Every year, video game developers make a bunch of different games and then release them for the masses. For most of us, pre-ordering a game might seem like a huge deal, but the true and die-hard fans of different franchises are always willing to go a step further by purchasing all the merchandise. A core part of this is toys obviously as they can not only be collectible items but also cater to the much younger demographic. This is why we get to see some really detailed action figures or other toys that are included with the Collector’s Edition of games.

This still doesn’t mean that they are always of very good quality, in fact, some of the toys that have been released for video game characters have been quite horrible in the past, especially when it was a new concept. Nintendo has obviously created a name for itself in the world of gaming, but just like everything else, the company has also been responsible for creating some of the worst toys ever. The story of terrible toys doesn’t end here, however, as various manufacturers are quick to create knock off toys of some of the most popular characters. Why? Well, because it helps to sell and also that it is much cheaper than the real deal. Regardless, whether it was a bad peripheral ideas or ugly knockoff toys, we have compiled a list of some of the worst toys ever that were inspired by characters from the Nintendo universe.

20 The Pokémon And Blues Clues Crossover

Ah, don’t you remember watching Blue’s Clues when you were little? The 90s kids certainly do. This show came around on TV at roughly the same time as Pokémon in Japan. Both of these ended up being hugely popular with children so naturally, the next step was to introduce their toys in the market. Unfortunately, with these also came a number of terrible knockoffs.

Someone apparently had the brilliant idea of putting Blue and his friends inside the same packaging as Ash and what looks like a Pikachu toting a victory sign. Even crazier is the fact that it's named “Clues & Monster” with an image of Pikachu right next to it, which makes us believe that he has done something horrible, and now Blue and the gang are after him. Regardless, kids should be kept away from horrible knock off toys such as these.

19 The Legend Of Zelda Link Windup Toy

When you think about toys from The Legend of Zelda franchise, a wind-up toy is the last thing that comes to mind. Nowadays we have some of the most detailed action figures of our favorite characters, but things weren’t that great back in the day. In 1989, toy company Nasta decided to release a wind-up toy of Link to compliment the first Legend of Zelda game which came out on the NES.

The packaging carried the official Nintendo logo confirming that it was a licensed product and also featured artwork that came from the actual game itself. All you needed to do was wind up the toy and it would proceed to walk for some distance. It is one of the rarest toys today and can fetch almost $150 if sold.

18 Super Mario Bros. 3 Game watch

It wasn’t only crazy peripherals that Nintendo was experimenting with at the time, in fact, there were also a number of handheld consoles that the company decided to release right around the time when the Gameboy was announced, and it became insanely popular. One of these was a wrist watch, yes, you read that correct, you could play games on your wrist watch, and this was happening in 1989.

The truth is that a video game and a wristwatch is almost never a good combination, which is why you don’t see official games being released for smart watches nowadays. This game watch in particular only had Super Mario Bros. 3 on it which wasn’t even close to the actual game for the NES. It essentially used the same technology as the terrible LCD games made by tiger electronics. Combine that with the terrible controls, and it didn’t turn out to be the most amazing gaming experience in the world.

17 Official Link Toy From Ocarina Of Time

In case you’re wondering, this is not a knock-off toy, but instead it was launched by Toybiz after Ocarina of Time was released back in 2002. There is quite a lot that seems to be wrong with this toy but we will start with the horrible face mold here. It basically screams knockoff and doesn’t seem to resemble any rendition of Link that we’re aware of.

Both arms are also quite disproportionate with one of them much bigger at the wrist than the other. There is absolutely no reason as to why anyone in their right mind should go out and buy one of these unless you plan to prank a die-hard Zelda fan and ruin their day. What’s even worse is the fact that this was part of an official toy line and the rest of the toys in this series weren’t any better either.

16 Mario/Luigi and Goomba Fusion

We don’t even know where to start with this one. It’s a Luigi head on top of a goomba, or wait, is that Mario’s head with a green cap? A Goomba, for those who are unaware, is a sentient mushroom and one of the first enemies that players come across when playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES.

At first glance, this looks more like a salt or pepper shaker but that doesn’t seem to be the case, unfortunately. It seems as if Mario or Luigi decided to jump on a Goomba but got stuck instead and now all that they’re left with is a Goomba torso. Also, the reason why we seem to be confused between Mario and Luigi is that the hat in the picture is Luigi’s green hat but with Mario’s “M” on it.

15 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Troll Dolls

What is similar between a ninja turtle and a Troll Doll? We’ll give you a minute to think about that. However, you’ll most probably fail to come up with a reason because one is about turtles who don’t have any hair while the other is a plastic doll which comes with ridiculous up-combed hair.

