{"id":5837,"date":"2010-05-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=5837"},"modified":"2010-06-26T20:05:38","modified_gmt":"2010-06-27T01:05:38","slug":"most-requested-figures-blackstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=5837","title":{"rendered":"Most Requested Figures: Blackstar"},"content":{"rendered":"


I had a lot of MOTU figures when I was young and, appropriately, I love MOTU Classics. I wish more of the old toy lines would get their time in the sun like MOTUC. That\u2019s one of the reasons we do this article. We want to see our childhood favorites get their due in plastic form and receive an update that lets them be the toys they never quite could be when we were kids. That\u2019s why, for Round Two, I\u2019m giving my staff pick in favor of the return of Blackstar.
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Like most cartoons\/toy lines, the premise of Blackstar was simple. John Blackstar was a space pilot from a future version of Earth that was sucked into a black hole and teleported to the planet Sagar. Magic and sorcery were the tools of power there, and he soon found himself defending the munchkin-like Trobbits from the evils of the Overlord. Blackstar was aided by his friends: a winged dragon mount named Warlock, the shapeshifter Klone, and a female sorceress called Mara. Overlord and Blackstar fought for thirteen episodes, mostly over the Powersword. Both of them possessed half of the sword, while trying to capture the opposite half from each other.<\/p>\n

Sound familiar? Blackstar, like all great clich\u00e9 mono-myths, borrowed heavily from other sources. It\u2019s part of a group of kids programs that sprang up all around the same time, that deal with very similar themes and an upsurge in mixing sci-fi with sword and sorcery type fantasies. Most of it is probably due to the Star Wars franchise, and the fact that A New Hope was released in 1977. But there\u2019s also Thundarr the Barbarian, the DC comic book Warlord, and Masters of the Universe to name a few that joined Blackstar in this theme.<\/p>\n

And what a theme it is. What kid doesn\u2019t want to explore strange new worlds, and lost civilizations? What kid doesn\u2019t want to harness forgotten magics while fighting off evil with a mixture of old school swords and new ray guns? What better way to do that than through action figures, and Blackstar had those too.<\/p>\n

From 1983 to 1985, Galoob produced three waves of toys. By the end, they had thirty unique characters, five different vehicles, and one playset. Not too bad for a three year run.<\/p>\n

They stood a little taller than MOTU by virtue of their unflexed limbs. Each figure also had the basic five points of articulation and included whatever accessory was pertinent to them and a pack-in figure. All the good guys came with a Trobbit, the bad guys came with a demon. These figures were smaller, about a quarter of the size of the main figure, and were one molded piece. They couldn\u2019t move, but they were still cool to get.<\/p>\n

So, what do I want? I want Blackstar to get the MOTU Classics treatment. Mattel can\u2019t do it, because they don\u2019t own the rights. Galoob was purchased by Hasbro a few years ago, but it\u2019s likely the rights have reverted back to Entertainment Rights, the keeper of all things Filmation. Are they willing to license it? I don’t know, but I hope so. If another company wants to experiment with an online exclusive toyline, they should try Blackstar. But they need to make sure to update them. They need to use MOTUC as an example in articulation, style, detail, and scale. Being compatible with MOTU would be a plus. And, if they can find a way to pack in a somewhat articulated demon or Trobbit with each figure, then that would be even better.<\/p>\n

-Vault<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[18,10],"tags":[566,548],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/mrqTN1.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-1w9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8552,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=8552","url_meta":{"origin":5837,"position":0},"title":"Round Two Most Requested Semi-Finals","date":"August 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's come time again to whittle down our mid-year requests and send them to December as semi-finalists! We've got a strange batch of candidates this round including a disqualification and the surprising return a Round One Runner-Up! Voting will be open for two weeks, but don't wait! Come in and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5397,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=5397","url_meta":{"origin":5837,"position":1},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Micronauts","date":"May 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6155,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=6155","url_meta":{"origin":5837,"position":2},"title":"Most Requested Figures: C.O.P.S. ‘N Crooks","date":"June 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9870,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=9870","url_meta":{"origin":5837,"position":3},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Dark Tower","date":"October 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We're a little behind on our Requests for this third round and we've had a few requests where none of the IAT staffwriters were proficient on the subject matter. Today's request, Dark Tower, is one of those requests. So, we turned to reader Dayraven for the in's and out's .","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4718,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4718","url_meta":{"origin":5837,"position":4},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Solomon Kane","date":"April 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4804,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4804","url_meta":{"origin":5837,"position":5},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Expanding Movie Masters","date":"April 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5837"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6887,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837\/revisions\/6887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}