PODCAST · leisure
Mutagen Men Toycast
by The Mutagen Men
The MUTAGEN MEN explore the toys of the past, present, and future. We are:Eric "Toys and Tomfoolery" SetzkeDustin "The Dragon Fortress" VerburgLuke "Video Dracula" Jones
Episodes
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Episode 057: Lego Rock Raiders
Welcome aboard the LMS Explorer! Today we discuss one of the most beloved Lego themes of all time: Rock Raiders! Released in 1999 as one of the last classic space themes, the line featured a team of gritty space adventurers mining for energy crystals on alien worlds. Despite being a short-lived...
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Episode 056: Transformers Action Masters
Action Masters! Perhaps the most infamous gimmick in Transformers history, the year 1990 brought a line of Transformers...that didn't transform! Preceding the cancellation of the venerable toyline in the United States, these G.I. Joe-sized Autobots and Decepticons were highly articulated and came...
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Episode 055: Masters of the Universe Masterverse
Revelation! Revolution! New Eternia! And more! In the early 2020s Mattel launched its first-ever mass-retail collector-oriented, highly articulated line of action figures based on the beloved Masters of the Universe property. Starting out as a tie-in with the concurrent Netflix "Revelation"...
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Episode 054: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero 15th Anniversary (1997)
In 1997, Hasbro for the first time revived their beloved 1980s reboot of G.I. Joe for its 15th anniversary...and all hell broke loose! Well, kind of. The 1997-1998 revival of the Joe team and their rambunctious rivals, Cobra, saw the O-ring figures make a brief return (and only in Toys "R" Us)....
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Episode 053: War Planets
It's time for more micro-playset mayhem! What if you could play with an entire planet? Well, in 1998 Trendmasters attempted to answer that question with their line of battling cosmic bodies, known north of the border and on television as Shadow Raiders. Each themed fortress planet and moon was...
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Episode 052: Super7 ReAction+
It's 2026 and O-rings are back! After years of producing action figures that use classic Kenner-style 5 points of articulation, Super7's ReAction Figures line has evolved. No longer constrained to simple standing poses, ReAction Figures now move like G.I. Joe. We explore Super7's treatment of...
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Episode 051: Blokees
Is it gambling, or is it toys? Are they still Transformers if they don't transform? And what the heck is a blokee, anyway? In today's episode we unravel the mysteries of the mini-model mania gripping the world of licensed action figures in the 2020s, diving deep into the world of China's Blokees...
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Episode 050: Our Favorite Toys with Special Guest Jake
Our 50th episode! Today we bring back the ever-popular Jake Setzke, the Funny Prince himself, to talk about five of our favorite toys from each of our collections. From Transformers to Masters of the Universe to Exosquad and beyond, this special extra-long episode covers nearly every corner of…
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Episode 049: Robotech
Launch all Valkyries! In this week's episode of Mutagen Men we climb aboard the SDF-1 to face down the Zentraedi and the other marauding aliens facing the world of Robotech, which featured a mashup of three different classic mecha anime TV series. Airing in the 1980s and later on Toonami in the...
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Episode 048: Zoids
Build, customize, and mobilize! In today's Mutagen Men we travel to the distant Planet Zi, a world of mechanical life-forms known as Zoids, machine-like animals modified into piloted war machines. Dating back to the 1980s, Tomy and other companies have been producing Zoids model kits near...
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Episode 047: More Glyos
Welcome back to the world of indie toys! In today's return to the boundless rabbit hole of the Glyos System Series, we explore one of its largest realms: SpyMonkey Creation's Battle Tribes, and its spin-off series, ManOrMonster Studio's Warlords of Wor. These lines feature miniature fantasy and...
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Episode 46: All About Teela
Mattel's Masters of the Universe toyline is full of colorful characters with fantastic powers and incredible action features. One of the oldest is Teela, the warrior goddess, sorceress, barbarian warrior, and only female figure in the first wave of toys. Teela appears in nearly every iteration of...