Unfortunately, someone decided that it would be a good idea to release official Troll Doll versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when literally nobody had asked for such a thing. The creepy smiles and flowing hair made these toys look quite bizarre. This wasn’t the only thing though as there were also much bigger variants of these for all those people who weren’t satisfied with the smaller ones. They are also quite rare to find these days and can sell anywhere from $160 to $400 online.

14 Super Mario Bros. 2 Phone

Did you know that there was a Mario themed telephone? Well, there is a pretty good reason why you don’t because nobody in their right mind would decorate their room with a blue (red in some models) handset that has a little Mario figure jumping out the side.

The use of something like this is pretty much obsolete at this point because of the smartphone revolution but it was marketed as more of a collector's item back in the day. It was made after Super Mario Bros. 2 was released to compliment the game. However, a phone isn’t something that people are willing to collect which is why this one didn’t see much popularity. This is why it is one of the rarest items out there but it still doesn’t cost much compared to some of the other official toys on this list.

13 Bandito Bashin’ Mike And Turtles

It seems as if toy manufacturers were out of ideas for ninja turtles at this point in time and they were willing to do anything and everything to keep the toy line going. This is where Bandito Bashin’ Mike came in which, if you haven’t guessed already, is a pretty racist toy.

It was a part of the Wacky Wild West Turtles series of toys which also included Chief Leo, Sewer Scout Ralph, and Crazy Cowboy Don. Out of these, the only figure that wasn’t representing a racial stereotype was Ralph’s. How any of these toys made it past the concept stage is beyond us, but regardless of this, they were still quite popular back in the day and are pretty rare nowadays.

12 Exclusive Ocarina Of Time Ganondorf Action Figure

Take one look at the picture above, and you will notice that there is something seriously wrong with Ganondorf here. That face sculpting, in particular, doesn’t look too great compared to the other action figures in this line. This was quite unfortunate as these figures were pretty exclusive, only available if you pre-ordered The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time.

Some of the other details on this figure were not that bad, and it was pretty decent in size as well. Another problem that a lot of people had who ended up getting this toy was that it didn’t come with any accessories and posing was very limited. Still, the entire concept of action figures that were of game characters was still pretty new so this was welcomed addition for most.

11 Defective Amiibo Pikachu

We’re not sure whether this was done deliberately or it was a manufacturing defect but that right there is an official Pikachu amiibo. Back in 2014, Nintendo decided to release a bunch of toys that were capable of communicating with Nintendo consoles. This would add an entirely new way of interacting with games using physical objects.

Over the years, they have also become collectible items. In this case, however, Pikachu seems to have had his tail swapped out with the ears making it look like a cheap knock off instead. The good news here though is that if this turns out to be a manufacturing defect, then this can probably sell for a few thousand dollars considering the fact that a faulty Princess Peach amiibo sold for a whopping $25,000.

10 Pikachu Plush Toy Gone Wrong

As if terrible knock off toys weren’t enough, we also have a plush toy here which doesn’t look anything like a Pikachu. It looks like a Pokémon experiment gone horribly wrong. The only thing they’ve seemed to get right here is the color. Perhaps it was an attempt to create an entirely new character with some inspiration from Pokémon, but even that feels like a stretch here.

The horrible stitching on the mouth can easily make us imagine a scenario where this walks around with a Heath Ledger voice while asking, “Do you know how I got these scars?” Talking about scars, getting this toy for your kids is a sure way to mess them up big time especially when all their friends will be carrying around authentic Pikachu stuff.

9 Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meal Toys

McDonald’s has been known to release toys as a part of their Happy Meal for a long time now and most of the time this is done to advertise a particular movie or game. Since you’re getting these toys for free, however, it also means that the majority of these are very poor in quality. Something similar was done in 1989 when Super Mario Bros. 3 came out.

All of the toys in this line had little gimmicks such as the Mario toy which could hop and the Luigi toy which was basically a pullback toy but sadly none of these ever worked as intended. Still, many Mario fans remain on the lookout for these toys even to this day. McDonald’s also released some new Mario toys in April this year that seem to be much better in quality compared to their 1989 counterparts.

8 Pokemon Go Knockoff  Action Figures

A new technique that a lot of toy makers producing knockoffs seem to be employing is that they’ll slap a Pokémon Go sticker on their stuff to make it seem like the real deal since Pokémon Go is the new sensation with everyone. The toy that you see in the image above is a perfect example of this.

