View source for Environment Specific Action Figure

{{trope}}
{{Examples Need Sorting}}
[[File:environment-specific-action-figure2 5633.jpg|link=Spider-Man (Comic Book)|right]]

The tendency for toylines of [[Merchandise-Driven]] (and sometimes otherwise) shows to also contain variations of the characters made up out of, er, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|whole cloth]]. Most variations fall under [[Stylish Protection Gear]], and virtually every toy line has at least one of these:

* A snow version, with skis and a white winter outfit. Often called "Arctic Action Whatever."
* Desert version, usually just the regular one with a desert hat and brown or desert camo clothes.
* The underwater version, [[Atlantis Is Boring|which sucks]], and in some toylines will actually be made for play involving water. (See the Marvel example below.) Fires torpedoes.
* Some sort of big backpack/shield device that fits over the shoulders that usually fires missiles.
* A rocket pack or spacesuit. It may also fire missiles.
* [[Thememobile|Vehicles]] for every superhero popular enough to have their own toyline, even - no, ''especially'' ones that have no need for one. [[Running Gag|Fires missiles.]]

Additionally, these extra designs will almost always go way off color scheme or character concept: it's not unusual to see Batman sporting bright [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|blue]], [[Highly-Visible Ninja|green]], [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|red]], [[Mortal Kombat|orange]], [[Overly Long Gag|yellow]] or [[Rule of Funny|pink]] armor covered in rocket launchers, or to see melee or magic-based characters with assault rifles.

It's almost [[Did Not Do the Research]], only they ''did'' do the research... ''[[Subverted Trope|market research]]''. (And, ''sometimes'', environmental research.)

Some [[Merchandise-Driven]] shows will introduce these sorts of 'gear', like the snow gear in ''[[The Batman]]'' (though in this case, the villain that justified its creation and inclusion already existed in the mythos), the new ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' episode with the backpacks, or just about any ''[[Power Rangers]]'' episode with the new bike or [[Super Mode]].

