That Captain Carrot Issue! Memories Unlocked!

Welcome back subscribers. It’s Easter Sunday 2024 and what better time to share a flash memory of my comics collecting heyday.. hope you enjoy!

Happy Easter Satellite subscribers. I had no intention of writing this morning however while read my Twitter Pal Dave’s blog this morning I ran into a comic I have always had a particular fondness and memories of! As it is Easter Sunday as of this writing I’ll quickly share this story if for nothing else than to preserve my memory.

Part of growing up for me were weekly trips to the grocery store with my Dad! Thursday which must have been payday we’re guaranteed trips to the local Co-op or the new Sobeys store in Clarenville and always scored me an action figure or a comic, or two.. sometimes three!! I was lucky! Not only picking out great food like C3POs cereal (Spoiler.. it sucked) but I always got a “treat”.

I am in this pic! I could not find a picture of the Handy Andy store but I did find the Handy Andy dory used in the Clarenville Day festivities!!

I recall a weekend, it was particularly sunny so it was definitely summer. It seemed to be early in the day and my father needed to go to the local Hardware store called Handy Andy in my hometown of Clarenville, NL Canada. Andy’s was overlooking the water and on the corner of a turn at the beginning of Clarenvilles “Lower Road”. It was originally called Handy Andy Associate store and was located on Marine Drive in Clarenville Newfoundland my hometown! It sold camping and fishing gear, bikes, and automotive parts. I can still smell the bike tires!! It was filled with bikes, camping stuff, and seemingly endless Bike tires.. I cannot downplay that smell! It was here I got three of my favorite comics and my official introduction to Captain Carrot!

I LOVED this book!! Fun memories triggered here! I bought this at the afore mentioned Hardware store on a trip with my Dad at the age of 7! I had ONLY seen Captain Carrot in ads in comics and that DC insert up to that point, so I remember it was a huge deal!!
They had a small wooden book shelf about mid store that housed a few car magazines, some decently sexist magazines of hot women, and in the middle of all that issues of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! They clearly didn’t rotate their magazine because there were three consecutive issues there that day and I begged my Dad to get them and of course he did!

This one sat around my house for eternity. My copy is respectfully battered and sitting in a box in my parents basement. I just felt the urge to preserve this memory!

Here are the other two that ended up leaving Handy Andy with me that day! Thanks Dad!

Well with that out of the way, go read my pal Dave’s blog post which triggered this memory in my mind! Enjoy! Tell him Hero sent ya!

https://davescomicheroes.blogspot.com/2023/04/happy-easter-captain-carrot.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1eHh_K5foXiU-0cguuJBz0W8l-x9xDGZTNMwe4_Zufv5Jy_gMXFteCGT4_aem_AS8Mx8t3oZy8VWJxus3XRGKL7HYVRI_vqJXpWiuH_y-377B6PW752aywrh_IIowXnkY

Stan Lee 100

Stan Lee was my hero…

Begin Transmission..

When someone says the term Marvel Comics, my mind instantly goes to one name. Stan Lee. He was the ultimate pitchman. He made you believe that anyone could be a hero. When he spoke, people paid attention. His bombastic verbiage and his ability to speak were unmatched. His delivery was as masterful as any salesman, television.evangelist, or carnival barker. Anyone can sell a car, but when Stan Lee sold you something, you walked away believing that you had the best, most exciting car you ever drove. There is a section of comics culture that tries to dimisnish Stan’s contributions. Who created what? Was it all Jack Kirby? Was it Ditko? Fact is, no matter what the reality is, the single figure you associated with Marvel and their hero’s was Stan. He was the Walt Disney to the Disney company! The Steve Jobs to Apple. Stan made his characters much more than comic book fare.. he made them feel real.. he made them OUR heroes. Marvel with Stan at the helm was the peoples comics company, and our minds went to worlds we could not even imagine. This was the wonder of Stan Lee. His impact is as much alive today as ever before. His life’s work is on every TV, movies screen, toy shelf , video game, and merchandise stand you can see. Stan Lee created a cultural phenomenon, and his legacy is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Stan sowed the seeds of the biggest cinematic film series ever created, and it started as a result of Stan Lees’ masterful salesmanship. If you ever wondered how it began, pull up a seat as I tell you a tale of the beginnings of how we got here. 

Stan Lee was an aspiring writer who ended up working in the comics industry. Lee made his way from office flunky to editor in short order as his predasessors were either fired or quit leaving Stan the last man standing in the office, and he took his new position of authority dead serious. Stan found himself in a position where he was now dictating many creators who were many years his senior. The content produced was not creatively satisfying for Stan. As a writer himself, he knew the quality of output he was making was schlock, and his work doing romance or funny animal stories was leaving him creatively bankrupt. Stan was tired of working for Martin Goodmans comic book company and was planning his exit. As fate would have it Stan discussed his dismay with his wife Joan. She urged him to write one more story the way HE would have wanted to write it! 

Lee was open his entire career about wanting to be considered a serious author one who would write the next big American novel and comics were considered disposable entertainment, “kids stuff” that wasn’t considered high calibre professional works. When Joan suggested that he write a book “his” way …and…he did. 

Stan’s way…would become the Marvel Way, but no one knew it at the time. What even was the Marvel Way?  It didn’t exist, but Stan was about to make it up. Stan did something other companies at the time didn’t do. He grounded his heroes and stories with a sense of everyman reality. He just didn’t write a story of a man from another planet with unlimited powers and an indestructible perfect human. Stan saw fault in this. Superman, for example, was perfect. Many kids could never be Superman. Of course, with perfection comes story limitation. If you are writing about an invincible hero who is the strongest, fastest, and most good-looking guy out there, the story gets cold quickly. Where were the interesting flaws? Where were the real storytelling aspects real people could relate to?

Stan took the concept of the Everyman hero with real issues and problems and thrust them on paper as a dysfunctional four member super team where  nothing was perfect, but the stories were boundless. The team had relationship drama and infighting, and some characters battled with the idea of even being a hero in the first place. That creation was The Fantasic Four, and it was considered the day one creation point for modern Marvel writing and the launch pad for the Marvel Universe. His “last” comic book, written in collaboration with the brilliant co-creator Jack Kirby, was The Fantastic Four, which launched the Marvel Age of comics and sparked a steady stream of new concepts and characters, Thor, Black Panther, and The X-Men. Stan had a keen eye for the culture at the time and realized early on that they might translate easily to other media. Boy, would he be right! Stans vision for his heroes would be the starting point for how comic books’ transitioned from print to film and television, merchandise and beyond the scope of his wildest dreams but for our purposes we will focus on the very beginning of the tradition from the comics page to the small screen.

In 66, Lee contributed to Grantray-Lawrences The Marvel Super Heroes animated series while still working at Marvel in a multitude of roles such as editor, art director, and writer! Lees work on the shows was invaluable as he helped shape stories written ironically by him and authors and co creators  like Jack Kirby, Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, and more. even though Goodman negotiated the deal with Grantray-Lawrence Lee would be the one moving the various parts to get the projects green lighted and Marvels Superhero’s would no longer be relegated to the comic book page but now for the first time would be seen in living color and action on our TV screens! The seeds of the MCU were planted here..

Heroes included Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Namor as the main characters of the series. Each character had their own miniseries or show that repurposed stories from recent Marvel comics.Some would say the “animation” was crude.I always loved the show. The fact that the cartoon looked just like a comic book gave it the charm that I loved! The producers literally took comics panel directly from the comics and literally particularly animated portions of the picture to show motion or action. The closest thing I can compare it to would be a modern motion comic.In order to give the impression of animation and some lip-syncing, the animation typically consisted of photocopied images taken directly from recent issues of the comics featuring the different characters, or even from early issues of The Avengers. While not technically groundbreaking from an animation standpoint, the fact remained that Marvel now became part of homes all across the nation. The competition was paying attention and producing cartoon fare of their own, but something was different. The mood was changing. Marvel not surprisingly won over devoted followers with the television series and  its iconic catchy theme songs for Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man had all of us singing along. 

1967 gave us the FANTASTIC FOUR animated series from Hanna Barbera Which heavily adapted Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four work. 

Characters like The Mole Man and Galactus debuted!  If you haven’t seen the show It featured an amazing episode detailing Dr. Doom’s origin story. Hanna Barbera with master artist Alex Toth reimagined concepts like the Skrulls and the Silver Surfer but the fact remained despite Lee not being directly involved many of the stories were based on the early Lee and Kirby Fantastic Four issues. 

Stan knew he had something here. This is when Marvels ultimate pitch man went to work and chased further applications for his characters and pushed forward for more..

Although not directly involved, Lee’s influence on the 1967 Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four animated series could still be felt because of the material the creators adapted. Key antagonists from the episodes included The Mole Man and Galactus and Dr. Doom’s origin story received an entire episode. While they were reimagined by Hanna-Barbera and comics legend Alex Toth, the Skrulls and the Silver Surfer also made appearances. Many of the stories were based on the early Lee and Kirby Fantastic Four issues. 

Of course, then there was the grand daddy of them all the legendary Spider-Man series from 1967. Produced by Gantray Lawrence and later Kratnz films Spider-Man is considered Marvels most iconic early animation achievement. This show was in constant rotation at my house. It aired practically every day. It was a fixture on Saturday mornings in key time slots on Canadian television. It was a staple of Canadian early weekday mornings before school!

Spider-Man’s adventures were comfort food for me, and any episodes featuring members of the Sinister Six were always my favorites. From the simply irresistible theme song of the series to the outlandish tone and scope of the 6 showed fans what made Marvel different from its distinguished competition. Peter Parker Spider-Man real life identity battled taking care of his aging Aunt May while trying to hold down a job as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, the pressures of school, women and everything a real life teen of the era would go through. It lasted three very distinct seasons, each one particularly the third season wildly different in tone and budget. Spider-Man became the beloved signature hero of Marvel comics at that point and forever linked to Stan Lees’ career from that moment forward. With minor success in the animation department, Lee had visions that Hollywood would be their next stop. 

THE INCREDIBLE HULK, SPIDER-MAN, AND DR. STRANGE APPEAR ON TV IN THE 1970S. 

