For kids who grew up during the ’80s, it was inevitable that at some point, your living room floor became the battleground for forces of good and evil to battle for control over a fortress of power on alien planet. He-Man versus Skeletor! Lion-O versus Mumm-Ra! And, um…Dargon versus Spidrax?
The short-lived Sectaurs didn’t last long enough to have their storyline enter the pop-culture lexicon to the same extent as “By the power of Grayskull!” and “Thundercats hoooo!” But if you were around back then, you would definitely have seen the toys: insectoid and arachnid-infused warriors that rode on giant bugs that were actually hand puppets. If you weren’t, well, you owe it to yourself to watch this commercial:
Pretty dark even by ’80s standards, right? Despite a Marvel comics tie-in, that may be why the toys by Coleco didn’t last long. But guess who’s coming back (not a hard guess, since it’s right up there in the headline, but what the hey…).
Zica Toys has obtained the license for the Sectaurs in a smaller, 4-inch scale (the originals were more like 6 inches), and will be rolling out 10 figures in the first wave before launching a Kickstarter to fund them. No hand puppets for them to ride are being planned yet, but they’re a possibility if the new line makes it to wave 2. Rather ambitiously, Zica also want to make the Hyve playset, which was one of the largest of its kind back in the day; even scaled down, it would be quite an undertaking both for those making it and those who’d like to afford it.
One issue with the original Sectaurs was that they weren’t quite in scale with anything else, being taller and slimmer than He-Man and Lion-O; these new ones will be reasonably compatible with Star Wars and G.I. Joe, and include “army builder” troops to set up an entire squad. It’s difficult to know how many people have been pining for the return of Prince Dargon, but if they redo the glow in the dark Dargon who had a giant fly larva stuck to his back, I’d be into buying that again.
How do you feel about the Warriors of Symbion? Buzz down to comments and let us know.
Images: Marvel Comics, Zica Toys
