In the early 90s Kenner decided that they needed to cash in on the Terminator franchise the only way they knew how, by making toys based on the sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I skipped the entire line at the time, because I found the figures massively disappointing overall, but it did have it’s high points. Unarguably the strangest item in the Terminator toy line up, and perhaps in any toy line period, is the Bio-Flesh generator:
The idea of a toy that can make skin is something out a nightmare, but here it is. While it’s certainly in the realm of other toys that involve pouring something gross on action figures like the Masters of the Universe Slime, it occupies a peculiar place in toy history.
Did anyone have this thing? Was the skin even half way realistic? And more importantly was it edible?
I’m willing to argue with anyone that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the high water mark of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film career. Between his performance as the cybernetic villain in the first film and the 1991 sequel, he’d become an international superstar with a string of hits including Commando, Predator, Twins, and Total Recall. After T2, Schwarzenegger would veer between serviceable action flicks (True Lies, Eraser, Terminator 3) and bombs (Last Action Hero, Batman & Robin) before giving up acting for the lesser stress of governing the world’s fifth-largest economy. But none of the post-T2 films came close to matching that same mixture of action, storytelling, and good old fun.