Megaforce Strikemaster

Got a first for The Barracks today, the oldest item I have written about to date (not counting reissues of G1 Transformers) from a line I had a special love for as a kid, the Strikemaster Orbital Attack Shuttle of Megaforce!



One of Kenner's lesser remembered but nifty entries, Megaforce was the loosely defined story of the war between the Triax and V-Rocs forces and the giant, ridiculous war machines they loved. Debuting in 1989 and getting cancelled after only one series of vehicles, the line isn't very big but almost everything it offers is gold. Ridiculous, impossibly awesome gold, the Strikemaster being no exception. As I managed to snag one still in box, let's start with a look at that.



The front features some nicely done art of the Strikemaster preparing to launch the shuttle section while blasting at unseen V-Rocs forces in a desert setting. Until recently, I had always assumed Megaforce was somewhat playing on the popularity of the Gulf War at the time (and if you think nobody would attempt such a thing, you are obviously forgetting how big those Desert Storm trading cards were), but seeing as how Megaforce debuted in 1989 and the Gulf War didn't officially begin until 1990, I guess I just associated the two due to military hardware and desert settings. Though it would have been a much different war if any of these machines had taken the field.



The sides, bottom and top of the box show the Strikemaster in action, but since that action consists mainly of "raising gantry" and "lowering gantry", they are a bit repetitive so I'm only going to show you the top panel. You may have already noticed something a bit off about the scale here, that is meant to be a full-sized battle tank the shuttle is hauling.



The back of the box features blueprints of the Strikemaster's design, highlighting various features. It also shows why I was able to score this item in box for only fourteen bucks with shipping, there's a bit of crushing and water damage to the bottom. As the actual toy was perfectly intact and I'm not a mint in box kind of guy, this doesn't bug me.



Out of the box, the Strikemaster is composed of three main sections; the booster rocket, orbital shuttle and gantry. No assembly is required in this case, but there is a small sticker sheet included. Surprisingly, the stickers are still viable and hold like new, though they have developed a few small cracks and bubbles in the printing.



The gantry section is essentially a mix between a weaponized version of the crawler transport used to move shuttles to the launchpad in real world space missions and a ICBM carrier. The gantry lacks any sort of rolling wheels so I would refrain from "driving" it across rough surfaces as you will most likely scuff up the sculpted treads.



As it is both transportation and launch pad, the gantry is jointed at the base and at the "neck" so the command pod can remain level during launch. The swiveling tan cannons on the roof coupled with the four fixed guns on the nose ensure the gantry isn't a sitting duck when bringing the shuttle within launch distance. While the gantry alone isn't all that exciting, the detail level on it is still impressive, with numerous vents, rivets and panels across it's armored skin.



The next section is the booster rocket and here's where the gung ho absurdity really begins to shine. The packaging claims this is merely a three stage booster rocket and lists no armament or crew for it, unlike the others sections, but the sculpt details say otherwise. The middle section clearly sports a cockpit and there are no less than three double-barreled turrets present (one is on the underside of the central section.) You could argue that the weapons are automated, or that the decision to make it an unmanned rocket came late in the design process, but I prefer a different interpretation; the Triax commanders are so committed to winning (or just firing the most guns ever) that they fill even their disposable rockets with soldiers. Steering back towards the topic at hand, the bright yellow-green of the booster makes a nice contrast with the olive, tan and cream of the rest of the Strikemaster. You may also be wondering about the notched strut jutting from the back of the center section, this is because the rocket acts as a giant missile when attached to the shuttle portion of the Strikemaster, as well as serving another purpose when docked that I'll get to in a minute.



Finally, we come to the shuttle itself. Arguably the "actual" Strikemaster, the shuttle is the largest and most involved of the pieces. Displaying some serious Rule of Cool, the shuttle is a mass of guns and awesome, featuring five sculpted turrets scattered along it's body, spring-loaded wings, a hunchbacked secondary command cockpit and cargo space for two vehicles in it's bed. I'm not entirely sure what the Strikemaster's mission profile would be; it has a large booster rocket, implying it is designed for actual space missions, but seems to be mainly intended to deliver vehicles to battle rather than be an active assault vessel itself, but then it is crawling with weapons. Does it launch at an angle and parachute tanks down? Can it land on it's own and let them off? If so, why does it need a launch system initially? I'm thinking about this too much.



