I used to love starcom as a kid, gave all my toys to my cousins but a few years back got nostalgic and recollected it all.

Put these pics up as another thread was on about the resale value and collectors markets for old toys.

I loved these, they had magnets in the feet so they could walk over metal panels on the ships. They 'transformed' at the click of a button as they were under tension and clockwork powered.

Really well designed beautiful toys, apparently didnt do so well in the US but was popular in the UK for a while. Never saw the TV show /cartoon as a kid but tracked it down on you tube.

its hit and miss but the toys are classics.

You had 'starcom' as the good guys, they had 'starwing' (space combat), 'astro marines' (ground forces) and i cant remember the guys who did the base stations.

The bad guys were clearly soviets/east germans with names like 'baron von darr' and 'Sgt Borek' and they had robot drone troopers.

Part of the great design was that all the small vehicles compacted down to the size of cargo crates (some vehicles came with crates you could store guns and packs and stuff in) and could be carried by the larger ships or magnetically lifted....

StarCom!

I can remember playing with the toys as a kid, but could never remember the name to google them >.<

I loved these as a kid, didn't really have a lot of toys from the show, but I remember they had some awesome magnetic mechanics! I also think the series is up on YouTube.

These were awesome though, along with M.A.S.K and G.I. Joe!

Yeah i had loads of MASK too (agan given to my cousins) and Gi Joe but in the UK it was called 'action force' and a wiered mix of repaints of gi joe stuff , some home produced stuff and a lot of renamed stuff.

Towards the end it got more standardised but things like the F.A,N.G mini copter were a good guy thing at first in the UK with 'sas force' and the bad guys were the 'red shadows' not cobra

cobra came in much later.

Snake eyes was always my favourite.

My fave mask toy was 'raven' which was a sports car that turned into a seaplane

The thing with 'starcom' is it all looked like it might just work.

It was pretty credible sci fi to a degree. I think it was sponsored by the NASA young astronaut project as a lot of the TV show actually had introductions to basic physics and science issues rather than the sort of pseudoscience you get in most sci fi.

Like the flagship good guy ship, the 'starmax bomber' looked a bit like the space shuttle, had a working cargo bay, a bomb rack, a three man crew and could 'piggyback' a fighter on its roof. And they had all sorts of 'not so warry but sor tof neccesary' stuff like recovery vehicles, hover cranes, airlocks on space bases etc etc.

Obviously still lots of sci fi fantasy stuff like sound in space and atmopshric type manouvres but also a lot more real science in there... probably why it never caught on

I had at least one of the figures, I loved the magnet feet, I thought they were really cool. I was actually trying to remember the name a few months ago.

I've just remembered the base forces were called 'starbase command', the evil space fighters were 'starmada' and the evil ground troopers 'invasion'.

I think 'starcom' was the last toy line i ever got into, i moved onto dungeons and dragons and runequest soon afterwardss and sort of left action figues for lead figures (talk about a downgrade... if the D&D action figures hadnt had been huge and rubbish i could have mixed the two as a young teen!)

I had at least one of the figures, I loved the magnet feet, I thought they were really cool. I was actually trying to remember the name a few months ago.

Although my guys always seemed to use their magnet feet to scale space bases that looked suspiciously like giant fridges or radiators....

Some of my other favorite, but little known 80's toys.

Robotix

Wheeled Warriors

Eagle Force (pre GI Joe metal figures, about half the size too)

Sky Commanders

Ah i had a fair bit of robotix. Great stuff

I did a school design project once using it to make a crane that could lift, swivel etc etc

Put a lot of stress on the octagonal plastic sockets and cracked a few though when i used a counter weight that could move.

Got any more robotic pics

i had three sets.

the one motor set with a white and blue spaceman

a set with a brown spaceman and a set with an orange space man (suit not skin)

One set had a control pad and like four motors and big battery box/base thats what i made the crane out of.

It was just dman expensive in the uk.

Zoids was another fave... that all got destoryed building 40k tanks and robots in the late 80s/early 90s

Ah eagle force...

i only had one of those, it was a blue F15 type yet my nana got me for christmas one year... only you couldnt get the figures in the UK so i never had a pilot for it...

epic disapointment when you're like 8 or whatever

I have a couple Robotix boxes in the attic here, and one of these on my shelf

I put some new batteries in it but it didn't work.

They reissued a lot of zoids around 2005.

I managed to pick up about four large boxed sets for £10 last year from a charity shop. I was going to convert them into 40k stuff but they are just too cool, i'll keep them for when i have kids myself.

I used to have alot of those they were cool back in the day ships that unfolded by themselves and used magnets, I remember the cartoon as well though probably through rose tinted goggles.

And zoids I had tons of them.

So were the Red Shadows the UK version of Destro's Iron Grenadiers?

Zoids were great as you could get the little wind up ones with a bit of saved up pocket money and thebattery powered ones would be like birthday or christmas presents.

stuff like robotix was totally out of pocket money range for me.

Gi joe/action force was good too as you could get the action figure with chores/pocket money and vehicles as bigger presents like at xmas.

Problem with MASK if i recall correctly is the smallest things were like motorbikes and again out of pocket money range unless i saved up for a little bit

Ha! What about Bone Age? LOL:

Sold for just one year, made by Kenner.

Funny story: So my parents take me to the US in 1988 to visit family, and my cousin has brand new Dino-Riders toys. It's love at first sight. I beg my parents for them, and get a hard "no". My parents were big into the whole "educational toys only" (Thank GOD they thought lego was educational). So I have one old relative who always got me something nice, and I beg them over the phone for a Dino-Rider, trying my best to describe what it was. I got "Bone Age" instead.

