Starriors
Starriors was a toy line and comic series distributed by Tomy and Marvel Comics in 1984.
Contents
Starriors
Starriors was a toy line created by Tomy in 1984, released primarely in the United states, but with additional products released in Mexico and Japan.
Premise
Set on a future Earth, Starriors involves a trio of robotic groups created by future human scientists: the Protectors, Guardians, and Destructors, each created with a different role in insuring that a solar flare ravaged Earth would once again become habitable by humans. However, the Destructors and their leader, Slaughter Steelgrave, became fearful of deactivation upon the restoration of humanity, and thus sought to claim the planet for his own kind. They apparently succeeded in defeating all of the Guardians, and for a time Steelgrave's Destructors ruled the planet unopposed. However, a group of the enslaved Protectors eventually rediscovered their dedication to humanity, and with a few loyal Destructors and the last of the Guardians sought to reclaim Earth from Steelgrave.
Animated series
There is much speculation about the existence of Starriors animated material. A 1984 trade advertisement released by Tomy stated "There is currently a Starriors television mini-series in production to air in Spring and Fall '85."[1]
US Toys
Each Starrior has a Class, and a Series, while several of them have a model.
Destructor Class were programmed to defend the works designed and built by the Protectors, and to eliminate the mutant animal lifeforms expected to develop on the Earth's surface and alien invaders. Guardian Class were programmed to defend the slumbering man. Protector Class were programmed to rebuild civilization so that structures, facilities, and ecologies would be established and ready for use upon man's return.
Destructors
Code name | Gender | Type | Model | Reference number | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Auntie Tank | Female | Rammor | Scout Craft | 5302 | Heavily armored. Fought for the return of man when she learned of them. |
Backfire | Male | Rammor | Scout Craft | 5302 | Unlucky. He isn't trusted with lasers because he causes too much damage to his allies. Sympathetic to man, but was loyal to Slaughter in the end. |
Bolar | Male | Wastor | 5304 | Wastor warrior in search of the perfect opponent. | |
Clawgut | Male | Wastor | 5304 | Cowardly. Likes to instigate trouble for others. | |
Cricket | Male | 5311 | Excitable, deaf and mute. Can communicate with Deadeye by clicking. Killed by Auntie Tank. Comes packed with Deadeye. | ||
Deadeye | Male | Cosmittor | Demolishor | 5311 | Character is blind due to damaged sustained in battle. Relies on the guidance of Cricket. |
Gouge | Male | Wastor | Spiked Ream | 5304 | Sadistic and ill-tempered. |
Grub | Male | Trasher | 5301 | ||
Sawtooth | Male | Wastor | Buzzsaw | 5304 | Sympathetic to the Protectors and man. |
Scrapper | Male | Trasher | 5301 | ||
Slaughter Steelgrave | Male | Wastor | Vibro-Chisel | 5304 | Leader of the Destructors. |
Slice | Male | Wastor | 5304 | Likes inflicting punishment on his enemies. | |
Speedtrap | Female | Starrunner | 5309 | Erratic. Converts from walking bird to high speed sky fighter. Art on the package depicts 2 and 3 of this character working together. | |
Twinhorn | Male | Stalkors | 5319 | Enforcer of Destructor regulations. Art on the package depicts 2 of this character working together. |
Guardians
Code name | Gender | Type | Model | Reference number | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Citadel of Dreams | An Armored Battle Station which guards over man as he sleeps. | ||||
Stinger | Male | Comes with the Armored Battle Station. |
Protectors
Code name | Gender | Type | Model | Reference number | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Crank | Male | Wastor | Speed Drill | 5303 | Former botanist whose mind was damaged by a faulty transfer ring. |
Cut-Up | Male | Wastor | Chainsaw | 5303 | His "chainsaw" weapon is actually a circular saw. |
Flashfist | Male | Wastor | A walking battery who uses his enemies own energy against them. | ||
Geo | Female | Wastor | n/a | Hotshot's girlfriend. No toy exists. Appeared in the limited Marvel Comics series. | |
Hotshot | Male | Wastor | Duo-Laser | 5303 | Leader of the Protectors. Has successfully turned his weapons against the Destructors. Boyfriend to Geo. |
Motormouth | Male | Rammor | Scout Craft | 5304 | Talks to much. Spied on the Protectors for the Destructors. Depicted as white in the comics. |
Nipper | Female | Trashor | Genius for a scavenging. Girlfriend of Tinker. Suffered memory loss and gained false affection for Crank briefly. | ||
Ripsaw | Male | Wastor | On a quest for truth. Fights only to protect others. | ||
Runabout | Female | Strazor | Coward | ||
Scooter | Male | Rammor | Scout Craft | n/a | No toy exists. Appeared in the pack in comic "The Trap!" A blue recolor of Backfire. |
Thinktank | Male | Rammor | Scout Craft | 5302 | Depicted in most fiction as blue, despite toy being white. |
Tinker | Male | Trashor | Enterprising repair assistant. Boyfriend of Nipper. | ||
Twin Blade | Male | Wastor | Brilliant artist who loves his own work. | ||
Windstorm | Female | Vultor | Can fly. Useful spy. Hopeless snitch. |
Mexican toys
Starriors toys released in Mexico were a mix of six renamed Wastors in new packaging and a Mexican release of Twinhorn. There was no Mexican fiction.
Japanese toys
Tomy released six Starriors brand toys in Japan. These included recolors of Deadeye and Cricket (called Warugasu), Runabout (called Bigmanks) and Speedtrap. Each toy was released in two color variants, each unique to Japan except the red variant of Warugasu, which was identical to Deadeye.
Influence on other toys
Several toys outside the Starriors were influenced by the Starriors designs:
- Tomy's R.A.T.S. toy line in shared designs with may Starriors figures.
- The Radio Shack Galactic Walker was essentially a larger version of Runabout with wings and a battery powered motor.
- The B/O Space Dinosaur was a slightly remolded Deadeye and heavily remolded Cricket.
- The Nebular Warlords toy line included several figures that were a mix of Wastor bodies with new heads and the wind-up features removed.
Comics
Fun Publicatons
Under license by Hasbro, Fun Publications released a number of Transformers stories whick included references or minor crossovers with Starriors. The Starriors fictional universe was considered a parallel universe to Transformers. Additionally several Transformers characters were inspired by or shared names with Starriors.
1984 Marvel Comics
Six mini pack-in comics and 4 limited series retail comics were produced for Starriors.