Mattel's Food Fighters action figures were some of the coolest toys ever made. They came out in the late 1980's and had only a brief two year run ('88-'89), but they lived on into the early 90's in discount stores thanks to their inexpensive design (I remember getting some of these from the dollar store back in the day!). They were soft rubber toys based on popular food items (like hamburgers, pizza slices, and tacos) with plastic arms and legs. They also wore cute little helmets or hats and came with plastic weapons and backpacks that were removable.
The Food Fighters came in two different factions that were apparently at war with each other - You had the Kitchen Commandos, the good guys who were led by Burgerdier General, and the Refridgerator Rejects, the bad guys, whose leader was The Mean Wiener. The Food Fighters also had vehicles that they could ride in and take out on combat operations which featured fully-functional weaponry.
Due to the short production run and the fact that they weren't backed up by a cartoon series, the Food Fighters never became one of the more popular toys and soon fell into obscurity, but anyone who was lucky enough to own them knows how cool they were and probably has lots of fond memories of these awesome action figures. They featured only limited movement, but the cool back-story behind them and the different looks and personalities of each figure made them really fun to play with for a kid with any amount of imagination. These were my absolute favorite toys as a kid - I would play with them for hours. I had almost all of the figures but never managed to locate The Mean Wiener, who was the rarest of all of them. I had to make due by playing with real hot dogs...
So here's to Mattel's Food Fighters toys, some of the coolest, most memorable action figures ever made. They provided hours of fun to kids everywhere, and were just an awesome concept for toys in general. Let's face it - all of us liked to play with our food as a kid, and The Food Fighters gave us the opportunity to do so without getting in trouble with our parents...
Here's a list of all of the figures and vehicles in the Food Fighters line:
The Kitchen Commandos wore black boots, green clothes, and had red weapons:
Burgerdier General, a cheeseburger (The leader of The Kitchen Commandos)
Major Munch, a donut (available with either a chocolate glaze or a red strawberry glaze)
Lieutenant Legg, a chicken drumstick
Sergeant Scoop, an ice cream cone (available as chocolate ice cream or strawberry sherbet)
Private Pizza, a pepperoni pizza slice
Kitchen Commandos Vehicles:
The Combat Carton, an egg carton with a ketchup bottle cannon
The Fry Chopper, a frying pan helicopter
The Refrigerator play set, the Kitchen Commandos' base (never released)
The Refrigerator Rejects wore brown boots, black clothes, and had blue weapons.
Mean Weener, a hot dog (The leader of The Refrigerator Rejects)
Chip the Ripper, a cookie (available in either chocolate chip or macadamia nut)
Short Stack, a stack of pancakes (available in maple syrup or purple syrup)
Taco Terror, a taco
Fat Frenchy, a box of French fries
Refrigerator Rejects Vehicles:
The BBQ Bomber, a grill with a spatula catapult
Similar toys:
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