{{examples}}
* The ''[[Street Fighter]]'' GI Joe line all had a standard assortment of GI. Joe weaponry such as rifles, handguns, knives, etc. The [[Street Fighter (film)|Street Fighter]] line had an Arctic Action Guile. At no point does the movie ever leave a tropical climate.
* ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' does this all the time for their regular characters. Average soldiers get jungle uniforms, space uniforms, toxic waste uniforms...despite the large number of characters who are specifically trained to deal with these environments. In many ways this is justifiable—when they wanted to go into space, Hasbro hadn't really produced ''any'' astronaut types. When they have too few such characters and have to go up against entire armies of Vipers encroaching on the Amazon, you gotta expect that Snake-Eyes (and Duke, and Scarlett, etc.) are going to end up fighting them. The real justification problem comes from why Cobra, a terrorist organization, even ''goes to these remote, non-urban environments'' in the first place when they already have excellent hidden bases of operation.
* [[Batman]] toys have so many technicolor backpacks that shoot missiles that it's surprising to find a toy ''without'' one. Not to mention the fact that he has a costume for every single biome on this planet and a few others. [[Crazy Prepared|Perhaps the only justified example of this trope on record]]--[[Memetic Badass|according to the internet, anyway]]. [[Batman Can Breathe in Space|For some reason]].
** Annoyingly, this makes it ''very'' hard to find a Batman that ''actually looks like Batman.'' Removing the snap-on armor and missile backpacks and such usually just left you with a white Batman or Batman with yellow stripes or metal waffle armor. Yes, metal waffle armor. Additionally, many of the accessories replace the cape, so you're missing that too if you remove them.
** ''[[Lego Batman]]: The Video Game'' even acknowledged this when the game forced you to at least once per level change your suit to one of Glassbreaking-Batman or Thermosuit-Batman and Magneticfeet-Robin. The LEGO toyline the game was based off only had Batman in his standard grey/black, grey/blue and all black costumes.
** To give you an idea of how bad this is: "Combat Belt Batman" is the ONLY regularly-colored Batman from [[Batman: The Animated Series|the 90's animated series]], released in the first of around twenty waves. A ''low'' bid for one on ebay is $80.00!
* You can buy toys of ''[[The Flash]]'' on ''[http://speedforce.org/2010/02/batman-brave-and-the-bold-flash-action-figure/ a motorcycle]''. [[Sanity Slippage|Buh.]] Let's not get started on Superman's ''flying car,'' ([[Sanity Slippage|Muh?]]) which has grabbing arms extending from the sides that clearly have about a billionth of his strength. Like the Spider-Car mentioned below, this ''originates in the comics'' in defiance of all logic.
** Superman's Supermobile only appeared marginally earlier in the comics at best and was obviously put there for merchandising purposes. The comics tried to explain it away as best as possible; basically, he could use the car to shield himself from dangerous things and it didn't actually have an engine; he just powered it himself, including the flying and the fists.
*** Let us not forget the [http://www.kennersuperpowers.com/spvehicandplaysets/justicjogger.html Justice Jogger]...
* Also, ''[[The Hulk]]'' on ''ATV Trikes''
*  The ''[[Iron Man]]'' toylines (1990s, Movie and the recent Animated one) do this, with the caveat that some of the armors actually do appear in the comics, especially the Hydro, Space and Stealth models. In fact, a great many of the comic and cartoon armors do ''not'' have toys yet. Some of them would be nightmares even to adventurous toymakers.
** Also a bit justifiable, in that it's somewhat in-character for Tony Stark to make ARC reactor-powered, gold-titanium alloy racecars and jetskis for himself.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' had this completely ridiculous line of non-canon animal armors that showed up at one of the toy conventions, but it probably never got released. They did have the missile-shooting backpack type, as well as a non-canon ice outfit for the main character, though - and for extra silliness, released most of the variants before releasing ''any'' female action figures, despite the female characters having equal participation in all fight scenes.
** Fun fact: [[All There in the Manual|According to the art book,]] the show's [[Take That]] at [[Scary Impractical Armor]] was in part a shot at toymakers' requests for armored variants.
* Semi-averted with ''[[Star Wars]]'', where although there are a ridiculous number of versions of each character, most actually are from one of the movies or [[Expanded Universe]]. But we say "most": there's a Han Solo figure with a back-mounted... ''thing''... called the [http://rebelscum.com/POTF2dlxhan.asp Smuggler Flight Pack]. It resembles Ripley's [[Aliens|Power Loader]] that is [[Awesome but Impractical|too heavy for his weight to support]] and has a hair trigger that will make its limbs deploy at the lightest touch. Also looks dumber than hell.
