty-one, they must step down. The intent is for the raters to make judgments as average American parents would concerning what is suitable for children.
Deliberation — After watching the film, the board members discuss the content based on several criteria, including language, violence, nudity, sex, and drug use. They consider how each of these elements is presented within the context of the film.
Voting — The board members then vote on what they believe the appropriate rating should be. The rating options include G (General Audiences), PG (Parental Guidance Suggested), PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned), R (Restricted), and NC-17 (No One 17 and Under Admitted). A film receives an R-rating if the board believes it includes adult material that may be inappropriate for children under 17 without adult supervision.
Rating Issuance — Once the board reaches a consensus, the rating is issued. The distributor is informed of the decision and the specific reasons for the rating.
Appeals and Revisions — If the distributor disagrees with the rating, they can appeal the decision, make edits to the film, and resubmit it for a new rating.
Needless to say, most toy lines are geared toward children who have seen the movie the toy lines are based on — and most of those movies fall under the G-rated, PG-rated, and PG-13-rated umbrellas.
But this was the 1980s and 1990s, friends. Things were different. Studios did whatever they could to get an extra buck. With that in mind, here are our top seven toy lines based on R-rated movies and marketed to children.
Highlander Toys
Nothing screams “toy line for children” like a movie about immortal men with swords who decapitate each other — and maybe some minor nudity and F-bombs along the way.
The official Highlander toy line was based on the 1994-1995 Highlander: The Animated Series.
Action figures depicted characters not found in the Highlander movies, but specific to new characters created for the animated series. The animated series itself was surprisingly violent as well. If you’re familiar with the movie Highlander, you know a major plot point involves beheadings. Well, the animated series didn’t always shy away from that plot point either.
In 1996, Prime Time Toys released a series of action figures, complete with accompanying accessories like swords and shields.
There were also some vehicles, creatures, and even a Highlander sword.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Toys
While we know in the movie, the Terminator raised his right hand in the air, looked the audience in the eyes, and promised not to kill anyone, there was plenty of mayhem, violence, and strong language to earn an R-rating. The first Terminator installment was a much more hard R than its follow-up. However, it’s still an R-rated movie that, nonetheless, had its own toy line.
Sold in 1991 and 1992 to coincide with the debut of the highly-anticipated sequel, Kenner’s toy line featured action figures of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800, other cyborgs, and human characters from the movie. The line also included various versions of the T-800 with battle damage, technological accessories, and vehicles.
Heck, you could even create flesh to go over a Terminator exoskeleton.
Commando Toys
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s John Matrix (Commando) killed eighty-one people in this movie, one of which was through the hero’s use of throwing a pipe through the villain’s torso. “So, yeah, let’s create a toy line geared towards children,” the marketing and merchandising execs of the studio said.
Designed by Diamond Toymakers and sold to coincide with the successful release of the film,
Commando toys included action figures of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, John Matrix, as well as many bad guys for him to face — all equipped with an array of weapons and combat accessories. The toys emphasized heavy weaponry and combat features.
They even had 8-inch (below) and 16-inch variations that were much more articulate.
Aliens Toys
A sequel to one of the most horrifying movies of all time, Alien, which oddly had its own tie-in toy figure back in 1979.
Aliens was just as terrifying, featuring brutal deaths, a child in constant danger of death, adult language, and many, many, many jump scares that would leave the average child in a horrific state. So, yes, naturally there was a toy line released in 1992, more than five years after the film's debut.
And, yes, it was Kenner once again leading the way.
The Aliens line included a variety of xenomorph figures, Colonial Marines, and large playsets/vehicles like the APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) and the Power Loader. The figures often came with action features, such as the "Exploding Alien" and "Scorpion Alien."
To be honest, it’s actually a pretty badass toy line. And it only gets more and more hilarious when you see that it’s for ages five and up. Can you imagine watching Aliens at the age of five, let alone reenacting the carnage with toys? Granted, there was an animated series geared towards children in development called Operation: Aliens. The toy line was to be directly connected to that series. However, it was never released. And we can’t escape the fact that the Aliens toy line used pretty much every element of the movie.
Predator Toys
Our third installment of Arnold Schwarzenegger R-rated movie toy lines. This was the movie that had endless gunfire, torsos ripped open by brutal alien weapons, bodies with their skin torn off of them, and an alien predator holding up the skull and attached vertebrae of his prey in triumphant fashion.
Kenner was at it again with this 1994 toy line that focused on various Predator characters from the first two films, featuring different camouflage and weaponry. The line expanded into more fantastical designs with unique armor and weapons, including larger-scale figures and vehicles.
The unique dynamic of this toy line was that it shifted from being sole-Predator related, eventually incorporating the Aliens vs. Predator moniker, combining the two franchises after a successful graphic novel series led the way.
Robocop Toys
If you thought Terminator, Commando, Aliens, and Predator were pretty extreme movies to inspire tie-in toy lines directed toward children, Robocop is a whole different level of inappropriate. Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop is a brutal and bloody film. We see a man tortured by gunshots, an executive’s body ripped to bloody shreds by a robot’s firepower, and a man’s flesh being turned into goo just before his body explodes in a fleshy squish after being hit by a car.
Kenner jumped into the intellectual property merchandising market once again in 1988 following the movie’s release, creating the Robocop and the Ultra-Police toy line, which featured the titular character in multiple versions, including "cap firing" and "glow in the dark" variants.
It also included villains and vehicles such as the ED-260 and Robo-1 police car.
Now, to be fair, the toy line was moreso adapted from the Robocop: The Animated Series.
It adapted the movie into a more child-friendly format, focusing on RoboCop fighting crime in Detroit, often dealing with issues of corruption and social justice.
But again, the source material is based on an R-rated bloodfest. And, yes, they made a cartoon series out of that bloodfest as well.
Rambo Toys
Rambo killed 75 people in Rambo: First Blood Part II. One victim’s body blew up into pieces after Rambo shot an explosive arrow into him. Other deaths came by way of knife, strangulation, and seemingly endless gunfire.
Capitalizing on the military action figure market fueled by the success of G.I. Joe, Coleco ventured into the action figure market with its own military-themed line based on the 1985 blockbuster Rambo: First Blood Part II and its animated series, Rambo: The Force of Freedom.
The series aired in 1986. It featured John Rambo as a leader of a team of specialists fighting against the fictional terrorist organization S.A.V.A.G.E.
Unlike the popular three and three-quarter-inch figures from Kenner’s Star Wars and Hasbro’s G.I. Joe lines, Coleco opted for larger six-and-one-half-inch articulated figures, packed with realistic weapons and accessories.
The initial Rambo series included twelve action figures, multiple vehicles, and accessories, each detailed with military precision and innovative play features like motorized mechanisms and spring action firing capabilities. Despite a competitive market, Coleco’s Rambo line initially succeeded, but sales waned by 1987 due to the mature themes of the films.
…
As we said, the 1980s and 1990s were a different time. Action figure toy lines were still popular for kids — and the world wasn’t as PC (for right or wrong) as it has become today.
Sure, these days there are toy lines based on R-rated action movies, sci-fi flicks, and horror movies. But they aren’t marketed to children as young as five years old. Instead, they are marketed to adult toy collectors — many of whom also seek out pieces from these very toy lines based on iconic R-rated movies of the 1980s.
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