Multiple companies chased after the success of larger companies like Mattel by copying their toys. One of these companies was Sparkle Toys, Inc. In 1985, they introduced a small toy line called the Defenders of the Planets.
Sparkle Toys was an American toy company that often created toys that treaded upon infringing on other toy companies’ IPs. They were involved in a lawsuit with Hasbro for copying Takara’s toys which they called Trans Robot. So, there was no surprise that another of their toy lines treaded on bootlegging Mattel’s toys.
The line was divided between the heroic Defenders and the Planets and the self-explanatory Evildoers from Star Systems Far Away. While the Defenders were more human in appearance, the Evildoers had a more reptilian and alien appearance. Both types of figures strongly resembled Mattel’s Masters of the Universe action figures with their muscles and squatted appearance.
Despite copying Mattel, Sparkle added enough changes to make the Defenders of the Planets distinct from He-Man. While each mold was generic, the paint jobs were clean and let the toys stand out.
Each of the action figures came on a colored card back which even had color on the back of the card. While the front featured a group picture of the toy line’s cast, the back provided a useful description of the line: “Earth’s solar system is being threatened by evildoers of star systems far away! Orion and the Defenders of the Planets must stop Zaardoom and Evildoers from entering the galaxy of Earth and her sister planets!”
On the side of the Defenders, there were Orion, Weaponsmaster, and Strongarm. They had two mounts that they could ride, Lion Steed and Eagle Steed. They also had two other beasts, Starcat and Starhawk, who resembled wingless griffins.
Meanwhile, on the side of the Evildoers were Zaardoom, Canis Major, and Quasar. Similar to the Defenders, they had two mounts to ride on: Dino Beast and Rhino Beast. They also had two other beasts, Dino Demon and Rhino Demon.
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How to use the Identification Tool to find your action figures and toy lines
Do you have an old-school G1 Transformers toy you are trying to identify? Don’t know the name? No problem! I’ll help you use this identification tool. For example, just type in “jet” in the figure name field and hit search. You’ll see all the Transformers G1 Toys that are jets. Maybe try “car” and select the color “blue” and a list of Transformers matching those results will appear. Maybe you don’t know what the finished vehicle will make, so try searching by “red” only. Did you forget to remove “car”? Now search just the color “red”. Perhaps you know the name, but can’t spell it try “Wheljck” instead of “Wheeljack” and all the Wheeljack characters are listed for you.
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