Stan’s ambitions took him outside of the office on a tour circuit. Whether it was speaking engagements at university’s, publicity events Stan was in full steam pitchman mode. Lee’s personality was the reason why Marvel landed in areas where you would never see comic book related fare. Stan was THE living and breathing symbol of Marvel comics, and he loved and soaked up that attention in pursuit of making this company more than a magazine with cool colors and pictures. Marvel invaded toy shelves. Marvel Blacklight posters adorned many kids’ walls, and the Mighty Marvel Marching Society was even spinning on vinyl on record players of the time. 

When Lee took over as publisher of Marvel Comics in 1972, he largely delegated writing and creative work to a new group of authors, illustrators, and editors. Lee found himself guiding the Marvel heroes through Hollywood as the characters started to emerge in the uncharted territory of live action, even though he continued to be involved in some creative aspects of the business, such as the daily Spider-Man comic strip.

All roads led to the first live action show for Marvel comics. The genesis for the MCU was here. The beginning of a multi-billion dollar media franchise began unsuspecting one winter evening, and the world was ready.  The Incredible Hulk made its television debut in November of 1977 with a two hour pilot airing on CBS. The show featured Lou Ferigno as Hulk and the incredible Bill Bixby as his alter ego Bruce Banner. The show was a ratings success and aired from November 4, 1977 –May 12, 1982.

“In the TV series, Dr. David Banner, a widowed physician and scientist who is presumed dead, travels across America under assumed names and finds himself in positions where he helps others in need despite his terrible secret: Following an accident that altered his cells, in times of extreme anger or stress, he transforms into a huge, savage, incredibly strong green-skinned humanoid, who has been named “the Hulk”. In his travels, Banner earns money by working temporary jobs while searching for a way to either control or cure his condition. All the while, he is obsessively pursued by a tabloid newspaper reporter, Jack McGee, who is convinced that the Hulk is a deadly menace whose exposure would enhance his career.”

Stan Lee was elated about the Hulks’ success! Lee himself had become larger than life. He was now being recognized in places outside of the comics bubble and was comics’ first version of a rock star and became a traveling media liason! Lee was great at one thing, selling an audience on whatever he was selling. Bombastic, sweet, energetic. He always presented a fun, uplifting persona and was a person you wanted to be around.

 He also stood for something. He believed in inclusion and peoples rights. He championed the voices of the common man, and that appeal made him larger than life.

His voice for me is what always sets the tone. The cadence, the inflection, and the delivery. Hearing Stan’s voice open, many of my childhood cartoon shows or VHS tapes were always like comfort food. He treated his Mighty Marvel Marching Society like a club you HAD to be in with him. It was the cool place to be! Marvel was cool because of Stan. He spoke literally to kids and teens of all ages and put their stories on the page.

You related to Stan and his characters because they were based in reality. Peter Parker had girlfriend issues…didn’t we all at one point! The Hulks Bruce Banner had an inner monster he had to control….like many of us. The Fantastic Four were a family that fought, broke up, lived lost, and loved together. Stan made us believe, and for those few minutes reading those comic pages, we were along for the ride and part of something special. 

Does it matter who created what? Who’s name is ahead of another for creating part of a character? Sure it does for some reasons but no one can contest that the reason that Marvels characters live forever on screens, phones, merchandise and in the modern lexicon is because Stan Lee invited us into that house and we grew up there and never wanted to move out!

Thank you Stan Lee, for allowing me to be a kid no matter what my age. Thank you Stan Lee, for giving me a playbook on how to deliver motivating and powerful speeches. Funny enough, when I tell stories to my kids, there is a part of me that steals Stan’s delivery everytime!!

Thank You Stan for creating a world where my family and I can spend together and create memories because that’s what it’s all about. 

Raise a glass to Stan Lee on his birthday. You will always be “The Man”..

Here’s to Stan..

Excelsior!!

Hey… I usually wrap up a “Till next time Satellite Subscriber’s”… which, of course, is ripped off of Stan’s method of assigning his readership a tagline, but I had to share some personal Stan related fare!!

My wife took this picture for me on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during a recent trip. Stan was one of one of the very short lists that I requested a picture of his star!!

During that very same trip, my wife also snapped this wonderful plaque from Disney Land California, and the words say it all.

For Christmas, I also got a few Stan Lee related items!! I finally got a fresh copy of How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way!!

Okay… now you can go!! Till next time, True Believers!!

For more Stan Lee related content, check out a few pieces written and created by a few friends of mine!

Between The Pages Blog: https://www.betweenthepagesblog.com/2022/12/face-it-tiger-you-just-hit-the-jackpot.html

Dave’s Comic Heroes Blog: http://davescomicheroes.blogspot.com/2022/12/stan-lee-100.html?m=1

W2M Network Podcasts: https://w2mnet.com/remembering-stan-lee-1922-2018/

https://w2mnet.com/trio-of-stan-lee-tales/

End Transmission…

G.I. JOE: The Marvel Comics Years

Welcome back heroes! The Satellite is very pleased this month to indulge into something that three years ago when I started this thing, was intended to be one of my first topics. Every time I would begin to write I felt I wasnt doing it justice so I finally decided to jump into the fray. As we sit in the briefing room of the Satellite we must become acquainted with the art of war. This Satellite is about to touch down in 1980s Springfield..

Computer: Captain, this destination is NOT recommended ..Springfield at this time is under occupation..

Hero: *Smiles* That’s why we are going there computer…initiate landing sequence..

Computer: Captain, my programming is telling me to inform you this is no ordinary threat that surrounds Springfield..its a terrorist organization known as COBRA!

Hero: I have a feeling a few friends are about to show up to help rectify the situation…all together with me shout.. “YO JOE!!”

From Toys to The Page…

I Was introduced to GI JOE initially by the 1982 Marvel comics series G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero. On the way to a summer camping trip on a stop over to a local Pharmacy (Thank You Budget Drug Mart) I scored me an issue of G.I. JOE #2 to take along for long trip ahead. I was hooked! G.I.JOE must have been huge in my home town cause those books were available EVERYWHERE! Not the usual suspects like convenience stores and pharmacies..these crept onto magazine racks in smokeshop’s in Woolco and coloring book racks at Dalfen’s! I could not wait for each issue to hit the stands! I grew up with Hawk, Stalker, Scarlett, Flash, ZAP, Breaker, Clutch, Rock N Roll, and Of course..Snake Eyes!! The Original Joe’s always had a special  place in my heart to the point that when newer Joe’s were introduced I rejected many of them up front if they replaced my originals in the comics!

The marketing team at Hasbro were smart enough to realize that the more characters they created..more figures could be made and more stories could be written! As a G.I. JOE fan in the 80s we got super served!! Both toy shelves and comic book pages were lined with scores of new Joe’s every few months..but this was something different. The Toy company for the first time used the comic book as its creative foundation!  Many criticize “Toy Books” in the comics industry as being just a cheap money grab that are usually short-lived. Only a small handful were successful like Micronaughts, ROM and of course STAR WARS which all are remembered in high regard. It was the G.I. JOE comic that would forever set the pace for changing the game of the stereotypical “Toy Book” that not only surpassed its life expectancy and expectations but it became the flag bearer for all licensed titles to come.

When you talk how important a comic is to a franchise there is no better example than the Larry Hama written Marvel Comic G.I. JOE : A Real American Hero. This book literally dictated the toy line and the cartoon. Larry Hama MADE G.I. JOE and anyone who is a fan owes this man a debt of gratitude. Hama, at the time was a struggling writer fighting to get a permanent paying writing post at Marvel. On one fateful day he pitched an idea about a splinter group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents consisting of futuristic Super Soldiers known as “Fury Force”. As with other jobs Fury Force did not get the green light but before the concept was dropped Hasbro came knocking. They were a toy company looking to relaunch an old property from the past G.I. JOE. G.I. JOE was an army based 12″ action figure line that was very successful in the 50s and 60s. Hasbro had the property evaluated but decided to partner with Marvel to develop a back story for their concept..and so was born G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero..and finally a full-time paying writing gig for Larry Hama.

 

 

In the meantime Hasbro representatives held court with with Hama, Jim Shooter, Tom DeFalco, Archie Goodwin, and Nelson Yomtov to hash out the direction of their new G.I. JOE concept. It was actually Archie Goodwin who came up with the concept of G.I. JOE’s number one nemesis..C.O.B.R.A.! Hasbro had not factored this enemy force into their original plans. It would be a meeting that Hasbro felt represented what they considered good for this new property and a partnership was born. G.I. JOE rested on the very capable shoulders of Larry Hama who would take great pride in making it work. Faced with the task of bringing character’s to life Hama jumped in and wrote elaborate profiles for each original Joe..much of which made it to the actual packaging of the action figures in the form of classified dossiers for each toy!

 

 

Suddenly characters like Scarlett Clutch, Hawk and Stalker had detailed histories. These were not your generic army men..each Joe had personality! Clutch the VAMP driver from the toy line was a womanizing hotshot with a big mouth, Snake Eyes was a silent but violent Ninja with a deep history and a romantic interest in Scarlet. To add an extra layer Hama wrote Snake-Eyes physically unable to tell her his affections due to a war injury that left him speechless. Each one of these characters were something special and were far from generic.

Hamas first 10 issues would be your classic one and done sort of issues with Herb Trimpe manning the pencil duties and making Joe jump off the pages! Issue one for example featured two short stories. Operation : Lady Doomsday was the official story-line debut of the new and innovative G.I. JOE team in the pages of G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero Vol. 1 #1 in 1982. Some highlights of the first 10 issues were issue #2. As mentioned above the classic Joe’s Snake-Eyes, Scarlett, Stalker, and Breaker are sent to the North Pole on a recon mission where they meet  a special operative named Quinn who is having problems with the terrorist organization C.O.B.R.A.!!

 

Issue four screamed to me on the shelves..one of my all time favorite G.I. JOE covers with a very simple group shot with Hawk in command leading the Joe’s into battle! This time the Joe’s REAL leader (Sorry DUKE fans) Hawk, along with Grunt (Who rarely ever appears in the pages of the book after this), and Snake-Eyes infiltrate a cult like military camp suspected of being funded by Cobras.

