As a toy collector, there’s nothing worse than when a toy company cannot see a line of action figures through to its logical conclusion. You start to purchase the first few figures of what promises to be an entire team of heroes and villains, and suddenly, you’re left with a sparse collection of characters that simply aren’t as relevant without one another.
When Palisades Toys died, they left without completing two members of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which only has three members to begin with. Ren and Stimpy would never meet Sven Hoek, George Liquor, or any of the other great characters from their show. I sold off all of my Heroes toys when Mezco gave up on the show without ever producing an Ando, and my Sideshow Lord of the Rings 12” figures are headed there too, without a Gimli to complete the Fellowship.
Still, there are a few really great lines out there which have been carried out smartly, in a timely manner, and without breaking the companies that produced them, and leaving very few characters to be desired.
1. Palisades’ Toys ‘The Muppet Show’
While Palisades halted business unexpectedly many years ago, they had already managed to crank out over fifty Muppets action figures from the classic television show, as well as a few more characters who came to prominence in the later Muppets films, leaving very, very few figures to be desired. The line even included a ‘Muppet-ized’ figure of Jim Henson himself, as he appeared a few times. If you have a favorite Muppet, it’s likely that they’re in here.
The crowning achievement of the entire series is undoubtedly the Kitchen Playset, which has more working doors, drawers, cabinets and little storage areas than you can count. It’s huge, and it’s probably one of the best playsets of all time. The rarest pieces from this collection are the huge Backstage Playset, and some exclusive variants of figures which were given out during industry only events and a wedding.
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2. Playmates’ ‘World of Springfield’
With over 160 figures (about 21 of them being Homer in various states of being), this is another set that 
addresses every single character that you could possibly care about from the prime years of the TV show.
This line includes the only Stephen Hawking action figure you’ll ever see, a Simpsons-styled Lucy Lawless, and a man dressed like a bumblebee. To top it all off, a series of playsets allow you to plug each figure into electronic pegs to hear phrases from the show, exclusive to each character – essentially acting as a key to unlock secret features.
Early on, the Toys ‘R’ Us exclusive ‘Treehouse of Horror’ playsets were considered rare, though the later waves of figures and playsets tend to fetch slightly higher prices now, especially the final playset, ‘Town Square’, which runs about $160. By this time, interest in the show was flagging slightly and many people who actively collected the line weren’t as into the 15th Bart figure anymore.
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3. Hasbro’s Star Wars
No line is more notorious for making every possible character into an action figure. After all, Star Wars launched the 3 3/4” action figure scale back in 1978. The main cast of characters have seen dozens of iterations each, and almost any alien that’s appeared on the screen for a millisecond has been immortalized. Characters that have appeared in the comics, the books, and that Ralph McQuarrie found in his sketchbooks have all been made into figures. Once we got Yarna D’al Gargan, the 
overweight dancer from Jabba’s Palace, we pretty much had everything we could ever want. Hasbro even runs regular polls to figure out who the fans want next.
Unfortunately, we’ll never see the Tonnika Sisters from the Cantina on Tatooine. While Hasbro hasn’t really officially released the reason why, it’s widely rumored that one of the actresses who played the character is demanding an outlandish amount of money before she allows them to release anything in her image. In the meantime, we get Willrow Hood, the alien dude who’s walking around with an ice cream maker.
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There are other lines which have done fairly well, but died an early death. Marvel Legends will never release a full set of Inhumans, and JLU is still plugging away at hypothetical characters who never actually appeared on the television show instead of addressing those who have actually been seen.
It can be expensive to wait until a line of action figures proves that it can stand up by itself and play catch-up with the earlier figures later on – but it can be equally expensive to invest in a line that folds and renders your incomplete set worthless. Buy what you love and hope for the best.
