I gave a nephew a set yesterday. He loved them and couldn't keep his hands off of them . It made my morning =D

According to Hisstank member Falconhood the original M.A.R.S. Heroes Aliens figures are back .

http://www.hisstank.com/forum/toys/3789 ... eroes.html

These are a great use for all your extra ROC missile launchers. Just cut off the holding handle and drill a hole in them, and you can replace the stock hollow shoulder things with working missile launchers.

My son made me replace all his with different missle launchers (huge ones, grappling hooks) and so he defines the characters by what missiles they can shoot.

- R

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Missile Launching Robots?

Now that's a good cheap toy option.

That is a great idea!

Would've been nice if the Aliens had been recolored. I'm pleased to have a complete set of the originals, even if it took a fair amount of help to get them.

I saw another bootleg set of the Robots, at CVS a couple of days ago. Unlike the brightly colored set in the black-and-white box, these were carded, and looked so incredibly poor I just couldn't justify them. Seriously, the paint applications were so awful it looked like whoever was doing them didn't care if he actually got any paint through the stencil or not, and the plastic was so cheap that it had these weird streaks in it, that didn't look like the intentional molded-in camouflage that G.I. Joe did on occasion. If memory serves, one robot was gray, another red, the third blue.

This was posted by Falconhood


has anyone here come across these in the wild ? I never would have guessed that this line would boast a light up feature ..

Questionable switch placement aside they are pretty cool and seem to be decent custom fodder.

I've been seeing the single pack ones again at Dollar General stores. That's about it.

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Oh, I need that Alien Attack Set! LOVE the colors!

The light-up feature is a little weird, given the switch location, but I have to admit, while it's certainly unexpected, there's room in those bulky alien bodies for a little LED and a battery.

Fine print on the back of that box says "Family Dollar". There's a few of those around here. Definitely have to investigate.

UPDATE -- Thank you for posting that picture, Suntzu. I stopped into Family Dollar as part of some other errands today, and I found them!

And I can't recall a time when I've found something that quickly after someone posted a picture of it online.

For those who might be searching for them, they're not in Family Dollar's usual toy area. They're in another area that's been set up for Christmas purposes, including a variety of toys. They were on the bottom shelf. The Family Dollar I visited seemed to have about half a dozen sets.

Hopefully these will be plentiful. I haven't deboxed them yet, but they look good. Worst thing I can say is one of the robots seems to have some slightly sloppy paint. Nothing I can't fix.

Lucky man

Let us know how good/bad the LED light quality is when you get around to removing them from their box or buying a second set.

The price is definitely right.

Well, that was as good a reason as any to debox them and check it out, and

HOLY COW!

The button isn't just a "press and it lights up" switch, it's an on/off switch, and as soon as you pull the tab, the aliens light up.

And it's NOT a single little bright light or something. It's a fluctuating pattern of red, green, and blue, that transitions from one color to another. They flash and change slow, then fast, then slow again until you press the button to turn it off. And the light show is very specifically focused in the faceplates.

Honestly, I'm sort of reminded of the three-eyed "lenses" of the aliens from the original "War of the Worlds" movie. Really, the effect is amazing, and just a little bit creepy, which isn't at all inappropriate for these alien invaders.

But seriously -- WOW! This is more than I would expect from a much more expensive toy, let alone a trio of figures that cost a dollar apiece, given that they were part of a five-dollar five-pack.

As for the figures themselves, they're not bad. Plastic seems a little less than the original M.A.R.S. Heroes, but I've certainly encountered far worse. Articulation can be a little loose, but that's nothing that most customizers here on JoeCustoms can't remedy, especially given the modular design.

I went to the closest store to me in the Philly area and found four sets. There are actually three different sets - each has 1 red, 1 blue, and 1 copper light-up alien, but different hand weapons and shoulder weapons. For $5 each, I got one of each. Too bad the 'regular' robots are all the same in all sets though.

So, do the heads from the original M.A.R.S. Heroes fit the Joes neck ball. I had a few of them before my collection got stolen but I remember thinking of using the silver cyborg guy's head as the starting point for a new Robo-Joe custom.

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Sounds like they might've just tossed in whatever weapons were convenient. Honestly, that'd be the least factor for me. Yeah, technically these are pretty cheap toys, but I am seriously amazed by the quality of the light-up feature!

Seems there's more differences than that. Just out of curiosity, I stopped back at that Family Dollar today. In the set that I bought last week, the alien with the extra long arms was the blue one. I saw one today where the alien with the extra long arms was the copper one. Not sure how that happened.