>>8474255Nostalgia. They just scored good licenses-- Star Wars, Real Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park, Aliens, Predators, Super Powers, Batman, Gargoyles,Terminator, Robocop, and Swamp Thing. They were pretty much the quintessential 5POA toy company back in the 80's and 90's, but they were good at it, and they made toys for just about everything pop culture related, the way NECA does. Most nostalgia fags only remember their Star Wars line however, such as with Reaction figures. They didn't have a lot of notable original franchises, outside of things like M.A.S.K.
>>8474293Star Wars, but only because the movie was popular. So many toylines were created just to beat Star Wars-- Hasbro made 3 3/4 G.I. Joe, which were deliberately made in the same scale, but with high articulation for the time, Mattel made Masters of the Universe and advertised their toys as being bigger and more badass than puny Star Wars figures and G.I. Joes, and innovated by adding action poses and exaggerated sculpts. The team who worked on MOTU would later get scooped up by Playmates to sculpt figures for their brand new TMNT line. So, to beat Star Wars, G.I. Joe was revived, MOTU was launched, and Playmates hoped to replicate MOTU's success with some toyline based on an obscure indy comic called TMNT.