I loved 'starcom' as a kid and after finding some cheap in a charity shop (i sold all my old ones) i got a wierdly compulsive desire to collect them all.

For a pretty 'unknown' range (it did well in the UK but poorly in the states) it was surprisingly easy to find on ebay but prices were often silly and a lot of stuff broken.

Still i've since managed to collect all but about eight very rare figures and two vehicles.

A few pics of my collection of twenty or more year old space toys!

I can recognize most of the stuff on Robot Chicken, but this one eludes me. What was the line of toy space ships that had magnets everywhere? I can never remember the name.

for me it was the kenner "mega force" stuff.. but i wasn't really a "kid" when I first purchased it. A local toy store was going out of business and a bunch of the stuff was marked waaaaaay down so i bought it. Got it home thought it was cool and tried to collect all of it.. was pretty successful except i lack one of the vehicles "Goliath"... you can google it for info. i still find posting pics on this site a total PITA!!

I can recognize most of the stuff on Robot Chicken, but this one eludes me. What was the line of toy space ships that had magnets everywhere? I can never remember the name.

That was starcom.

The figures had magnets on their feet, the ships had metal panels.

All the small ships could condense down to the size of a cargo module and had a magnet on the top, the larger ships had magnetized cargo bays etc.

It was all clockwork based too, so you folded them up to module size, pushed a button and they 'transformed' to a ship or a tank on their own.

Cracking stuff when i was a kid. Regrettably the tie in cartoon wasnt the best so i don't think it captured the imagination of a lot of kids. I enjoyed it but i think as they were doing some sort of tie in with NASA their was a bit too much 'science' in the cartoon.

spaceship! spaceship! spaceship!

AWW yeah! I remember STARCOM I had two of those fold out bases: The Med bay and the one with the blue observation tower.

Those vehicles were awesome! motorised action without batteries, smaller vehicles that could fold up and be carried around by the larger ones, Magnet boots for the mini figs. Bad guys with a Triforce logo

Seriously how did this fail in the USA?

Hey Gadge, did/do you have this 3D advert book/mini comic?

Awesome thing to have but sadly didn't survive my childhood intact.

Okay, my turn to throw in some obscure toyline: UNIFIGHTERS

The short lived toy line of G.I.Joe style figures with GINORMOUS backpacks that transformed into mini vehicles that then combined into a much larger vehicle.

PS If any of you know if there was a TV comercial for this, let me know.

Okay one more: ZERO HOUR (Or as my box said: Code Zero)

This line took little plastic army men to a whole new level.

I had that big (motorised) monorail playset (pictured above) as a kid. My parents bought it a few months ahead for my birthday and hid it in the wardrobe, but acidentaly found it and would many days sneak into the room to stare in wonder at the awesome boxart, counting down the days to my birthday. By the way: This pic doesn't do it justice: That box is Massive!

The instruction sheet also sugested you should paint the lil' plastic soldiers.

Nah, i never got a starcom book like that.

I have all the catalogues that came with the boxed vehicles and i have a very rare 'trade catalogue' that has mock ups of lots of the stuff and some kits with prototype figures that were never released though.

Unifighter and zero hour were never released in the Uk. well if they were it would have been after 91 as i was still going into toy shops to buy warhammer miniatures until about then.

Some things in the uk like 'micronauts' you saw a bit of but usually only wierd bits and bobs, it was never very big.

The main toys of the early to mid 80s were:

star wars

action man

action force

he man/masters of the universe

mask

transformers

gobots.

fischer price adventure people/space stuff

evil knievil motorbike toys

i dont remember any other action figure line doing very well

What? No Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK?

The real Ghostbusters did also pretty good (at least over here)

Zoids was also big early in the 80's. Altough not sure if that count's as action figures.

I did spot some Food Fighters one time. I tought they were hilarious!

Any one ever hear of "Mega Force"? Think micro machines, but with super heavy (as in 40k) vehicles .

Ah we had zoids and TMNT , ghostbusters too but the last two were ranges that came out when i was fully immersed in warhammer and D&D and didnt buy action figures any more.

Actually there was a short lived D&D toy range, i had a fair bit of it (the paladin and his horse, a hook horror, an ogre, a titan, an orc, an evil fighter and a wizard iirc...) but it never took off, wierdly it did not really tie in well with the very popular dungeons and dragons cartoon we had over here. SOme of the figures had cameos but all the major characters didnt have figures

No venger or eric or bobby etc etc

Wow, I had both Zero hour and Starcom. Both were epic. Had the unifighters too, got them cheap at a car boot sale.

Ah we had zoids and TMNT , ghostbusters too but the last two were ranges that came out when i was fully immersed in warhammer and D&D and didnt buy action figures any more.

Actually there was a short lived D&D toy range, i had a fair bit of it (the paladin and his horse, a hook horror, an ogre, a titan, an orc, an evil fighter and a wizard iirc...) but it never took off, wierdly it did not really tie in well with the very popular dungeons and dragons cartoon we had over here. SOme of the figures had cameos but all the major characters didnt have figures

No venger or eric or bobby etc etc

Mmmm Diana and Sheila... Err I mean, yeah we had the series over here to back in the day. Show was awesome. It gave me a distrust toward fairground rollercoaster rides and a liking for multiheaded dragons.

Say, wasn't there an episode in wich they almost finish of Venger, and only refrain from killing him because that would make them as just as bad as him? Talk about difference between game and cartoon:

Cartoon:

Hank : "we can't kill Venger, that would make us no better than him."

RPG:

Mike: "I call shot to the head! Let's kill Venger! yaaay!"

John: "How much XP for killing the big V?"

Bruce: "My Alignment changes from Lawfull Good to Chaotic Neutral! Kill Venger!!!"

At least the DVD came with "The Animated Series Handbook" for 3.5 wich statted the main characters (except Tiamat! Boo!)

I seem to remember *everyone* recalls and episode where they made it home ... thing is that never happened in any episode.

They always nearly did and it ended with them still being stuck there.

That sucks.

They were gonna make it back in an unpublished episode. There is an audio play based on the script.

You can find it (and the rest of the series) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SRbQVhSsm0&index=28&list=PLvlodmmzajNAoaNJimuYue4dLrcRjsXBt

My obscure 80s toy of choice was Sectaurs. They were humanoid insect warriors with a giant bug companion. The really big ones they could ride and were puppets, but the little ones were usually mini squirt guns. Everyone was a little bigger than He-Man size iirc. I collected the comics too. Sigh. I'm old.

Anyone remember these bad boys?

Yup! I think i only saw 'em once or twice in a dutch toy store that also had Silverhawks and a few other lines you couldn't find anywhere else. never had one, tough. But that Fortress was massive!

Speaking of bigger than he-man action figures: Marshall BRAVESTARR!!!

What? No Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK?

The real Ghostbusters did also pretty good (at least over here)

Zoids was also big early in the 80's. Altough not sure if that count's as action figures.

I did spot some Food Fighters one time. I tought they were hilarious!

Any one ever hear of "Mega Force"? Think micro machines, but with super heavy (as in 40k) vehicles .

looking for a mega force Goliath!! I have everything else..

Sweet! I hope you find one.!

My fave one was the Thunderwolf:

Man, Kenner had some of the best toy lines back in the days...