Do You Remember The Cult 90s Cartoon Series TOXIC CRUSADERS?
Are you ready for a blast from the 90s past? I was recently reminded of the early 90s cartoon series, Toxic Crusaders. This is a show that I haven’t thought about in years. In fact, I forgot that it even existed!
The show was based on the cult classic film franchise The Toxic Avenger. Not a lot of hardcore R-rated movies got their own kids’ cartoon adaptations but for some reason, someone thought the strange and gross film that featured strong sexual content and gruesome violence would make a great animated show for kids!
As you might imagine, the cartoon went in a completely different direction and it was an environmentally conscious series. The series premiered in 1991 shortly after Captain Planet and the Planeteers premiered in 1990. The show's original title was Toxic Avengers, but “Avengers” was seen as being too violent of a word, so it was changed to Toxic Crusaders.
The series centered on the character Toxie a.k.a. Melvin Junko, who was a scrawny nerd who, through exposure to toxic waste, was mutated into a "hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength." In the movies, Toxie was on a mission of revenge as he took on industrial America with lots of blood and violence. The series was so much tamer! They really changed things up for the series.
Toxie was still a grotesque mutant endowed with superhuman powers, but underneath it all, he was a good-hearted, law-abiding citizen of the fictional town of Tromaville, New Jersey. Another change from the films was that the toxic waste also mutated his mop into a sentient being that would sometimes battle enemies by itself or motion to Toxie ideas on how to solve problems. The villains were still polluters, albeit polluters from a different world. Hailing from the planet Smogula, Czar Zosta, Dr. Killemoff, and Psycho wreaked ecological havoc with the help of Tromaville's corrupt Mayor Grody. Bonehead, a street punk who bullied Melvin, joins them in the first episode.
Dr. Killemoff and Czar Zosta were cockroach-like extraterrestrials from the planet Smogula, which is a world where pollution is natural as fresh air and water is natural to Earth. Natives of Smogula thrive on pollution and need it to survive. For unexplained reasons, Czar Zosta and other Smogulans were able to withstand Earth's atmosphere without problems while Dr. Killemoff wears an breathing apparatus to survive. Dr. Killemoff, like most villains, also had a seemingly endless army of foot soldiers called Radiation Rangers.
Other villains and heroes made their appearances on the show with equally ridiculous origins as the Crusaders. Few if any of these characters made more than one appearance.
There were only thirteen syndicated episodes of Toxic Crusaders produced, and the creators of Toxic Avengers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were friends, and they were working on a crossover of the two shows, but nothing ever became of it.
There’s a chance that some of you have never even seen this show. If you’re curious about checking it out or want to watch it again just for shits and giggles, it’s available on Amazon Prime. I also included the opening sequence and the first episode for you to watch below. If you watched the series, when you hear the theme music, you’ll instantly be transported back in time and the nostalgia will wash over you.
It’s seriously weird that this cartoon actually exists. There was also a video game for it and action figures.