** While, again, it's true to the universe, ''[[Star Wars]]'' produces a number of figures that use the same basic mold and look very similar to each other, but are in fact different characters and have different specialities. For example, anyone care to tell [[A Worldwide Punomenon|This Trooper]] the differences between the regular Clone Trooper and a "Coruscant Landing Platform" Clone Trooper? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? (The answer: unit colors, amounting to a couple of small stripes, and an antenna on the backpack.) See also ''[[Transformers]]'' below.
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' has more toylines than one would consider to be strictly necessary, so they had to fill them up somehow... The first cartoon's toylines, in particular, absolutely reveled in this sort of thing. Never mind noncanonical armors, the turtles were out there getting every conceivable job, from Green Beret to stage magician to, yes, [[Star Trek|Starfleet officer]]. (Does it scare anyone else that ''Raph'' is the medic?) There were movie monster Turtles, dinosaur Turtles, even ''clown'' Turtles. They're probably the [[Trope Codifier]] for this one. Interestingly, it took toymakers until about 2009 or so to actually make toys based on the 1st comic book incarnation of the Turtles...and they're all overpriced figurines marketed to the enthusiast collector market rather than kids, which makes sense if you consider [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|just how those versions were written]].
* While ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has begun integrating some of the armors from the toyline into the show, some of them are bizarre powerups and vehicles that never appear anywhere—and thankfully don't. (''Skateboards? '''Seriously?''''') Really, if you think [[Power Rangers Dino Thunder|some of the armors that were used]] were insane, swing by the toy aisle next time you're at Target.
** The series took it a step further for ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]'', creating whole new Rangers for the toyline and producing them with every armor variation that the canon Rangers get - that is, the male canon Rangers. [[The Smurfette Principle|The female Rangers aren't so lucky.]] And there's even a handful of Red and Sixth ranger only powerups, too. (The new Rangers have made a handful of appearances on the show to justify the toys' existence. ''RPM'' had its own toy-exclusive Rangers, but no variants for them and no TV appearances.)
** In 1993, ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' had a toyline of relatively sensible weapons, villain figures and Rangers. Fast forward to 2010's reversioning and Bandai gives you cycles, playsets, dragons and [https://web.archive.org/web/20130629070728/http://www.bandai.com/powerrangers/mmpr/products things that would give Tony Oliver nightmares.]
*** Then again, both [https://web.archive.org/web/20110707185339/http://www.rangercentral.com/toy-mmpr1.htm the 1993 toyline] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20110627144215/http://www.rangercentral.com/toy-mmpr2010-1.htm the 2010 toyline] have roughly the same stuff - basic figures, play weapons, zords, and mini figurines. Yeah, the 2010 line has more vehicles and figures that transform into [[Dinosaurs Are Dragons|dragons(?)]] and stuff, but it's hard to get that worked up when the 1990s version had [https://web.archive.org/web/20110616231945/http://www.rangercentral.com/toy-mmpr4.htm a girl's fashion assortment].
** For ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'', the "Mega Mode" armor variant is given priority over the regular suit in the merchandising. In the show, it's special armor for ''piloting the Megazord''. Later on when the proper [[Super Mode]]s started coming out, each of ''those'' got its own Mega Mode variant as well.
* There were toys of ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' in desert camo (''over his regular oufit''), and scuba gear (''with built in water gun'') and a Spider-Car for...when he's not in the city? Ceremonial occasions? 
*** How about [http://www.thesneeze.com/2004/spiderman-3-the-quest-for-dignity.php a baseball player? (''Yes, over his friggin' costume!'')] (Worse, it's not ''quite'' the stupidest outfit on that page.)
* Speaking of which, Marvel put out an ''entire toyline'' that consisted of nothing but The Underwater Version of their characters, which were also designed to be played with in water. Included a green-veined Venom toy with webbed parts and fins that actually was really cool.
* Similar to the billion stormtrooper/clonetrooper variants mentioned above, sort-of a reversal in ''[[Transformers]]'': characters that are completely different from one other can be the same toy with a different colour scheme/minor gimmick/face sculpt.
** Played straight with the ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' movie and ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' lines, in which toys that might have been presented as new characters in years past instead became "Nightwatch Optimus Prime" or "Bandit Lockdown" so as to preserve the relative uniqueness of the main characters, though they do sneak in a few new-character redecoes (for instance, both lines' Bumblebees have been turned into Cliffjumper).
** ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' turned an (originally) smallish couple of toylines into [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] through repaints, sticking new heads on otherwise identical figures, and occasionally putting the same parts in a slightly different configuration. Later lines follow suit, even if the character the new paintjob represents isn't actually in the show or comic. (For example, ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' had a white Optimus Prime called Ultra Magnus. ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' doesn't, but one of ''Armada'' Optimus Prime's toys got rereleased in white with the name Ultra Magnus anyway.) Therefore, where there's a Starscream, you can bet a Skywarp (black repaint) and Thundercracker (blue repaint) won't be far behind, on the shelves if not in the show. Lately, the radioactive berserker Sunstorm from [[Dreamwave Comics]] has been added.<ref>''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' has a twofer: since the original Starscream and Thundercracker looked alike but the ''Cybertron'' versions are dissimilar, there are Skywarp and Starscream repaints of Thundercracker ''and'' Skywarp and Thundercracker repaints of Starscream.