Hello all,
I'm back to post about a recent obsession I've been dealing with. It is over a toy line called 'Monster 500' (or 'Monsters 500'). I saw these at ToysRUs years ago, back in 2014 and 2015. I didn't pay them too much mind. They looked really cool, but I am not a fan of pull-back or electronic cars. I thought they only made 6 of them and that was it, not worth it to focus on them. My mind was focused on hunting Mystery Minis and other knick-knacks gosh darn it! Those plastic figurines weren't going to hunt themselves!
Now its 2026, and guess what shows up in a recommended listing in ebay? What do you know, I remember them! Same thoughts as before rushed over me, they look cool but not my jam. Then I saw some show-up I hadn't seen before. Whats this, a werewolf? Some chainsaw psycho? A crocodile in a toilet? What. Wait, was there more to this toy line than I first gave it credit for? Yes there was.
After extensive digging and a lot of research (thanks 99% to the Monster 500 fansite and youtube channel), I was able to see almost all there was about this toy line. And let me tell you, I am both impressed, shocked about its history, and (as previously mentioned) obsessed.
Here is an archive link to the Monster 500 official website: Monster 500 | Meet the Monsters! If you dare! (archive.org)
Here is a link to the previously mentioned Monster 500 fan site: https://www.monster500fanclub.com/
(And if any Monster 500 employees or the host of the fan site ever wants to chat and/or geek out over the toys, feel free to reach out!)
Monster 500 is a toy line of monsters racing each other in a post-human world. Everyone has been zombified, so the monsters no longer have anyone to scare. They take advantage of the situation by doing what they love to do: Race! This brings you monsters like Evil Clownevil, Drac Attack, Captain Heinous (from Uranus), and many more! They are divided into different teams, such as 'Lunatic Legends', 'Freak Force', etc. which group the monsters into their own subtypes. Their designs are reminiscent of the classic Ed Roth's Rat Fink and other hot rod-like creature designs you've seen. Even their vehicles have custom appearances to them, like they were built by the monsters themselves. It gives them all a nice and unique feeling.
Below are renders/promo artwork of some of these racers:
The toys came in both smaller sized die-cast smaller sized cars and up-scaled electronic race cars. There were also two play sets to race them on. The smaller diecast cars aren't pull-back cars like I thought they were (doh, should have bought those). The eletronic race cars played sound effects and had light-up features. The toys also came with trading cards which included the monster's bio and a code for them in the game.
Game? Yeah, you read that right: There was a free-to-play Monster 500 game! It was for smart phones/devices where you could race as the monsters digitally on spooky tracks. You could unlock the racers via codes provided with the toys themselves. At the time, physical toys being linked to digital games were pretty popular (Skylanders, Amiibos, Lego Dimensions, etc.). The toys brought to life in games always came off as too gimmicky to me. Hindsight is 20/20- looking back, I think that was MORE than generous and a really cool tie-in for toys. In fact, I think more toy lines could benefit from. Man, sometimes I realize I didn't know how good we had it. Can the toys come to life in video games come back in the late 2020s?
This toy line came out in ToysRUs USA stores in 2014. To my understanding they were retail exclusives for TRU- meaning, you can only find them at TRU stores in the USA. TRU even promoted the line in their aisles and elsewhere. Unfortunately, TRU was also allegedly the ones that led to the toy line not succeeding as well as it probably should have. Some TRUs didn't carry the toys, and others that did carry the toys allegedly put them on deep discounts. This was also around the time TRU was being shut down in the USA, but that issue is entirely separate to Monster 500's future. I have a lot of mixed thoughts on TRU, so lets move on before I start ranting again.
Years passed, and the license was handed from Creata to another company, and then another. It landed in Hi-Jinx's hand. I don't know if my understanding is quite accurate. My understanding is Hi-Jinx still owns the rights to Monster 500.
The monsters came in waves with 'Invasions'. Wave 1 had Invasion 1 and 2. Each Invasion brought us 5 new monsters, meaning Wave 1 gave us 10 monsters total. Unfortunately that was all we saw for the USA, but more Invasions came to Argentina (more on that in a future post). Invasions 3 and 4 brought us 10 new monsters (20 in total now). Invasions 5 and 6 were planned with 16 new monsters (36 in total), but unfortunately they didn't make it far enough into production.
I'll go into more depth on the individual monsters and toys in future posts! For now, this post provided me the built-up catharsis I needed for this wonderful toy line! I am looking forward to talking about it more, and hope you'll be there to join me! Thank you for your time!
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