The Hulk Complains About His Action Figure's Accessories

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Jun 30, 2019

In their latest look at creators talking about comics (or comic-related media), CSBG sees the Hulk complain about his action figure's accessories!

In Meta-Messages, I explore the context behind (using reader danjack's term) "meta-messages." A meta-message is where a comic book creator comments on/references the work of another comic book/comic book creator (or sometimes even themselves) in their comic. Each time around, I'll give you the context behind one such "meta-message."

Today, we look at the Hulk complaining about the accessories that came with his action figure.

As you may or may not know, in 1990, the toy company known as ToyBiz decided to license Marvel Comics characters for a line of action figures. This was the first new line of company-wide action figures for the market since DC and Marvel both had action figures out in the early 1980s with the Super Powers and Secret Wars figures, respectively. The difference here, though, was that ToyBiz was a small enough company (that were lucky that no one was doing much comic book licensing in the late 1980s, so that the license was available period) that they could devote themselves to the product a bit more than the big companies did, as the Marvel license was essentially their bread and butter (not that Kenner was ignoring their blockbuster Batman toy line, of course, but the Batman toy line wasn't, like, the entire company, ya know?).

These early toys were still pretty rudimentary, but ToyBiz soon improved, just in time for the X-Men Animated Series to cause an explosion of popularity in their action figures. Things got so big that Marvel actually purchased part of ToyBiz itself. Hilariously enough, during bankruptcy proceedings later in the decade, ToyBiz's owners ended up taking over Marvel!

Anyhow, here are some of the early toys.

Captain America, with a shield launcher...

Silver Surfer with a roller surfboard...

Punisher with cap gun guns (imagine trying to sell something that on the mass kids market nowadays)...

and the Hulk, who could "bend" metal and toss a giant boulder...

In case you're unfamiliar with the classic Charlie Brown Halloween special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, there's a scene where all of the kids get together to compare their spoils from trick or treating...

Charlie Brown, however, did not fare as well. While the others got candy, he incredulously noted, "I got a rock."

Peter David then hilariously used the Charlie Brown special as he basis for a clever gag in Incredible Hulk Annual #17 (art by Ron Wagner and Mike Witherby), where the Hulk is playing with the toys...