Convertors
The Convertors were a line of action figures manufactured by Select in the 1980s.
Often compared to the more famous Gobots and Transformers, the Convertors were a line of toys which came out at about the same time and featured robots who changed form.
History
The Convertors licensed some of their toy designs from Bandai just as was done for the Transformers, meaning some of the toys looked very similar.[1][2] The molds for Convertors were later knocked off by other toy companies.[3] Convertors toys were featured in a display in the 1985 J. C. Penney Christmas catalog.[4]
Fiction
The Convertors toys featured the conflict between heroic and evil factions, in this case the heroic Defendors (and their Avarian allies) and the evil Maladroids (and their Insectors allies).[5]
Toys
Various toys were released in different size classes and price points for the Convertors line,[6] unlike Transformers which would not do such until the release of Transformers: Beast Wars in 1995.
Avarians
Defenders
- Standard Defenders
- Chopper - helicopter - licensed from Special Armored Battalion Dorvack
- Fast Track - train engine - licensed from Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger
- Tanker - tank - licensed from Special Armored Battalion Dorvack
- Wheels - off road vehicle - licensed from Special Armored Battalion Dorvack
- Motorized Defenders
- Argonaut - boat
- Atlantis - boat
- Cpt. Nemo - boat
- Neptune - boat
- Super Defenders
- D.A. Tona - white car
- Indy- blue and white car - similar to Chō Kōsoku Galvion
- Monty Carlo - blue car
- X - red car
- Jumbo Defenders
- Bull - red bulldozer
- Mini-Bots
- City - red Honda City Turbo - similar to the Diaclone Skids toy.
- Sports - silver Toyota Soarer
- Van - black Onebox Nissan Vanette - - similar to the Diaclone Ironhide toy.
- Wagon - blue Toyota Hilux - similar to the Diaclone Trailbreaker toy.
Insectors
- Crawler - stag beetle - licensed from Beetras Beet-Gadol
- Creepy - beetle - original toy
- Morphus - locust - licensed from Beetras Beet-Gadol
- Scorpio - scorpion - original toy
- Tenticus - spider - original toy
Maladroids
- Standard Maladroids
- Nofka - licensed from Super Dimension Century Orguss
- SDF-1 - space ship - licensed from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross
- Sunyak - leader of the Maladroids, licensed from Super Dimension Century Orguss
- Zardak - VF-1 jet fighter - licensed from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross
- Zark - VF-1S jet fighter - licensed from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross
- Mini-Motorized Maladroids
- Meeshak - grey jet
- Mooriah - white jet
- Turak - blue jet
- Volcan - red jet
On display
One of the hotels in Walt Disney World is called Disney's Pop Century Resort, which has different buildings from different decades of the later half of the 1900s. In the lobby are a series of shadow boxes with memorabilia from each decade. In one from the 1980s are various items including a Convertors Sunyak robot.
References
- ^ http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/02/the_10_worst_transformers_rip-offs.php
- ^ http://venomianbane-giantrobots.blogspot.com/
- ^ http://www.transformersontheshelf.com/KOBeastfighters.html
- ^ http://www.transformersontheshelf.com/catalogueJCP.html
- ^ http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/Convertors.html
- ^ http://counter-x.net/convertors/checklist.html