I recently acquired this small collection of boxed MANTA FORCE. It's not a toy-line I'm overly familiar with and as such it's in the same mental folder as STARCOM and MASK. By Bluebird in the 1980's, they really are massive vehicles with hidden craft, accessories and neat miniature figures. And the boxes are HUGE! Those lucky 5 year olds back then would have been able to get inside them! A thought popped in my head, were they the SWORD/SPACEX of their day? Well, I was amazed when I read the backstory on Wikipedia, it's so similar to PROJECT SWORD! See what you think:
"Manta Force was a toyline produced by Bluebird Plc in the 1980s. MANTA was an acronym for Multiple-Air-Naval-Terrain-Assault Force, which referred to both the "good guys" and their spacecraft, searching the galaxy for a "New Earth". Their foe was called Viper Squad, who traveled in a spacecraft called Red Venom. The back-story involved the sending of a spaceship to find a "New Earth" for colonization by the World Government, given the overpopulated and polluted state of Planet Earth. The Viper Squad aimed to take over MANTA and colonize the New Earth themselves.
The plastic toyline consisted of small toy soldiers and much larger spaceships, as well as a "battle fortress". Several of the guns were capable of launching plastic projectiles, including the infamous "Zip Gun", a hopper-loaded, gravity fed. crank handle operated design that launched 5mm plastic spheres at an extremely high rate for a distance of around eight feet.. There was a series of books as well as a cartoon strip in the Eagle comic.
Bluebird Plc. also produced the Polly Pocket toyline, for which reason the company was purchased by Mattel.
Later the two opposing sides joined forces to fight off attacks from an alien known as Karnock who was served by an army of robots. Another enemy emerged as well in the form of Stinkhorn who lead the 'vile' Stenchoids who appeared to be either another alien grouping or the native dominant lifeform on New Earth." (Wikipedia)
Stenchoids! I love it!
Inside one of the boxes was this cool leaflet in French.
and also these other as yet unidentified toys
What do other people think about MANTA FORCE? And for that matter STARCOM too?
Woodsy, with regard to your unidentified toys you had the solution to one of them earlier. As a collector of MASK toys I can tell you the large jet on the left of the picture is 'Meteor' piloted by Ace Riker. You'll find that the the front section detaches to become a mini jet and the rear becomes an assault tank.I'll send some images ASAP.
ReplyDeleteHey Steve, thanks a bunch. I'm not big on MASK but the pics you've sent through are class. Ace Riker, what a great name! I've had a fiddle with the Meteor. Found an instruction leaf;et for it too on one of the Manta Force boxes.
ReplyDeleteManta Force was a great concept, there was a srip in the new Eagle comic for a while. Unfortunately, some of the later stuff got a bit daft with the Bog Rocket etc! I like the original ship with all the neat rescue vehicles inside. That Astro Shark is a really rare one!
ReplyDeleteStarcom are fanstastic, but very hard to get hold of!
I dread asking, but what was the "Bog Rocket"?
ReplyDeleteAnd does anyone have pages of that eagle picture story? I'd like to see a page.
Hey the plane is a transformers decepticon poweremaster, looks like a repaint or a k/o but its like dreadwind or deathwind or dreadwing, summat like that
ReplyDeleteThe blue one is glutton, a manta force Karnoid vehicle
ReplyDeleteExcellent Anonymous, that's all of them ID'd!
ReplyDeleteJust got into collecting Starcom.
ReplyDeleteGreat toy concept and design. Small and somewhat affordable in these days of retro toy collecting.
Buyer beware!
Ebay may have a lot stuff but some people are asking wayyy too much so word to the wise be aware that you can get better deals locally. On my local Craigs list I got a deal for $35US for the following:
Starhawk figher (missing some guns but fine otherwise)
Starbase Command HQ (all pieces and working)
4 figures
Try to find that deal on ebay! Look local folks!
Merry Xmas!
Hi there, I am looking to sell manta force collection. I am in Lincolnshire. I have manta ship, red venom, battle fortress, black barracuda, bog rocket, astro shark and many small sets. My email address is kochanski20@yahoo.com . I also have a large starcom ship for sale :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in the astro shark 😁
DeleteAlso need red viper.
Show me what you have.
My email is Robbybelboah@msn.com
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ReplyDeleteI have a decent manta force collection now. No boxes though. Still need red viper, astro shark and the silver one that splits into 4.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know of any toys that are the same scale as mantaforce?
I've considered making some customs in the future but it would help if the toys could already accommodate the little men.
The Multimac line from Silverlit sometimes comes with figures that are based on the Manta guys and the vehicles are similar scale. Look at: http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2012/03/multi-explorer-force-12-from-burscough.html
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