Super Naturals

Super Naturals were a holographic toy-line released in 1987 by Tonka. Similar in style to ‘Visionaries: Knights Of The Magical Light‘, which were released the same year, they would also suffer the same fate…cancelled after just one wave of toys.

In the 80’s holograms appeared to be very popular, appearing in numerous toy-lines from Battle Beasts to Visionaries. You would also find them on stickers and in cereal boxes. So affixing a hologram to a toy seemed like a pretty sensible idea for toy manufacturers looking to make easy money.

Unfortunately simply placing a hologram sticker on a toy doesn’t always work out. The Super Naturals toys came and went in the flash of an eye, despite the fact they were pretty solid toys. Not having a TV show or a comic possibly held the toys back, however, Visionaries had both of these things and that toy-line still failed.

The Super Naturals were a range of action figures that featured hollowed out chests and faces. Instead of your standard plastic chest and face a holographic sticker was affixed to the flat surface. Most of which were quite creepy, ghosts, skeletons, basically anything creepy to a child.

Since the toy-line didn’t have a TV show the story of the Super Naturals were told by the back of the toy boxes and small comics that came with each figure.

The basic story behind the toys is a group of Heroic and Evil warriors were sealed in the Tomb of Doom, only to be released hundreds of years later. Now as ghosts, these foes are destined to to do battle once again.

The figure sets were divided between Hero’s and Villains, the Heroic Warriors led by Lionheart and the Evil Warriors led by Skull.  The good vs evil theme was familiar territory for most boys toys, used in all the popular toy-lines at the time such as Transformers, He-Man and Thundercats.

The six main characters were standard-size action figures that came with a glow in the dark weapon and a holographic shield. These figures also had a chest piece and helmet which hide the hologram beneath.

Super Naturals Toys

• Lionheart: Leader of the Heroic Warriors, changes from a king to a powerful lion.
• Eagle Eye: Changes from chief to a soaring eagle.
• Thunder Bolt: Changes from viking to lightning warrior.

• Burnheart: Changes from an evil knight to a fiery spirit.
• Snakebite: Changes from snake charmer to deadly cobra.
• Skull: Changes from a priate to a skeleton with x-ray eye.

As well as these six main characters, a secondary range of eight smaller ‘Ghostling’ characters were released. These were cheaper than the six main characters and therefore more affordable to those parents on a budget.

These ‘Ghostlings’ were similar to the main six figures, minus the legs, in that they featured a body/head hologram. They also all came with a sword, however, none of them had a shield. All eight came in a different colour to make it easy to tell them apart without having to check the hologram.

The Ghostlings were divided into Heroic Ghostlings and Evil Ghostlings.

The top four Heroic Ghostlings are:

• Spooks: Changes from court jester to a ghost.
• Hooter: Changes from a wizard into an owl.
• See-Thru: Changes from a scientist into the invisible man.
• Mr. Lucky: Changes from a magician into a giant rabbit.

The bottom four Evil Ghostlings are:

• Scary Cat: Changes from wicked witch to a hissing cat.
• Weird Wolf: Changes from a weird punk to a teenage wolf.
• Vamp-Pa: Changes from vampire to swooping bat.
• Rags: Changes from Egyptian Pharaoh to a mummy.

All the figures, main characters and Ghostlings, had double channel holograms that looked great in both forms. It was this that really made the toys worth buying. These double channel stickers would drastically transform as you moved the action figure around or looked at them from different angles. The Mr. Lucky hologram, for example, would turn from a magician into a giant rabbit holding a hat, with a tiny version of himself inside the hat.

The creepier transformations generally appeared on the evil side of the toy-line. Skull, for example, would turn from a one-eyed warrior into a putrefied skeleton. The hologram shields mostly consisted of animals or items relating to their characters. Skull, for example, had his missing eye, floating around inside.

Alongside the action figures a playset, vehicles and two flying animals were released.

• Tomb Of Doom:  The Tomb of Doom and playset consisted of a large removable coffin that sat underneath a creepy looking, helmet-clad, skull. The coffin had a “David Copperfield” escape hatch, which would make any figure placed in it, disappear, revealing an otherworldly hologram instead.
• Lion Wings: Lion Wings was a ‘heroic battle creature’ used by the leader of the Heroic Warriors, Lionheart.
• Dark Dragon: Dark Dragon was basically the opposite of Lion Wings, an ‘evil battle beast’ used by Skull.
• Ghost Finder: Ghost Finder was the vehicle used by the Heroic Warriors.
• Bat Bopper: Opposite to the Ghost Finder, used by the Evil Warriors.