Parasites: Matchbox Failed Transformers | Oddities #5
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ธ.ค. 2024
- Wierdly inspired by the arrival of Halley's Comet and feeling the pressure from Transformers, Matchbox once tried their hand at robot and vehicle toys with a line called Parasites.
Turns out it lasted about as long as it took for Halley's comet to pass by and is now largely forgotten.
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Fact. Parasites are distant cousins to transformers. The designers previous work was the spinoff Micronauts line Aliens including Reptros, Antron, Membros, Kronos, Lobros and Centaurus.
Bonus fact; Hot Wheels Robo Wheels imho the spiritual successor to Parasites were designed by Bandai's internal design team PLEX!
The cultural design exchanges come full circle!
This is great extra information. Thank you!
Thanks for the info on Robo Wheels. I had never heard of them and had been trying to identify a little robot with a cowboy hat I picked up secondhand for a few years now. Turns out it's Robo Wheels
Wow, I remember these. I thought I remembered the concept, but as soon as that first guy came on screen it all came flooding back. I had just that one - maybe they weren't as widely distributed here in the UK where I grew up?
This is what I love about toy reviews like this and what is amazing about the human memory. I haven't seen that figure for at least 25 years and completely forgot it ever even existed - or so I thought. Yet when it came on the screen I knew it immediately, remembered buying it from Tesco Supermarket because they only had loads of G1 Megatrons on the shelf that I couldn't afford or G1 minibots that I already had, remembered taking it to school and showing one of my friends near a water fountain in the corridor, remembered I used to use it as an alien character that was like a shaman or a visionary type thing when I played with it with my transformers . . . I could go on!
Pretty amazing to see something that takes you right back to the memories of the innocence of youth like that. Thanks Toy Galaxy - that's a pretty special thing to be able to give somebody.
I wish these would have been more popular. Then the poor kids that only had Go-Bots would have someone to make fun of. Instead we just learned how to fight.
I was lucky, I had transformers as presents from family members, so I used use my Transformers to beat up on my Go-Bots XD
Yeah it was wonderful snot an scabs, push downs toy takes,an bike riding,duckn bullies till you just said fuck it I ain't going for no shit today, an then respect,I miss that shit
I don't have many instances of toys from the 80's flying under my radar, but the absence of a cartoon or comic probably is a big factor in my never having heard of these. Very interesting!!
Thank you for doing what you do, sir. Easily one of my favorite TH-cam channels.
You guys are incredible. That has to be one of the most obscure 80's toys that ever came out.
Megatron as a gun, (without any explanation as to why) in comics and show could be either human sized, or to scale for someone like Starscream to fire him.
I had Extermasite, One of the many off-brand transformers I was gifted with that formed a loose knit group of "first to die" and "background corpses" when I played.
I want a patch with a robot skull that says: "First to Die / Background Corpses"
now I do as well.
Too funny!!
Background corpses sounds like a rock band but way to extreme a thought for me as a kid
Ironic that they called the toy-line trying to compete with the Transformers called Parasites.
I bet the person who came up with this name was laughing his arse off after Matchbox gave the go ahead.
Thank you for this. I grew up with these things and the whole Halley's hype that swept that year (for astronomy nerds like me anyways).
I have no memory of these at all. And I thought I remembered all the obscure toy lines. Well done.
Me three. They're actually pretty cool looking, i would have wanted a few.
Mike Kaess I just thought the same thing.
I don't think these ever reached Asia as well. Or at least not here in our country.
Matchbox did something else like this a year later were the cars had weapons on them and shells that you could interchange with.
@@Primeghost_2 I had the Peterbilt Wrecker with dual hooks. My all-time favorite matchbox. Can't even find a picture of it on the internet now with the armor and guns.
Their have a transformable innards hiding inside vehicles concealing them as somekind of shells. So... they're like reverse Transformer Pretenders?
Glasses&Mouthplates mind = blown 💢
They are basically Pretendee vehicles
That's what these were called! I've been trying to remember recently as I saw these in shops in '85-'86.
Wow, had totally forgotten about this line - had (probably still do somewhere) the same one you demonstrated so that really brought it all back vividly! Awesome vid again team!
