Kenner's 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' Figures: A Recycling Masterclass
Revisiting a 33-year-old toyline
Kenner certainly didn’t invent reusing old, unrelated toy molds to make new action figures for new properties. But in its toyline for the Kevin Costner-led film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the company’s designers showed unparalleled ingenuity in their approach to taking a few previous lines and creating magic befitting of the 2nd-highest-grossing film of 1991. (By the way, Kenner also made toys for No. 1 on that list: Terminator 2: Judgment Day.)
The most famous examples of what I'm talking about are the accessories for Robin Hood, as well as one character, being pulled from the Return of the Jedi and Power of the Force Star Wars lines. This includes the biggest one: the Sherwood Forest Playset, which was a remix of Ewok Village.
Compare the above ad to the Ewok Village image from eBay below:
All they needed was some greenery, spear launchers, some nets, and a new paint job to make a wonderful set. Likewise, an Ewok Battle Wagon became a … Battle Wagon … for Robin’s merry band:
But the most fun Star Wars tidbit is how a Gamorrean Guard became Friar Tuck—but you’d only notice if you lifted the good friar’s robe:
All of this is wonderful, but you may have seen some of that floating around toy-centered social media over the past few years. What I don’t hear folks talking as much is how the DC Super Powers toys were the primary ancestors of Robin Hood figures. New (great!) head sculpts appear throughout the Prince of Thieves line, but all of the bodies are borrowed.
Of all DC heroes, who do you think makes the most sense to turn into a Robin Hood? Yes, you guessed it: The Green Arrow’s body was used for variations of Robin. Using all eBay images below, let’s take a look:
And then, some Robins, who even have the dang “G” on their belts, with reworked legs:
Meanwhile, the Sheriff of Nottingham’s body is based on Lex Luthor, and Will Scarlett has Robin's torso and Desaad's legs:
There are others, too. All of these moves were masked, by the way, with fantastic and unique accessories for all of the figures:
I realized recently that my love of music sampling (bolstered by podcasts like the wonderful One Song by Diallo Riddle & Luxxury) dovetails with my adoration of what’s happening here in what I call “an action figure genealogy.” Kenner may have initially decided to do this to save a buck, but just like dissecting a great MF DOOM track, one piece of work contains multiple components in conservation with each other.