The Convertors were a line of action figures made by Japanese toy company MARK and localized in North America by New York-based company 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 also featured transforming robots.
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.https://venomianbane-giantrobots.blogspot.com/ The molds for Convertors were later knocked off by other toy companies. Convertors toys were featured in a display in the 1985 J. C. Penney Christmas catalog.
Fiction The Convertors toys featured the conflict between heroic and evil factions, in this case the heroic Defenders (and their Avarian allies) and the evil Maladroids (and their Insectors allies). In the original Japanese the Avarians and Insectors were billed as rival factions Bird Robo vs Zectron (バードロボ対ゼクトロン).
Toys Various toys were released in different size classes and price points for the Convertors line.http://counter-x.net/convertors/checklist.html
Avarians
Calypso - parrot Feathers - peacock Hoot - owl Rex - blue robot eagle Robat - black robot bat
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 - licensed from Gokin Robo Car City Robo, similar to the Diaclone Skids toy. Sports - silver Toyota Soarer - licensed from Gokin Robo Car Soarer Robo Van - black Onebox Nissan Vanette - licensed from Gokin Robo Car Ace Robo, similar to the Diaclone Ironhide toy. Wagon - blue Toyota Hilux - licensed from Gokin Robo Car Land Cruiser Robo, similar to the Diaclone Trailbreaker toy. Voyager - white van resembling a Plymouth Voyager.
Insectors Crawler - stag beetle - licensed from Beetras Beet-Gadol Creeper - longhorn 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
New Spies These all took the form of objects, rather than vehicles or creatures. Selectman - tape deck Tilt - pinball machine Cash - cash register Zoom - binoculars Bandit - slot machine Vegas - roulette wheel Focus - camera
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 latter 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
External links Checklist at figurerealm.com