The Energon Pub

For a few years now, I've been collecting a line of toys listed under the general label of "Cybotronix". They include several types of battery operated robots of varying sizes and more recently a line of very nice interchangeable figures that they call "Mars Heroes". Most of you would probably remember the electronic boxing robots they sold at Sharper Image-yup, that was one of theirs.
The hook is the fact that despite their cheap, cheap, prices, the products have always been top notch from the design, plastic quality, electronic features, and paint aps.
The "Mars Heroes" figures were their first foray into action figures and include 3 variations each of Cyborg Marines (Troopers), Combat robots (Megabots) and Titan AE style translucent aliens, as well as a line of nice electronic vehicles and accessories. Master Collector has a write-up on these figures on his page.
It's been a couple years since any new Cybotronix stuff has been released, and I begin to fear that the Chinese manufacturer Hap-P-Kid toy group either got demolished by the earthquakes or by the failing economy.
I was wondering if anyone else out there buys these and if they know if any new items have recently come out.

I have bought the green and blue aliens, I regret not getting the third. The aliens are really good and make a great species if you are looking to give a universal look to your Transformers universe.

The fact that all the parts are interchangable is a real bonus.
I wish I hadn't passed on some of the human cyborg figs because
they had some guns that could have been used to upgrade the alien firepower.

I though I was the only one who knew about these.

The orange aliens were the rarest of the individual carded figures, but when they released the vehicle sets (also Walgreen exclusives) they were fairly plentiful. There were two alien sets (one green, one orange) which included an electronic lights and sounds attack speeder and a figure to ride on it. Parts from the speeders could be attached to the figures as battle armor too. Their were three Cyborg Trooper sets which included a ring-shaped "monocycle" with lights and sounds and a figure. Once again, parts from the vehicles could be interchanged with the figures. The Megabot sets were my favorite, though, as they were essentially tank bodies that the upper half of the megabots could plug into, sort of an Armored Core kind of thing. The Megabot sets had the most flexibility for interchangeability as there were sockets for placing extra weapons and parts all over the tank body, making an infinite amount of combinations possible.
Last year, Wal-Mart (who already carries the M.A.R.S. 6 inch motorized bots as well as the 15 inch Turbo Fighter bot by the same mfgr) released 3 MARS Heroes sets under the "Kid Connection" label which were fantastic because they included the contents of two vehicle sets each as well as extra toys including mobile and static gun enplacements for the Troopers and extra cannons for the Megabots. They sold for ten bucks at the time.
Over a year ago I saw photos from a toy show of some awesome new M.A.R.S. sets that were supposed to be Walgreen and Phoenix store exclusives, but they haven't been released yet, and I begin to wonder if they ever will be.

Well, there is more to those than I thought. I just kinda liked the look of the aliens. The only reason I didn't get the third alien was because the box had a terrible repackaging job. In hindsight I should have picked it up.


Were they only supposed to be available in certain stores(because I only remember seeing the aliens and humans in Shopkos)? The motorized robots are still available at places like Dollar Generals
and stores like that, Walmarts too. Are the Kid Connection sets still around? New aliens would be great.

Thanks for the info.

No, unfortunately the Kid Connection sets clearanced out about 7 or 8 months ago.

The MARS Heroes figures seemed to only exist in Walgreens and Shop Ko stores. I was able to do some serious army building because at Walgreens they were regularly priced at a buck each! That's an action figure value I havent seen since the 70's (Ya, I'm THAT old!). I understand that Shop Ko was selling the individual figures for $3.99, which while not as good as a buck, beats the price for your average 3 1/2 inch figure nowdays. The vehicle sets still pop up occasionally at Walgreens for $5.99 each or 3 for 12 bucks, which is once again a great value.
I'll try to post some pics within the next few days.

I have just started collecting the "Hap-P-Kid" style robot. I love the looks!
Right now I have 3 of the "Super Fighter" line. I have searched high and low
for more but they seem to be hard to find. I sent an email to the company in
Hong Kong but never received an answer back. The "Super Fighters" that I have
are all missing the matching shin guards that fit into the slot on the lower leg.
I am also missing the weapons and shields that go with each Super Fighter. I like
the old ones from 1996,2002 and 2006. If you know where I can get more of these
please let me know.

Here are some links that I have found for "Super Fighters":

http://www.kindershop.kiev.ua/main/?id= ... parent=251
http://www.babytoy.ru/index.php?name=ha ... &offset=10
http://www.zpapa.ru/igrushki/roboty/hap_p_kid_667.html

It seems odd to me that if you go to Hap-P-Kids website they don't list all of the robots that
are out there. Why Russia has has some of the ones that Hap-P-Kids have, I don't know.

