Armed Force
Review by The Enthusiast
The Wheeled Warriors
The Wheeled Warriors is a case study in questionable toy marketing. Mattel designed a solid line of vehicle-based toys and dubbed them the Wheeled Warriors. Presumably the designers had some outline of a narrative, but the toys were initially released with a generic “good guys versus bad guys” story, evidenced by the first commercials:
Mattel then decided to give the humble Wheeled Warriors the full media treatment (complete with cartoon, coloring books, board games, pencil cases, etc), reverse-engineering an elaborate mythology to explain the toys. Thus was born “Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors”. Even with character-based designs, the toy-first, story-second method rarely produces successful results. The idea of kitted-out trucks fighting each other is pretty thin gruel for a story, and the cartoon was a thoroughly mediocre product. The whole endeavor promptly flopped, and today is barely remembered, even by die-hard eighties nostalgia-junkies. The toys, however, were great fun. Using a Micronaut-like system of interchangeable parts, the Wheeled Warriors provided impressive play value.
Armed Force
The Jayce & the Wheeled Warriors story, such as it was, concerned the efforts of Jayce and his band of heroes to thwart the galaxy-dominating ambitions of the Monster Minds, a plant-based gang of baddies led by Saw Boss. Armed Force was the vehicle piloted by Jayce himself.
Armed Force, like all of the toys, came as a kit of easily assembled parts.
Each set consisted of a body with operable cockpit, a chassis, wheels, and assorted weapons, including a unique signature weapon for each vehicle. Armed Force's signature weapon was an articulated claw. The good guys all came with a small driver (1.5"), minimally articulated.
What's this? STACK ATTACK!
| Posted 19 December, 2009 - 15:15 by The Enthusiast |
Comments
10 comments postedStack Attack. Oh hell yeah. I really dont like how the pilot doesn't look like Jayce - I know this is due to the toy line being developed before the cartoon, but still..
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CollectionDX Admin
Were gold rims popular in the mid 80's?
Anyway, I never cared for the good guys in this line. The bad guys were always so much more interesting.
Although tempted many times, I never picked up the toys as a kid.
The theme song, however, was pure 80's cartoon rock heaven. LOL. One of the greats.
Hehe, gotta love the commercial.
Another awesome review! As a wee-lad, I had one Lightning League and one Monster Mind: Drill Sergeant and Saw Boss, because those were my favorites of each side back then. Nowadays, I'm more on the fence about whether I like Drill Sergeant or Armed Force more. I've really come to liking the streamlined, almost jetfighter-like body, as well as the gold wheels and accessories of Armed Force. It just has this sleek, "nicer and fancier than toys today" look about it... :-P
A couple of other small but notably cool things about these is how the chasses can be flipped to achieve a lifted, more off road stance and a lower cruising stance. That was always another thing that made the vehicles more interesting and added to the imagination and play value. It was also fun to swap the chasses with others, like giving Saw Boss the four wheel option, or Armed Force the 3 wheel one. With the various parts you could come up with some awesome vehicle combinations.
Also, with the individual specialized weapons, they usually had a cool mechanism in how they worked, like how you can pull the little lever on the back to make Armed Force's claw open and close. It's gimmicky and simple, but it's a neat extra touch. :-)
Thanks again man. Keep 'em coming!
The gold paint on this guy is great. It really makes the toy pop. Although I'd have to agree that the bad guy designs are just so much better. Especially that brain slime driver.
Y'know, slime is a highly under-used feature in today's toys. 80's toys had plenty of slime, damnit...why not now!? And it really would have kicked major ass if the monster minds' brain pilots sat in a vat of slime in the cockpits!
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Sanjeev
YOU'RE right, slime in the cockpit would be great!
Is it just my imagination but did Armed Force come with three sets of wheels?
This is the one I had as kid and I loved it, to bad I didn't get more pieces but there was so much going on in 1985!
Leonardo Flores
CollectionDX Staff Writer-West Coast Bureau
I only recently obtained the Mattel Toyfair catalog that would have had the second year of these, and was shocked to find that they had actually planned to include Jayce and his crew with the vehicles in the second year. There were four new vehicles, a pack of mini-figures, motorized chassis for the vehicles, and a new set called Thunderstruction. Interesting stuff.
ooh. I wouldn't mind seeing scans.
I love seeing the old "almost was" stuff in the old magazines. Especially for a line like this.
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"Hey, uh...let's volt in."