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Episode 045: Transformers Micromasters
Micro size has the power to surprise! Today we journey to the twilight years of Hasbro's classic Transformers toyline, when Hasbro was struggling to boost a waning audience with lots of new ideas. In 1989, one of those new ideas was Micromasters: a subline of tiny Transformers scaled to compete...
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Episode 044: Mega Man Toys
Get equipped with mutagen! It's time for another look into the history of video game tie-in toylines, now featuring everyone's favorite super fighting robot, the blue bomber himself: Mega Man. We discuss our personal histories with this long-running game series and dive into several toylines...
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Episode 043: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Strap in and journey with us to the year 2009 when Paramount and Hasbro released the first of several barely-remembered live-action G.I. Joe films: The Rise of Cobra! While the movie is perhaps best left in 2009, the accompanying toyline remains one of the best of the property's long and storied...
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Episode 042: Jurassic Park
One of the biggest blockbusters of the 1990s, Jurassic Park was a media extravaganza, featuring tie-in comics, games, and of course, toys. The classic Kenner JP line is deservedly beloved, featuring four-inch renditions of the famous movie characters as well as a legion of articulated dinosaur...
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Episode 041: Mighty Max
By popular demand, we're kicking off season three with one of the greatest toylines of the 1990s: MIGHTY MAX! Billed as "Polly Pocket for boys," Mighty Max featured tiny, palm-sized playsets called "DOOM ZONES" filled with all manner of monsters, robots, demons, and aliens. Highly inventive…
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Episode 040: Hobby Burnout
Have you ever burnt out on a hobby? Rising prices, completionism, fandom drama, and other factors can wear down the fun factor of the hobbies we love. In the final episode of Mutagen Men Season 2, we discuss times we've burnt out on our hobbies, how it happened, how we recovered, and how we take...
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Episode 039: More X-Men
We return to one of our earlier topics: the Uncanny X-Men! We dive back into the Toy Biz and Marvel Legends world to discuss the X-Men movies, X-Men '97, X-Force, and the many, many action figures that spun out of these beloved properties. Join us for a discussion of Marvelous proportions!...
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Episode 038: All About Starscream
"Conquest is made of the ashes of one's enemies!" Who said it? That's right, Starscream, the original Decepticon air commander and one of the most famous and popular Transformers of all time. Today we explore the early history of Megatron's screechy lieutenant and several of the toys that…
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Episode 037: Kenner Aliens
SEND IN THE MARINES! It's time to head back into space and explore another R-Rated film franchise with a bestselling children's toyline from the 20th century! This time, we explore Kenner's beloved Aliens toyline of the early 1990s, which featured a menagerie of xenomorph designs original to the...
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Episode 036: GoBots
Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles! In today's episode we explore GoBots, one of the most famous competitors to Transformers in the 1980s. Though it was often treated as a knock-off of Hasbro's famous and long-lived toyline, GoBots arrived first. We discuss what gives this line its reputation and...
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Episode 035: Playmates Star Trek
Today, the Mutagen Men seek strange new worlds on the edge of settled space! Welcome back to the 1990s, where toy aisles were overflowing with Kirks, Spocks, Picards, Borgs, Ferenghi, and many more 5" citizens of the galaxy, all competing for space in your toy collection. We beam ourselves up to...
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Episode 034: Dragon Ball Z with SECRET Special Guest!
NEXT TIME ON DRAGON BALL Z: The Z fighters are faced with their greatest challenge yet - finding good action figures of themselves! Join us as we talk about one of the most legendary manga and anime series of all time, and its rocky road to producing articulated toys of Goku, Vegeta, Frieza…
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Episode 033: Microman
Welcome to Micro-Earth! In today's episode we journey back to 1975 to explore one of the greatest Japanese toylines in history: MICROMAN. We explore the tangled, interconnected pathways of G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Micronauts as they intersect with the world of the Spy Magicians, the Acroyears,...
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Episode 032: Toy Biz Spider-Man
It's time for more Toy Biz! We return to the 90s to explore the spiritual successor to Toy Biz's smash hit X-Men line, the Spider-Man line which tied in with the similarly beloved animated series. Grab your favorite Spidey and get ready to battle Venom, Carnage, Doc Ock, Smythe, Kingpin, and a...
