'Beetlejuice 2' Is Coming Next Year. Will There Be a Sequel to the Classic Toyline, Too?
(Yes. Power Action! is back. Sorry for the months-long sabbatical.)
Betelgeuse is returning to the screen in 2024, with Burton, Keaton, Ryder, and O'Hara in tow. We’ll surely be talking more about that in the coming months, but my most burning question isn’t about the film’s plot: I want to know if we’re going to get new figures in the style of those late-1980s beauties from Kenner (shown above). Recent TMNT (Playmates), Jurassic Park (Mattel), and Ghostbusters (Hasbro/Kenner Classics) products prove that the market is primed for throwback, Kenner-packaged figures, whether you’re recreating the exact same molds or just evoking vintage style.
Maybe you don’t remember the line? Well, Power Action! is here to jog your memory. In this edition, we’re going to count down our 5 favorite figures and vehicles from Kenner, which produced toys based on the film between 1989 and 1990.
5. Phantom Flyer Vehicle
The Phantom Flyer was versatile. Those neat green fins in the back? Fold them down, and now you have an aerial vehicle. As stated on the packaging above, the teeth on the skull at the front of the bike “chatter” when the wheel turns. That, paired with a “wheel bomb” and front claws, sneak this spooky vehicle onto “best of” lists for this era.
4. Showtime Beetlejuice
Removable heads weren’t exactly cutting-edge in the late 1980s, but the Beetlejuice line did it better than anyone. Underneath Showtime Beetlejuice’s head is a "jump-out snake head" that beautifully mimics the gross-out scares of the film. The Rotten Rattler accessory was a wonderfully upsetting add-on, too.
3. Gross Out Meter
"Get A Reading On Those Gross People In Your Neighborhood And Zap 'Em With The Flying Bug!" The packaging for this accessory offers this mission statement from the man himself. Place it on a sibling's wrist to see his or her reading, and if they’re "Really Gross," flip a switch to zap them with the flying bug.
2. Vanishing Vault Playset
The promo speaks for itself.
1. Spinhead Beetlejuice
Here it is: the true icon of the line. Decked out in his wedding tux, you can turn the wheel on Beetlejuice's back to make his head spin. And when you take off this head, you get the creepiest feature of all: a tiny Beetlejuice head that evokes one of the film’s most famous scenes.