I stocked up on the four common tomatoes in the AotKT toy line, and managed to preserve the packaging while removing the toys.

Everything about these things is a pleasure to look at, especially the bright red and green colorscheme. They just look great when piled together. The concept alone is hilarious: rubbery monster fruit whose jaws can gnash on their itty bitty human victims. All the characters have so much personality it’s almost precious, even if the paint jobs on the human figures leave something to be desired.

Even the packaging explodes with character. A panicked mob fleeing down the city streets, with giant killer tomatoes munching on the card (even leaving teeth marks and “biting” onto the display hook). The backside gives a silly scenario of the featured characters in a conflict, in something of a news blurb style, followed by the rest of the figure lineup. I always eyed those walking tomaters jealously, since we never EVER saw them in stores anywhere. I was lucky enough to find a loose and complete Phantomato on ebay, which started my collecting craze for these toys (I had most of them as a kid, but eventually gave them away).

Each card also has a unique diagram of the featured tomater using its bite action.

Beefsteak is arguably the scariest of the base tomatoes. He has an eerie grin akin to an alligator, and his creepy, staring eyes make his misshapen face even more monstrous. His victim is Wilbur Finletter (sans parachute, thankfully), one of my favorites of the human figures.

Tomacho is the nicest-looking tomato, and as a result he has the smallest bite. He battles a bat-wielding Chad Finletter. I like Chad’s colors, but his “flat” pose makes him hard to stand up.

Ketchuck is an ugly sonofagun, and the first of these toys I ever got when I was a kid. As an adult, he’s probably my least favorite because of his dumb face. He comes packaged with Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen, creator of the tomato menace. They painted over his mustache, which somehow results in him looking like a yellow-skinned burn victim. I might try to find a way to remove the paint a bit to make him look more authentic.

Fangmato was the only green one of the toy line, and her face is one of the best tomato sculpts by far. The paint between her eyes has a habit of wearing off for whatever reason. She terrorizes Igor, Gangreen’s bumbling assistant, who is another favorite sculpt: screaming uselessly and throwing up “jazz hands” while the rest of the humans look ready for a fight.

It’s a fun toy line overall, and looks great on the display shelf. Here’s hoping I can get my hands on the more elusive figures, especially Missing Tomato Link and my KT waifu Tara Boumdeay.