 

 

We were introduced in GI JOE #6 and #7 to a radical concept of a Russian version of G.I. JOE..the Oktober Guard who begin as bad guys only to join the Joe’s against a common enemy ..C.O.B.R.A. With the political Superpower race in the early 80s this concept of a Russian Military group being portrayed in a positive light was controversial for its time. Hama was given the keys to the kingdom and he made the absolute best of his situation. In these issues Stalker leads the Joe’s ( Scarlett, Clutch, Steeler, Grand Slam, and Breaker )on a mission into Afghanistan where they get into a three-way firefight with Cobra and the Oktober Guard. The teams set aside their differences and work together  to stop C.O.B.R.A. from getting control over a Top Secret weapon of Mass Destruction!

 

By issue six Hama continued to pump out great characters as we got our first two-part story..we begin to establish early signs of continuity. Larry was a military man himself and had served in Vietnam. As a result many of the character names and traits were said to have been based on those whom he served with as a tribute! Hama didnt stop at the toy-lines, instead he developed his own set of characters that existed in the G.I. JOE Hamaverse as it was dubbed. We meet Kwinn the massive Eskimo who has no love for Cobra, We meet Dr. Venom(Seemingly The Precursor to Dr. Mindbender) the evil genius behind Cobras experiments and technology. Believe it or not Cobras own femme fatale The Baroness, was a creation of Hama and team and was one character of which Hasbro created an action figure based on the comic book character!! Hama was one of the pioneers of showcasing strong women characters not only on the G.I. JOE team but for the bad guys as well! This fact attested to the strong female readership the title boasted during its run!

No issue showcased this like GI JOE #9 The Diplomat which showcased Scarlett chasing down a Cobra agent who threatens the lives of thousands as the clock ticks in a fast paced manhunt that shows the girls could go equally as hard as the guys.

As great as the first 10 issues of the book were they were just scratching the surface of what this book would be. At this point G.I.Joe was a certified smash on the newstand and Marvel had another huge hit!! This was no “Toy” book this was a real comic that fans were passionate for..one that would only get better as time went on!

The Rise of C.O.B.R.A.

The book would carry many central themes that would play out till the books end. First was the rise and self-destruction of C.O.B.R.A.! The origins of Cobra Command and their mission lay in the beginnings of a down on his luck sales man in the town of Springfield. This man hell-bent on making money builds a pyramid scheme that would eventually move from a capital building project to a massive bid for world domination. The elusive Cobra Commander would start from nothing but using his salesmanship to rally a small band of individuals  into a Nazi like cult of industrial terrorists who would begin a war on U.S. soil. Many of Cobras early missions surrounded them trying desperately to arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction only to be turned away at every turn by the Joe’s.

 

Cobra Commander would go on to build his inner circle with three main unsavory characters. Early on we would be introduced to a weapons manufacturing organization nicknamed M.A.R.S. ran by the silver masked renegade named Destro. Not far behind was the sexy but deadly Baroness the director of central intelligence for C.O.B.R.A. and Destro’s love interest. To fill out his upper brass came the chameleon like Zartan. A master of disguise able to change his identity to perfectly match those he chooses to impersonate. There would be many more added to the mix but these three usual suspects would assist the Commander in all his deadly plans.

The interesting thing about Cobra Command as a group would be the inner turmoil. It was a terrorist organization always on the verge of Civil War. The key players in the organization were never able to trust each other which lead to many interesting stories. Cobra Commander would always be leery of Destro and the fact that he was the provider of weapons to Cobra and thus yielded a lot of power and influence. The two would butt heads many times and like an old married couple they would break up and reunite many times. To make matters worse Baroness was romantically involved with Destro so Cobra Commander could never truly trust her either. It would be Zartan that often proved to be the glue that secretly kept C.O.B.R.A. together. Zartan was instrumental in allowing Cobra their greatest victories over G.I. JOE. He helped them by infiltrating the Joe’s very headquarters and stealing secret intel that would be key to C.O.B.R.A.s mission. The unique dynamic between the central players would prove to be one of Hamas most exciting tools in his tool box when writing C.O.B.R.A.

 

The Snake Eyes /Storm Shadow Dynamic.

I cannot recommend G.I. JOE #21 enough. Its dubbed “The Silent Issue” and its a simple story of Snake-Eyes attempting to rescue a kidnapped Scarlett from the clutches of C.O.B.R.A. and Storm Shadow in a castle. Not one word outside of the Title of the story “Silent Interlude” exists in this story and it a master piece of story telling!! It also tells us that no words are needed as the writer has given you all you need to know about these characters and you are completely absorbed in this collection of silent panels. Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes were bona-fide stars in this book and their story is probably the most important one we see in the book!

One of the most exciting things about G.I.JOE was Snake-Eyes. Clearly the most popular of all the Joe’s, the Silent Ninja Snake-Eyes would be written with high intrigue as his origin was a mystery that haunted readers during the early issues. Slowly Hama twisted the knife slowly revealing Snake-Eyes Story but not giving away the whole story. Snake-Eyes was a truly tragic character. Snake -Eyes would often run military missions with his close comrades Stalker and the man who would become C.O.B.R.A’s number one assassin..Storm Shadow!! A terrible accident would occur where Snake-Eyes would be horribly disfigured in a Helicopter accident on one tour of duty and left for dead. Ignoring orders Storm Shadow would come to his rescue and bring Snake-Eyes back to safety and out of the war zone. Snake-Eyes underwent serious facial reconstructive surgery to repair the damage to his face and heal his wounds of war but would never look normal again. To make matter worse upon his return home he was told that his parents were killed in a car accident leaving him with nothing.

Snake-Eyes did not give up..in fact he accepts an offer to study the ninja arts with Storm Shadow’s family, the Arashikage Clan. Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow became brothers, battling for the attention the Hard Master. Snake Eyes was touted to take over the Arashikage clan in favor of Storm Shadow. Snake-Eyes turned down the offer noting the issues it would cause with his brother. It would be Zartan—on the direction Cobra Commander, who believed the Joe was responsible for the death of his brother—sent an order for the death of Snake-Eyes. Zartan using an arrow he stole from Storm Shadow mistakenly struck and killed the Hard Master. The Clan was officially dissolved and Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes would from that point on be blood enemies  as Storm Shadow was now believe responsible for the death of the Hard Master. Upon returning to America the Sword brothers would be recruited by opposite military factions, Snake Eyes became a Joe and Storm Shadow donning a White Ninja uniform would join C.O.B.R.A.s ranks and were now blood rivals. This was truly better than I can do justice to describing it. Their respect for each other never goes from the book and Hama takes advantage of that every time these two characters are on the page..Good friends…fierce enemies..this relationship is pure magic in this book!!

 

The Revolving Door

Finally one of the most important themes in the book is The Revolving Door. The title essentially was still a “Toy Book”. The main focus of the book was a 24 page advertisement for the Hasbro Toy-line. Larry Hama did such a great job of writing it seemed the toy-line was based on the comic not vice versa! The reality was that Hasbro had to sell toys and as tastes changed the toys changed to meet the times. New characters, vehicles, play-sets all were developed that also had to appear at some point in the pages of the comic book for better or worse. As a result the cast often rotated. The Original 13 Joe’s that I loved so much did not make it 20 issues before they were replaced with new fresh Joe’s that Kids were buying on the Toy shelves. Main Stays like Snake-Eyes, Stalker, Scarlett and others remained but many were replaced…even their fearless leader Hawk.

 

I remember some of the biggest changes such as when Duke officially took over leadership of the Joe’s over Hawk. The Rock and Roll’s and Breaker’s of the world were cashed in favor of fan favorites Road Block and Gung Ho. Steeler and Zap were replaced with Sgt. Slaughter and Shipwreck. Even Duke and Scarlett were put on the back burner for Flint and Lady Jaye. Every time however Hama made us invest in these newcomers and I loved them. The Aforementioned Duke to Flint switch was exceptionally tough for me to swallow. I had began to accept Duke as the Flagship Joe only to have Hasbro sneak Flint (Very temporarily) in that role…I didnt buy it. Sorry Flint..you suck..and your Lady Jaye too!

 

C.O.B.R.A. was NOT Immune either. Replacements were all over the board. Storm Shadow was momentarily phased out for FireFly, Dr. Venom was killed off to be replaced with Dr. Mindbender. Even Cobra Commander at two separate times was unseated from Command of his own army. Once by Mindbender’s science project the very dumb Serpentor and was even once “Killed off ” and replaced by one of his own Crimson Guardsman Fred. Anyone remember the awful New Cobra Commander suit?

 

Yikes. All in all the main cast were rotated back into the mix and the replacements took their rightful backseat. It would be the changes and rotations that would essentially begin the slow death of the title. As Hasbro began going off the deep end with new creations and variations on new characters the book began to feel less special and began to show signs of it being a “Toy Book”. C.O.B.R.A. brought in horrible characters like Boa (Cobras Boxer) , Croc Master (Cobra needed a Crocodile Handler apparently??) and the ultra stupid C.O.B.R.A Accountant,Raptor the teams very own Bird Man? Like every good project the G.I.Joe series suffered in this writers opinion due to a lack of creative direction on Hasbro’s design team who served Larry Hama a plate of crap to attempt to make a steak dinner but to no avail. The title of the book changed in its dying days in a last-minute hail mary to rejuvenate the title by having the book named after Snake- Eyes…and here it comes…Ninja Force!!!??

 

Yes even Snake-Eyes who now led the title was saddle bagged with a neon  colored  Ninja team who simply fought neon colored foes in a spectacular heap of awfulness. As much as I hated it..the book I loved simply did not exist anymore. I kept buying though..no longer with the same vigor..if I missed an issue or two it was okay. Finally someone with good sense (Hama!!) stopped the Ninja Force experiment dead in its neon tracks…then it got WORSE. In a gimmick to save the book that s when Marvel went to the crossover well and Transformers appeared in a story arc with Snake-Eyes and the Joe’s teaming up with C.O.B.R.A. to cause havoc.