The two clips in the bed of the shuttle are designed to hold any of the individual ground units from the line, like the included tank seen here. I forgot to take any pictures of the tank by itself, but it is nicely detailed for an item roughly the size of a postage stamp with several paint applications and a die-cast metal body.



Putting the Strikemaster together is as easy as plugging the booster into the underside of the shuttle and sliding the combined pieces onto a rail on the gantry's neck via a track on the underside of the booster. The combined vehicle is impressively over the top.


The Strikemaster is at it's best in a mid-launch pose, ready to fling the shuttle off into...whatever it is giant gun shuttles do. Though there is no real way to launch the shuttle from the gantry, the booster can be explosively detached by the small trigger under the left fin, activating the spring-loaded mechanism. This also allows the shuttle's wings, normally held in place by the booster's fins, to spring forward.



Altogether, the Strikemaster is an excellent summation of the Megaforce ideal; giant military vehicles powered by their own sheer absurdity. Despite only being produced for a short time, Megaforce doesn't seem to have the same level of following some of it's contemporaries still hold, so most items from the line can be had for reasonable prices if you keep an eye out (as I mentioned earlier, this cost me all of fourteen dollars.) The Strikemaster is one of the smaller and tamer of the designs, which include such things as a land-based aircraft carrier and massive jets that are also massive tanks depending on how you look at them. Megaforce was an inspired and underappreciated line full of zany, fantastic ideas. If you don't mind the glorification of war, it's a pretty neat line to get into.

NECA's Night Fighter Robocop

Though I never saw Robocop as a kid (thanks, over protective Dad!), I was still into Kenner's tie-in line and the spin off Ultra Police that were added later. Though I only ever owned ED-209 due to said Dad's fear the caps packaged with the figures would turn me into a pint-sized pyro, there was always one basic figure in the old Kenner catalogs I drooled over; Night Fighter Robocop. This nineties-tastic figure was cast in glow in the dark plastic with metallic blue highlights and a swap out chain gun arm. Obviously, the stuff little boys' violent dreams are made of. Fast forward to 2012 and toy giant NECA owning the Robocop license. So far, there have been standard, battle damaged and spring-loaded hip holster variations utilizing the same basic figure buck with new paint and or gimmick. Fresh out the gate however, is a Toys R Us exclusive that may make a few old Kenner fan boys swoon. Say hello to Night Fighter Robocop, 2012.

I have to talk about the packaging here because it is a great homage to the classic card style and features a very nice version of NECA's logo designed to resemble that of Kenner. The character portrait is drawn well enough, but still a little rough so that it fits the style of old school packaging art of the time.



The insert in the front of the clam shell features the yellow and red grid pattern present on the classic line's packaging as well as the character's name, role and special abilities. Unbeknownst to me, glowing like a light bulb is the number one method of fighting crime after dark. The best thing about the packaging however, is a line mentioning that no caps are included, another reference to the old Robocop line where everyone came with a roll of caps.



Out of the package, he looks pretty good. NECA's sculptors seem to have to captured every teeny tiny detail in the suit; Murphy here is covered in panels, rivets, joints and wires that faithfully recreate the movie prop. What blew my mind is that across the band of his helmet and front of his left thigh, etched in tiny letters is the legend "OCP POLICE - 001" This detailing is practically lost on the glow in the dark plastic, but as this basic mold is used for four different Murphy's, it undoubtedly shows up better on silver. Still an amazingly small detail most other companies wouldn't bother with.

As mentioned, the sculpt is nice and crisp, closely resembling the character's movie appearance. The head sculpt is simple but effective with a stoic, neutral expression that again nicely captures his cold, impersonal manner after being rebuilt. It almost looks like the top half of the helmet is removable, but sadly it is not. it would have been a cool feature to remove the upper half and reveal Murphy's scarred visage, but with costs of tooling and all...

Articulation is generous if a little stiff, but this is Robocop we're talking about. He features ball joints in his neck (at the shoulder instead of the base of the skull interestingly enough) chest and hips, pivot and swivel shoulders, swivel waist and forearms and lightly ratcheting elbows, knees and ankles. Some of these, like the elbows, are a little limited but he can hold and aim his gun and stalk mechanically forward, pretty much all you see him doing in the movie anyway.

