11 Bizarre '90s Cartoons That Only Ran One Season

Troma's The Toxic Avenger is a low-budget black comedy more people are familiar with than have actually seen. The original, shot at the same time as the sequel, holds up surprisingly well, however it's follow-ups were just reruns. The second film existed entirely because directors Lloyd Kaufmann and Michael Herz had shot too much, so they ended up bisecting it.

But it's likely you've seen Toxie's image. The iconic, semi-deranged face is one of Troma's less censorable images. And despite all films being extremely gory and laced with nudity, Kaufmann banked on the first film's moderate success to spin it into a kid's show.

Toxic Crusaders, led by Toxie, performed many of the same duties as Captain Planet's team, albeit they were uglier. And despite only spanning thirteen episodes, the show's legacy is surprising. LJN licensed a video game, and it's likely the first images of Toxie come from his animated or 8-bit format, if not a glimpse from a late-night cable preview. The 13 episodes ran in syndication for over six years in Canada for some reason, on a network that often could be obtained through antennae in the nineties outside the country.

Years later, Kaufmann released Toxic Crusaders: The Movie, which was simply the first three episodes cut together as a feature. There were talks about an actual live-action adaptation, however the focus at Troma now appears to be a reboot of the first film.