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Episode 031: Masters of the Universe (1982)
We're going back to the 80s this week to visit perhaps the most iconic toyline of the decade, Masters of the Universe! We share our childhood memories of playing with He-Man, Skeletor, Moss Man, Tung Lashor, and all the other weird denizens of Eternia and Etheria scavenged from friends and…
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Episode 030: Toy Industry Talk With Special Guest Jesse DeStasio
We welcome a new guest onto the show: industry veteran and indie toy rock star Jesse DeStasio! Jesse is an artist, musician, and videographer, but in the hobby he's known as the co-creator and co-host of Toy Pizza YouTube channel as well as the co-creator of and mastermind behind Knights of the...
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Episode 029: Return to Lego Space
We just couldn't help it! With Lego Space making waves in 2024, we had to return to our favorite classic Lego theme, warping to the end of the golden age of the classic themes in the late 90s, the rise of Star Wars, and the intermediate return of the theme throughout the 2000s and the 2010s. We...
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Episode 028: Kenner's the Real Ghostbusters
WHO YA GONNA CALL? By popular demand, the Mutagen Men strap on their proton packs to bust all the Dracula Monsters, Eye-Poppin' Ghosts, and Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men in New York City. Kenner's The Real Ghostbusters was one of the most beloved licensed toylines of the 1980s, featuring both a range...
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Episode 027: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
It's time to get rocked with the shell-shocked pizza kings! In our second dive into the world of the Ninja Turtles, we visit the CGI New York City of 2012-2017 and feature one of the longest-running Playmates TMNT lines since the original 1980s series. One of the best iterations of green machine...
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Episode 026: All About Roadblock
It's time to return to the world of G.I. Joe with a new style of episode! This week we focus in on a single character: the G.I. Joe Team's most famous heavy machine gunner and gourmet chef, Roadblock. We start with his debut in 1984, and proceed through the 90s with each version of Roadblock seen...
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Episode 025: Transformers Generation 2
THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER'S AUTOBOT! The Mutagen Men return to war-torn Cybertron to discuss the age of the neon Megatron, the talking Optimus, the chrome Bumblebee, and the birth the ball joint. Transformers Generation 2 has the reputation of a lost chapter, a quickly-cancelled failure swept aside...
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Episode 024: Batman (1989)
Where does he get all those wonderful toys? In our first exploration of toys from the DC Comics universe, we visit Gotham city by way of Tim Burton, Toy Biz, and Kenner. We start with Toy Biz's abortive attempt at Batman action figures and continue into the early Kenner era with their immortal…
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Episode 023: Z-Bots
Galoob's Z-Bots were one of the many Micro Machine-adjacent lines that took over toy aisles in the 1990s. This line featured dozens and dozens of vibrantly colorful fighting robots that featured claws, teeth, wings, guns, missiles, and nearly everything else you could imagine. We shrink ourselves...
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Episode 022: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
In 1993, the Super Sentai phenomenon teleported to the U.S.A. in the form of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, transforming the landscape of children's television, and, of course, the toy aisles, forever. In today's episode we talk about how Zordon morphed our childhood in radical ways through...
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Episode 021 Toy Biz Marvel Legends With Special Guest Dan Larson
Dan Larson of Secret Galaxy joins us as we time travel back to the genesis of the 1/12 scale action figure craze and revisit Toy Biz's original Marvel Legends line. Before HasLabs, before the MCU, before build-a-figures, there was a humble toyline that dared to dream of a world where...
