Due to the fact that Season 3 was not initially aired in the US, no toy line/action figures were produced in order to tie in with the season. However, Mainframe did send Irwin a showreel with a variety of characters from the upcoming season to potentially be made into figures. This interestingly features an early model of Matrix and AndrAIa, with Matrix sporting a spray painted 'M' on his chest. This was actually included in a shot in 'Showdown'.
Irwin did make prototypes for a line of toys with an interesting choice of characters including Matrix, AndrAIa and Mouse as well as characters who were set to only appear in one episode such as Zaytan (from Game Over), Rocky the Rabid Raccoon (from 'Between a Raccoon and a Hard Place) and Powerlock (from Where No Sprite Has Gone Before).
Then in 2001, with ReBoot set to be aired on heavy rotation on Cartoon Network, Irwin then planned a massive toy line with various waves of toys and figures. Sadly, this ended up getting cut down drastically after Cartoon Network's schedule for ReBoot was cut down, leading to the toy retailers losing interest in stocking the toy line. As the toy line was already so far along, they could only cut back a certain amount, which lead to Irwin going bankrupt.
This is a massive shame, as this line of toys are probably some of the best ReBoot toys ever produced. For these toys, Mainframe would send the data for the characters directly to Irwin, and that data would then be used to create the toys, meaning that the toys were more screen accurate than previous figures made by Irwin. The first wave of figures was the most common, consisting of Matrix, Megabyte, AndrAIa, Commander Dot, and Glitch Bob. While these figures look great and are very detailed, the characters had limited arm articulation.
The second wave of figures saw a much more limited release, supposedly only being released in Canada. These figures tend to be sold for quite a high sum on the rare occasions they end up on eBay. This wave of figures is based around the Web arc of Season 3, and consisted of Web Matrix, Web Bob, Ray Tracer, a Web Rider, and Captain Capacitor. Capacitor is particularly rare, and supposedly only three Capacitor figures exist. It's an interesting figure as the skull and crossbones on his hat is upside down for some reason.
One vehicle was produced for this line, that being the Exo Skeleton. This used the same mould as the Exo Skeleton toy released for Season 2, but was coloured orange rather than yellow. It also came with an exclusive AndrAIa figure who was practically the same as the standard figure but with slightly different colours.
There was also a pack of binome figures released called the 'Bucket of Binomes'. This came with four binome figures (Specky, the prospector from Between a Raccoon and a Hard Place, Cyrus, and Lieutenant Chauncy) that had interchangeable sections that could be detached and reattached in order to create new and unique binome characters. A second binome pack was shown on the back of the box, but this second pack was never released.
Two small vehicles were produced. These were the Saucy Mare in it's Web Armour and an ABC vehicle. These each came with a small plastic binome figurine. The Saucy Mare came with Capacitor (with an upside down skull on his hat) and the ABC came with Lieutenant Chauncy.
The highlight of this line, however, was the large 9 inch figures. These are possibly the best ReBoot toys ever released. While they were lacking in articulation, these figures were incredibly detailed and make for great display pieces. I have two of these figures and have them displayed proudly on my desk:
Only four figures were produced in this line, which were Matrix, AndrAIa, Megabyte (holding Phong's decapitated head), and Glitch Bob:
While sadly, the line did end up getting cut short, more waves and figures were planned. For instance, Daemon, Mouse, and Turbo were planned to get figures in the 5 inch range, and there were figures planned for Mouse, Hexadecimal, Dot, Web Matrix and Web Bob in the 9 inch wave amongst others. While the figures were never produced, there are pictures of some of the prototypes of planned figures.
It's a shame that all the figures planned couldn't be produced and that Irwin ended up going bankrupt due to the circumstances that lead to the toy line getting cut down so drastically. However, the toys we did get were of a pretty high standard. With that said, I would have liked to have had figures of Mouse and Season 3 Hexadecimal, and a little more articulation in the 5 inch figures would have been nice, but overall, the toys that did make it into production and were released were great.
Next week: We end this retrospective with a brief look at ReBoot's mediocre 'sequel' series, 'ReBoot: The Guardian Code'
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