I will give credit where credit is due..Hama attempted to go back to his roots with GI Joe in 145 with a return to many of the original team members but declining toy sales created desperation in new character development. Horrible concepts like GI JOE’s S.T.A.R. Brigadewere introduced…yes Joe’s special Space task force arrived sadly in the pages of the book. S.T.A.R. Brigade made Ninja Force seem like an Alan Moore project in comparison. The End was near…

 

The End…

Then IT happened. Long before the days of the internet there was no good way accessible to me to read up on future happenings in titles..so as I picked up G.I. JOE number 155 off the newstand a wave of sadness hit me as the caption on the top of the cover yelled “This is it..The FINAL Issue of G.I.JOE A Real American Hero. I was on my way to a friend’s house on my bicycle and that day at “Butlers Grocetreria” I collected  the Final issue of G.I. Joe. The only time I had ever felt like this was at the cancellation of the Marvel Star Wars title in 1986. Part of my childhood was killed off and I knew at that moment I would never collect comics with the same passion again..which remained true for many years. The book was more to be that 24 pages of throwaway action it represented every ounce of joy I had discovering the comic, and the action figures as a kid. It was a memory of the sheer adrenaline rush I had when the original mini series debuted on TV…it was a huge cache of memories that I kept alive with that one comic!!

 

 

I have a passion for the things I collected growing up but these particular comics gave me so many memories of what it meant to be a comic kid back then. Many kids these days wont have that same rush you get rotating that spinner rack and seeing that new issue of your favorite title for the first time and rushing home to see what great story was inside. Thank you to Larry Hama for making this simple Toy-line into a fond childhood memory. So as we head back into orbit I can’t help by throw my fist in the air alongside my comrades and yell a hearty “YO JOE”!!

 

Till Next time Heroes!!

Masters Of The Universe: A HE-ROs story

Welcome Back Heroes..a huge thanks to everyone who joined us for the last round of Super-Blog Team Up.  Hopefully if you were new to The Super-Hero Satellite you like what you saw and will once again join our mighty crew to race back into the glorious 1980s for more Retro adventures. Satellite File: In 1981 Mattel Toy Company developed the first glimpse of the Masters Of the Universe Toy-line. Their plan however would blaze trails. It would be the first show based on a toy-line and TV series that would air in unison with each other.

Begin Transmission: Feb. 20 2015

I may have been one of the biggest Masters Of the Universe in my home town. I had a great collection of figures, vehicles , Play-Sets and animals. I was a big He-Man fan and the He-Man and The Masters of the Universe animated series was a staple in my home. I digested all the MOTU as I could. I devoured the television animated series from Filmation. To this day when I see the scrolling Filmation logo and chime… it means He-Man! I loved the Masters of The Universe comic books from DC and Marvels STAR Imprint. The Marvel Masters Of The Universe title maybe the single best Masters title out there and was 100% faithful to the source material of the cartoon! Plus my figure collection could stand up to anyone else’s in my home town. I thought I knew it all about the original Masters Of The Universe collection. I knew about every character..episode or comic book. If there was a trivia competition I would have bet the farm on myself…To Clarify my knowledge stopped at the original series. After its cancellation in the late 80s I did not keep up my level of fanaticism for the newer updated series in the 90s-2000s.

 

 

That said..I knew my stuff…that is until I heard of He-Ro: Son Of He-Man and The Masters Of The Universe?? You may as well wonder what I am talking about. After the cancellation of He-Man and The Masters Of the Universe Series a prequel(She-Ra: The Princess Of Power not forgotten either!!) was in production without He-man in the lead role! Confused? I think its time we fill our data banks with knowledge. He-Ro originated as the proposed lead character of a new series “The Powers Of Grayskull”. At the very end of the Masters Of The Universe toy-line a prototype action figure of a brand new character called He-Ro…who at this point was NOT meant to be He-Mans son..but rather a relative who was not the most powerful man in the universe like He-Man..but rather the most powerful WIZARD in the universe…weird huh?

 

 

“Powers Of Grayskull” would be a direct prequel to the He-Man and The Masters Of the Universe series that in the mid eighties, had reached its life expectancy. He-Ro was a figure prototype created to showcase the new lead star of the show..the Wizard, He-Ro. Interestingly enough poor He-Ro had two specific origins both totally unrelated. The first of which was as a direct ancestor of He-Man. The Powers of Grayskull show itself would be based in “Preternia” the precursor to what would become Eternia….essentially it was its prehistoric predecessor. It promised to deliver the complete back story to He-Man and the entire Masters Of The Universe lineage. All He-Mans secrets would be revealed. Like He-man himself, He-Ro was the secret identity of the man known as “Gray” would hold his hand to his chest and utter the words “Magic & strength tempered by heart..I stand For Peace “ and would transform into the “Mightest Wizard In The Universe”..He-Ro!

 

The line was cancelled before many of these properties went into the development stage. The 1987 Mattel Toy Catalog published pictures of the proposed toys from the “Powers of Grayskull” line, including an action figure of He-Ro. Three of the dinosaur toys from the line actually made it to stores, and the two “giant” action figures saw release as exclusives in Italy, but He-Ro was never released as a toy.

 

Though much has been speculated concerning the character in the intervening years by fans of the He-Man franchise, He-Ro remains as much a mystery today as he was in 1987, when a perplexed He-Man was forced to ask, “But who is he?” The show died before it was green lit and the concept was seemingly aborted..that is until Lou Shiemer, the original shows producer ,took ownership in creating a brand new sequel a few years later that would be known as HE-RO: Son Of He-Man and The Masters Of The Universe.

 

 

This time the rules changed. In fact everything about He-Ros origin was washed away and now He-Ro was now actually He-Mans adopted son rather than a descendant  and did NOT live in the Pre-Eternian age but rather after the events featured in the original Masters Of The Universe television cartoon series. As the story goes He-Ro was raised in the plush jungles of Eternia by an indigenous creature known as a She-Bearcat who found the child shivering in the jungle and took him in as her own and raised him until his teenage years. He-Ro who took on the skills and senses of his jungle family could not only speak english but could communicate to the animals as well. He had heightened senses of speed, and smell and took on the acrobatic skills of his jungle friends and could swing through the jungle like an Eternian Tarzan. His animal mother passed on, as a result orphaning He-Ro to the Jungle once again. Meanwhile Adam , who as we all know as He-Man, is  for-told of the boy who would one day take his place as the holder of the Power Sword of Grayskull. He-Man climbs aboard his friend Battle Cat Kringer and summons his trusty friends Man At Arms and Orko and heads off on a blind quest to find this folklore legend “The Lost Child Of The Jungle”.

 

The Wild Child is No Myth..

 

 

He-Man, after the events of MOTU TV Series had defeated Skeletor and his army, had married Teela and now reigned over Eternia as King and Queen. History of Pre-Eternia and several other concepts post TV series were seemingly dropped from cannon.What is interesting is that Shiemer had written an actual ending to the original animated series in which He-man with the help of The Sorceress not only defeated Skeletor and his goons but vanquished him off of Eternia in a frozen state never to be seen or heard from again..

 

The Original Ending To Masters Of The Universe.

 

 

 

That is until Skeletor discovered a way to free himself of the spell of the Sorceress and He-Man. He then gathers his original army and begins a march upon Grayskull but not before hearing the tale of the Boy would be the new Most Powerful Man In The Universe..He-Ro..or at this point, the Lost Boy. Was this a mere legend? Could this possibly be true?…Parties in both good and evil camps could not risk the other finding out. So a parallel search begins with Skeletor and his army of thugs hunting for the same mystery child that He-Man and friends are searching for!! This potentially mythical “Wild Child” was now the crux behind the power struggle for Eternia.

 

The BOSS is Back..

 

 

Skeletor’s hordes included some familiar faces such as his heavy Beast-Man, Evil-Lyn, the aquatic warrior Mer-Man (Who appeared to have taken on one of the most dramatic look changes) and Trap-Jaw (who literally does not resemble the mold of the original character!) Many more would be involved (not pictured) Such as ToungeLashor, Odar (Like Skunk face??), Missle -Toe, Evermean (a plant-based villain) and a metal toothed character named Saw Tooth.

 

Skeletor’s army

 

Skeletor is first to actually find the Wild Child and begins poisoning his mind right away.  He tells him that He-Man and his friends being responsible for his mothers demise!!! Skeletor sets up shop on the top on the Mountains Of Fire (No Snake Mountain??) and sets a series of traps and obstacles in He-Mans path. Meanwhile Skeletor and the evil Sorceress Evil-Lyn have all but cast a spell over the Lost Child and are slowly weaning him to their dark intentions. He-Ro swears revenge on He-Man and his friends. He-Man and friends battle all of Skeletor’s hordes and manages to succeed in getting past the traps and enemies standing in the way of the child.

 

“We Have The Power!!!”

 

 

Finally, an age-old rivalry is reborn as Skeletor and He-Man go to war one more time with the fate of the child hanging in the balance. Now aligned with Skeletor and his army, He-Ro finds out in short order that Skeletor is not what he says he is.  The Evil warrior brutally almost kills He-Ro’s bird friend, Craven while attempting to get to He-Man. The Wild Child lays his life on the line to defend He-Man and his friends and with all their forces combined, Skeletor and his army is driven away!! He-Man and the Eternian warriors return to his kingdom with the child. From there the boy is adopted by Adam and Teela and is named officially Dare. In an interesting note, by the age of 13 He-Ro is now resembling a hero he is able to seek the heroic transformation from Dare to He-Ro with the magical power sword bestowed to Adam years earlier. What is surprising is that only in circumstances of extreme situations He-Man and He-Ro cannot appear together..only one or the other can transform at a time. Only in dire times the dual transformations can occur as they share the power sword and repeating their individual transformation tagline and “We have the power!” .

He-Ro would have lots of help defending his fathers Kingdom!

 

He-Ro, like He-Man in his prime was surrounded by a great supporting cast. Some familiar faces make up He-Ro’s new contingent of Eternian Defenders. He-Ro’s answer to He-Mans love interest Teela of course would be Kay-La. Like her mother she has an affection for strong men not weaklings like Dare. Joining the supporting cast would be Ram-Man, who was a carry over from the original MOTU cartoon. He is seen in a revised state here with improved armor. As an aside Ram-Man, was always one of my favorite original MOTU action figures!!

