Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a weird and curious early 90s toy line based on the cartoon of the same name. It only appeared on shelves for a couple of years, and now even die hard toy collectors are surprised to hear of its existence.

There is something comforting in the silliness and awesomeness of these toys, so they’ve always been a personal favorite. After writing periodic articles about the toys whenever I managed to grab a new acquisition, I finally completed the set! If you’re looking to collect this nutty action figure line, here’s a list of what to expect.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was made by Mattel in 1991. The toys all came on these awesome red and green cards covered in bite marks and tomato splats. The larger tomatoes actually poked through the front and back of their respective cards due to their abnormal size or shape, so they had a bubble on the front AND back. The back of each card features a silly “news clipping” narration about the tomato and its human victim.

Every tomato has a “bite” feature: squeeze the soft vinyl toy and it yawns nice and wide to devour anything it can fit into its maw: action figures, broccoli, the dog’s tail, your little sister’s arm, etc. Whether the tomato is small, large, or walking on green, leafy legs, each tomato comes with a hilariously cartoonish human victim that fits perfectly into its mouth.

It’s hard not to love these dumb toys the moment you see them. It’s even harder to collect the whole set: the few times the “walking” tomatoes are listed for sale online (albeit very briefly — blink and you’ll miss the listing to another eager collector), they can run between $120-$200+ on average due to their rarity, especially if they’re complete. So good luck!

Check out my other Killer Tomatoes articles for more details about each figure.