The Somewhat Short Saga of Crystar
In the early eighties, Marvel Comics teamed up with Remco (a division of Azrak Hamway) to create the Saga of Crystar. After years of success with comics based on toy lines (such as Micronauts and Shogun Warriors) Marvel sought to reverse the situation and create a toyline they would themselves license.I can’t help but think this would have gone to Mego if they were more of solvent company seeing as they had such a great relationship. Anyway, the result were some very nice looking toys with great graphics, Marvel produced a comic (although the toys somehow made it to the shelves first) using top talent like Michael Golden and it really should have been a big hit.
Pic above is the 1983 Remco Toy Fair Show RoomDespite all the things going for it, Crystar likely failed for two reasons, one EVERYBODY was getting on the sword and sorcery bandwagon at that time but more importantly, the rules changed in the early eighties, in fact the whole toy game did. While Crystar had a great comic book, thanks to Ronald Regan repealing an FCC law, He Man had a cartoon!Crystar eventually gave up his battle like many others during this time, Marvel would go onto to produce successful comics licensed from toy properties and Remco spent a lot of time producing toys that aped either Masters of the Universe (Mattel sent lawyers) or G.I. Joe.
I had Crystar and the green dude – whose name escapes me at the moment. They were really cool (although I am a sucker for translucent action figures) and came with some great accessories (even Crystar’s helmet was removable!)
I thought this was a better concept than ROM. That comic had a life much longer than the poor toy. I agree that the only thing the Crystar comic had going for it was the great Michael Golden covers. Too bad he didn’t work on the interiors. Same thing could be said about the lame U.S.1 concept.
The Crystar comic sold like, 100,000 copies a month, and was canceled due to low sales.
How the comics industry has changed…
The green dude's name was Warbow. I love translucent figures too, they are very cool toys. I wish someone would revive Crystar for the new century!!
I loved that line, and have managed to score a few MOC, but they're hard to find now (especially the playsets). If they revamp, they should include Ika (crystal maiden, Ogeode's daughter) and Lavour (hot lava-chick consort of Moltar) in the playsets, instead of friggin' Ogeode and Zardath "variants" in cheap raincoats:)