Decided to put this as the next toy line as it's something i've re-collected most recently (though most of it's in the store now!). The starcom range by Coleco was an amazing range of toys which looked good, and had two gimmicky but awesome features; the Power-Deploy feature (which would be used in another series of toys called 'Xpanders'... yes. a rather unfortunate name) and Magna lock. Each vehicle had a button which you pressed to deploy a hidden weapon or feature, the buzzing sound from the little spring motor was most satisfying. The playsets and vehicles were complemented by little astronaut/space guys who had little magnets in their boots.... oooo fun time on the fridge!
There was a TV series too, which was kinda weak, and didn't hold my attention too long. The first series had great designs, and the transformations were innovative. Play value was high too, as each vehicle could interect with each other in some ways; most vehicles folded up and could be carried by the larger ships or cargo haulers. The magnets were also used to activate certain features, like the firing guns on the base playsets. To me the most awesome was the shadowbat, it could carry two little shadow parasites on the wings, and an invader in it's cargo belly!
Sadly, the series didn't really catch on, later releases were much simplified in design, and of poorer quality. Also, collecting this has it's own cons; very often the 'engines' (just wind up springs) didn't work out of the box. It would be cool with the technology nowadays, to have a revival of sorts for Starcom The rights are now with Mattel methinks!
Interestingly, Europe had another seperate wave of Starcom figures and vehicles, some which never reached our shores!
