Toys I Collect - Starcom

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!

Shadow Upriser

Been trying to find some time to pull this out for a pic, but there's always never 'enough' time. :p Or at least that's the excuse i give myself! :P

Well here she is, the last item for the starcom range in my possession! This is the Shadow Upriser vehicle that was released in the fourth and last wave back in 1989.... ah, that seems a lifetime ago!

Anyway, That kinda brings to end my collecting for Starcom; to think i started out only wanting to collect the loose figures, but along the way there seemed to be quite a few boxed/sealed samples released so SOMEHOW i started picking up those too, but yeah, i do have loose vehicles from the series still here and there. :)

I started last year around May/June? Somewhere around there, man, one thing i won't miss is the late night sniping on Evilbay. Well, i guess you'll meet a sorts on eBay, nice people, jerks and weird ones, but i guess that's all part of the hobby.

Didn't know it came in styrofoam packaging, and didn't take it out of the box cause i did it once before and it was such a P.I.T.A to put it back! But here's a place holder image anyway!

Starcom Sixshooter

Man, it's been ages since i've updated on anything related to Starcom; managed to get my mitts on the 3rd Rarest (In my opinion of course) vehicle from the Starcom series, the Sixshooter.

Again, this came out much later in the series in the fourth Wave (1989), mostly in UK and Europe, but i think some reached our shores too! :)

I don't know what the sixshooter is classified under, but from the looks of it, i'd say it's a heavily armored support/transport fighter. Why the six guns then? To surprise the enemy? :)

As with most of the later series, the complexity of the mechanisms and design weren't very complex unlike the earlier vehicles, but still it looks cool nonetheless. The forward six guns deploy in a pretty neat fashion; section by section, and the rear cargo bay is actually more of a spring triggered mechanism rather than a motorised function.

Starcom Euro Figure 2-packs

Been a while since i posted any Starcom related stuff!

Picked up coupla carded euro 2-paks from Evilbay not too long ago. Didn't really have time to take pics until now. These figures were released in 1989 when Mattel took over from Coleco. Released only in UK and Europe, most were repaints of existing figures, and some were also packed into vehicles minus the weapons packs.

On the left pic from top, the pink guy is Capt Howl, the robot below is Capt Hydrone. On the right the orange suited guy is just.... "Hammer", the guy in white below him is "Yank". They're pretty cool still, and the rarer sets fetch a small ransom on evilbay!

Shadow Attack Trike

Got mah mitts on a boxed attack trike, which was one of the last few vehicles in the Starcom line to be released. This was the fourth and last wave of vehicles ( which also included the Six Shooter, Shadow Upriser and Mini Tank ) released in UK and Europe only.

The attack trike has a very simple Power Deploy mechanism; the switch on the back causes the front tracks to deploy and raises the front guns at the same time, and the rear tracks flip open. It has a seat for one pilot and the side guns have to be manually deployed. Between this and the Mini tank i'd say the mini tank is definately cooler. :p

Skyroller

Here's the Skyroller "High-Rising Supertank" from the good guys team, it's kinda hard to describe what the actual purpose of this tank is... i mean, you're supposed to keep a low profile from being hit right? I guess you can use the power deploy feature to... get a better view over the fence! ;) Man, i think the good guys got shortchanged in the tank department!

This toy was released in 1988, along with the 3rd wave of vehicles which included the Missile Fox, Sidewinder, Tornado Gunship and the 4 action pods.

Shadow Blast Track

Another from the box! This is again from the third wave of Starcom toys released. I wonder what if Mattel ACTUALLY used the license they had to re-release Starcom? New molds and better motors i hope! Maybe with electronics now. :p Makes me wonder why these companies are sitting on these licenses they have! :(

These cases are mostly the Euro boxes, actually a lot of my Starcom buys seem to come from UK, Germany, Italy, Greece etc. In this box i got the Euro figure Lt Vasor.

Shadow Bandit

Any evilbay buy from the fruitbox. :) The shadow bandit was a later release in the Starcom line, and was part of the third wave in 1988 which consisted of the Shadow Spy and Shadow Blast Track for the bad guys.

