Starriors

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Starriors Hotshot figure

Starriors was a toy line and comic series distributed by Tomy and Marvel Comics in 1984.

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

Mexican Super Sierra (Twin Blade) toy in package

Starriors toys released in Mexico were a mix of six renamed Wastors in new packaging, a Mexican release of Twinhorn, Vultor and the Armored Battle Station. There was no Mexican fiction.

Japanese toys

Japanese Starriors Bigmanks toy box

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.
  • The BMOG toy line was designed to play with other toy lines including Starriors.

Comics

Fun Publicatons

Under license by Hasbro, Fun Publications released a number of Transformers stories which 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.

External links

This article is a stub. You can help WikiAlpha by expanding it.
  1. Starriors.com - Instructions, Promotional Materials