I had one as a kid, but I had no idea what it was called until now. I actually played with mine a lot as a kid. I have no idea why though.
You're not gonna mention that Destructite has a freakin' GRAVESTONE ON HIS BACK!? C'mon, that's awesome!
Lots of details we had to exclude for the sake of time.
Hey Dan great episode. I remember one line of matchbox cars back in 86 or 87 called Roadblasters. Just wish I had the toys I had back then.
Maaaan i forgot about these and i don’t forget much when it comes to toys. I had the one u guys pictured on cover.
this is my favourite series of yours!!!
Keep up the good work and remember that the truth is out there
WIll do, thanks!
My grandmother bought these for me and my brother. From Lionel kiddie city I still remember the big price stickers. Still have them. Actually bought them all carded in the late 90s.
Good Grief, I remember this toy line... rotting on the shelf of the Chesterfield Township, MI K-Mart after Halley's Comet came and went for about a year, next to the 3rd Voltron Figures.
I've never heard of this toyline. You guys are great at finding interesting stuff.
Glad to expose you to something new. Thanks for watching.
I completely forgot about these, so thanks for the reminder and nostalgia-fest!
I was a TF fanboi, so these never registered with me, but one of my brothers had a few. I'm pretty sure one was that orange one.
I'm a 90's kid and I vaguely remember them trying to bring these back in the early 2000' I might be wrong tho
No you arent wrong, there was a pilot for a show too, I have it on a vcr tape somewhere
I remember these being very cheap compared to Transformers and so no one bought them.
The other one from this era was cars with a gear stick on the roof that controlled the speed or doing a u turn, depending on the setting, when the car was pulled back.
there were also ko's called convertors,and four star made thier own line of transforming robots. There were also a lot of chinese knock offs,using the same takara diaclone/microman molds. My favorite was Kingdamn Starscream,because he came with a cool little pilot. Damn-I never grew up-LOL!
I owned 5 of them. Between Transformers, Gobots, Micro Machines, Roadblasters and Mask- 80s was the golden age for car toys
I had Extermasite and a Matchbox Dodge Caravan. After I lost or lost interest in the robot. I pretended Extermasite was the recovered carcass of my stole Caravan. My grandparents lived in Brooklyn in the 80's, so seeing a striped out car on the Beth Parkway was a common sight.
Love you Dan!
Hey, thanks!
Oh my God! "There was no way to keep Paying rent long enough inside a kid's head" is possibly the greatest thing I've heard said in a while. That is immediately going into my lexicon.
Never seen Parasites. They must have blended in with the Matchbox and Hotwheels cars, because I went straight for the Transformers.
You had me at "... step 3 ... profit?!?!" Subscribed ...
Whoever said that there should have been some good guy characters based on mythical creatures has a great idea!!! I'm down for that idea! Would make a great reference for an animated series!!!!!
Man, I remembered buying one of these as a kid because it looked cool, then I lost the robot and had the car shell floating amongst my Hot Wheels for years, before losing that too. I couldn’t remember what it was called and this is the first I’ve seen or heard of the line since.
Speaking of Matchbox torys, I've been trying find info about a range of (I THINK Matchbox) toys I saw literally once about 25 years ago: It was a range of furturistic hover vehicles, a bit like the vehicles in the game F-Zero. They had flat bottoms, so when you fired them from their air-powerd laucnher, they would skim along flat floors on a cushion of air trapped under the vehicles.
I saw them in a discount store once and when I returned the following week, they were gone. Never been able to find out what they were called.
Still looks cool,might by them to put on my shelf
Haha I wasn't around for these, but who doesn't want a Dodge Caravan transforming alien robot in their pocket
Never remembered this, but I do remember the comet. Or rather, blankly looking up at the night sky and not being able to see it because I had no idea what I was looking at..
You are having a hard time saying Halley's Comet. Great video! I have never heard of these until now.
Never heard of these, but a friend of mine when I was a kid in the 80s gave me their Spectorite figure (minus car parts and guns). Until now I had no idea what it was. Always thought it turned into a tractor or something. Now I know!
