I can't remember if Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was any good, because I only saw it once, in theaters, on some long ago Saturday afternoon with friends I haven't talked to in years. The theater was virtually empty for some reason, giving mah crew carte blanche to just roast the holy hell out of whatever was happening onscreen. As I recall, taunts thrown at Azeem were prevalent. We left early and went bowling.
What I do remember are all of the foolhardy attempts to turn the film into a full-on kiddy franchise, with action figures and games and all sorts of stuff that nobody wanted. I know the effort has to be made, because hey, the fact that some of these flicks find funding often has as much to do with promises of earnings from things other than ticket sales than the actual ticket sales. Still, in a sea of Ninja Turtles and the like, who the fuck wanted Robin Hood?
It's almost unfortunate, because Kenner's collection of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves toys very surprisingly did not suck. The action figures were well detailed, and came with so many cool accessories that you halfway forgot that you didn't give a shit about the characters. Best of all, though, was the "Sherwood Forest" playset. Why? Because it was a remodeled Star Wars "Ewok Village." THE Ewok Village. The toy I would've moved into if I was small enough. "Sherwood Forest" used the same exact mold -- it had the three trees, the platform...everything. Even the swinging rock and the capture net. The only real difference was the addition of plastic foliage to the formerly bare trees, but in some ways, that was an improvement to an already perfect toy.
I guess what I'm getting at is, I wish I held anything besides apathy for Robin Hood in the early '90s, because this was an awesome revival. Click here to download the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Kenner toy commercial, starring a few nobodies and an Ewok Village in new clothes.
EDIT: Invader Norbert's comment turns this into a survey: Name a movie or two that never got its own toy line, but should've. And what would the toys be?
Posted by Matt on 08/13/2006. E-mail me!
Chestnuts roasted by 
Oh, the mentions of Gummi Bears reminds me that I would enter a lion cage wearing a wildebeest suit for a Duke Igthorn action figure with Kickable Toadie and a working catapult. Boss.
Also, back in ’93 or so there was one of the most un-PC cartoons I’ve seen here in Sweden. Some kids looking at skeleton-like plastic figures on their table at the hamburger joint, with the caption:
"The Happy Meal toys from Schindler’s List weren’t as fun as the ones from Jurassic Park."
Tasteless, but wouldn’t you have mud-wrestled a circus dwarf just to see McDonald’s marketing them?
BTW, there never were any "Home on the Range" happy meals, right? Why was that, pray tell?