Well, this was another vehicle that had a grip and trigger like the Shadow Vampire. The function of this vehicle was... to steal cargo? Or maybe as a quick entry/exit vehicle.

This was MIB, condition not bad and stickers unapplied. :)

Good guys wear black?

No matter how cool starcom's vehicles were, one area it was extremely weak in was character development; i guess that's where the Cartoon series tried to fix, but it was too little too late, and it flopped it the USofA.

The figures for starcom generally ALL looks the same! differences are mainly cosmetic on the suit and helmet. Perhaps the size of the figures restricted how much customization options there were for the mold.

I think some toy series succeeded very well in this aspect, M.A.S.K immediately comes to mind! Just mention Matt Trakker, Miles Mayhem, Dusty Hayes and Gloria Baker, people will immediately recognize those to be from that series! ( others being He-man, Transformers, GIJoe etc.).

The good guys for starom had such generic names, i'm even having problems remembering them now as i'm typing! :P At least the bad guys had robot drones!

For Starcom, there was an exclusive mail-away figure for the bad guys, Emperor Dark himself! (Cue evil Laughter). Nothing outstanding about it; could at least have given him a throne with power deploy features or something. :p

Next catch....

Another bunch of stuff from the Fruit Box! The Missile Fox and Tornado Gunship were part of the 3rd wave of Starcom toys release in 1988 in UK, Canada and parts of Europe. These is definately do not remember seeing in the local stores! (Or maybe they were there, just didn't pay attention. :p )

Once again these had random figures placed within; haven't opened these yet, so have NO idea what's inside.

I think after the first wave of toys a lot of the design philosophy and complexity of the toys started to change; except for a few cases, i feel quite a few of the later waves didn't have the impact that the original wave had. :)

Pilots get all the chicks!

I don't think the HARV7 (Heavy Armed Recovery Vehicle) driver has the most glamourous job in the Starcom universe; i mean, while the Starwolf and Starmax pilots are out in the thick of the action, this guy is.... recovering broken down vehicles? Anyway, a jobs a job and SOMEONE'S gotta do it! I think the SAF equivalent would be the driver for the 5 tonner. :p

This is one of the classics from the first wave of Starcom vehicles, quite simple in design and definately not the prettiest, but heck if it has a TON of guns! :) Got these earlier on when i started re-collecting Starcom.

Pictured here are the Canadian and Euro boxes, both lacking the US flag. Gotta admin though, the power deploy feature is kinda cool when you see it in action, espcially when it's picking up things other than the fuel container! :)

Shadow Vampire

Got this from the "Fruitbox" delivery; a Euro boxed Shadow Vampire! I actually kinda liked this when i was younger, i had one (and i still think it's around) and i remember i bought it from the then Hougang Oriental Emporium. (It was $15.90 or $19.90 then?)

Other than the odd shape, i always thought it was kinda cool.... but what DID the rear pilot do? The "power deploy" feature was the guns that you had to wind up and a trigger at the top of the nosecone will activate the gatling feaure. The VTOL thrusters swiveled 90 degrees when you squeezed the trigger.... i guess that's where the design gets weird as the trigger is part of the craft! :P... you could probably explain it away that it housed the radar or something i guess!

Being the Euro boxed version, the chance of getting the ACTUAL pilot is slim... seems i got the gayest bad guy o' them all! :p I mean seriously, he wanted his suit pink?!?!

Starcom Starhawk F/B

Finally, got around to opening the "Fruit Box", and sorting out the stuff that was inside, a LOT of trees were harmed in the process! The guy used like, tons of newspaper to bundle everything....... well, that's better than having the stuff crushed i guess. :p

This is the Euro boxed version of the Starhawk F/B, the funny thing about the Euro boxes is that they'll give RANDOM figures in their sets! Yeah, kinda weird i know. Europe had it's own range of figues which can be considered rare. (They were also sold in two-packs with the original figures from the 1st few waves)

I always wondered WHY the Starhawk had two cockpits, and who was supposed to sit in the other one, imagine my surprise when i opened the box to find the euro co-pilot of the Starhawk! :) Nice bonus i guess.

To battlestations!