Found 3 of these mosc at a flea market for cheap. Had to get them lol. Wierd but cool. And hey I see your a fellow granite stater! It's nice to see an awesome toy channel and it's local! Keep it up
That Benson episode about the comet scared the shit out of me when i was kid.
I had forgoten about these. I had them all. Pain in the arse to get back in to the chassis.
I think there was a modern revival of these in the early 2000s, basic chassis with a robot inside a shell that became a shield or weapon.
This video inspires me to ask, years later, where the Matchbox/Atari Road Blasters video might be! I was a huge fan of those toys, high quality rubberized parts that could be installed on standard matchbox toys if you had the one that matched the custom "Mad Max" style models that came with the toy. I still have most of them, loose. Pretty awesome stuff.
I've never heard of these and I want them all now!
Those Parasites look easy to lose, so then you'd just end up with a engine less Car next to the other Hot Wheels and Matchboxes
I had the Gammacite one, but lost the car part early on, so only had the bendy and pretty fragile plastic robo....thing.
This was an interesting toy back in the day! It would have made an interesting idea for an animated series! I would buy it!!!
I do not remember these at all, and I would have been in the key demographic in 1986. Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars were super popular recess toys at my school. We had a huge sandbox that was perfect for sculpting terrain to play on with cars. Cars that fit in your pocket and transformed into robots would have been awesome.
Even back in the day I don't remember anyone else having one. Just a few of us from that birthday party at the roller rink.
Great lighting!
I remember the Parasites. Loved the concept but thought some good guys to fight against would have saved the line.
Hell, even just making the line larger so a kid could use them as a new threat for their Transformer or Gobot toys would probably have helped. Of course, that, would have meant a wider investment, almost certainly wouldn't have made the Hailey's comet deadline and made the figures incompatible with regular Matchbox and Hotwheels toys...
If have plans to bring this back this line I would introduce some good guys in the shape of animals from mythology (Dragon, Phoenix, Unicorn, Pegasus, Griffin, Thunderbird ,etc
I had Nemesite and Terrasite, or however you spell them. Got them from a second hand toy shop in Devon. They were cool back then.
I had 2 parasites and I believe they were identical to each other. I remember I was in some sort of gym daycare while my mom did her jazzercise class. I brought the toys with me but when I left my mom for some reason thought I was taking them from the daycare and made me put them in the toy bin. I did not know what those were called until now
I had Matchbox cars as a kid, I only had two Hot Wheels. When the paint chipped, I painted it back to stock.
I didn't rember these but I had that green snake one, I had totally forgot about these guys
These just reminded me of a Hot Wheels subline that had all these Mad Max style weapons you could attach to them. Now I have to look that up.
Now that's what I'll call alienated robots. Some reminds me of some robots from One Must Fall 2097.
I've got a vague memory of seeing that robot snake thing somewere before when I was a kid.
THANK YOU!!!
I had one of these ('Destructite') when I was a kid, and I have been trying to find out what they were called for ages.
They really sucked.
SOB, I had completely forgotten about these. I def recall having the snake and maybe the orange car.
I loved the Parasites. I loved the concept of them, and I had Destructite and I think I had Terrorsite. It us a pity they were not more popular.
Wow I haven't seen these things in forever. I just remember I got one in a stocking for x-mas one year.
How many 80s kids' birthdays were doomed by this things? "Happy Bday, son, here's the transforming car-thing you watch on TV".
Many grandmothers were silently cursed at under children's breath, that's for sure.
I owned and loved these back in the day.
LegoMech yeah, and you know what? Screw the kids who say these things sucked. Sure, Transformers were the god tier toys everyone wanted, but even Go-Bots and the dollar store knockoffs were great, and you gotta love the off-the-wall cocaine fantasies like Parasites.
I remember these! I didnt have any, but several of my friends did
"Flash dresser"...now that's a oxymoron, hahaha. No wonder they bombed, I was a eighties baby and I sure as hell didn't want a puzzle/car/weird looking robot bug thing with no real enemy to fight against.
