Empire Toys was a subsidiary of a toy company called Empire of Carolina (formerly Carolina Enterprises, Inc.). Empire was a publicly traded toy company in the 70s and 80s that dealt with plastic toys and holiday goods but also had a habit of riding the coattails of the fads of the day.

Seeing as how Diecast robot toys were all the rage in 78, Empire decided to cash in. Somehow they came up with Star Mites, a line of diecast metal toys that was a mix of vehicles from Shinsei’s UFO Commander Series, and Yonezawa’s Astekaiser series. While a majority of the UFO Commander series came through unchanged, Astekaiser was used as the basis for an original line of figures. Astekaiser himself was never released as part of the line.

Star Mites had four figures based off of the Astekaiser mold.

• Mars
• Thor
• Zeus
• Spider Warrior