I've known of these for some time now. My local Dollar General stores have just started getting the M.A.R.S. Heroes single packs in this year. Thank the LORD!!! See...I've been hoping to the the single packs at retail for years. I first got introduced to these figures several years back. They were introduced to me in Wal-Mart's Kid Connection line as "Transformable Action Playset" or something to that effect...I think there were two of them. Anyway, I only saw them ONE year...and I know Kid Connection reuses the same stuff for a few years. Honestly, I can't remember the exact year, but it seemed to be around the time when video games like 'Halo' and 'Gears of War' were reaching their fever pitch of initial popularity. Aside from the figures, those sets came with vehicles and other accessories (which I need to dig out of storage).
At any rate, I eventually saw a picture on the back of another M.A.R.S. toy somewhere and I freaked since I had no idea these were related to M.A.R.S. robots! Up until then, the M.A.R.S. toy line, to me, was just a line of relatively uninteresting (sorry robot fans) 'bots sold at Wal-Mart (and a few other places) next to Transformers. I had hoped to ACTUALLY find the set I had seen on the back of that toy package...but never did.
Thanks to the magic of the internet, I eventually discovered that single packs had been made and there were at least three figures I did not own! I found some on eBay at the time, but there were not many and the sellers wanted waaaay too much. I kept these in mind for years, but never saw them...until now! I was hunting Dollar General while looking for the special cheaper G.I. Joe figures when I spotted the M.A.R.S. single packs and rejoiced! At first, it seemed most locations were only getting the troopers and the aliens, and no robots. After maybe about a month I noticed the robots were trickling in...and now I finally own all the characters!
Basically, there are six characters...unnamed...three human (or cyborg) troopers, three aliens, and three robots. All have ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. Robots and troopers have turning necks. You can pop off the limbs and swap them out if so desired. While I wouldn't call these junk, I wold assume frequent limb popping would affect poseability over time...j-just s-sayin'!
The troopers are assumed to be the main heroes, I guess...being human and all. Clearly, this guy here is modeled after Master Chief from Halo. Kinda neat, even though I could care less about video games (sorry, gamers). Easily, my favorite trooper. I never got this guy in the Kid Connection sets. I knew I had to have him the moment I first saw a pic of him way back when on the internet. Like all the other troopers, he comes with two guns. A great troop builder since he just plain looks cool, and since his face is obscured.
Again, I'm not much of a gamer...but this one time, I was watching a friend play Gears of War. This guy kinda reminds me of the humans form that game. All the troopers have the same body aside from the heads, by the way. Also comes with two guns.
A red guy with a face mask! I love how this guy's all armored up except for the top of his head...smooth move, ya dingbat! Like the other troopers, comes with two guns. 'Nuff said.
Naturally, I loves me some cool aliens! Even though the movie 'Battle For Los Angeles' was a few years away...when I first saw that flick, I thought of these alien toys right away! Aside from that, they coulda been inspired by just about anything...or not. They also kinda remind me of the Beast Planet bad guys from the 'War Planets' cartoon. Well, unlike the 'bots and the troopers, the aliens don't have a traditional head. The all have the same body, except for a different "face"...the ovular thing in the center of their chest. On their shoulders, each alien has two ports to attach accessories. Sadly, each alien only comes with one shoulder attachment. This green guy comes with what could pass as a mini missile launcher or maybe some sonic blaster. He or she or it comes with two pistols.
The orange alien comes packin' one bigger gun. It also has what appears to maybe be a shoulder-mounted gun as well. Again, same exact body sculpt except for the face plate. Boy, are these guys just neat!
With the blue guy, things start to get all...freaky-deeky. Why? The only figure who's core body is not the exact same parts as their peers. It's lower arms are longer and have bigger claws as opposed to semi-humanoid fingers. Also, comes with a melee weapon: a big bio-mechanical axe! It's shoulder accent is a weird thingie which may be a weapon or may even be some kind of rank marker or war trophy. All depends on your imagination! As far as I know, the M.A.R.S. Heroes have no backstory after all. I personally see this guy as some kind of berserker.
Although I'm sad to leave the world of aliens...it's robot time. Yeah, yeah...M.A.R.S. seems to mainly deal with robots. But these ones are in 3 3/4 inch scale! Well...truth is, there are also other M.A.R.S. 3-packs with robots as well, but they are slightly smaller in scale and have less articulation (I'll cover them later if no one else cares to). Anyhoo...the robots or Megabots (I think) all have the same core body, but different heads and shoulder weaponry. Each comes with one gun and all three robots all have the same second gun: a double barreled cannon. The green one here is probably my favorite. He's the one I never saw in the Kid Connection playsets I had previously discovered these figures in.
In truth...this grey 'bot may just very well be my least favorite of the M.A.R.S. Heroes guys. I dunno...seems kinda dull in color and standard robot fare to me. Still neat, in general, but two mostly grey figures in one small toy line is a bit much...at least I think so.
I suppose that since this is the last guy in the toy line, I had better mention that the only bad thing about the robots in the M.A.R.S. Heroes line is that since the limbs are bulkier/blockier...articulation is a tad stunted. Just a tad!
Well, there you have it. I really like this little toy line. The bigger M.A.R.S. robots seem to be staple toys for eternity. They never truly interested me. But these guys? Excellent! Why does Wal-Mart perpetually keep those big things on the shelves and never carry these? Seriously, I work there...we get TONS of those big honkin' 'bots and we can't carry these waaaaay cooler 3 3/4inchers? ABSURD!!! If you have never got a chance to own these and have never seen 'em, I know Dollar General has them (if you have any of those stores near you). I would love to see more in the future, but with toys like these...ehhhhh...a touchy subject. No variations on these nine that I have seen.
Truth be told, if you peek around online, you might see that these guys were available in many forms...form these single packs to big gift sets. I've also seen bootlegs of these which I am dying to track down and obtain (hint, hint).