Welcome to one of the most challenging, frustrating, yet rewarding quests, SuperFighter!
You might want to start out easy and snap up one of those Turbo Fighters that they have at Wal-Mart. They are starting to get scarce, but should still be available at their modest $15 price tag or less.
Finding Cybotronix bots in general is a game of pure chance. I managed to find most of mine on E-bay over a very long period of time.
Most of my Cybotronix collection were obtained MISB, but one or two of the 8 inch bots I have were gotten second hand and were missing parts. What I did was printed pages from Hap-P-Kid's web site of those models, and with a marker, indicated which weapons and bits of armor were missing, then sent that with a nice polite letter to the address in China.
After a long while at which point I'd forgotten all about it, a box came from China!
Not only did they send the parts requested, but threw in a few more, and best of all, they sent me a MISB 8' Thunder Warrior robot! I was totally blown away!
Now this was a while ago, and I can't guarantee that you'll get any freebee bots, but writing to them in this fashion with a very clear indication of what bots you have and what parts you need may very well get you the needed parts. You probably will want to specify color too. It might not hurt to ask for a current catalog too; I used one they had previously sent me as a guide for my search.
Now for you parts:
The first bot on the left in your photo is a Super Fighter MK 2. The one on far right is the same model, only in blue. You need exactly the same parts for both.
These are:
* Both fore-arm armors
* Both lower leg armors
* Two shoulder mounted missile launchers
* Two missiles
* Laser pistol
* Riot shield
The middle bot is a Super Fighter MK 1 version 1 (V2 had a different head mold).
You need:
* Both shoulder armors
* Both fore-arm armors
* Chest armor
* Both lower leg armors
* Two shoulder launchers
* Two missiles
* Large shield for the left hand.

Hope that helps!

After reading your thread I thought I’d tell you about my find.
I learned about Mars Heroes by accident a few months ago when another blogger listed a link:
There two different links on the internet that give some really good coverage of the series.
http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_040907b.htm

http://mastercollector.com/articles/reviews/marshero-review.htm
I’ve been collecting action figures for the past 3 decades and I’d never heard of these. After reading these reviews I really wanted a set of them but couldn’t find them in any Walgreens (or even on ebay)

But a few days ago (8/11/09) I was at a Walgreens in central MO and I hit pay dirt! In a PDQ tray, on a riser above the toy isle was a whole tray of Mars heroes series 2 (I think)

From the pics shown on the back of the packaging, there are six new figures, all of which look similar to the megabot figures from the first series.(no aliens and no human headed figs)
They’re packed 3 figures in each blister pack for $6.99, a bit more than the $1.00 price tag of series 1 but still a very good deal. There were 3 different blister packs. Since there are only 6 new figures, some figures were duplicated in the blisters, so you really only need to buy two in order to get a full set. This time around they’ve given each figure a name.

The back of the cards also show pics of 5 different vehicle/weapon sets, one of which is a way cool tank (I must have one of these if nothing else!)

Anyway, I thought I’d give you all the heads up on my find so you can start searching your local Walgreens stores. I’ll try to post pics of these soon. Let me know if you have any problems finding them.(I’m more than happy to help fellow collectors)

Happy hunting..........Pete

Thanks for the heads-up, Pete!
Got me a set of those a few days ago. Finally! I saw photos of these from a toy show over a year ago and had given up hope of ever seeing them.
The figures are decent enough, however, the fact that they made the arms into one solid piece sort of sucks, as it limits the articulation and the interchangeability options. This series, while it claims to be compatible with the first set is just slightly out of scale-about a head shorter than the originals, which sort of messes up the effect when swapping parts. Other than that, not bad. They have a distinct "Armored Core" look to them.
Toys R Us is now carrying Cybotronix battery operated robots. They are rereleases of previous designs and worth having if you don't already. Extreme Fighter and Robot Sargeant are two that come to mind.

HELLO ALL, WALGREENS HAS NEW M.A.R.S.HEROES ACTION FIGURES. THERE ARE 6 NEW MEGABOTS AND THEY COME IN 2 DIFFERENT 3 PACKS. THE FIGURES THIS TIME AROUND ARE A BIT SMALLER THEN SERIES ONE BUT THEY ARE JUST AS COOL IF NOT BETTER. THEY HAVE A MORE TRANSFORMER LOOK TO THEM THIS TIME AROUND AND EACH FIGURE COMES $6.98 PER 3 PACK. THE COST HAS GONE UP FROM THE ONE DOLLAR PRICE TAG OF A FEW YEARS AGO. CHECK THEM OUT NOW AS THEY WILL GO FAST.