</ref> (Strangely, though, there are not nearly as many cases of this as there ''could'' be. Prowls don't get repainted into Bluestreaks, or Red Alerts into Sideswipes. In fact, ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' has a Sideswipe and a Red Alert who look nothing alike, though both of them have gotten repainted into other folks.) Oh, before anyone says it, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are ''not'' a case of this. The twins both turn into the same kind of car, but are not based on the same toy. The same actually goes for ''all'' Transformers who are considered twins (Save for [[Transformers Animated|Jetfire and Jetstorm]]).
** Similarly, any construction vehicle will be painted green and purple and called a Constructicon.
** It extends to different toylines than the one the original design was created for, leading to some interesting questions, like "What is the significance of a [[Transformers Armada|Mini-con]] in the [[Transformers Film Series|Movieverse]]?"
** A more literal example of this would be Movieverse Brawl; both the Deluxe figure and the Leader sized one got a Desert Cameo style repaint.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has a similar semi-aversion as ''Star Wars'' above, with loads of variants of [http://www.doctorwhotoys.net/thedoctor.htm the Tenth Doctor] and [http://www.doctorwhotoys.net/dalek.htm the Daleks], all of which originate from the show proper.
* Though this trope happens in most ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' lines (as noted above), it was somewhat averted for the first two [[Spider-Man (film)|movie]] lines. Every Spider-Man figure had a different action feature or gimmick (yes, that includes "web shot" missiles and firing nets and all that), but they all had the same regular costume. By contrast, the villains only got one or two figures for their lines, making it hard to find someone for the various Spider-Men to fight. Somewhat played straight in the ''Spider-Man 3'' line, which added different variations of "black suit" and "sand damage" and such, but justified (in the same ''Star Wars''/''Doctor Who'' way above) in that they were all actually in the movie.
* Mocked thoroughly in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]''. Night Owl (who is a both a [[Gadgeteer Genius]] and a complete and total dork with a costume fetish) is shown to have a closet full of different-themed Owl costumes, and is thus [[Crazy Prepared|prepared for anything]]. Like underwater work or protection from radiation. Like having to visit the Arctic circle, for which he has a snow owl outfit and matching snow scooters. Which still work perfectly twenty years after he's stopped fighting crime. Of course, he ''does'' mention doing routine checks and maintenance on all his equipment. His [[Powered Armor]] never actually worked, though.
* ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' had this when their toyline was big. The first season gave them their standard uniforms; later iterations featured different costumes and "fearful" expressions, different equipment (often bordering on the implausible), color-change paint, and glow in the dark features.
* ''[[Gundam SEED Astray]]'' is an amusing example of this trope occurring within canon. The Astray series Gundams of the title have, between the 6 or so of them, literally dozens of [[Mid-Season Upgrade|Midseason Upgrades]], [[Mecha Expansion Pack]]s & [[Meta Mecha]]. Why so many? Because getting blown to bits and having to be rebuilt is sort of a [[Running Gag]] for them.
** Heck, ''[[Gundam]]'' in general has this in spades, especially in the Universal Century. They even have a term for it: "Mobile Suit Variation" is a model line specifically for environment- or mission-specific variants and [[Super Prototype]]s that don't appear in the series, such as "Aqua GM", "Desert Zaku", "Gelgoog High Mobility". Many of them even become [[Canon Immigrant]]s and appear in a sequel. 
* The figure line for ''[[Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures|Jonny Quest the Real Adventures]]'' didn't even ''have'' "regular" versions of the characters. You could get Race as a skydiver, Johnny as an astronaut or Jessie as a [[Badass Cape|cape-wearing]], [[Spy Catsuit|catsuit-sporting]] [[Ninja]], but good luck finding them in anything they actually ''wore on the show''. The closest to being [[Show Accuracy, Toy Accuracy|vaguely accurate]] were the [[Cyberspace|Quest World]] figures, but these featured [[Rainbow Pimp Gear|candy-colored paint jobs]] that were in stark contrast with the dark-colored suits on the show, and featured a toy of the motorcycle from one sequence with ''giant yellow training wheels''.
* The ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' toy line has an "invisible" (transparent purple) Espio, a [[Sonic Colors|Sonic with Wisps]], a [[Sonic Storybook Series|Sonic with Caliburn the Talking Sword]], and a Shadow who comes with [[Shadow the Hedgehog|his bike]]. Plus more [[Sonic Unleashed|Werehog]] merchandise than is really justifiable. That's not even getting into the plush line...
* Though not action figures, ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has become infamous for a merchandising empire built, largely, on figures of Rei and Asuka doing... well, ''anything''. Yes, [[Rule 34|even that.]]
** For those who prefer outies, there's Shinji and Kaoru. If your interest is less prurient, there are even [[Moe]] versions of the angels. Yes, even [http://www.e-life.youthinks.com/picture/eva/lel02.jpg Leliel]{{Dead link}}.
* ''[[Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad]]'' was particularly horrible with this, considering all the variants of Servo were mere [[Palette Swap]]s of one another, with no different gimmicks. They even tried to pass off some alternate paint jobs as superhero versions of the supporting cast - including a pink and purple one as the girl (despite the figure having a very male [[Heroic Build]]).

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