I loved these things. I thought it was awesome that the robot could come out of the car so you could play with both at the same time.
An overlooked benefit, you're right. You could put the bottom of the car back ON when the robot was out and still have a car.
The best astrological event: Halley-Hailly's comet.
These broke into a million pieces as soon as you took them out of the package. Horrible.
Oh my god! I remember these! Had one, horrendous toy
I still have the one with the purple body with orange limbs and the two long guns which become its arms, with a "Cylon" inspired head, and the car is blue with yellow circle comet tails. I was really wanting the Van one, which had a Parasite which resembled a snake.
Yeah while we were making this video I fell in love with that snake as well.
in the Shadowrun role playing game, the return of Halley's comet (pronounced Hah-lee, ironically I nearly misspelled comet) in 2061 was devastating in a world where magic had returned in-force in 2011. imperial japan in particular was hit very hard, with many of its active volcanos erupting simultaneously :o Perhaps it was these aliens all along
I had that purple/orange one (Nemesite?). All I remember is he broke pretty quickly.
i wonder if anyone can remember those die cast metal cap guns that came out in the early 90s, they looked real and the packaging was a holster.. they were made by a company called something like "GILBY" or "GILBEE" ??
No breakfast cereal? No toons? How can one enjoy a toy if you cannot eat it's cereal while watching it on Saturday morning TV?
I don't remember these at all
I have absolutely no memory of these things. And I remember going to a planetarium show where they said that his name was actually pronounced "HALL-ee" (rhymes with Wally) -- but I've never heard anybody else ever pronounce it like that.
still have two of them! I thought they were unique - kind of a cool blend of genres
Hot wheels also made transforming cars in robo wheels which are robots hidden in car shells and modifighters which is gabgster transformers
The movie Maximum Overdrive also had the premise of a passing comet giving life to inanimate objects such as lawnmowers and automobiles. It's based on a 70's Stephen King short story, but it's clear, with the timing of the movie's release and the explanation of the phenomenon, that they were also riding on the Halley's comet hype.
Wow, i have one of these guys still, and I always wondered what the hell it was!
I totally forgot they even existed until now. lol Now I remember the commercials and all. No idea it was related to Hailie's comet.
My Brother and I each had one and never saw them again in stores
all over ebay it says 1:64 scale so i guess they were some big ass robotos like transformers had there been a cartoon. How much did they cost compared to your average hotwheels or matchbox? double? triple?
I had Specterite. But almost didn't. Or something. My mom allowed me to select that as a pollyanna gift for our holiday party in Mrs Quidley's 5th grade class in 1986. I ended up getting the fancy yet boring looking candy that boring Tim brought. And the too cool for toys Brent got the Parasite I brought. We traded. No explanation needed as my mom was present. (She made the cake)
These are totally awesome!!! I,was nine when these released. How the he'll did I not own these or even know about them...
There was a lot of stuff getting released.
I remember I had the grey van, that hid the snake parasite. For what they were, they weren't bad toys.
I had the destruction-y one. Lost the car bits almost immediately.
Dan can’t remember his friend’s name.
Spectorite is pleased.
Holy. Shit. I forgot all about these!!!! Well done!
Thank you.
Did the Parasites lead designer dislike this video? Weird. Anyway, this is a great story! Oddities is like a toy-focused NPR show but not as stuffy.
So THIS is why I had just that Orange car body in my toy box!
How much did these cost though?
I had nemasite. Didn't last long though, the tab that held the car together couldn't quite handle the stress (much like my Cy-kill's arm)
I vaguely remember when Hally...Haley’s comet passed thru. I don’t remember these things at all.
I have Terrorsite, which is odd that I selected that one because I'm an ophidiophobe, but for some reason I thought the unfolding design and size were really cool.
I'm fairly certain I had the complete set of these. They were kinda fun :D
I've never heard of this line.
Interesting!
I've long been aware of these, but I've never given them a second thought. They actually look kind of cool though. Not "I'm going to go hunt them all down on the eBay immediately" cool, more "I wouldn't say no to one if I stumbled across it for $2 at a garage sale" cool.
Oh I had that orange one. I wondered what it was from