Back in 1990 while perusing the toy aisles after work at K-Mart I found a small peg display of boxed figures with the colorful logo of Monster in my Pocket printed on the dark blue box. I picked up a pack and headed for the checkout. When I got home and tore into the box I was immediately taken back to my younger days of finding Trashcan Full of Monsters at my local Toys R Us. That started me on a mad dash to "collect them all".
The actual line released by Matchbox was a line of rubber figures cast in bright colors and depicted famous monsters of Legend, Mythology and Cryptozology, each with an assigned point value for a game that could be played with them and to denote how rare the figures were.
The First Series consisted of:
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| Great Beast |
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| Hydra |
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| Werewolf |
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| Behemoth |
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| Griffin |
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| Tyrannosaurus |
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| Cockatrice |
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| Cyclops |
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| Tengu |
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| Triton |
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| Kraken |
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| Jotun Troll |
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| Monster |
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| Manticore |
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| Karnack |
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| Coatilcue |
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| Bigfoot |
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| Baba Yaga |
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| Kali |
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| Catoblepas |
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| Harpy |
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| Haniver |
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| Hobgoblin |
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| Windigo |
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| Red Cap |
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| Medusa |
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| Goblin |
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| Cerebus |
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| Zombie |
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| Chimera |
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| Ghost |
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| Ogre |
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| Vampire |
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| Roc |
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| Gremlin |
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| Vampiress |
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| Ghoul |
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| Phantom of the Opera |
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| Mad Scientist |
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| Winged Panther |
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| Mummy |
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| Charon |
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| The Beast |
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| Witch |
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| Spring Heeled Jack |
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| Invisible Man |
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| Skeleton |
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| Hunchback |
Series 2 consisted of:
49. Dragon
50. Jabborwock
51. Warlock
52. Ymir
53. Swamp Beast
54. Golem
55. Scorpion Man
56. Loch Ness Monster
57. Tarasque
58. Bishop Fish
59. Herne the Hunter
60. Ancient Gorgon
61. Ectoplasmic Phantom
62. Ganesha
63. Elbow Witch
64. Minotaur
65. Merrow
66. Nuckelavee
67. Spectre
68. Bloody Bones
69. Sebek
70. Dryad
71. Undine
72. Gargoyle
Series 3 monsters came as premiums for three different products. #73-80 were premiums for Nabisco Shreddies in Canada and Bob's Big Boy had a Secret Monster Pack with Series 3 figures #73-80. #81 was a premium for the Nintendo M.I.M.P. game.
73. Leviathan
74. Abominable Snowman
75. Anubis
76. Amphisbaena
77. Centaur
78. Orobas
79. Siren
80. Jimmy Squarefoot
81. Blemmyea
We'll Pick up with Series 4 - Super Scary tomorrow, in the meantime here, suffer the pilot for the unsold Monster in my Pocket cartoon
Despite my love of monsters and being obsessed with Battle Beasts and Z-Bots I never got into this line but I wish I did!
ReplyDeleteSomeone at Matchbox must have cracked open their Dungeons & Dragons manuals for these. There are creatures and beings in these sets that no "normal" toy person would know of otherwise.
I had all of them and ended up getting many duplicates too. My mother sold them all though on eBay years ago.
ReplyDeleteLoved the series.
LOVED these toys. I got into Monsters first before falling into an addiction of Battle Beasts. It was perfect, though, since they were roughly the same scale so I could have them fight each other.
ReplyDeleteOnly thing I wish was that the Monsters had more color detail instead of just one solid, gummy palette.
Yet another toy I loved as a kid! Awesome.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason in my neck of the woods we never received any of the second series! Unless it was hidden at some store that my family didn't know about.
ReplyDeleteI still have quite a few of these little guys running around my toy room!
baba yaga is another name for a witch or black old woman who makes magic in slavic or bulgarian
ReplyDelete