It looks like Pikachu has put on a few pounds and Misty was created using a single lump of plastic with no attention to detail whatsoever, after all, who really cares about that? But let’s not ignore the actual star here who obviously is Ash Ketchum (we can’t really tell). The face of the toy is all morphed as if it was hit by a basketball and the poke ball, or at least we think that is a poke ball in his hand, seems to be fusing with his thumb. This is literally the stuff of nightmares and proof of why you should stay away from knockoff toys.

7 Little Pluckies Ninja Protects Laser Gun

It looks like the ninja turtles have finally done something that they should’ve done years ago. They’ve upgraded from melee weapons and training from Master Splinter to far more effective weapons, yes, we’re talking about laser guns. The box also makes it look like this was a super effective move since Shredder seems to be the first casualty of this, or maybe he just passed out when he realized how ridiculous the whole concept is.

Also, something else that you will notice on the box is Raphael in a shooting frenzy while carrying Leonardo’s katanas. Regardless, this thing is a spark gun which means that it's super loud and lights up pretty well in the dark as well.

6 Roll ‘n Rocker By LJN Toys

Every once in a while, some company decides to come up with a totally ridiculous idea that gets approved and goes into production somehow. One of these was a concept brought forth by LJN Toys who, for those unaware, were also responsible for releasing some of the most horrible games between 1970 and 1995. The existence of the Roll ‘n Rocker comes as no surprise then.

The concept behind this was a very simple and quite frankly, very pointless. Basically, the player would step on it and then control the movement in-game with the feet. If you haven’t figured it out yet, it was a pretty terrible way of controlling a video game, especially when the same could be done with a handheld controller. The Roll ‘n Rocker ended up being a complete disappointment for anyone who bought it.

5 Nintendo Power Glove

Long before the concept of Wii-mote ever came into existence, Nintendo decided to mess around with the idea of input via movement by releasing something called the Power Glove. Similar to some of the other terrible peripherals that were announced at the time, the Power Glove failed to deliver what was promised.

It was announced in 1989 and was a result of direct collaboration between Nintendo and Mattel. It didn’t prove to be of much use, however, as it was plagued by issues such as difficult and imprecise controls. Another contributing factor to its failure was the fact that only two games were ever produced which fully utilized the Power Glove. In the end, it was a total commercial failure for Nintendo with pretty average sales.

4 DK Bongos

Back in the day, Nintendo put a lot of effort into creating new and different products which could be used to interact with their consoles instead of the traditional controller. Most of these, however, turned out to be completely horrible simply because of the fact that there was no market for such stuff. The DK Bongos which were released for the Nintendo GameCube, unfortunately, were also a result one such experiment.

The concept was simple, two plastic bongo drums which you could tap on and a microphone in the middle which could easily be triggered by a simple clap. It is quite evident at this point that such a peripheral had very limited use, in fact, only two such games were ever created which fully utilized them. The peripheral support was dropped in later games as well, and it wasn’t supported by the Wii either.

3 LaserScope By Konami

You have to give props to Nintendo for coming up with some of the coolest looking peripherals ever for the NES. The LaserScope, in particular, was developed by Konami and it was sold under the official Nintendo license. It was a bulky headset combined with an eyepiece that acted as a light gun. This was essentially a recipe for failure.

One of the biggest issues was that the NES already came with a pretty capable light gun which was called the NES Zapper and almost everyone was happy with its performance. On top of that, the LaserScope required that a voice command with the word “Fire” be said every time the player wanted to take a shot. This was a very unreliable method that failed to work accurately most of the time, and in the end, it proved to be nothing more than a huge fail.

2 Nintendo Speedboard

You can’t come across a more useless piece of hardware in the entire video game history. Yes, that’s right, we just said that. The Speedboard was nothing but a huge slab of gray plastic which was developed by Pressman and licensed by Nintendo after which it was released in 1991.

The only thing that it could do was hold your NES controller, something that was possible otherwise with your hands. The basic idea was that you would insert the NES controller inside the Speedboard and then simply mash away at the button for better speed or high scores. This never made any sense because you could essentially do the same by simply placing the controller on any flat surface. There was no need for creating a specific peripheral just for this task. Thankfully, a lot of people realized this which is why the Speedboard was discontinued shortly after its release.

1 Thor Mario Kart

We certainly do not remember coming across Thor or any other Marvel character in Mario Kart for that matter. It would be quite an interesting concept, however, one that the knockoff toy manufacturers are already working in. The image that you see above is of Thor in what looks like his own little version of the Mario Kart.

The packaging very effectively also advertises the whole thing as “Super Heroes” with a picture of The Avengers at the bottom and Ben 10 at the top right corner. Despite this being a knockoff, we think it’ll be a pretty good idea if there was a crossover between the Nintendo characters and those from some of the other franchises as it will certainly make a game like Mario Kart even more fun.