Ram-Man, A crude but great figure from the original Masters Of The Universe line.

 

 

The cast included a couple of newer characters as well that would have been easy money for Mattel at the toy stores..Air bag and Forklift!! (Not so sure on the Air Bag name..but I digress.) With them as well would be a very “Metamorpho” (Editors note: Metamorpho is a classic DC comics Super-Hero) looking Man-E-Faces who like Ram-Man, was also a classic MOTU character re-imagined!! Of course old favorites like ORKO (Not pictured) would return as well!! This would be Eternia`s finest! So back to Dare and Kay-La..

 

Dares love interest is very similar to He-Mans and Teelas, who, not coincidentally, was the Daughter of Man At Arms. Well looks like that runs in the family as Dare is paired with Kay-La, Man At Arms Niece to be taught the ways of the warrior. At first Kay-La thinks that this assignment is a pure inconvenience but grows to respect Dare. With a new cast of Heroes we are off to the races…this new version of He-Man was ready to hit the mass market…Toy companies would have had a new batch of MOTU to line the shelves of retailers all over the world..the classic Filmation Logo would have tinkled across the screen for another trip back to Eternia ..but it was not meant to be. The concept would go no further than Lou Shiemers “He-Ro and the Masters Of the Universe Bible”..and the project was permanently shelved when the production company DIC didnt express any further interest in developing the series. fans who want to read the complete details on this project by all means check out http://old.he-man.org/cartoon/exclusivefeatures/exclusive-heroseriesbible-intro.shtml for the complete production proposal!!

Our time on Eternia is almost done Heroes…it is time to head back to the iso-quarters of the Satellite and shut down the archives for a short time..until we return with the next installment of Super-Blog Team Up where we tackle…well..take a look for yourselves!!

 

Take care Heroes..see you soon when the SBTU Returns for round 6!!

 

 

End Transmission.…

Super-Blog Team Up 5 “Licensed Reality and Parallel Properties”

Super-Blog Team Up has returned for its 5th installment bigger and better than ever. Multiple Blogs Unite Under One Banner, With One Topic, To Shatter the Blogosphere To Its Core! This time we have not only grown in size but rather have many more new ways to enjoy the S.B.T.U. through a plethora of multimedia, from our original Blog format, to V-Blog, to the Podcast arena..Super-Blog Team Up is back...this time we discuss Parallel Universes and Alternate Realities..The Super-Hero Satellite will be unleashing the multiple realities of Marvels STAR Comics line from 1984. The Satellite will go to familiar places such as Eternia (He-Mans home world as discussed in SBTU 4!!) to Thundaria, To The Moon Of Endor all the way to the Palace of Royal Roy..Strap in Heroes..its time to go back to a world created to print money and put smiles back on kids faces.Could these world possibly have ever truly ties into the Marvel Universe as we know it? The answer is YES!! So before Marvel relaunches this year..this is a celebration of a part of the old Marvel Universe that is often neglected..

 

Welcome Back Heroes,

In 1984 I was just beginning my comic collecting venture and my collection was in its infancy. I had not yet come to terms with a defined favorites list outside of the usual suspects like Spider-Man, Batman and Archie. Every now and then something outside of these titles would rear its head in my collection as was the case with Harvey comics. Occasionally an issue of Ritchie Rich or Sad Sack and The Sarge would grace my book shelf and welcomed they were! Those not familiar with the comic publisher Harvey here is your 10 second catch up. In 1941 New York publisher Alfred Harvey created Harvey Comics, a company that found its legs in the licensing market. They were all about purchasing character rights from Paramount Pictures and Famous studios cartoon favorites such as Casper The Friendly Ghost, Mutt and Jeff and my personal favorite the comedy war book, Sad Sack to name a few. It would be their original characters that would be their eventual drawing card for years to come. Ritchie Rich, Hot Stuff, and Wendy The Witch would be among the company’s flagship books well upon till 1982. While the comics market itself was in flux, change was in the air as kids titles and things such as funny animal books, popularized in the 50s and 60s were out of vogue. The industry was preparing for a big change into books tailored for a more mature audience. The comics buying audience had seemingly moved on from kids books and was about to grew up as a result Harvey comics founder Alfred Harvey retired from publishing in 1982 and closed up shop behind him selling off some of Harvey’s properties. Marvel Comics expressed interest in buying up the rights to the Harvey properties and with talks sitting in limbo they decided to launch an entire brand separate from their own Marvel Universe proper..thus was born from the ashes of Harvey Comics..The Marvel STAR Comics Imprint!

The STAR Comics Imprint model was not a new one..in fact it was the exact model devised by Harvey Comics in the 1940s. It would begin with the acquisition of licensed properties mainly from the exploding 1980s Cartoon Line Ups and Toyline’s at the time. (Satellite Cheap Plug..Read all about the Cartoon Explosion of the 80s as well as Hot toy properties of the 80s in link provided Super-Hero Satellite: R.I.P. Saturday Morning Cartoons.) The STAR line actually began with a One shot that parodied one of Marvels most popular titles, Marvel Tales. The Book, not yet under the STAR banner was the debut of the flagship character of the entire line..Peter Porker, The Spectacular SPIDER-HAM!!

Marvel Tails acted as a test launch for the brand and was a trial run for the Spider-Ham character. One more licensed property would be used to launch the brand and one that would ironically not resurface after the launch… was popular 80s Cartoon show The Smurfs! These three apples high blue dwarf like creatures called Smurfs would officially be the first STAR imprint based property acquired by Marvel. (Smurfs never officially wore the STAR banner on its cover but were the first true grab for the imprint. The 1982-83 three issue Limited Series was directly based off of actual cartoon episodes as well as older foreign Smurfs publications. The importance of getting the Smurfs property cannot be understated..this would be the first of many HUGE acquisitions for the potential future of the STAR line.

So it would begin in the July of 1984 (Cover Dated November 1984) STAR Comics would begin with yet another unusual title a 3 Issue Limited Series based on the Family Motion Picture The Muppets Take Manhattan.

STAR Comics Officially Debut!

It would officially debut the STAR Comics Imprint Logo in the Corner Box officially giving STAR Comics a beginning. It would be 5 months later that we would see what STAR Comics would actually look like! In an interesting choice of promotion, the original STAR Comics promos would feature their original characters over the upcoming licensed characters which would be Mammoth in scale! So the world was introduced to the likes of Planet Terry, Wally The Wizard, Top Dog. Spider-Ham also officially joined the fold as an ongoing character!

Licensing up to this point had been a very profitable venture for Marvel with smash successes of the likes of GI Joe, Transformers, Smurfs and not so much with Starriors. (*Nothing wrong with Starriors gang!) A very unheralded toy and comic book! Starriors fans unite!! LOL..Okay forget that. Moving on..bottom line licensed properties made money so Marvel was willing to build an entire universe around it!!

The line roared to life with a number of Hot properties five months later but stretched their debut over a two month period. Entry titles included Fraggle Rock, Heathcliff, Planet Terry and Strawberry Shortcake were released in the first month to a good reception. Month two launched The Ewoks, Get Along Gang, Muppet Babies, Royal Roy and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham

Month two launched The Ewoks, Get Along Gang, Muppet Babies, Royal Roy and…my personal favorite of all the STAR Original core titles..

… Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham,,

Of Particular Interest to me in the entire line were the original characters so for anyone wondering what original characters that the STAR line created..well look no further..Satellite pull up the STAR file on the video wall for our Heroes to observe!

The original titles had all were “inspired” more than anyone would care to admit, however Marvel really did their homework to capture the genre. Below we discuss the STAR Originals, what they were about, and what their inspiration was.

Spider-Ham: The title was a straight up parody of Marvels lead franchise player Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man. It was truly well done and the titled lampooned the real Amazing Spider-Man title very well but modified his origin like you would not expect. Peter Porker, you would expect to be a pig bitten by a Spider, but Marvel changed course and actually started Peter Porker as a SPIDER who bit an irradiated swine one, May Parker. (May of course was a parody of Aunt May in the core Spidey titles!) and transformed into a spider power pig himself! This would later be contradicted in Spider-Ham #6 when a flashback shows Peter being raised (As a pig NOT a Spider !!) by his Aunt May! This would never be clarified. The title had the full cast of characters to parody such a J. Jonah Jackal (J. Jonah Jameson), Mary Jane Water Buffalo (Mary Jane Watson), The Cravengers (The Avengers) The Punfisher (Punisher!), and The likes of The Hulk Bunny (The Hulk..duh!). The title was Bi- Monthly and notoriously lasted a mere 17 issues which was surprising to this writer as I always assumed that this would be STAR’s flagship title!It would be another anthropomorphic Funny Animal would fill that slot as longest running STAR title….Heathcliff the cat!  More on that later. Spider-Ham would not disappear though as he would return in a reprinted back-up story in Marvel Tales for several issues. Spider-Ham would go on to appear on an episode of Ultimate Spider-Man as well as a video game, fill in data.

Planet Terry: The gimmick is that the name of the book is a play on words related to the word “Planetary” This familiar looking character was greatly visually inspired by Harvey Comics characters but was original all at once. Based in deep outer space, Terry as a child, was mistakenly launched from his parents spaceship into the outer reaches of space. His parents fearing the worst assumed that Terry and his space ship were done for and moved on with their lives. They were wrong. Terry and his spaceship, The “Space Warp”, actually survived intact and would begin a star spanning search to find his parents. Joined by a female Robot rescued from a junk heap named Robota and a large Lizard skinned alien Omnus. Terry scans planet after planet to find his parent but discovers that his journey will not be easy. In fact after only 12 issues Planet Terry was discontinued with STAR Comics and the character or the fate of his search was never revisited and remains one of comics lesser known incomplete story arcs. (Side Note: All Original STAR Characters would see print once again in the Marvel X-babies title in a brief updated appearance) Several hints and references to the Marvel Universe in the book indicated this title is happening in or parallel to the Marvel Universe proper of 1984-1985! The design of Planet Terry was directly imagined by former Harvey artist Lennie Herman who used a very familiar look Harvey Comics style look for the character. This was a deliberate as Marvel who had been in talks with Harvey Comics to buy out some of the existing Harvey properties after they closed their doors however as patience wore thin in negotiations, Marvel not willing to wait any longer, decided to create their own “Harveyesque” cast of original characters. This move that would get them in legal hot water out of the gate and almost doomed the STAR lineup from the get go..because of the next “Original” character..the notorious..

