War Planets was a Trendmaster toyline, which tried to (all puns intended) master the trend of the mini playset. Most people nostalgic for this period would think of Polly Pocket for girls and Mighty Max for boys. They’re playsets that fold up for easy transport. For example, visiting a relative that doesn’t have kids? You can bring this along rather than lug a bunch of your toys if you’re not much of a reader and there’s no place to play or the weather’s too lousy to go outside.
A tie-in animated series was produced to help promote the toys, made by Mainframe Entertainment, the company who rose to fame in the computer animated field with Reboot, which I was going to do tonight to tie in to last week’s Showcase, but apparently I already did that when Shout Factory posted the pilot to their YouTube channel. After going by Rainmaker for a while for some reason, the now branded Mainframe Studios has their own channel, and are uploading their own productions there.
However, in Canada, where putting “war” in a show title is forbidden (Mainframe had to air the Transformers series Beast Wars as Beasties, which is unintentionally humorous), the show would gain a different name, and that’s the title in the intro: Shadow Raiders. The show follows emissaries from a group of planets whose governments don’t get along with or trust each other. That suits the invading force of the Unicron-like world Beast Planet as it makes them easier to absorb. However, a survivor from one of their previous victims will find an unlikely ally who will try to unite the rest of the toyline planetary system against this foe. Unfortunately, they don’t call it WAR Planets for nothing. Enjoy.
BW Media Spotlight 