And believe me, I felt boned.

So were the Red Shadows the UK version of Destro's Iron Grenadiers?

Nah the big leader was Baron Ironblood (who later becomes cobra commander in the uk comic), he had a HISS tank and commander (called HYENA in the UK) and Destro was originally called 'red jackal' (he was russian iirc). he became destro later after tracking down baron ironblood who was in the process of recreating himself as cobra commander.

Red shadows were basic footsoldiers... they were repainted WWII german stromtroopers with resculpted helmets to have a face mask.

early UK 'action force' was all done on the cheap, repaints of WWII sculpts and repaints of gi joe tanks.

scarlett and the RAM bike was called 'quarrel' and the crossbow bike

The VAMP was an SAS recce jeep

See what you recognise from these pics.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IXWTLMOU5nc/T2ylwnwROCI/AAAAAAAACYE/SamuA5gVDzE/s1600/quarrel16.jpg

Loads of repaints and a lot of 'bad guy' stuff was good guy stuff and vice versa in the uk as 'action force'. A few years later they brought in Duke and standardised but they changed a lot of stuff like the lazer trooper was a british rifleman, ripcord was a british paratrooper, recondo was an australian etc etc

Ha! What about Bone Age? LOL:

Sold for just one year, made by Kenner.

Funny story: So my parents take me to the US in 1988 to visit family, and my cousin has brand new Dino-Riders toys. It's love at first sight. I beg my parents for them, and get a hard "no". My parents were big into the whole "educational toys only" (Thank GOD they thought lego was educational). So I have one old relative who always got me something nice, and I beg them over the phone for a Dino-Rider, trying my best to describe what it was. I got "Bone Age" instead.

And believe me, I felt boned.

I was a bit too old for dino riders but my mates little brother had them and i thought they were very cool. same 'scale' as MASK if i recall?

Ha! What about Bone Age? LOL:

Sold for just one year, made by Kenner.

Funny story: So my parents take me to the US in 1988 to visit family, and my cousin has brand new Dino-Riders toys. It's love at first sight. I beg my parents for them, and get a hard "no". My parents were big into the whole "educational toys only" (Thank GOD they thought lego was educational). So I have one old relative who always got me something nice, and I beg them over the phone for a Dino-Rider, trying my best to describe what it was. I got "Bone Age" instead.

And believe me, I felt boned.

Looks like a lame version of Insectoids

So were the Red Shadows the UK version of Destro's Iron Grenadiers?

Nah the big leader was Baron Ironblood (who later becomes cobra commander in the uk comic), he had a HISS tank and commander (called HYENA in the UK) and Destro was originally called 'red jackal' (he was russian iirc). he became destro later after tracking down baron ironblood who was in the process of recreating himself as cobra commander.

Red shadows were basic footsoldiers... they were repainted WWII german stromtroopers with resculpted helmets to have a face mask.

early UK 'action force' was all done on the cheap, repaints of WWII sculpts and repaints of gi joe tanks.

scarlett and the RAM bike was called 'quarrel' and the crossbow bike

The VAMP was an SAS recce jeep

See what you recognise from these pics.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IXWTLMOU5nc/T2ylwnwROCI/AAAAAAAACYE/SamuA5gVDzE/s1600/quarrel16.jpg

Loads of repaints and a lot of 'bad guy' stuff was good guy stuff and vice versa in the uk as 'action force'. A few years later they brought in Duke and standardised but they changed a lot of stuff like the lazer trooper was a british rifleman, ripcord was a british paratrooper, recondo was an australian etc etc

Oh man , just looked at the bone age range

It just doesnt make any sense....

like cavemen make a bomber out of bones?

R&D dept must have been on acid that month.

Dinoriders that's another blast from the past.

So were the Red Shadows the UK version of Destro's Iron Grenadiers?

Nah the big leader was Baron Ironblood (who later becomes cobra commander in the uk comic), he had a HISS tank and commander (called HYENA in the UK) and Destro was originally called 'red jackal' (he was russian iirc). he became destro later after tracking down baron ironblood who was in the process of recreating himself as cobra commander.

Red shadows were basic footsoldiers... they were repainted WWII german stromtroopers with resculpted helmets to have a face mask.

early UK 'action force' was all done on the cheap, repaints of WWII sculpts and repaints of gi joe tanks.

scarlett and the RAM bike was called 'quarrel' and the crossbow bike

The VAMP was an SAS recce jeep

See what you recognise from these pics.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IXWTLMOU5nc/T2ylwnwROCI/AAAAAAAACYE/SamuA5gVDzE/s1600/quarrel16.jpg

Loads of repaints and a lot of 'bad guy' stuff was good guy stuff and vice versa in the uk as 'action force'. A few years later they brought in Duke and standardised but they changed a lot of stuff like the lazer trooper was a british rifleman, ripcord was a british paratrooper, recondo was an australian etc etc

Half of those figures are repainted GI Joes, mostly the camouflage and black ones. All of the vehicles too, except the camo jeep and red tank and the white ones.

Yeah the camo jeep is a repaint of the original action force jeep (the first range of action force were sclaed down WWII and modern warfare figures to replace the 12" action man dolls). the red buggy/tank is a repaint of the original AF multi pursuit vehicle that could wheel, had wings that shot out and floatation collar to swim (same collar on the blue/grey boat). the blue grey boat is a repaint of the deep sea diving vessel with a new missile launcher and cockpit and i think the space ship (the blue grey one) is a rebuild of the multi terrain vehicle.

even the first action force base was the old card 'death star' playset with modern warfare scenes printed on it rather than star wars ones.