Unreleased Jonny Quest Action Figures From Playing Mantis

 If there was ever a Hanna-Barbera cartoon that deserved its own action figure line, it was Jonny Quest. There were no figurines of the characters during the original show's run (unsurprising, as G.I. Joe, the toy that coined the term "action figure" had only just debuted), but there have been several lines offered in the decades since. One of the more interesting ones, in my opinion, was a line that never even made it to retail. Credit goes to the Classic Jonny Quest fansite for showcasing these.

Above is a line of Jonny Quest action figures that appeared at the 2000 Toy Fair. Playing Mantis were the masterminds behind these. They went under somewhere around 2006, but they offered a wide variety of figurines, covering everything from Peanuts to the 1999 comedy flick Mystery Men (for the uninitiated, that's the movie where the music video for Smash Mouth's "All Star" comes from). These toys were developed at a time where the action figure world was booming, as dozens of companies rushed to snatch up licenses both old and new. Quest seemed like a great pick for a toyline during this time, as I'm sure collectors would've loved to pick up figures from a nostalgic favorite. Sadly, these never came out, and I have no clue as to why. Perhaps Playing Mantis were in some financial troubles? Or, maybe the failure of the Real Adventures toyline a few years earlier left a bad taste in the mouths of retailers? Whatever the reason, we didn't get them, and that's a real shame. While there have been several figures created of Quest and his comrades, these feel the most like the animated versions had jumped off the screen and into your hands.

Adding further salt into the wound, it looks like had this line taken off, we would have gotten figures of Jezebel Jade (referred to here as Jade Kenyon) and Dr. Zin. Neither of these characters have been represented in plastic before or since this attempt, so this would have been a really comprehensive line had it come to fruition. Not much more you can say other than "Oh well!"