In a cool little piece of engineering, NECA has made working ankle pistons that are hinged to be able to move with his legs. The glow in the dark plastic lets you get a good look at the little cylinders sliding up and down as you move his feet, a very nice touch.

Night Fighter Robocop comes with two accessories, the first being his heavily modified Beretta 93R pistol. Cast entirely in black, it fits in his gun hand a little loosely but should stay stable as long as you're not in earthquake country. Sadly, this figure doesn't use the spring loader holster version of the mold so he can't store his pistol, but he can be posed with it hovering over his hip like he's in the middle of drawing it. His left hand is molded in an open palm so he's only ever going to be a righty, which is fine since a big part of his character is how he uses the pistol, but I do wish it were in a slightly less neutral pose.

His other accessory is an alternate right hand with the data spike seen in the movie extended. The hands pop off smoothly and the spike itself is surprisingly hard and pointy, perfect for stabbing into the eyes of your other toys.

There is an area I have issue with on this figure and that is the paint. Night Fighter Robocop uses only a single color in the black seaming between the joints of his armor and on his visor, but as the picture above shows, it has a tendency to bunch up around the shoulder joints. After taking him out and rotating the shoulders a bit, I was disappointed to see large flakes of paint coming off. This doesn't ruin the look of the figure, but it would have been nice if it were a little more durable. Robocop also appears to have a very light black wash over the glow in the dark sections, but considering the uneven distribution and spottiness of it, I'm not entirely certain this isn't just slop paint dirtying the figure up. If you're going to grab this guy, take a good look at his mug first because that seems to be an area where the black spattering was most prevalent, I passed on a couple samples until I found one with a mostly clean face.

Paint issues aside, I can't really fault this figure, he's an awesome sculpt paying homage to an awesome classic figure and we all know I love glow in the dark toys. Poe Ghostal had a few words about Night Fighter Robocop, mainly lamenting the lack of metallic blue highlighting and gun arm, and while I see where he's coming from (and Poe, I totally agree both those things would knock this guy out of the park), I think NECA did pretty well for a quick exclusive that would tug at nostalgia collectors. Hell, I almost want a second one just to leave in package for display! Night Fighter Robocop will run you sixteen bucks and is of course only available at Toys R Us, but if the six or so on shelves when I was there is any indication, he's not such a hot item that you'll miss your chance if you don't grab him at first sight. And while you might not love him the first time you set eyes on him, I have a feeling he'll grow on more than a few of you just as he has on me.

"Your move, creep."
Added bonus glow pics!

Kenner's Mantis Alien

In the same package as Lava Planet Predator came another gem from the past, one of the most beloved of my vast Kenner Aliens collection, 1993's mighty Mantis Alien! Before we dive right in though, there are a couple of things I need to clarify.

Some of you may remember me expressing my dislike for toy lines that give a hero different costumes and gear of an extremely limited scope just to sell more figures. I feel that this angle only works well for a couple of characters (Batman, Iron Man) while it is supremely bad for others (usually Superman.) Kenner is no stranger to this tactic and they applied it to many of the licenses they held, including Aliens. The thing is, it works beautifully with the Aliens property. If you can get around the fact that some of the host animals the Alien figures spawned from could in no way house chest bursters, any variation of the creature's life cycle can be hand waved. Face Hugger Queen? A mutation caused normal Face Huggers to simply mature into giant versions! Killer Crab Alien? Planet populated mainly by giant, carnivorous crustaceans! The individual Aliens represented in the line could just be from specific hives where all drones are of that type, as they all matured from the same dominant host species.



Once again, the nostalgia here is nearly choking, the Mantis was one of my absolute favorites of the Aliens line as a kid, which is saying a lot as I owned almost every Alien made. The backing card is sort of the inverse of the Predator line; Art of a classic "drone" Alien flanks the bubble on the left beneath a vertically inclined version of the iconic Aliens title, with art of the Mantis Alien itself on the right. Behind the bubble is art of an Alien egg, incorrectly illustrated with the flaps opening from the bottom. This figure is so old, when I took him out of the shipping box, his bubble fell clean off the backing card! Convenient as it did almost no damage to the card art and I had wanted to save it for display purposes anyway.



