ACTION FIGURES & TOYS
PLAY*DOH FUN FACTORY TIE-IN (1990)
For a limited time Play*Doh put out a special Bill & Ted Fun Kit with
their Fun Factory sets. The Fun Kit included simple pages of games,
puzzles and even a mini-poster! Also produced by Kenner, who would
eventually put out the action figures as well.
OUR RATING??
**Not Bad**
Okay, let's be fair . . . this item was aimed at little, little kids. And for them this would be rather cute and fun. There's no big appeal here for the older fans, except its value as a collector's item and perhaps the non-heinous picture. The puzzles are cute but the drawings are pretty bad. But hey, Play*Doh Fun Factories ARE most outstanding, let's not forget that!
THE KENNER ACTION FIGURES (1991)
To coincide with the release of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Kenner put together a series of Bill & Ted action figures based on the movie Excellent Adventure. These action figures were set up so that if you squeezed the character's legs together they would play the various instruments they could hold. Here are the various figures and accessories which were made available for sale:
Bill S. Preston, Esq. (with guitar)
Ted "Theodore" Logan (with guitar)
Rufus (with keyboards and suitcase)
Genghis Khan (with club, sword and drums)
Billy the Kid (with guitar and lasso)
Abraham Lincoln (with keyboard & pull-off stovepipe hat
to reveal Wyld Stallyns logo and
keyboards)
Death (with scythe and guitar)
Telephone booth (with a snap back receiver
for capturing historical personages . . . you could pull out the phone receiver
and wrap it around a historical figure's arm then press a button on the top of
the booth and the line would snap back, dragging the figure into the
booth. When the line snapped back the antenna on top of the booth would
spin.)
Speaker and cassette set (sold separately to use with figures to make them
play music . . . each action figure had a place in the back where an audio line
could be plugged in. By plugging in the figures to a cassette playing
using this item the characters could be made to play music when their legs were
squeezed together. Music on the cassette was all Bill & Ted-unrelated instrumentals with such titles as Rufus Riff, Rhythm guitar /
Lead guitar, Accidental Chord, etc.
ACTION FIGURES WHICH WERE IN
THE WORKS
BUT NEVER PRODUCED OR RELEASED:
Wyld Stallyns Jam Session Two-Pack - while this item was actually produced it
was not widely distributed or made available to the public. Kenner
apparently did sell their stock to smaller distributors and sellers. The
set
includes Bill &
Ted dolls wearing tuxedos with shorts
(different than individual figures) plus a
speaker and cassette set.
Napoleon (with drums) - pictured on the back of the
Jam Session Two-Pack box, this action figure was never
produced to the best of our knowledge.
Boom Truck with Portable Sound Stage - also pictured on the
back of the am Session Two-Pack box this also never made it
onto the commercial market and was never produced en masse.
Historical Playset - There was only the briefest glimpse of this on an Entertainment
Tonight report about movie merchandise in the year 1991. At a toy
trade show a man was displaying various Bill & Ted items being licensed and
this was among the items, but it was never promoted or shown anywhere
else. The first photo shows a torture chamber with Death presiding, in the
second photo you can see Lincoln sitting in front of some stocks.
Most Excellent Motorcycles - Okay, we don't know where they got this idea
from, but this is another item shown briefly on that Entertainment Tonight report
that never seemed to make it into mass production. Apparently a little
chair could be set up between the two motorcycles, probably so historical
figures could ride between them or be "snatched up."
The bodacious Dr. Kent dude provided us with these images from the Kenner Toy Fair catalogue when the Bill & Ted toys were first offered up to buyers. These have really good photos of the items which were never made available for sale! Most interesting is a talking cruiser which we've never seen mentioned before (according to Dr. Kent, this was simply a refurbished Knight Rider car!) There's also a much better look at the medieval playset! We totally appreciate these pics!
THE UNAIRED KENNER COMMERCIAL
The Bill & Ted action figures were never promoted much, especially not on
television. I'm not aware of any commercials for the figures ever
airing. However, there was a commercial made to promote the
toys. After viewing it one comes to the conclusion it's probably best it
never aired, as the main catch phrase for the ad (and we are NOT kidding) is a
little boy saying enthusiastically "Squeezing their legs gets them
jamming!"
OUR RATING??
**Not bad!**
Sadly these action figures seemed to be a somewhat misguided effort. It's highly unlikely that kids would want to sit around and play with action figures of Bill & Ted . . . they're more apt to want to role-play Bill & Ted themselves! Since the characters are not prone to violence, the traditional action figure play would not apply and I don't know anyone who would want to bother with the trouble of hooking the toys up to their speakers to make them play music (the novelty gets old fast and the figures would essentially be "tied down"). We're not sure what Kenner was thinking of with these toys, but they still remain good collector's items and frankly they do look pretty darn excellent sitting on a shelf, especially if you have the entire band assembled!
BILL & TED HEAD KNOCKER (2002?)
Head Knockers and Bobble Head figures have recently seen a HUGE resurgence in popularity, and companies like NECA are quick to make available the most funky, fashionable and popular characters in this unique format, so we should be wildly happy that none other than our own Ted "Theodore" Logan has been thus immortalized in Head Knocker fashion. Based on Ted from Excellent Adventure, this figure is made completely of painted resin and comes in a box which features the Two Great Ones on their phone booth. We're not sure just how long this has been out on the market, but yours truly has seen it for sale in Suncoast for some time!
OUR RATING??
**Where's Bill!!??**
Honestly, that's our only complaint! It seems beyond belief that a company would think to put out a Ted Head Knocker and not a Bill one! We're hoping that one day NECA will see the error of their ways and partner Ted up with a Bill. Honestly, that's the *only* reason this author didn't buy one!
BOOKS, PUBLICATIONS
& TRADING CARDS
Bill and Ted?s Excellent Adventure characters and images ? & ? 1989, 2003 Creative Licensing Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