Royal Roy: Lets be straight up..Royal Roy was a DIRECT carbon copy of Harvey’s Ritchie Rich The Poor Little Rich Boy character. Like his inspiration Ritchie, Roy was similarly surrounded by wealth. Ritchie had a girl friend named “Gloria Glad“..while Roy had her clone” Crystal Cleer“. Ritchie had “Mayda Munny” who always attempted too swoon him out of his wealth..Roy had the oddly similar “Lorna Loot!” the writing was on the wall for Royal Roy as Harvey Comics took legal action on Marvels STAR Imprint citing that the Royal Roy series was a copyright infringement on the Ritchie Rich property. As it was..Royal Roy lasted a mere 6 issues before the plug was quickly pulled. The idea of making an in-house version of Harvey’s properties was seemingly a bad idea..and Marvel found out the hard way.

From money vaults to Magic, Dragons and Princesses in distress..

Wally The Wizard: This title lasted 12 issues and harkened back to the days to wizards and magic. It took the Harvey formula once again and tried to adopt some Disney tropes to introduce young wizard Wally! Using all the medieval classic stories from the Sword and The Stone to The Princess and The Frog, Wally The Wizard was one of the weaker entries to the line and never really seemed to catch fire. It told the story of Wizard Marlin (A play on Merlin!!) whose young adventurous apprentice Wally and his friends Conrad and Jay get into plenty of magical hijinks.

Through battles with dragons, water monsters and his main antagonists Vastar the Vile and the Wicked Wizard ,this child wizard has his hands full!! Wally competes in tournaments, journeys to the top of mountains, and casts all the spells you can imagine. Wally’s one inspiration is Princess Penelope of whom Wally simply came to her rescue at every turn! This title had little to offer in the way of originality and was not on many people’s priority lists. This title is not terrible and for its target audience of 5-12 year old’s there was enough in here to keep pages turning. From The Penthouse, To The Castle all the way to the Dog House..The next Original STAR Title may have been its most original..even though its run was a tragic 14 issues…lets jump into The Secret Life Of..

Top Dog: From somewhat unoriginal ideas to one of STARs most unique properties..we get Top Dog , a uber- intelligent, talking dog who is also a former government intelligence agent and now Super Spy! Living and teaming up with his human confidant Joey Jordan. Joey swears to keep Top Dogs background and abilities a secret! The duo is a proverbial super team, ala Batman and Robin and go on many undercover spy adventures. As the series progresses we learn much more about Top Dog and his past life as government agent extraordinaire “Mr. X”!! Other characters crossed over with Top Dog like the afore-mentioned Royal Roy, and fellow talking anthropomorphic animal, Heathcliff The Cat!

Top Dog was an interesting case study as it is the one title that seems to legitimately fuse the original Marvel Universe directly to the STAR Universe. A direct crossover with Spider-Man (A costumed knockoff!!) in a story that actually contained the true blue, Peter Parker. Unlike Planet Terry..it not only teased a connection to Marvel Proper but was deliberate about it.  Amongst these adventures were several crossovers with other Star Comic characters such as Heathcliff and Royal Roy. The One story that involved a Spider-Man team-up way the crown Jewel of the series. Although it was actually an actor in a Spider-Man suit, the real Peter Parker does make an appearance. The series ran for fourteen issues after which, the character continued to make appearances in Heathcliff comic books (starting in issue #22) in both crossovers and backup stories. The ambiguity between STAR’s existence in the actual Marvel Universe is still a debate. Most however. discredit these comics as funny “What If” style stories that happened outside of cannon. Thats okay..it still does not take away the joy of STAR Comics. While we would be here for a while if we had to cover all comics produced in this line I will go through my personal top five titles outside of the STAR Originals! Satellite..pull archives..display TOP FIVE..

(Computer)Verifying…Checking..Displaying..

5. Ewoks: If one has read one of my all time favorite posts that I have ever written for this humble little blog you would appreciate my love for 1980s cartoons. Few did I enjoy more that tuning into the Droids-Ewok’s Hour. Ewok’s the Star Title continued the joy of the show and delved into new original storylines and the artwork remained consistent enough to make it feel like a good follow-up companion to the TV show. Ewoks would perform better than most STAR titles and lasted a total of 14 issues!

Check out The Super-Hero Satellites  super post on The Ewoks Television Movies!! Super-Hero Satellite: A Caravan Of Ewoks

4. Droids: The best Star Wars cartoon ever on TV! Droids packed a punch..but that didn’t translate on the printed page! Lasting only a mere 8 issues The Adventures of R2-D2 and C3P0 was one title that I loved grabbing on the shelf..however Star Wars fans did not flock to the shelves in as many numbers as Marvel would have would hoped. It continued original stories based on the Droids cartoon show but the biggest drawing card was the John Romita artwork! The series finished with a three issue continuing story that featured Darth Vader and was actually quite good! If you were a fan of the original Star Wars Marvel Series then do yourself a favor and grab Droids 6-8! You are welcome!

3.Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos. When a group of kids and martial arts superstar Chuck Norris team up against the ninja terrorist organization known as VULTURE the result is..a Four issue STAR Comic series! That’s right..Four Issues. Matters are made worse when you discover that Marvel legend Steve Ditko was the artist during his dieing days as a Marvel Artist. The Comic Books based on The 1986 Ruby Spears cartoon show Chuck Norris Karate Kommando’s was also a very popular Toyline at the time..so how could it miss right? Ditko was not on his game and seemingly phoning it in with small odd jobs around Marvel who had not been giving this amazing artist any high-profile work. Sadly Karate Kommando’s was one of his last official Marvel works outside of his excellent Speedball series! The artwork was very loose and almost devoid of any intricate details and felt very dated. One can only speculate how much effort Ditko put forth given his Inevitable exit from the company a short time later. What was sad was that the TV series itself was only 5 episodes!! A show and comic that lived on in the hearts of comic book fans..well at least this one fan!

2. Thundercats: This title despite what anyone says about the STAR line, it was a case study in how you do a licensed property based on a Thundercats Saturday Morning Cartoon and famous Toyline. Original fun stories that matched the joy of this excellent cartoon. Issue one will always register in my memory banks for its bombastic cover. It was one of STAR’s longest running books coming in at a very respectful 24 issue run over 3 years! The title would begin like many STAR books in Bi-Monthly format but after 8 issues it was deemed more popular than imagined and went monthly until its 24th issue! This one had it all..engaging storyline’s true to the source material, great artwork to match, and killer hard to resist covers! I ran to these books as a kid..even though sadly it would be much later before I got to see a full episode of the Cats! Due to my location in Canada Thundercats was not found on local cable in many markets during its original run! What is the deal Canada..seriously? Fortunately the YTV network and much later Teletoon gave us all the vintage ThunderCats we could handle! Great save!

1. Masters Of The Universe: Okay, so there were many He-Man related titles from many companies but this one nailed it! The cartoon was amazing and no title recreated the magic of the cartoon than this particular series. Original and faithful are the best words to describe this book. The cartoon built to sell toys gelled well with this great title. It was filled to the brim with all the a MOTU fans every wish. It had the most obscure characters featured..it was loaded with the amazing line of castles, vehicles and worlds of Masters Of the Universe. The final two issues of this issue series were the Death and Re-Birth of He-man and absolutely were the best books in this series. He-Man fans out there..if you do not have this series in your collection you should not call yourself a fan!

Other Titles in The STAR Collection:

Air Raiders (1987–1988; #1-2 under Star imprint, continued under Marvel imprint) Airlandia is in grave danger. The Evil Tyrants of Wind have taken over of the planet’s air supply. Cue the heroic  Air Raiders, the only ones brave enough to fight back against the evil tyrants. A war for the freedom of  Airlandia begins in these pages.

 

• 

  Animax (1986–1987) Warriors in Amimax gear battle to claim power in this lame duck series that lasted only 4 issues. Riding the coattails of Thundercats and He-Man this uninspired mess was thankfully as shortlived as the comics!
  

Bullwinkle and Rocky (1987–1989; #1-2 under Star imprint) A Moose and a Squirell who foil dastardly villains in globe-trotting adventures. Nuff said!?

Care Bears (1985–1989; #1-14 under Star imprint) I may or may not have enjoyed this show as a kid..CareBears Countdown 4-3-2-1~!!! What ever happened to Professor ColdHeart?

Unofficial STAR Title. Count Duckula was always positioned as a STAR title but never had the imprint on their covers.

• 

  Defenders of the Earth (1987) 1-4 Written by Stan Lee that pulled together many pulp heroes of newspaper strips and golden age comics! Flash Gordon, teams with The Phantom (Billy Zane!!) Mandrake The Magician and more. Based on the excellent cartoon of its day!

The Flintstone Kids (1987–1989; #1-4 under Star imprint) lasted 11 issues! One of the stronger runs for STAR Flintstones Kids was a HOT property at the time! Documented the Flintstones days as kids in Bedrock!

Foofur (1987–1988; #1-4 under Star imprint) Lasted on 6 issues. Comic book based on the 1980s Hanna Barbara cartoon of the adventures of Foofur, the giant blue dog.

Heathcliff’s Funhouse (1987–1988; #1-5 under Star imprint) Lasted 10 issues. Based on the classic Newspaper strip as well as 80s cartoon property. The Heathcliff character would be one of STARs only properties to have TWO titles! FunHouse lasted 10 issues!

• 

  Hugga Bunch 1986-87 (#1-6). 80s Toy Property makes its terrible comics debut. Comic featuring the adventures of the Hugga Bunch, who live in Huggaland and want to have fun and show everyone how happy hugs can make them. Yikes!

• 

  Inhumanoids 1987 (#1-4) A group of scientists, strapped inside high-tech suits of armor, explore the catacombs of the earth and discover that ancient evil creatures called the Inhumanoids lay in wait to rise up and conqueror mankind.

