1987’s Super Naturals from Tonka

Tonka launched the Super Naturals toy line with a large hologram display at the 1987 New York Toy Show. Super Naturals was a 1980’s toy line that used holographic technology. Other toy lines that used this technology was Hasbro’s Visionaries and Battle Beasts.

HEROIC & EVIL WARRIORS

The Warrior figures had holographic images on both the upper body and shield accessories. Each figure also had glow in the dark weaponry. The expressions on the faces would change depending on the angle in which you looked at the figure.

Heroic Warriors:

• Eagle-Eye (Native American War-Chief; Soaring Eagle) ^[1]
  • WEAPONS: Spear; Eagle-shield
  • POWER: Sees into the future
• Lionheart (Medieval King; Powerful Lion) ^[1]
  • WEAPONS: Sword; Lion-shield
  • POWER: Fierce strength
• Thunderbolt (Viking Overlord; Lightning Spirit) ^[1]
  • WEAPONS: Hammer; Shield of Lightning
  • POWER: Controls thunderstorms

Evil Warriors:

• Burnheart (Medieval Knight; Fiery Spirit) ^[1]
  • WEAPONS: Flamethrower; Shield of Fire
  • POWER: Controls fire
• Skull (Pirate Captain; Skeleton with X-ray Eye) ^[1]
  • WEAPONS: Mace; Shield of Vision
  • POWER: Sees through anything
• Snakebite (Snake-Charmer; Deadly Cobra) ^[1]
  • WEAPONS: Cobra-staff; Snake-shield
  • POWER: Hypnotism

Heroic Leader Lionheart

Evil Leader Skull

GHOSTLING WARRIORS

The Ghostling Warriors had the same holographic features as the Warriors figures, but they were just in a smaller scale. The weapons for the Ghostlings were swords.

Heroic Ghostlings:

• Hooter (Wise old owl-wizard) ^[1]
  • POWER: Night-sight
• Mr. Lucky (Illusionist; Giant rabbit) ^[1]
  • POWER: Magic
• See-Thru (Transparent scientist) ^[1]
  • POWER: Invisibility
• Spooks (Silly court jester) ^[1]
  • POWER: Walks through walls

Evil Ghostlings:

• Rags (Ragged Egyptian mummy) ^[1]
  • POWER: Wraps up victims
• Scary-Cat (Hissing cat-witch) ^[1]
  • POWER: Casts spells
• Vamp-Pa (Swooping vampire-bat) ^[1]
  • POWER: Night-flight
• Weird Wolf (Teenage wolf-punk) ^[1]
  • POWER: Screeching sound

Heroic Ghostling Hooter

Evil Ghostling Vamp-Pa

VEHICLES&PLAY SETS

Like most toylines in the 80s, Super Naturals also had their share of vehicles and playsets. The line consisted of 2 heroic vehicles and 2 evil vehicles and had 1 playset.

• Bat Bopper (Evil) ^[1]
• Dark Dragon (Evil) ^[1]
• Ghost Finder (Heroic) ^[1]
• Lion Wings (Heroic) ^[1]
• Tomb of Doom^[1]

SUPER NATURALS COMIC BOOK

The Super Naturals toy line also had a comic book to go with the action figures. The toy lines back story was explained on the toy packaging and a pack in mini comic. The comic series only ran for 9 issues that ran from October 31, 1987 through March 4, 1988.

THE END OF SUPER NATURALS

Overall, the Super Naturals was a financial failure for Tonka. The toyline had only one wave of figures, and the comic was also cancelled just after 9 issues. Even though this was not a popular toy line, I still think the holographic feature along with glow in the dark weaponry was a pretty cool gimmick.