Turbo Tidbits: A Few Things You Absolutely Didn’t Need to Know About ‘Jingle All the Way’
From the real-life version of Turbo Man to those surprisingly effective visuals
Jingle All the Way isn’t one of the great Christmas movies. But it’s fun, and it captures a phenomenon that marked more than one holiday season in the 1990s: the toy craze. In this edition of Power Action!, we’re going to examine a few different aspects of the 1996 Schwarzenegger vehicle—and in particular, its fictional superhero, Turbo Man. Let’s begin with his creation:
Originally called “Turbo Tom,” Turbo Man came from a collaboration between director Brian Levant, producer Chris Columbus, production designer Leslie McDonald, and character designer Tim Flattery. Flattery’s career spans many, many superhero franchises, from helping to conceive the Giger-esque Batmobile in Batman Forever to recent blockbuster fare from Marvel. (He also contributed designs for the penguins with the rocket packs in Batman Returns.)
(By the way, like Turbo Man’s design, the action-filled parade scene toward the end of the movie also brought in superhero movie royalty. Special effects coordinator Jon G. Belyeu had worked on 1991’s cutting-edge The Rocketeer, and Robert Harman, of the original Superman team, knew his way around a solid flying sequence.)
Of course, it’d be a shame if such a great toy design never made it to shelves.
It did do just that, though not on the scale one might expect: A real Turbo Man was made for toy stores that same year, a 13.5-inch figure from Tiger Electronics. Sealed versions currently run around $150-$300 on eBay, and they include his signature accessories, like the “Boomerang Shooter” and his “Rock ’n’ Roller Jet Pack.”
The higher price tag is because it’s rare: Producer Chris Columbus said that only around 200,000 figures were made, despite criticism stating that the film was only made to sell toys. By comparison, a million Tickle Me Elmo dolls were sold that same year, a frenzy that mirrored Turbo Man's battling crowds in the film.
Funko’s eventually made their own version, too, including one close to the movie’s and a few in their known style. However, as one might expect, a Booster figure still hasn’t been made. As Sinbad’s Myron Larabee says to a costumed character: “Nobody likes you, Booster.”
The ties to real toy crazes doesn’t end there, either. That fictional live-action show that opens the movie? The look and feel is borrowed from Power Rangers, and screenwriter Randy Kornfield says part of his inspiration was going out to look for some Rangers toys for his son in previous years. Dementor's henchmen (the “Demon Team”) have a similar color scheme as the Rangers, though their behavior is more akin to the villainous (and very, very dumb) Putty Patrollers.
Power Rangers' dominance in America had arrived three years previous to Jingle All the Way, with FOX Kids’ airing of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Christmastime in both 1993 and 1994 saw shortages of Power Rangers toys. And as Jingle All the Way’s famous Santa-filled factory scene shows, counterfeiting was rampant for the real-life bonanza of getting the Rangers under your tree. Here’s what the real deal looked like:
The 1990s didn’t invent the toy fad, but they did embody this concept. In the years leading up to Jingle All the Way, there were POGs and Beanie Babies and an insanely popular talking doll version of Barney; in years that immediately followed, the Tamagotchi and the Furby arrived. And that’s just a few in the decade’s impressive portfolio.
We might see some toy fads pop up here and there in this century, but we’re not sure things will ever be that … turbo ever again.