The card back shows off some of the aliens and pretty much all of the horribly bad Space Marine figures. The Mantis came out about midway through the series, so he is advertised alongside such staples as the exploding Scorpion Alien, strangling Snake Alien, amazing Flying Queen and classic Queenie herself. New comers beside the Mantis include the Queen Face Hugger and the Rhino Alien, who like the Mantis, is a heavy retool/repaint of an earlier figure in the series, the Bull Alien. The Marines line up features the only good one ever made, Atax! You better believe he'll show up at The Barracks sooner or later.



Also featured are some vehicles from the line, the only remotely movie related one being the Power Loader. The Evac Fighter doesn't look too bad considering, but there's no decent pilot for it. Though I do know where I can get a boxed one for cheap... No! Must resist collecting urge...



Out of the package, he is nothing short of fantastic. As mentioned, the Mantis is a remold/repaint of the Gorilla Alien released earlier, but Kenner went so above and beyond on mold and paint changes, you probably wouldn't notice without close inspection. I don't own the Gorilla as of this moment to compare, but the Mantis uses the same torso and gimmick while receiving all new parts in form of arms, legs, head and an abdomen replacing the Gorilla's more traditional tail.



The Mantis Alien is cast in translucent green plastic, a method Kenner started using a lot in the Aliens line which I absolutely loved as a kid. There are some light silver sprays across his arms, legs, chest and head that really bring out a lot of the sculpted detailing, which this line is famous for. Way before McFarlane and NECA were turning out super detailed Aliens merchandise, Kenner was cramming every inch of their takes on the creatures with all kinds of muscle texture, bone extrusions and looping cables. What's even more amazing is that the sculptors didn't just design one leg and arm and mirror them for the opposite limbs; Each arm and leg, while similar in overall shape, have multiple unique organic details that differentiate them.



Being a toy from the nineties, the Mantis Alien isn't just there to look pretty, he has an action feature as well! Squeezing the lighter green tubes on the back together causes the figure to spread its arms wide, releasing them brings the arms back together to trap enemies in the Mantis' spiky embrace. You can also see that where the Gorilla Alien had a tail, the Mantis sports a newly sculpted abdomen piece, complete with veined wings and a hooked stinger.



The head is a lot less smooth than the standard drone, featuring a lot of ridges, spikes and folds across the dome of the skull. The top of the head has the heaviest application of the silver sprays seen elsewhere on the figure and the snarled mass of teeth are painted a metallic gold. With six points of articulation, the Mantis Alien can't strike a whole lot of poses, but besides grabbing and crushing, there's not much else you need from him.



The translucent plastic is a real hook to me, just look at how beautiful he looks with a strong back light! Despite the very non-movie design, the Mantis looks like he could pose for the cover of an Aliens DVD and not look at all out of place.



The Mantis Alien is an excellent example of how to do a repaint/resculpt right as well as being just as excellent an example of how to create variations on your main characters and still have them be appealing. Twenty years later, he still looks amazing and is a real gem in the Aliens line. I paid about fourteen dollars for a carded sample, but loose ones will of course be much cheaper. Your mileage may vary, but if you can find a Mantis for a price you don't mind paying, he's certainly worth it.


"You got it, Sarge!"

Kenner's Lava Planet Predator

If you were a child of the late eighties to early nineties, you're probably familiar with the now defunct toy giant, Kenner. The company swung the Star Wars license like a bat in the seventies, scored two huge hits with DC Super Powers and the much loved Real Ghostbusters lines in the eighties and gave Batman a costume for every conceivable occasion for three whole movies. They also took on quite a few projects based on R rated movies including Terminator and even Aliens. Seeing as how you can't go too long with Aliens before Predators show up, here's today's review.



Straight out of 1994, it's the Lava Planet Predator! The backing card is fantastic with some very nice art of a "classic" style Predator shadowing the bubble, the Predator title in the trademark font on the right and a full body action shot of the Lava Planet Pred himself on the left. There's a blurb about how Predators are The Ultimate Alien Hunter (Ha-ha! Double entendre!), the toy's name and action feature of "Blazing Rocket Launcher!" and a warning that this toy based off of R rated movies where people's spines are ripped out is for ages four and up. A corner tag informs you that the Lava Planet Predator is "New!" which he is now most assuredly not.