Madballs (1986–1988; #1-8 under Star imprint) When a Mad Scientist creates monster like balls and unleashes them on the earth you get the super fun MadBalls!

The Official Adaptation of the 1987 Masters Of The Universe Movie starring Dolph Lundgren. Yeah this movie was pretty bad..and the adaptation did not do anything to improve that image. All the same..it was He-Man on screen..how bad could it be!??

Meet Misty (1985 Marvel/Star Comics) #1-6 Its Stars Answer to Barbie and a nod to Archie’s Katy Keen. Meet Misty was a 6 issue mini series. Misty was an attempt to win over the teenage girl Barbie buying demographic.

Silverhawks (1987 Marvel/Star Comics) #1-7 Based on the TV series of the first super androids ,who come to the rescue as the galaxy is in trouble. Commander Stargazer calls Earth for help and Earth sends their new team, the SilverHawks, which consists of Quicksilver, the Copper Kid, Bluegrass, Steelheart and Steelwill, to battle the evil forces of Mon-Star. Not as great as it sounds. Great toys though!

 

 

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987; #1-2 under Star imprint Based on the very good animated series in 1987, as well as a very unique toy-line. Visionaries was a short-lived but fondly remembered property!

 

Prior to the final demise of the Star Comics imprint four more series were in development yet were never published..

• “Commander USA”
• Christy
• Little Wizards
• Young Astronauts

So the STAR Imprint now a distant memory and todays Marvel Universe (2015) on the verge of a world shattering Reboot of their universe, one will wonder if any of these worlds will ever be explored again.  Marvels use of licensed properties has always been a huge part of their business model, the question remains will there ever be room in the Marvel U again for simple fare such as what was offered by STAR! It was a simpler time and the Marvel Universe was a place not tied to a cinematic universe..or an ultimate universe..it was simply fun…and as a kid..thats all we cared about.

Satellite..punch in coordinates..we are headed to the outer reaches of the Blogosphere to meet the rest of the Super-Blog Team Up members..strap in..hold on tight…

FOLLOW THE REST OF THE SUPER-BLOG TEAM AS WE CONTINUE OUR JOURNEY TO PARALLEL UNIVERSES AND ALTERNATE REALITIES..Click the links below..and tell em Hero Sent ya!!

 

1.Amazing Spider-Talk / Chasing Amazing / Superior Spider-Talk

Spider-Man Reign

http://wp.me/p1wQNx-21n

http://wp.me/p1wQNx-21n

http://superiorspidertalk.com/category/podcasts/amazing-spider-talk-podcasts/

 

2. Between The Pages

A Tale Of Two Cities On The Edge Of Forever

http://betweenthepagesblog.typepad.com/between-the-pages-blog/2015/01/a-tale-of-two-cities-on-the-edge-of-forever.html

 

Bronze Age Babies

Things Are a Little Different Around Here…

 http://bronzeagebabies.blogspot.ca/2015/01/super-blog-team-up-things-are-little.html

 

3. Firestorm Fan

Firestorm on Infinite Earths — Countdown Arena

http://firestormfan.com/2015/01/28/sbtu-countdown-arena

 

4. Flodo’s Page

An Earth-1 / Earth-2 Team-Up Featuring Green Lantern

http://flodospage.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-ballad-of-two-green-lanterns.html

 

5. In My Not So Humble Opinion

The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong

https://benjaminherman.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/super-blog-team-up-5-the-many-worlds-of-tesla-strong/

 

6. The Legion of Super-Bloggers

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2015/01/star-treklegion-of-super-heroes.html

 

7. Longbox Graveyard

X-Men #141 & 142: Days of Future Past

http://wp.me/p1yye7-2AY

 

8. The Marvel Super Heroes Podcast (i.e. part of Rolled Spine Podcast)

Epic Comics’ Doctor Zero

https://rolledspine.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/the-marvel-super-heroes-podcast-episode-029/

 

9. Mystery Vlog

Marvel & DC’s Secret Crossover: Avengers #85–86 (1st Squadron Supreme)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxVHXYjEgpE

 

10. Superhero Satellite

Marvel Comics’ Star Comics Line: Licensed Reality and Parallel Properties

http://wp.me/p2N3Qb-qZ

 

11. Ultraverse Network

Parallel Worlds: The Ultraverse Before and After Black September

http://ultraversepodcast.com/2015/01/sbtu-black-sept/

 

12.The Unspoken Decade

5 Batmen, 1 Superman, ZERO HOUR

http://theunspokendecade.com/2015/01/28/sbtu-presents-5-batmen-1-superman-zero-hour/

The Ghost in the Machine:Robocop Versus Terminator

http://theunspokendecade.com/2015/01/28/the-ghost-in-the-machine-robocop-versus-terminator-by-emily-scott/

 

Flash Transmissions #4 Sectaurs : Warriors Of Symbion

 

 

 

Flash Transmissions #4 Sectaurs: Warriors Of Symbion!

Transmission date: April 22 2014

 

Intercepting a faint transmission from a distant planet. Lock on target..destination the Insect Planet Symbion..Home of the Forgotten clan of Sectaurs..

“On the distant planet Symbion™, a genetic experiment fails. Frightening changes take place that cannot be stopped. The result—a world where insects grow to frightening proportions. A world where the inhabitants have taken on the awesome characteristics of insects. Where the noble citizens of the Shining Realm are locked in mortal combat with the denizens of the Dark Domain. Telepathically bonded (telebonded) in combat, Sectaur Warriors join with their insect companions in the ultimate battle for survival.” Credit Sectaurs.com

 

When you think of Coleco many instantly think of gaming. Well as a kid I remember a friend of mine who had a Colecovision console which I wanted badly. Coleco also manufactured many of my favorite childhood video games and were highly regarded for their efforts in the early 1980s hand held sports gaming market!. Anyone remember Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac-Man?? Coleco was behind the launch of these 80s classics! I was lucky enough as kid to have several Coleco Table top Video Games such as Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Galaxian! That’s another post for another day! The gaming Giant also had significant wins in the toy industry as well..such as it was with their profit explosion with the giant Cabbage Patch Kid craze Coleco also tested the lucrative boys toy market with one of the often forgotten Warriors of Symbion..The Sectaur’s! I had no idea what in the heck these things were as my only exposure to the toys was on a TV toy commercial which was enough to sell me on the line and as it was one awesome Christmas at my house was dedicated to Symbion’s best Warriors, The Sectaurs!!

 

My one Sectaur’s regret is that I never owned a Dargon figure!! One of my friends at the time had the fancy silver series 2 figure that I always secretly lusted after but alas I never acquired the central figure to the entire collection..instead I had the second stringers..Zak, Mantor, Pinsor..and No Dargon!! The toys themselves came in cool windowed packaging and the deluxe figures came with highly detailed fur covered insects that the Sectaur’s could ride on!!

The insects were mounted on a black glove that you could put on your hand and it was your fingers once inserted that would resemble the insects legs!! The insects design were very well done! In-fact if you were stumbling through a bin of old toys it would be the Sectaur’s insects that would stop the common man dead in his tracks. The deluxe sets were amazing and if any of my subscribers has one to give away (Shameless plug) Old Charlton Hero here will certainly help a brother out!

 

 

As with all cool toys of the day they also were backed by Marvel Comics and had a short but great Comic Book series! I collected several of the comic books but I was unfortunately not living in a community known as a hotbed for comic collecting and missed several issues that I later grabbed at a “Nice Price”! Issue #1 was like salt in the wounds with a full blown Dargon cover!! I still love this cover to this day and wonder would Sectaur’s last if released today? I guess we will never know..This writer says YES!

 

Satellite Extra: Even though this is a Flash Transmission not intended to be a long post..for the hell of it I will include all 5 episodes of The Sectaurs mini cartoon series!! Take care Heroes! Enjoy!!

 

 

GO-BOTS: Satellite Forgotten File

Welcome back Heroes! The Satellite has been receiving transmissions from an obscure planet far off of our radar. Our research team has pulled a secret file from our command centers database. We have determined the transmission comes from a planet known as Gobotron! Home World Of The GoBots! Lets see what our research team has uncovered. Remember its full disclosure Heroes, the information contained comes from our Satellites Forgotten Files deep in our archives.

Transmission Date Aug. 25, 2013

Many know the names Optimus Prime, Bumble Bee, and MegaTron! They were the long celebrated TRANSFORMERS!, Robots in disguise! Large robots from another planet who can alter their form to disguise themselves as human vehicles or weapons!  Before these names became engrained into the collective minds of pop culture there was Leader1, Turbo, Scooter, and Cy-Kill! They were the Go-Bots and they brought the transforming robot craze to America long before their Auto Bot and Decepticon counterparts. They were the Go-Bots and they were awesome!

Created in Japan in 1983 by Popy , the Machine Robo line was launched. Tonka would strike first in the transforming robot war by grabbing the rights to bring the line to America ahead of their Transformers rivals. In 1984 America got its first taste of The Go-Bots! The small action figure sized robots transformed with two to three simple moves. This would far differ from the monsterously complex transformers line released later. The line gave the toys uniqueness by giving each Go-Bot a name and a group affiliation. Like The AutoBots and the Decepticons the Go-Bots had two unique factions. The good guys were the Guardians, led by the aptly named Leader 1 (A Jet Plane), The Guardian ranks also included Turbo (Red Sports Car), Scooter (A Scooter!) and many others.

 

The Core Go-Bots

 

The Bad Guys known as The Renegades consisted of evil leader Cy-Kill (Did anyone guess he was a Motorcycle?). Cop-Tur (A simple minded Helicopter), and Crasher (A Black Car to compete with Turbo!) These were your core group however the line itself was massive and produced hundreds of new Go-Bots to join the ranks. There were many variations on the toy as they had Super Go-Bots, Puzzler Go-Bots, Command Centers , Power Suits and even Rock Lords! More on that later! Go-Bots were every where you looked!

