Soon after, an all-out war erupted between the Barnyard Commandos!” Some started driving the tractors around like tanks, others started digging trenches. From the packaging: "After eating some of the grain the Pigs and Sheep started acting kind of funny. These mutant anthropomorphized sheep and pigs were the result of a secret military experiment buried on their farm. The Barnyard Commandos line of “action figures”-non-poseable squeaky-toy pigs and sheep with military armaments on their backs-was produced by Playmates in 1988. Even the figures command decent money-more so if they are still sealed in their original packaging. On today’s secondary market, the Food Fighters have made a resounding comeback, with their peculiar vehicles leading the way: the Kitchen Commandos’ Combat Carton (an egg carton modified into an armored personnel carrier), the Fry Chopper (a frying pan that became a helicopter with spatula blades), and the Refrigerator Rejects’ BBQ Bomber (a barbecue grill that transformed into an armed assault vehicle). These fully poseable “squeaky-toy” action figures (which are filled with air) only lasted for one series of production. But they didn’t react well to the existing product, either. It makes sense that Mattel refused to construct the good guys as health-food characters, since children probably wouldn’t respond to those choices. The bad guys are Mean Weener (a hot dog with mustard), Chip-the-Ripper (a chocolate chip cookie), Fat Frenchy (a sleeve packed with “crinkle-cut” French fries), Short Stack (a stack of pancakes with syrup and butter), and Taco Terror (a hard-shell taco). Joe vehicle.The backstory of the weird and oft-forgotten Food Fighters line of action figures plays out like every '80s toy franchise: The good guys (in this case, the "Kitchen Commandos”) fight the bad guys (“Refrigerator Rejects”) for control of… your refrigerator? The five members of each faction of the Food Fighters line-regardless of whether their affiliation was good or evil-are manifestations of the worst forms of junk food America has to offer: The good guys are Burgerdier General (a deluxe hamburger with ketchup), Lieutenant Legg (a fried chicken leg), Major Munch (a glazed chocolate doughnut), Private Pizza (a slice of pepperoni & mushroom pizza pie), and Sergeant Scoop (a two-scoop chocolate & vanilla ice cream cone). But just looking at the pictures, you could easily mistake it for a proper G.I. I recently acquired one, so we’ll get a better look at this maybe next week. It can fit two 3 3/4-inch figures in the cockpit with a fair amount of space. This Combat Defender Helicopter, based on the McDonnell Douglass LHX Helicopter concept, is one I had never seen during it’s production. Molded in several colors, this woodland one being particularly cool looking, this tank was the closest thing I had to an army builder as a kid, since they were cheap enough to get a few to flank your Mobat. One of my personal favorites was always this processed plastic M60 (Though really M41) Bulldog tank. And as you would expect, there were some larger Tim Mee vehicles that could easily accompany the bigger action figures. Joe, 1:24 scale vehicles with roomy cabins worked as well. Particularly in the early ’80s heyday, there were many 1:18 lines that came and went, and some of these older companies recognized those lines were serving as the “army men” of the era, and starting making larger toys to interact with them. Occasionally, though, you’d find some of those vehicles with an interesting feature: they were big enough for a 3 3/4-inch figure to use.
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