The Toxic Avenger is finally back in theaters 25 years after Citizen Toxie, and we’re huge fans of Peter Dinklage’s reboot, but it’s worth remembering how bizarre the growth of Troma’s premier franchise has been over the last 40 years. Following the success of the first three films, cranked out from 1984 to 1989, Troma struck while the iron was hot and turned Toxie into a multi-media franchise, including comic books, action figures, and what every R-rated film needed in 1991: a Saturday Morning cartoon for kids.
Toxic Crusaders turned the bloody Troma franchise into a family-friendly superhero, continuing Hollywood’s strangest trend, and one that no one would dare attempt today.
1984’s The Toxic Avenger.
Toxic Crusaders filed off the edges of The Toxic Avenger by removing all of the sex, drugs, and gruesome deaths, or everything that made the film a hit, and instead made Toxie an environmental crusader. Toxie wasn’t alone in the cartoon, he was joined by Nozone and his super-powered sneezing, Junkyard the human/dog hybrid, Major Disaster a soldier with the ability to speak to plants, and Headbanger, the result of a mad scientist and a teenager merged together in an atom smasher, and watching the show now, he’s a parody of DC Comics Firestorm. Opposing them are the forces of Dr. Killemoff and the Smogulans, aliens who want to spread pollution, and the corrupt Mayor of Tromaville, Max Grody, who wants to line his pockets.
Turning R-Rated Movies Into Kids Cartoons
Created and directed by Lloyd Kaufman, the head of Troma and the man behind the success of the original movie, Toxic Crusaders is as subtle as his other work. Every plot revolves around pollution with Killemoff’s plans to weaponize everything from smog in a can to radiation, and senior citizens (that one’s a General GarBage plan, but it’s proof that Kaufman is insane in all the best ways). As strange as this may be, considering the source material, Toxic Crusaders is one of the best of the trend of R-rated movies turned into family-friendly cartoons.
RoboCop, the cartoon, was, like the sequels, better in theory than practice, and Rambo couldn’t hold up next to G.I. Joe, while Police Academy: The Series makes Citizens on Patrol look like a masterpiece. Toxic Crusaders was bright, colorful, and thanks to Kaufman’s involvement, full of heart and emotion at the melting, toxic core of former janitor Melvin Bunko that turned his schlocky film into a cult classic. It aired for only 13 episodes, but helped launch a multimedia blitz that, for one shining moment in 1991, turned Troma’s superhero into one of the hottest do-gooders of the year.
Adult-Oriented Movies Kids Couldn’t See Also Became Video Games
In addition to the cartoon, a Toxic Crusaders game was released for the NES, Game Boy, and Sega Genesis, alongside Halloween costumes, trading cards, tie-in novels, comic books, and action figures. Not bad for a franchise that costs less to make than 20 minutes of a Stranger Things episode. As proof that against all odds the original series was a success, a new Toxic Crusaders beat’em up video game is set for release on December 3, 2025.
If you get home from watching Peter Dinklage bring Toxie to life in 2025, as a man who wants to do good despite looking like a pile of radioactive ooze, complete with barrels of blood and guts erupting on screen, and want something that’s similar if you take out all the blood, guts, and adult humor, then Toxic Crusaders is for you. Or if you want to introduce your kids to the world’s most disgusting superhero, the cartoon lets you quietly teach them about the awesomeness of Troma’s B-movie masterpiece.
Toxic Crusaders is streaming for free on Tubi, and because Troma is the rare studio that appreciates its fans, a new Blu-ray was released in 2024.
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