Transform Squadron 52- Mr Bleah Sky

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Rob talks about Toylanta, Transformers One, and Meteorbs!

Meteorbs- Watch the Battle Unfold!

Masters of the Universe Meteorbs, 1987

Tell the Monstroids it's Christmas

The He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special is a very odd cartoon. Two earth children find themselves on Eternia and have an adventure. It's really a series of sub-plots strung together to make a short 40 minute little movie. One of the more interesting adventures is when the Monstroids get involved. In the MOTU toy line, Monstroid is a large robot monster that's part of The Evil Horde. In the grand tradition of Filmation taking liberties with the source material, instead there's a group of transforming robots called The Monstroids. Though they did later on appear as member of the Horde in a later She-Ra episode.

Clearly both a take on the popular transforming robot toys at the time (obviously Transformers, but there was a few other lines as well) and maybe a little dig at the competition (we've got to stop those evil transforming robots) before the Meteorbs were introduced. I've mentioned before how much I love the bat shit crazy nature of the line in general. A random group of transforming robots showing up in a Christmas special only to be thwarted by another group of robots is a prime example of that.

Meteorbs and Tamagoras aren't just words that drive autocorrect crazy

I've briefly talked about Meteorbs here before... and dammit I'm gonna again. A cool and overlooked addition to Masters of the Universe, Meteorbs were comets that transformed into little robot and animal dudes to fight with or against He-man. Transforming comets were a thing on Eternia, so why not?

The toys were made from Bandai's Tamagora line of egg based robots. If you're into transforming toys, chances are you've come across your share of toys that transform into eggs. Bandai pretty much makes the best ones as evident in the more recent Hatch 'N Heroes toys.

Tamagora and other egg robot toys are often bootlegged, so if you can't find original versions of the toys, chances are a knock off is sitting on the rack at an odd discount store or gift shop.

 

While they may not be for everybody it's hard to deny their charm. Simple fun little toys full of charm. Even Takara got into the egg game in Microman. Those molds got used later in Transformers Beast Wars and Kiss...*shudder*.

While I'm not very wordy on how great egg robot toys are here, I think that's because it's a pretty simple concept. Egg turns into something, simple fun toy, neat. Though I absolutely have to show you this Tamagora commercial featuring the batch that got made into Meteorbs.

We are all a little better for seeing that. Even if just for the little peep peep at the end looking at the toy wondering if it's food. The toys are commonly found in gashapon machines and oddball (egg?) stores. Like I said, if you're into transforming robot toys, chances are you have a few or at least came across some. Honestly, I'd love for Bandai to sell these here in America.

Rokkon and Stonedar

From the planet Geolon to battle on Eternia, the Rock People were a surprisingly cool addition to the Masters of the Universe. You have Stonedar the older wiser member of the duo and Rokkon the... he's basically Hot Rod. The two arrived on Eternia just as He-Man needed a good rock. I've talked about their comrades The Meteorbs here before, but man... I've really been needing to talk about these guys. Because they rock... I'm not going to apologize for that pun. You're just going to have to live with it.

Rokkon and Stonedar didn't make it in time to be on the daily Master of the Universe cartoon, but just like Hordak and his crew, they showed up on She-Ra. My main source of their adventures was in the mini-comics (and I swear the magazine) where they turned up occasionally after starting a village on Etheria. It's funny how something that turns into a rock can be as amazing as these guys (or The Rock Lords for that matter) are, but here I am talking about toy rocks in my 40's, because they were just that cool. Not just mere rock, they were comets that unfolded into metallic skinned aliens with ray guns hell bent on stopping the evil forces of living Halloween decorations that populated Eternia. I certainly cherished my set during their heyday and really wished I had that Matty Collector set.  Right now I hope they make an appearance in the excellent Mega Construx series or pray Super 7 comes through with the goods.

Meteorbs aren't just awkward to say, they're fun for play!

When I was a kid, there was more than one way to rock. There was Rock Lords (which I really need to get a few) and of course the line of meteor based toys in Masters of the Universe. Beginning with Rokkon and Stonedar, later Mattel added in the Meteorbs to fall from the sky and whoop Skeletor's bony butt. Essentially, Transformers were hip daddy-o and He-Man needed to get in on that groovy transforming action. So, Mattel licensed molds from Bandai's Tamagoras toy line of transforming egg robots. It didn't exactly set the Universe on fire (probably because He-Man was still master of the place) unfortunately, but did make for some cool toys.

Bootlegs of the molds are fairly common and other transforming egg toys are pretty common place, so I'm sure they could be dug up easily. I'd like to get my hands on some more, not just because they're cool, but egg bots have always been super neat to me. I've got a neat skeleton one I bought at a pharmacy one year that still holds a special radness rank in my heart.