THE Toad hasn't appeared in many mainstream titles; he's always being replaced by generic Toads, and even Toadsworth in one game. The confusion expands even more when you take into account that THE Toad's clothing setup is not even unique.
Bowser Jr., on the other hand, has had more mainstream fame.
What are you talking about?
Toad is the brigade captain in Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 (x2)
Toad is the playable in Super Mario Bros. 2 (x1)
Toad is one of the mushroom retainers (x1)
Toad is Peach's attendant in Super Mario Sunshine (x1)
Toad is playable in New Super Mario Bros Wii (x1)
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Bowser Jr. is one of the main antagonist in New Super Mario Bros Wii and DS (x2)
Bowser Jr. apeared in Mario Sunshine (x1)
Bowser Jr. appears in Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 (x2)
Toad: 6
Bowser Jr: 5
Okay so you're telling me that Toad's clothing set up is not unique. First off, what about Yoshi? He looks like the other green yoshis.
Since when was Jr. more famous than Toad? You can't just say that out of no where. Everyone knew Toad ever since the first mario game. You can't deny that Toad is indeed more important than Jr. to the Mario series and most importantly, the history of nintendo.
All of this does not matter. Relevance and roles aren't much of a criteria in an inclusion of a character. It's either if the character is unique, popular and if Sakurai is interested in it. Don't even think of predicting which Sakurai prefers.
Sakurai's interest > Unique > Popularity
For the last time, Toad is not generic. People are saying that because he's part of a generic race and it's because of his clothes. So? You think it's cause of the clothes or personality. You got it all wrong. All toads have different personality and that includes Toad himself. About the clothes, look at Yoshi once again. Toad is actually unique. I can't understand how Bowser Jr. supporters say that Toad is generic when Jr. is simply a mini bowser. Yes, he is a mini bowser. They both have the same whiny personality with great strength, a huge shell and both of them can breathe fire. The only difference is that paintbrush Jr. uses but that's it.
Enough said. I do not want to discuss about Toad