Kenner Terminator

I feel one of the greatest lines of action figure makers of our time is a great company by the name of Kenner. Most action figure collectors when they think of Kenner think of how they made the Star Wars figures from 70's all the way into the 90's. When I think of Kenner however, I think of their Terminator 2 action figure line from the 90's. It was one of my favorites as a kid growing up, because I was immediately blown away by how awesome the machines looked. The line ran from 1991-1997.

My favorite of the entire line, hands down, is the Techno Punch Terminator.
Here he is holding the gun accessory for the exploding T-1000 Figure
His eyes glow in the light, and you can swivel his hips and made him punch because of the rubber connectors.

Techno Punch Terminator



       
As you can see my original one from my childhood (the one in the middle) is pretty beat up.

They actually released several different waves of these figures throughout the 90's and when Terminator 2 3D came out at Universal Studios, they re-released them again.

Here are some of the cardbacks showing the figures available
This is the first series, as Terminator 2 released in 1991.


A subsequent release with new figures.
 
Even more new figures

Then they released a line of remolds and new figures in 1992 under the name: Terminator 2: Future War


 As a kid I had the Techno Punch Terminator, The Rapid Repair Terminator and the Exploding T-1000 Terminator. When I would always look at these cardbacks back then, I remember wanting the gold Metal Mash Terminator. I didn't get him till a few years ago. These figures are actually very cheap to get a hold of, even new.
Later on in 1997 They released them under the Terminator 2 3D name. Heres a carded pic of one along side a Terminator 2 Battle Ready Terminator.

Heres some from my collection

Endoglow Terminator

Meltdown Terminator

(with a Non-Terminator weapon)

Here's also some pictures of most of my Kenner Terminator collection]

Exploding T-1000

from the Terminator 2 3D Series

           

Techno Punch Terminator from the first series, compared to the Metal Mash Terminator from the Future War Series. Basically a repaint, but it still awesome.
 
The mythology of the Future War series is that the resistance in the future reprogrammed Terminators to fight for them. The numbers and the barcodes on the machines signify they fight for the resistance.

Various molds of the T-800 Endo Skeleton


 




All the machines here

Two more I got from my brother from his childhood collection.




 Other figures to note are the die cast metal Action Masters made by Kenner. They made an exploded T-1000 and a T-800 with a chain gun. These are smaller figures, only about a 3 or 4  inches tall.

I only have the T-800 with the chain gun

  I am only missing a couple from the entire line, such as young John Connor with his motorcycle and a few of the not so great figures such as the Cybergrip Villian and Kromium.

My only gripe is that they should have made a few resistance soldier figures and possibly a grown up John Connor figure. Overall though, the Kenner Terminator line is a great line, and much better than the Terminator Salvation line put out in 2009