The Uzay Headman

 

“To be truly powerful is to be powerful in all respects. When one attacks, his attack must be a powerful attack. When one defends, his defense must be a powerful defense. One must be strong mentally as well as physically, for a strong mind will grasp a situation quickly and will formulate a strong plan to remedy the situation.”

 

The Uzay Republic

 

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, to be specific, Messier 81, the various planets and cultures of the galaxy, which was called Uzay, was brought under the dominion of a great republic. The first Uzay Republic was born, centered on the planet Rennek. Rennek created the republic through their invention of “blue stars,” artificial, intelligent stars that could manage the hyperstatic populations of entire planets by radiating mental-reactive radiation. The blue stars allowed the people of Rennek to grant hyperstatic powers to those they favored and take hyperstatic powers from those they did not. Their allies strengthened, their enemies weakened, and Rennek was able to politically maneuver themselves a the dominant force in the Uzay galaxy.

 

Though it is called the Uzay Republic, it is important to note that “Republic” is a translation applied to the Uzay word “Urgot.” They do not call their government a republic, and it exhibits a strong degree of centralization at odds with conventional Earth conceptions of a republic. The Uzay government is divided into two houses. The first, the Galactic House, consists of representatives from all recognized cultures. It is also known as the Blue House, as in it represents “all the worlds touched by the light of the blue stars.” The second, the Rennek House, was composed of members of the Rennek monarchy and certain trusted representatives–primarily, Headmen, the highest-ranked members of the Blue Stars, the Uzay analog to superheroes.

 

In the United States, superheroes are often thought of as forces of individuality owing to their historical struggles against government oversight and control. The superhuman anthropologist Dr. Stone would even call superhumans natural enemies of governments, as natural enemies as mongoose to cobras. But that is only how superheroes function in our culture. They function different in others. In the culture of the Uzay galaxy, superheroes are living symbols of homogeny and unity. They come from across the galaxies, but they are all united under the blue star system.

 

The Blue Stars

 

 

The Blue Stars, named for the source of their powers, are the superheroes of the Uzay Republic, more or less. They’re superheroes via socialized hyperstasis. Natural superhumans in the Uzay republic are monitored by large, blue, artificial stars, each with an artificial intelligence, that use a mental-reactive radiation to either suppress natural powers or enhance them. Basics can also be empowered by the blue stars and granted powers through the radiation. It is a system based on worth. No one in the Uzay Republic has superpowers that didn’t earn them, or, to put it another way, no one the state doesn’t like has superpowers, and those the state takes a particular liking to have boosted powers. The blue star system is thus similar to the Gaea system used by Earth State, or, to draw very controversial comparisons, the volkfeld of Nazi Germany and zakatrazem of Soviet Russia.

 

Every superhuman in the Blue Stars is given a “circuit robe” which allows the mental-reactive radiation of the closest blue star to more easily interact with him or her, though the absence of a circuit robe doesn’t prevent blue star radiation from acting upon a being. The circuit robes also hide their identities. The Blue Stars are uniformed, and observers can only guess at their individual powersets. Blue Stars find the Earth custom of individual supercostumes very strange. “Why do you provide visual clues as to your powers?” a Blue Star once asked a Weft Authority interviewer. “Do you want your enemies to know what you can do?”

 

Every member is also given an “unlar,” the Uzay version of a force projector. Shaped as rifles, unlar are known for their impressive range. An unlar can be fired from Earth and accurately hit a target on Mars, provided proper scoping is used.

 

The Headmen

 

The leaders of the Blue Stars are known as Headmen and are clad in distinctive black uniforms and golden masks. It is a great honor to become a Headman, not only for oneself but for one’s culture, as every Headman holds a seat in the House of Rennek. Each mask, in recognition of this honor, is a precious work of art carved by the King of Rennek himself.

 

Headmen weaponry is often mistaken to be ceremonial. It is not. The shield serves as a “radar dish” for blue star radiation. It gathers it, concentrates it, and at the Headman’s command, fires it as a beam of precise, powerful energy. Firing precise beams across stellar distances can be tricky for even the advanced AI of blue stars. Having someone on the ground able to make sure the beam goes where it’s meant to is an invaluable asset. The sword is likewise a focusing device, and is meant to concentrate a blue star’s energy down to the tip so it can stab through even the most durable superhuman opponent.

