Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) merchandise

The big cross-promotional craze began with the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Since then, the majority of movies and television shows have had at least an action figure line, a video game, apparel, Halloween costumes or even their own breakfast cereal based on them. This is especially the case with cartoons and franchises aimed towards a youth audience.

The original American Mega Man cartoon show had their own merchandise.



The figures shown here are from the personal collection of RingManX

Action figures
These figures were released around the time of the debut of the show in 1994 and were produced by Bandai. Since Mega Man could copy the Robot Masters' powers on the show, almost every figure had a detachable left arm that could be placed in place Mega Man's or ProtoMan's blaster arm. All of the shooting projectiles could be fired out of any of the blaster arms in the series. This was quite a unique feature. The first series consisted of six figures.
 * Mega Man w/ interchangeable firing blaster arm and plasma shot.
 * ProtoMan w/ interchangeable firing blaster arm and plasma shot.
 * Rush w/ clip-on jets (and wheels on the bottom to simulate hovering)
 * GutsMan w/ Super arm lifting action and a fire hydrant that can be fired from blasters.
 * Cut Man w/ Rolling Cutters and giant sheers that can be fired from his head.
 * Bomb Man w/ with Bomb tossing action and a bomb that can be fired from blasters.

If you read the main page, you may have read about the fact that the Bomb Man figure was pulled from store shelves and is the most valuable piece in the entire line (especially if it is still sealed on it's original cardboard backing.)

(The Rush figure also had a peg in his back that fit in the small holes in the other figure's feet, so they can stand on him.)

The second series was limited to just a measly four figures. This was probably due to the impending cancellation of the show.


 * ElecMan w/ interchangeable firing blaster arm and Thunder Beam.
 * Snake Man w/ Interchangeable firing blaster arm and Search Snake.
 * Bright Man w/ firing blaster arm and Flash Stopper light bulb that can be fired from blasters.
 * Drill Man w/ with firing drill bomb.

There was one vehicle produced for the action figures to sit inside of.

(This vehicle was seen on the first episode of the show and was driven by Roll.)
 * Mega Man's Air Raider w/ firing missile launcher and wheels on the bottom to simulate flying.

PVC figures
Around the same time of the release of the action figures, Ban Dai released sets of small non-poseable plastic figures that were roughly two inches tall. These figures came in sets of two. (All of Mega Man's figures are the same in all sets.) (Also, the color of Roll's boots are different than they are on the show. Roll's boots are red on the show, but her PVC figure has brown boots.)
 * Mega Man & Ice Man
 * Mega Man & Fire Man
 * Mega Man & Dr. Wily
 * Roll & Cut Man
 * ProtoMan & Bomb Man
 * Rush & ElecMan
 * Dr. Light & GutsMan

Toys that never made it to the shelves
When the show was canceled, so was the toy line. The worst part was that there was a whole bunch of cool stuff on the docket. (This proves that Bass probably would have been introduced in the third season of the show had it not been canceled.)
 * A third series of action figures was planned that would have included three new variants of Mega Man (Stealth Suit Mega Man, Marine Suit Mega Man and Flight Suit Mega Man. All based on Mega Man's special outfits he wore in season 2), a new variant of ProtoMan (wearing the Break Man mask from MM3), Roll, Fire Man, Ice Man, Quick Man, Air Man, Brain Bot and Bass.
 * Also, two vehicles were set to be produced. The first was called the Land Blazer and was featured a few times in Season 2. The other vehicle was Dr. Wily's Skullker (which would have included an action figure of Dr. Wily himself.)
 * A tall deluxe talking Mega Man figure was also in the works.
 * A second series of PVC's were planned that would have featured the Robot Masters from Mega Man 2 and possibly Bass and Treble, but it too was scrapped.

Mega Man: The Album
In 1995 (or early 1996), a soundtrack album was released on CD and cassette by Atlantic Records. The CD did not feature any music from the show, and the tracks on the album were not featured on the show itself, except during the end credits. However, there was some artwork and screenshots from the show featured in the booklet included with the CD.

This album is now Out of Print.

Other stuff

 * ADV Films has released two DVD box sets of both seasons of the show which are still available in stores.
 * Four VHS video tapes were released that contained two episodes from the first season on each tape. These tapes have out of print (OOP) for quite a while now.
 * There was actually a Mega Man Halloween costume released during the run of the show. And the Mega Man featured on the packaging is the T.V. Mega, not the Mega Man from the game, so this counts as T.V. show merchandise. It's very rare and hard to find.

Advice
If you want to try your hand at finding any of this stuff, try flea markets, anime conventions and shopping sites like eBay. But, be prepared to pay up. Mega Man cartoon series figures that are still sealed and undamaged on their original cardboard backings can go for roughly five times their original price! Bomb Man's price would probably dwarf the others!

The DVD sets are still available on the internet, but their stock is starting to dwindle. ADV may have stopped producing the second set, (possibly due to some licencing issues with the songs from the Mega Man soundtrack album tacked onto the end credits). This is not confirmed, however. Check online retailers like Best Buy online, Amazon and Suncoast (among others).

The old VHS releases are rare, but are still floating around somewhere. Check eBay and Amazon's "new and used" seller section.

The same can be said about the soundtrack album. If you just want the music, you could search Apple's iTunes online music download store. They sell their music for $0.99 per track, but it's perfectly legal

Gallery
Here are some more images of the 1994 action figures and various shots of the soundtrack album...

Trivia
Guts Man's action figure had a brick instead of one hydrant in the TV commercial.