The focus is on monsters and fantastical and legendary creatures from religion, mythology, folklore, fairy tales, literary fantasy, science fiction, cryptids and other anomalous phenomena.
It consists of small, soft plastic figures representing monsters, and later other tangentially related characters.
[1] After the fourth series, which contained Hanuman (who was removed from the UK run) and Yama, was released, they decided to play it safe and provided follow-up series: Super Creepies, 24 comical (punning) aberrations of real insects and arachnids created by "Dr. Zechariah Wolfram" with point values up to 200, 24 Dinosaurs, released in both regular and "Secret Skeleton" format, and 16 Space Aliens that were essentially original.
The Monster Wrestlers in My Pocket debuted in the United Kingdom in 1994, no longer produced by Matchbox, but by Corinthian Marketing.
Frosties also did a twelve-monster series of Monster Sports Stars in My Pocket, including "Tony the Referee", which were made of much harder plastic and had no point values.
These figures are in full color and have close to the level of detail one often finds in pewter figurines for role-playing games.
The earliest Monster in My Pocket items were trading cards painted by Jan Sheets and Jenice Heo.
A comic book series written by Dwayne McDuffie (initially working from a plot by Craig Mitchell, R.L.
Stern, and Tim Bogart), and drawn primarily by Gil Kane and Ernie Colón (with Nelson Dewey[3]) was released by Harvey Comics in 1991.
The good monsters ended up in the home of ne'er-do-well high school student Jack Miles and his studious younger brother, Tom, in Burbank.
The series ended with both sides battling inside a dollhouse bought for a little girl named Theresa, who was scared away by Spring Heeled Jack.
They also dealt with Frank Rook, The Exterminator (a parody of The Punisher), and Swamp Beast helped them defeat a Tyrannosaurus Rex who would grow when exposed to any form of radiation, such as smoke detectors and microwave ovens.
Beginning with the second issue, Universal Studios began receiving credit in the indicia for the use of Frankenstein's Monster, Mummy, The Invisible Man, and The Phantom of the Opera, although the characters originated in public domain literature and bore no particular resemblance to their cinematic counterparts at Universal.
Warlock, wanting to have power and rule over all the other monsters, creates a shrinking spell to use as punishment for any who chooses to oppose him.
Warlock sends out his henchmen, led by Spring Heeled Jack, Bigfoot, Kraken, Gremlin, and Medusa while Vampire and The Monster are watching TV in the Miles home.
In the comic book, however, Medusa declared that by her count, Vampire's side had a majority, though all the other series 1 monsters were included as enemies in the game.
In 1992, there was an animated special, Monster in My Pocket: The Big Scream,[5] produced by Hanna-Barbera and directed by Don Lusk from a script by Glen Leopold, where Vampire (now with ample hair in a late 18th-century-style ponytail, voiced by Rob Paulsen) became the leader of the villains, and Invisible Man, now named Dr. Henry Davenport (even though he was called the Invisible Man in the intro and was referred to as such by Vampire, voiced by Paxton Whitehead), was in charge of the heroes.
Early releases of the special on video from Vidmark Entertainment contained a glow-in-the-dark monster: Charun, Thunderdell, or Yama.
This promotion consisted of boxes full of candy, a random monster figure, and any of the following: trading cards, mini-comics and mini activity books.
[6] It dealt with monsters trapped in a "Tapestry of Terror" that was shredded in battle with the now-good Warlock and his evil brother, "Morlock".
The following legendary monsters are part of the Monster in My Pocket series: Except for the Super Scary Series, all of these are included in the Argentine and Mexican sticker books from Cromy with the exception of Bash Tchelik, who is identified in the centerspread of the third issue of the Harvey comic book.