Well, it looks like I still can’t find the Spider-Man minicomics from Peter Pan peanut butter lids besides the one I own, so it’s back to the Starriors and the destroyed Earth they came from. There’s a time that didn’t feel prophetic.
For the newcomers: Starriors was a toyline from Tomy in the 1980s, trying to cash in on the robot craze. The idea is that solar flares drove man into hibernation, leaving robots called Starriors to fix the planet when the mess was done and restore humanity. However, one of the Destructors, Slaughter Steelgrave, is convinced that man’s time is done and the Starriors should rule. He’s tricked even his own side into believing man is a myth, and tries to hide evidence of them from Destructor and Protector alike. However, a group of Starriors led by Hotshot are out to prove they did.
Everyone’s an art critic.
Except we aren’t following those groups in this one. I guess we managed to get some new toys by the time issue five was produced, because we’re focusing solely on them this time. Six new characters, three on each side, are still operating back at the old homestead, and this issue we’re going to see how the other Starriors are reacting to these events.
Like the other issues we have no creator credits outside of it being made by Marvel, who also made the four issue store comic miniseries, so we’ll just hop right into issue #5 of the Starriors pack-in minicomic, “The Wall”, and see all the new figures for the kids to bug their parents for. You can read along by downloading the CBR file from Virtualnaut. He has the rest of the series up as well, but I’ve reviewed the earlier issues, and there’s one more after this that will have to wait for the rotation to come around again.
Four Destructors led by Gouge (who interestingly is not one of the character toys promoted on the inside cover but is on the page of the original figures) are firing on the Protector Windstorm because she’s too close to the Forbidden Zone. The others, whose toys are here, are Twinhorn, Slice, and Clawgut. Windstorm and Twinhorn are supposed to be vehicles as toys but in the comic are as much living robots as the other Starriors. They also resemble dinosaurs. Windstorm is a pterodactyl–or possibly a pteranodon as I keep getting them confused–and Twinhorn, quite the sycophant, is based on a triceratops, thus making them air and ground transport respectively. Clawgut is the one on the left of the cover, so you can guess where his name came from. Slice has a big axe and Gouge has a drill in his chest. Does it make sense? Did the kids care? Well, given how little remembered this toyline is, possibly. Twinhorn is the only one with any personality, and she’s the biggest brownnoser in the group.
Windstorm meets up with the other two Protectors in the story. They have more personality. Twin Blade considers himself an artist in his excavation, having just uncovered the wall you see on the cover, the one who appears to have the same artist as the Voyager space probe gold disks. He’s talking with Flashfist, who is wondering if Hotshot is right about man. Twin Blade calls him a dreamer, insisting that man can’t possibly exist and they should be marveling at this wonderful wall he just excavated with pictures of man on it. Flashfist is apparently a dope, and easily takes Twin Blade’s side over Windstorm’s when she tries to tell them about what she learned, that Hotshot might be onto something. Not taking their rejection well, as Twin Blade only cares about his art and Flashfist just assumes he’s right, she decides to go find the others and the scrapyard with them.
That’s when Gouge’s group finds them. Gouge demands they stop excavating right now, because this is forbidden territory. He also orders the wall’s destruction, which really ticks Twin Blade off, but since Flashfist already promised to protect Twin Blade’s work (you’d think he actually made it…though given the quality of the art…) and attacks. Slice is a bit more disappointed in attacking fellow Starrors than Clawgut, who is more than happy to lay down the punishment, and Twinhorn, who just needs to be pointed at a target. Windstorm overhears the battle and after an initial “serves them right”, opts to save her friends. The wall is destroyed, but this opens the other two Protectors’ optic relays to the possibility that something’s up. The three decided to get out of there before the Destructors unbury themselves from the wall rubble and head off in search of Hotshot’s group.
This was certainly different. The whole story features mostly new characters, introduced like characters rather than toys. Slaughter Steelgrave and Hotshot are just only mentioned, and we get to see that back at where the Starriors are working things are still difficult for the Protectors, while some Destructors question attacking their own robo-kind despite being a different faction. More Protectors are finding proof of man’s existence, and only some Destructors are happy to attack them for it. Some would be loyal to humanity if they could be convinced. This is all Slaughter trying to retain power, and only some of the Destructors would be on his side if the truth was found out. We have one more comic before this toyline goes away, so I’m curious how it all ends.
In the next installment, however, it’s back to DC. Will I find another one of the Sugar Smacks Superman stories, or is it back to the Super Powers Collection? We’ll find out next time.
