The Convertors were a line of

action figures An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are usually m ...

manufactured by Select in the 1980s. Often compared to the more famous

Gobots GoBots is a line of transforming robot toys produced by Tonka from 1983 to 1987, similar to Hasbro's Transformers. Although initially a separate and competing line of toys, Tonka's Gobots became the intellectual property of Hasbro after their b ...

and

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

, the Convertors were a line of toys which came out at about the same time and also featured transforming robots.

History

The Convertors licensed some of their toy designs from

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...

just as was done for the Transformers, meaning some of the toys looked very similar. The molds for Convertors were later knocked off by other toy companies. Convertors toys were featured in a display in the 1985

J. C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...

Christmas catalog.

Fiction

The Convertors toys featured the conflict between heroic and evil factions, in this case the heroic Defenders (and their Avarian allies) and the evil Maladroids (and their Insectors allies).

Toys

Various toys were released in different size classes and price points for the Convertors line.http://counter-x.net/convertors/checklist.html{{dead link, date=August 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes

Avarians

*Calypso -

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittaco ...

*Feathers -

peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

*Hoot -

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

*Rex - blue robot

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...

*Robat - black robot bat

Defenders

:Standard Defenders *Chopper - helicopter - licensed from

Special Armored Battalion Dorvack is a 36 episode anime series aired from 1983 to 1984 in Japan and also aired in Hong Kong at roughly the same time. Other loosely translated names include "''Dorvack''", "''Dolbuk''", "''Special Powered Armor Troop Dorvack''", "''Powered Arm ...

*Fast Track - train engine - licensed from

Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger is a Mecha anime and manga, mecha anime series that aired from 1983 to 1984 in Japan. There were 43 episodes aired. Other loosely translated names include ''Sasuryger'', ''Sasreiger'', ''Galaxy Whirlwind Sasuraiger'' and ''Wonder Six''. It is ...

*Tanker - tank - licensed from

*Wheels - off road vehicle - licensed from

:Motorized Defenders *Argonaut - boat *Atlantis - boat *Cpt. Nemo - boat *Neptune - boat :Super Defenders *D.A. Tona - white car *Indy- blue and white car - similar to

Chō Kōsoku Galvion is a 22-episode anime television series mecha series that aired in Japan in 1984. It revolves around criminals using robots to save innocents in exchange for years being cut from their long prison sentences. The program did not fare very well ...

*Monty Carlo - blue car *X - red car :Jumbo Defenders *Bull - red bulldozer :Mini-Bots *City - red Honda City Turbo - similar to the

Diaclone is a toyline by Takara Toys launched in 1980. It consisted of transforming vehicles and robots piloted by miniature, magnet-shoed figures spun off from the prior Microman toy line. The toys in the 1980 line were designed by future ''Macross'' d ...

Skids __NOTOC__ Skid or Skids may refer to: * Skid, a type of pallet * Skid (aerodynamics), an outward side-slip in an aircraft turn * Skid (automobile), an automobile handling condition where one or more tires are slipping relative to the road * Skid, ...

toy. *Sports - silver

Toyota Soarer The is a personal luxury GT coupé produced from 1981 to 2005 by Toyota and sold in Japan. It was available at both Japanese Toyota dealerships called ''Toyota Store'' and ''Toyopet Store'', and it debuted with the Z10 series, replacing the '' ...

*Van - black Onebox

Nissan Vanette The is a cabover van and pickup truck produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1978 until 2011. The first two generations were engineered by Nissan's Aichi Manufacturing Division for private, personal ownership, with the last two generat ...

- - similar to the

Ironhide toy. *Wagon - blue

Toyota Hilux The , stylized as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as pickup truck or cab chassis variants, although the ...

- similar to the

Trailbreaker toy.

Insectors

*Crawler -

stag beetle Stag beetles are a family of about 1,200 species of beetles in the family Lucanidae, currently classified in four subfamilies.Smith, A.B.T. (2006). A review of the family-group names for the superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera) with corrections ...

- licensed from Beetras Beet-Gadol *Creepy -

longhorn beetle The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...

- original toy *Morphus -

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumst ...

- licensed from Beetras Beet-Gadol *Scorpio -

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always endi ...

- original toy *Tenticus -

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species d ...

- original toy

Maladroids

:Standard Maladroids *Nofka - licensed from

Super Dimension Century Orguss is an anime science fiction series. It inspired an OVA sequel series called ''Orguss 02''. ''Orguss'' was the second part of ''The Super Dimension'' trilogy from Big West, preceded by ''The Super Dimension Fortress Macross'' and followed by ' ...

*SDF-1 - space ship - licensed from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross *Sunyak - leader of the Maladroids, licensed from

*Zardak - VF-1 jet fighter - licensed from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross *Zark - VF-1S jet fighter - licensed from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross :Mini-Motorized Maladroids *Meeshak - grey jet *Mooriah - white jet *Turak - blue jet *Volcan - red jet

On display

Sunyak at the Pop Century One of the hotels in

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

is called

Disney's Pop Century Resort Disney's Pop Century Resort is a resort located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, opened on December 14, 2003. It is the fourth value-priced resort in the complex, following Disney's All-Star Movies, All-Star Music, ...

, which has different buildings from different decades of the latter half of the 1900s. In the lobby are a series of shadow boxes with memorabilia from each decade. In one from the 1980s are various items including a Convertors Sunyak robot.

References

Products introduced in 1984 Action figures Defunct brands Toy brands 1980s toys Transforming toy robots