 

Savas Cilari

 

 

The Uzay Republic is expansionistic. It was by expansion, mostly peaceful, sometimes not, through the Uzay galaxy that Rennek was able to establish the Republic in the first place, and Rennek sees no reason to stop at something as arbitrary as the outer rim of the galaxy. The Urzay Republic as expanded beyond the bounds of the Urzay galaxy for generations now, following a model similar to that of the Chromians and Proudhon. They do not invade. They have no reason to invade. Invasion is done by desperate, weak cultures, and the Uzay could not be stronger. They coerce and convince. They park a blue star near a culture and offer powers to those that share their values. That is all, though with cultures on amore equal footing, they engage in negotiation and cultural exchange, as they did when they visited Earth.

 

In the late 1980’s, a Blue Star ship, trailed by its star, was stopped at the Kinnison Starcastle at Alpha Centauri, the “gate” of mankind’s nascent stellar holdings. The Blue Stars announced their intentions for peaceful trade and cultural exchange. Earth was regarded as too advanced for assimilation, though if any wanted to try the power of their blue star, which was called Shir, they were welcomed to.

 

In keeping with the Warp Authority’s Tellus compact, Shir was parked at a distance of 2 light years from Earth. Standing on Earth, one can see Shir close to the constellation Centaurus. Due to the distance between Earth and Shir, mental-responsive radiation takes two years to reach to and from Earth, necessitating the use of faster-than-light photite channels.

 

The Blue Stars typically keep to Earth State, where they exchange knowledge with Gaea system engineers in the hopes of improving both their socialized hyperstatic structures. But their leader, Headman Savas Cilari, instead spends most of his time in the two countries with the least amount of superhuman regulation–Japan, and the United States.

Savas Cilari is a member of the Droc race, whose homeplanet is Birika. The Droc are naturally extremely long-lived. Savas himself is ten thousand years old and still considered a young adult by the reckoning of his people. Savas remembers the time before the rise of the Rennek and their blue stars. He remembers the wild times, the blood times, and though they are considered barbarous times by the modern Uzay galaxy, they hold a special place in his heart.

 

In the blood times, anyone had the chance to be anything. It didn’t matter what they thought about the Rennek. It didn’t matter what they believed or fought for. Random hyperstasis would make a god out of a coward and a hero out of an anarchist. Perhaps the republic was better than the various independent clans. But he remembered when he randomly, naturally developed the ability to fly–such a simple power compared to all that he could do under the influence of Shir. He called himself the Aerial Adventurer, and he went on adventures across Birika, and he would fly with the birds and bathe in the thunderclouds and people would sing of him and draw his picture. He was something that was purely Birikan. He wasn’t a homogenized soldier of a homogenized culture. He was a Birikian, who fought Birikians, who saved Birikians. He was something that he wished he could be again, but the duty of being a Headman, the duty of securing a seat in the House of Rennek, was more pressing than any selfish desire he might have.

 

America and Japan made Savas feel nostalgic for the Aerial Adventurer with their many, many superheroes. They all had such interesting names and costumes. Compared to the Blue Stars, each superhero was as unique as a snowflake. And though they banded together in teams and were supported by organizations like the Statesmen, they were largely local in their reach, far more local than the Aerial Adventurer was. He protected an entire planet, they typically protected a single city.

Currently, Savas visits different superteams to observe and test them in combat, ostensibly to compare how a Headman fares against alien hyperstatics. Though superheroes may be intimidated by this faceless judge from the stars, they shouldn’t be. Really, all Savas wants is a team-up, he just doesn’t know how to ask for one.

 

(Behind The Scenes Inspiration)

 

 

Yep, it’s another bootleg addition to the Capeworld universe!

 

Of course there were Star Wars bootlegs. Of course there were a lot of Star Wars bootlegs. Stars Wars used to be a leader in the toy industry. You can say what you will about the films themselves, but most of Star Wars‘ success as a brand came from being a merchandising juggernaut.

 

It was always a kids series you were expected to grow out of and move on to Star Trek is what I’m saying, but moving on…

 

Uzay action figures are Turkish Star Wars…not that Turkish Stars Wars, another Turkish Star Wars. The goodness begins, as with all great bootlegs, with the packaging. We start off with a familiar Star Wars packaging format with unfamiliar mistakes. “StarsWar.” I guess the stars themselves are fighting this time? Red giants against white dwarfs, but they’re secretly being set up by the black holes.

 

Uzay, by the way, is Turkish for Space, and Savascilari translates to Warriors. So the toys are formatted:

 

STARSWAR

SPACE

WARRIORS

 

Even native Turks probably found the toys kind of weird.

 

Uzay action figures are, for the most part, unremarkable. There aren’t any “human” characters, as in characters with human molds like Han, Luke, Leia, etc. Everyone is either a droid, an armored Imperial, or Chewie. I guess they just didn’t have the molds for anyone else, or maybe they thought the “human” characters weren’t “Space Warrior” enough?