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Episode 020: LEGO Space
AT LAST: LEGO Space, the episode we barely kept ourselves from recording back when we first featured LEGO in episode #08! We trace the history of our favorite LEGO theme from its origins in the early 1980s and on through the early 2000s, when the theme was gradually replaced by Star Wars. We…
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Episode 019: EXO Squad
Playmates' EXO Squad was one of the premier obscure toylines of the 1990s, featuring intensely detailed mech suits with highly articulated pilot action figures and a groundbreaking tie-in animated series. Today the Mutagen Men join the EXO Fleet, jack into our E-Frames, and dive into the epic…
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Episode 018: Super7 ReAction Figures
In 2013, Super7 pioneered the ReAction figure as an homage to the classic Kenner toys of the 70s and 80s. A decade later, the series includes characters from nearly every corner of pop culture and media history. In today's episode the Mutagen Men try to unravel the mystery of why these little…
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Episode 017: Kenner Terminator 2
COME WITH US IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! Kenner's Terminator 2 toyline was one of many toylines released in the 80s and 90s based on an R-rated film property and it was easily one of the best. Join us as we fight off an army of endoskeletons, T-1000s, and other strange beings from the mad minds at…
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Episode 016: Beast Machines
We are...transformed! For our second look into the vast world of Transformers we visit Cybertron after Megatron's cyber-plague decimated the planet. The streets crawl with his army of mindless Vehicons. Can the confused and disorganized Maximals break Megatron's iron grip on their homeworld?…
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Episode 015: G.I. Joe New Sculpt Era
In 2002, Hasbro reinvented the classic G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line for the new millennium, re-introducing classic 1980s characters like Duke, Snake Eyes, and Cobra Commander with brand-new designs. The figures of what became known as the "new sculpt era" featured awkward proportions and...
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Episode 014: Masters of the WWE Universe
Step into the ring with the Mutagen Men for our first (and likely only) coverage of the wild world of pro wrestling toys! Mattel's Masters of the WWE Universe was one of our favorite toylines of the last several years, mashing up WWE wrestlers with the theme and style of Masters of the Universe....
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Episode 013: XEVOZ
In 2003 Hasbro unleashed XEVOZ, a mix-and-match action figure line featuring skeletons, androids, ninjas, insects, werewolves, elementals, and much more. Toy collectors raved about the line's endless creativity. It barely managed to last four waves. In this week's episode we explore the many...
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Episode 012: Star Wars Power of the Force 2
Star Wars has been a staple of the toy aisles since 1978 but it may surprise that there were some years since where the presence of Luke, Vader, Han, Leia, and the rest of the inhabitants of the galaxy far, far away were absent in plastic form. Those years cross with the childhoods of the Mutagen...
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Episode 011: Gundam Mobile Suit in Action!!
Gundam Wing first hit U.S. airwaves just behind the other titans of the late 90s anime boom and with it came an onslaught of plastic merchandise, not the least of which were the imports of Bandai's 4.5-inch scale Mobile Suit in Action!! figures. Two out of three Mutagen Men collected this line...
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Episode 010: G.I. Joe Sigma Six
G.I. Joe Sigma Six was a controversial toyline that sized up Hasbro's popular military action figures and outfitted them with huge multifunction loadouts, cloth clothes, and buckets of style. Many fans ignored it at the time for its massive overhaul of the classic Joe look. This week we celebrate...
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Episode 009: Transformers Energon
For our first-ever episode on Hasbro's long-lived toyline starring a race of autonomous robotic organisms, we start with one of the least-loved and most overlooked lines of all its history. Transformers Energon featured gimmicks pulled willy-nilly from all over Transformers' timeline. It was a...
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Episode 008: Lego Castle
Our first foray into Lego begins with the venerable Castle theme, a theme full of dragons, wizards, skeletons, ghosts, knights, and even the occasional vampire. We start with the pre-minifigure Castle sets and traverse its history from a 1970s Weetabix promotional item through to the extreme 90s...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Mutagen Men Toycast have?
Mutagen Men Toycast currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Mutagen Men Toycast about?
The MUTAGEN MEN explore the toys of the past, present, and future. We are:Eric "Toys and Tomfoolery" SetzkeDustin "The Dragon Fortress" VerburgLuke "Video Dracula" Jones
How often does Mutagen Men Toycast release new episodes?
Mutagen Men Toycast has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Mutagen Men Toycast?
You can listen to Mutagen Men Toycast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Mutagen Men Toycast?
Mutagen Men Toycast is created and hosted by The Mutagen Men.
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