Picked these four off evilbay recently, boxes not in the greatest condition, but the items inside were totally untouched and new.... how do these guys store their stuff man? :p

These four playsets were released in 1988 to Europe, but i'm sure we got these too as i remember seeing them in departmental stores!

Anyway, been trying to find HOW to store them, i got boxes all over the place, wifey sure to nag soon!

Interesting fact : there were TWO more mini bases that were supposed to be released; the big cannon fortress and missile station.

Got around to opening the package too! It'll take a while to sort the stuff. :)

Starbase Station

Got this a coupla weeks back, almost tot i wouldn't recieve it cos the goomba didn't reply to my messages OR mark the package as shipped! Well, lucky it came it one piece!

Another minty find; not that difficult to find these around, but they are starting to get rarer and good boxed ones are hard to come by... so mai tu liao!

This is one of two large base playsets that Starcom had, the other being starbase command ( i think Starbase command was definately more 'playable')

There are another 4 smaller playsets under the Starbase command team, hopefully i'll be able to find some time to pull them together for a group shot. :)

Bats in the Belfry!

Too many bats! :) Wanted to take a group shot before i sell off one set; think it looks cool like this, kinda like some invasion fleet! :)

Like the starmax bomber, the Shadowbat is cool in it's own way; it carries two other smaller fighters on the top, and it has a cargo hold in it's belly to carry one vehicle or troops.

Another cool fact; the Shadowbat is manufactured in Singapore! I wonder where it was assembled, etc man. :)

Recent Snipes!

Got these two off Evilbay not too long ago, NIB, haven't opened the Shadow Spy yet, but couldn't resist opening the sidewinder. :) Darn if that thing is small! :p

I guess why we still go back to toys of yesteryear, is that compared to those today, they'll always be more innovative than those of today; today is all about profits unfortunately, nobody will take a risk on an unproven concept! Look at all the repaints of the same toys we get nowadays. Not helping is the endless variants and collectors editions of these toys... who are they catering too anyway?

Well, the way i look at it, the kids nowadays seem more interested in their PSP's, consoles and whatnot, so toys may literally go the way of the dinosaur in years to come!

Starmax Bombaaaa!

Finally got this through ebay, after MANY a failed attempts and much hesitation on my part!

This was the 2nd of 3 boxes this guy from Canada was offering... goodness knows what he was doing with so many! This was a New in sealed box case, seriously rare, and getting rarer!

I missed out previously on 2 MIB sets from another seller, ie. opened and used but very good condition. The first was when i offered too low a price.... someone snatched it from right under my nose by buying it out right away. Ditto for the 2nd one.. man, felt darn pissed man. :p

Then came along this guy i bought from, i had it on watch, but when it hit US$300+ 2 hours before the auction ended, i kinda gave up liao.. That was WAY too ex. :p

Who knows he listed ANOTHER set! I thought, nothing to lose, and was expecting it to hit the same pricing again. Surprisingly, after a few days, there was still not much movement on the pricing. So there i was, in the middle of the afternoon, staring at my monitor and doing some eBay sniping.... AND i managed to snag it at $122! :D Happiness.

The set came just this week on Monday... nice surprise after CNY too. :) So a few things i learnt about Ebay :

1) Keep looking for the item you want, they always pop up at weird hours.

2) Don't hesitate if you know that you want the item.

3) Set a max limit for yourself on the item pricing.

4) There are people out there more desperate than you for the item, and who will pay crazy amounts for it! :p

Update for the week! Mini Tank

I don't ever remember this released in Singapore, apparently this mini vehicle and anothe(Shadow Attack Trike) were Europe only releases. Actually they seemed to get the cooler vehicles later. :P

The Shadow mini-tank is kinda simplistic, shows how the designs kinda tapered off during the later part of the toy releases.

Cool thing though, this tank is actually meant to fit under another vehicle, the Shadow Upriser.

Another week comes and goes!

Ahhh, time flies man. :p it's gonna be the Lunar New Year in slightly over 2 weeks! Still haven't gotten over Christmas yet man, sheesh! :p

Picked up a shadow raider from Ebay, boxed and unapplied stickers! :D The one in the foreground is the Mattel version, that was from another purchase and the power deploy features don't work well, looks good as it is already though! :p The one in the back is the coleco version. Very subtle differences. :)