I was always a Go-Bot fan. When Transformers came to my market I cried RIP OFF!! My favorite was Leader 1 and to me Optimus Prime was a second rate rip off who just happened to be 9 times as expensive, 5 times the size, and far more complicated to transform! (Of course in recent times I have rethought my hypothesis on who was better but I digress.) I was a Go-Bots fan and even though my friends were introducing more and more Transformers into the play mix I was a staunch supported of The Guardians! I remember vividly having Leader One, CyKill, Fitor and  Crasher, I even had the Giant editions which were far superior to their micro incarnations. They still featured the great transforming simplicity which I demanded!

The original GoBots toy commercial exploded on to TV screens and it was sure to draw eyes of kids all around America! Gobots merchandise was every where. Toys, Models, shirts, Lunch Boxes, posters..GoBots had arrived!!

The initial comercials showcased the various characters!> This one is my personal favorite of all the Go-Bots commercial! I wanted to be that kid!

The coolest Toy of mine in the Go-Bot collection was certainly my GoBot Command Center! One of my friends traded this one away to me and boy did I love that toy!!

Of course I fondly remember a 7th grade trip to NY city due to the massive toy haul I brought back including the GoBots Power Warrior!! The power suits attached to this toy was perfect for GI Joe figures as well! Loved it!

Power Warrior was incredible and was the crown jewel in my GoBots collection! It consisted of a huge robot and its limbs were called power suits which the GoBots could suit up in and all combine into Power Warrior!!

The large scale Go-Bots were often slightly more complex in its transforming abilities and were very cool streamlined versions of their mini counterparts! I had several of these my favorites being of course Leader 1 and Cy-Kill. The Super sized Cy-Kill in particular was amazing!

My Interest in Go-Bots would explode however in 1984 when local cable station ASN (Atlantic Satellite Network) debuted the newest animated cartoon by my favorite animation brand Hanna-Barbera! The show was called The Challenge Of The Go-Bots and it blew my 10 year old mind!

To me Challenge of The GoBots was my favorite show at the time! the plot was fairly simple. Satellite computers engage Wikipedia Plot Summary!

“In the series’ backstory, set thousands of years ago on the planet GoBotron, there lived a race of human-like beings known as GoBings. Civil war erupted on the planet when the power-hungry terrorist group known as the Renegades arose, led by a madman dubbed the “Master Renegade“, who waged war against the peaceful Guardians. When a Renegade sabotage operation inadvertently resulted in a gigantic asteroid colliding with GoBotron, the natural disasters that resulted from the asteroid’s impact pushed the GoBings to the verge of extinction. However, the genius who became known as the “Last Engineer” saved his people, taking his experiments to replace parts of his own body with mechanical substitutes to the ultimate extent and transferring the GoBings brains into large robot bodies known as “GoBots“. The GoBot forms possessed an additional ability; after being run through the device named the Modifier, the GoBots‘ bodies were able to transform into other vehicles. His work done, the Last Engineer intended to retreat to a pre-prepared workshop elsewhere in the galaxy, but the Master Renegade stole his ship and escaped in his stead. The Last Engineer placed himself into suspended animation beneath the surface of GoBotron, while above, the war continued to rage between the Guardians and the Renegades, now all encased in GoBot shells. Credit Wikipedia

In the last quarter of the 20th Century, the planet Earth became involved in the conflict between Leader-1’s Guardians and Cy-Kill’s Renegades. During one of these battles, one of Leader-1’s lieutenants, Turbo, became severely damaged. Unwilling to let his friend and teammate die, Leader-1 began his quest to find the legendary Last Engineer. Leader-1 found the person he believed to be the Last Engineer, but Leader-1 had unwittingly released the Master Renegade (though he did repair Turbo to gain the Guardians’ trust). The Guardians later found the true Last Engineer, who was instrumental in frustrating the alliance between Cy-Kill’s Renegades and the Master Renegade. The Master Renegade later escaped the custody of the Renegades, and plagued both factions, notably attacking the UniCom colony of New Earth.” Thx Wikipedia..couldnt have said it better myself!

This show ran daily Monday to Friday after school in ASN’s cartoon block which was always amazing! Their line up boasted shows like Robotech, Jemm and The Holograms, Transformers, BraveStarr, Snorks, Turbo Teen, and plenty more! GoBots however was one of my all time favorites! The GoBots came to earth and defended it bravely all the while making human friends who were your overly generic Hanna Barbera cast offs Nick, AJ and Matt. They were classic 80s stereotypes with the bright colored high collared jackets and very basic attire. Of course the humans were a constant source of concern for the Guardians who spent much of their time saving their friends and their home world.

Cy-Kill would also make friends with the humans namely the diabolical and not so trust worthy Dr. Braxis! The evil Doctor would willingly assist the Renegades. Braxis however could only be trusted when he was not in jeopardy himself. Braxis often foiled the Renegades plots to protect himself much to Cy-Kills dismay. Braxis level of evil brilliance kept the renegades coming back to him in times of need despite his short comings.

Surprisingly the series had a decent sense of continuity and often did multipart story arcs, my most fondly remembered storyline was the iconic 5 part`GOBOTRON SAGA! It is the best of the best in regards to the franchise and rather than me telling you all about it lets fire up the Satellite Theater deck and receive the transmissions of this epic storyline right to screens. Enjoy!

 

The GoBots popularity was huge especially in Canada! Tonka had a certified hit in the toy market and Challenge of the GoBots was a big win on the small screen. There was only one more step to take..The Big Screen. GoBots went Hollywood in what is both a big deal for the franchise and its final death knell all at once. GoBots : Battle Of The Rock Lords . This was released prior to the very good Transformers The Movie, but unlike their AutoBot bretheren, The GoBots movie was a flop. It pulled in a meager  1.5 million in America. Lets let the fine folks of Wikipedia tell us all about its plot!

“The Guardian Gobots are continuing their work on rebuilding their home planet of Gobotron when a mysterious ship crashes on the planet. Leader-1, Turbo and Scooter investigate, and find it to be occupied by a pair of transforming rocks – Solitaire and her valet Nugget. They have come seeking the Guardians’ help to save their planet from the evil Rock Lord Magmar, who is killing the other Rock Lords in order to take their power sceptres. He places these in a machine designed to channel all their power into his own sceptre. The Guardians agree to help, but the conversation is spied upon by the Renegade Fitor. Gobotron is soon attacked by the Renegade fleet, and Cy-Kill and a team of Renegades capture Solitaire, Small Foot, Nick and A.J. With Nugget as their guide, Leader-1, Turbo and Matt set off on a rescue mission. Back on Quartex, the only obstacle facing Magmar is Boulder’s group of Rock Lords, who set off to draw Magmar into battle.” Credit: Wikipedia

“Meanwhile, Cy-Kill attempts to get information out of Solitaire, and despite her best efforts manages to link up with Magmar and strike an alliance, turning the battle against Boulder. The good Rock Lords flee, and after their defeat at the hands of the Renegades are initially very skeptical about the Guardians’ intentions when they land on Quartex. However, they too form an alliance, and march on Magmar’s headquarters. However, when they get there Magmar is able to take Boulder’s sceptre from him, and activate the machine. Cy-Kill betrays Magmar, taking the weapon for himself, but is defeated by Leader-1, and the power is dissipated. The Renegade prisoners are released, and the Gobots return to Gobotron.” Credit: Wikipedia

I watched this movie in theaters upon its release and I do have to say it was abysmal. i was let down and the Rock Lord characters introduced were soulless creations and were the final straw for the toy line as well. The Rock Lords toy were duds to go along with the movie. I unfortunately had these toys but these were NOT my GoBots. Transformers had made their move into the expanding toy market as well their TV show was a huge smash with kids. The Transformers found a larger audience and had an essence of cool. Transformers The Movie also sparked controversy and fan interest as their main character Optimus Prime was killed off in the film. The film performed far better than Rock Lords but still did not have a great time at the box office just falling short of its production budget. Transformers:The Movie has gone on to cult status among fan boys while GoBots: Battle Of The Rock Lords lives in practical historical obscurity..and maybe rightfully so. See for yourself below!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH GO-BOTS: BATTLE OF THE ROCK LORDS

With interest waning and the popularity of The Transformers now in clear dominance of the toy and TV industry race Challenge Of The GoBots ended its run after an impressive 65 episode run with its final episode “Quest For New Earth”. Challenge Of The GoBots lives on online, and is readily available on YouTube, as well on the Torrenting black market.  There are several VHS format video tapes in the secondary markets and on EBay as well Hanna-Barbera released a Challenge Of The GoBots DVD which contains the original GoBots miniseries, the first 5 episodes of the series.

The Toy line had hit its cresendo as well, pushed out of the toy market, Tonka aborted the GoBots line in 1987 and was sold to Hasbro in 1991 who did nothing with the property. In the late 2000’s the Transformers line included a “GoBots” line which had nothing to do with the original GoBots line of toys or characters but were rather smaller versions of Transformers aimed a a younger audience.

As we place the Lost File back into our database it is interesting to look back at the ORIGINAL “Robots In Disguise”  Robot Toy line. GoBots toys  and the cartoon show is a fond memory I will always have. I am in the minority on this but I got much more enjoyment from GoBots over their popular rivals the Transfomers! That may be sacrilege in many fans eyes but I would rather be a Guardian than an Autobot anyday! Go GoBots!

Recalculating position, back to the command deck heroes, I have an idea of where we are going next..till then Subscribers!

Transmission End:

If you have enjoyed this post feel free to leave a comment. If you would like to talk with me directly contact me on twitter @charlton_hero and join the conversation using #SuperHeroSatellite

Satellite Extra: Here’s some very cool GoBots related obscure merchandise. Did you have any of this great stuff as a kid? How about this mega cool GoBots T shirt!

Transformers  also had a mini line to offset their Go-Bot competitors that were extremely easy to transform and were geared to the younger audience! I had the UFO and Tank Transformers They were crazy cool! However I remember my Tank being red? Hmmm.

Nothing cooler than coloring GoBots! Check out the cool Cop-Tur and Turbo on the cover! GoBots coloring books!

Rare GoBots magazines are to this day very hard to come by!

Finally a rare pic of the Challenge Of The GoBots cast! Love this one!

Take Care Satellite Subscribers..hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I did making it!