If you were a kid who grew up watching 1996's Jingle All The Way, then it's probably a safe bet to say that you wanted a Turbo-Man action figure for yourself. The hottest Christmas toy of the year, Turbo-Man had it all: a jetpack, boomerangs, and a pink cat sidekick...thing. For whatever reason, this toy was the star in every kid's eye in Jingle All The Way. Unfortunately, there's never been a real world version that could rival what kids saw onscreen. However, this might be changing thanks to an ambitious campaign to make real versions of the movie toy.
J.R. DeJesus is running a Kickstarter campaign to make real authentic Turbo-Man action figures. Using 3D scanning technology, DeJesus plans to produce the best version of the toy that there has ever been. He's even gotten the approval of Jingle All The Way director Brian Levant, who donated one of the original props from the film that DeJesus will use as a template. DeJesus promises that his version of the toy will be just as kickass as the one Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad literally almost killed each other (several times) to find.
These Turbo-Man action figures will improve upon the original by adding some features that make toy nerds go nuts: articulation. Yep, the 14 and a half inch figures will have posable limbs that the manufacturers are adding in themselves. The original prop that they are scanning is the "limited edition" version of the parade scene at the end of the film which was only a stationary figure. So, the figures will look exactly like the ones from the movie (gold chrome plating and all) but they'll actually function better. With points of articulation, the Turbo-Man can recreate key motions from the movie like the one below.
The Kickstarter goal is to reach $13,000, and it's looking for 100 backers who can get their own Turbo-Man for a donation of $130 -- which isn't bad considering the price of other collectibles. At the time of this writing, the campaign has exceeded its goal with a total of $14,232 with 102 backers, with 24 days left. Unfortunately, this means that all of the Turbo-Man figures have already been taken, but that doesn't mean that the campaign won't restart if this catches on, so pay attention in the future.
Despite being a perfect opportunity to make some serious green, there has never really been a high-quality Turbo-Man toy before. The closest was a Walmart exclusive version that wouldn't do much to impress any serious toy fanatics. It was real basic, let's just say.
Here's one for the comments section: what movie toy would you most like to own?
