S.T.A.R Team Promotional Comic

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In 1978, Ideal Toys hobbled together a series of space toys using old molds and a generous helping of inspiration from George Lucas..

S.T.A.R Team actually beat the Kenner Star Wars product to the stores (Kenner was forced to sell empty boxes promising action figures but you probably knew that) and the lawsuits flew!

In an effort to create a back story kids might enjoy Ideal contacted the Marvel comics bullpen (as they had done for their Evel Knievel line) to create a promotional piece outlining the adventures of Zem 21 and his nemesis, the extremely talky Knight of Darkness.

It's a gripping tale written most likely in a gin soaked afternoon..

Read the Ideal Toys Star Team Comic

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[Earth 2 Chris]

Man, that felt like every Marvel comic of the 70s, didn't it?

It surprises me that Ideal put this much effort into a "me too" line. Esp. one cobbled together from existing molds. Did they honestly think kids would buy into a rip-off that much?

I sure hope this isn't the reason Cockrum left Uncanny X-Men!

Chris

[toys2cool]

I never saw the comics,But the figures always crack me up

[cjefferys]

That's awesome, I had heard of the comic but never saw it, so thanks for posting the whole thing to read. I had a Knight of Darkness, Zeroid and Zem 21 as a kid, and really liked them. They were much more articulated than the SW large figures, and Zeroid lit up, so they had a lot of play value. I'll probably have to rebuy the damn things someday. What did the comic come with? None of my figures included the comic. Did it come with one of the larger pieces, like the Star Hawk spaceship or Kent and the Cosmic Cruiser?

[palitoy]

I have no idea how the comic got out there, it may have just been given away at toy stores like the EK version. Maybe somebody who had it will chime in and mention where he got it.

[Monsterama2000]

That's cool. I still have my battered Zem 21 and some pieces of a Zeroid. Never had the Knight of Darkness.

[megoscott]

I had that Knight of Darkness. If you squinted real hard he looked like Darth Vader and didn't suck. Still have him, actually. My 12 inch Kenner Vader is constantly belittling him.

Too bad they never made his Flying Tick sky-cycle as shown on the inside cover.

[Bionic Joe]

Never heard of these guys, Had they came along in say 75 i may have been all over them but back in 78 my toys days were behind me, I also never got the STAR WARS figures either but i did see and know about them

[shellhead]

Uhh...Brian...I was that kid you were talking about in your comments about the pin-up page, I loved the heck out of these toys! I have everything except Kent and his Cosmic Cruiser. My awesome lil wife even got me a MIB Zem-21 for Christmas a while back!
Thanks for posting the comic, I've been looking for it for years and now, thanks to you, I finaly get to read it! WOOHOO!
Thanks again Brian!


Chris

[Werewolf]

I actually had the Knight of Darkness as a kid. I got rid of him because the dye in his body was staining everything purple. Kinda regret it now.

Anyhoo, cool comic!

[SpaceCrawler]

A weird toy line; they used a partial Zeroid from the original Ideal Zeroid line (Zogg, the Zeroid commander minus his head and various details), they reissued the original Zeroid space ship (in different colors), they used Evel Knievel's canyon jumper "bike" for the human's "space ship", they used Action Boy's body from the Captain Action line for the Zem 21 body, and they used the 'Star Team' name from the original Ideal Star Team kid sized space accessories (space helmets, etc, which was a pretty cool line of toys but I guess didn't sell that well).

Sean