The back of the card makes me really want to jump on the internet and spend a couple hundred dollars. Let's take a closer look at the good stuff...


Oh momma...

I can't tell you how much time I spent staring at the figure line ups on the backs of Aliens cards or in the awesome product booklets Kenner used to stick in all their larger boxed items. The Predator line started a couple years after the Aliens one, so most of the Aliens shown are from the tail end of the line, but really there was no such thing as a bad Kenner Aliens toy. Though the Predators had a decent turn out, Kenner's photographers were careful not to put the two repainted molds too close to one another. Those of you with sharp eyes may notice the Lava Planet Pred is just a repaint of the Cracked Tusk and the Nightstorm Pred a repaint of the Scavage. Doesn't mean I don't want every single one of them though, you see that Stalker Predator? GLOWS IN THE DARK. He will be mine...



As I mentioned, Lava Planet Predator is just a repaint of the Cracked Tusk Predator released earlier. "Just a repaint" in this case doesn't do the figure justice however. While the basic idea is certainly a bit goofy and the color scheme is nineties-tastic, it's gorgeous in its simplicity. The entire figure is cast in translucent red plastic which lends to the fiery theme and could easily be interpreted as how a cloaked Predator's field would refract the glow of lava. Or it can remind you of a really big cherry flavored Jolly Rancher. Damn your deliciousness, Lava Planet Predator!




There are few paint applications, making this an even more cost efficient repaint in the long run. An uneven, blotchy black pattern rimmed with yellow adorns the chest, looking like a slightly cooler section of lava over the Predator's heart. A light black spray was given to the face to bring out detail and to the dreds hanging down the back of his skull. His tiny eyes are painted a bright yellow that really pops in person but not in a single picture I took.



Accessories come in the form of a mask and a shoulder mounted rocket launcher that snaps tightly and securely to spikes molded onto the Predator's armor. The mask, cannon and cannon arm are cast in a metallic coppery-red, the missile and shoulder pad in metallic silver. The cannon arm is articulated where it meets the shoulder pad and again at the cannon so it can be folded away behind the figure's back when not in use. The launcher's spring is still very tight and the missile flies far, harkening back to the golden days when toys could blind you if you were stupid or careless.




The Cracked Tusk Predator was possibly the closest to the movie creature's design in this line of giant bola-cannon wielding and razor-disc throwing Predators, so the Lava Planet Pred exhibits this trait as well. While it may be grossly over-sized, the shoulder cannon is quite close to the ones used by the creatures in the first two movies and the mask is a slightly amped up version of the movie design with bladed mandibles. But that's not all.



The figure's left arm features a very familiar wrist gauntlet, complete self-destruct timer for when your Terminator figure traps Lava Planet Pred under a log! The right gauntlet features the twin spring out blades the Predators frequently use in their extended position and there are various bits of chest, shoulder and shin armor resembling the style of the movie creature's wardrobe adorning the Lava Planet Predator. A drawback of the translucent plastic is that a lot of this sculpted detail is difficult to make out, a few more light black washes like the one on the face would have benefited this figure.



Another trademark of Kenner toy lines was the articulation; Between the head, shoulders and hips, you're looking at five points of articulation. All five are swivels and with the pose the figure was sculpted in, you can't get much variety out of them. This might seem poor, but it was pretty standard fair for a time when kids had to bash their toys into each other if they wanted more action out of them and adult toy collectors were still relatively unheard of. You can still get some really great lunging or stalking poses however, as my pictures somewhat demonstrate.



Released in 1994, the Lava Planet Predator probably originally retailed for around seven or eight dollars and time hasn't pushed his price up much, I bought this one carded for about twelve. Loose samples go for a lot less and frankly, if you can find a complete one, I'd grab it. Though this particular figure tugs at my heart strings  for nostalgic reasons (he was the only Predator figure I had as a kid!) and for appealing to my weakness for translucent plastic, he's still worth having even eighteen years later if any of his amazing absurdity tickles your fancy as much as it did mine.