 

Most everyone in the line is someone immediately recognizable from Stars Wars. They didn’t fear copyright at all. Darth Vader looks like Darth Vader, and is called Darth Vader. Compare the Uzay Vader with the Kenner Vader:

 

 

 

As you an see, they’re nearly the same figure, just with different packaging, right down to the stiff cloak and stubby “walking cane” lightsaber. Uzay Vader has a redder lightsaber, but that’s probably because he’s based on a later reissue of Kenner Vader in the Return of the Jedi line, showing that Uzay was probably a late 80’s line. Early Vaders had orange lightsabers (and Early Lukes had yellow lighsabers, if you can believe it).

 

And here are the Stormtroopers:

 

 

 

As you can see, they added some black to the gloves and elbows, likely because the fine detailing on those parts was a pain, but again, they’re pretty much the same figure.

 

But there were two figures who had some uniqueness to them, and they’re the ones that inspired me to take a data file on the “Uzay Republic” and how their culture treats superhumans–the Blue Star and the Headman.

 

The Blue Stars are obviously repainted Storm Troopers. They match the Kenner Storm Troopers down to the armor buttons and rifle.

 

 

But the repaint adds an awful lot of personality and distinction to the character. Sometimes, color can go a long way. The question is, why did they repaint the Snow Trooper blue? They hardly changed anything on the other figures, and it probably cost them a little money to do repaints so why did they do it? Maybe they wanted something that would pop more in a lineup with all the other toys? Maybe they thought one black and white figure was enough for a toyline? But I got a theory–I think they were trying to reference the Sardaukar from Dune.

 

David Lynch’s Dune was 1984, just a year after ROTJ, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that someone in Turkey saw the film and thought the “stormtroopers” in the film looked cool, though as everyone knows, the Sardaukar were just one element the Dune books that Lucas lifted for his setting.

 

Take a look at how the Sardaukar appear in the Lynch film:

 

 

And here was their action figure:

 

 

Yeah, David Lynch’s Dune had action figures. Everything that had an action/adventure element had action figures back in the day.

 

True, the Sardaukar aren’t blue, they’re black, but blue is certainly closer to black than it is to white, and the Blue Stars’ yellow eyes and how they pop reminds me a lot of the Sardaukar’s iconic square faceplate.

 

And here’s the big thing–look at the cardback art for the Blue Stars and compare it to the cardback art on the Sardaukar. So now we know what the shadowed Sardaukar are fighting! They aren’t fighting Fremen, they’re fighting Blue Stars!

 

Call me crazy, but I think a Turkish bootlegger got hold of a Sardaukar toy and went “Eh, we can kind of sort of make this.”

 

As seen with Amicable Herculean, bootleggers were not unfamiliar with the idea of slicing in elements from one toyline into another to try and broaden the appeal of their product.

 

But as interesting as the Blue Stars are, they aren’t as interesting as the Headman, without a doubt the icon of the Uzay line. He’s the only one who someone wouldn’t immediately identify as a Star Wars character. But what is he, exactly? Let’s take a close-up.

 

 

Most of the Headman is taken from the Kenner Royal Guard. You know, those red cloaked guys that stick close to Emperor Palpatine. Here’s what one of them looks like without the cloak:

 

 

So they colored the head gold and turned the brown-red body to black. They also did something else, according to the Star Wars Collectors Archive–they changed out the arms for the arms of the AT-ST driver, presumably because the arms on the actual Royal guard were relatively flimsy and they wanted the Headman to be able to hold his sword and shield.

 

Speaking of which, that’s by far the most interesting part of the entire line–Headman comes with a sword and shield like he’s some kind of MOTU character that jumped universes. Everyone else has what you’d expect them to have. Vader has his lightsaber, the Blue Stars have the rifle that came with the Snowtroopers, but the Headman has fantasy weapons. Where did they even come from?

 

Rebelscum.com has the theory that they came from Mattel’s Clash of the Titans line, and I would love for this to be the case, because I love Clash of the Titans and the thought of there being Turkish bootleg Clash of the Titans toys makes me giddy. I long to see like, a purple Kraken toy labeled “Cracker.” That would make my day, my entire week. And the Clash of the Titans line had a skeletal Charon figure. A little bit of inspiration and blue can of paint  could have given the world Turkish Skeletor.

 

But I’m not sure the weapons actually came from Clash of the Titans.

 

 

As you can see, there are differences. The Clash of the Titans shield has an eagle on it, and let’s be real, the bootleggers would have kept totally kept the eagle on the shield. They wouldn’t have spent the money to buffer it out. The ring pattern is also different. The Clash of the Titans sword is more rounded than the Headman sword. It’s more “butterknife” like. It also has a curved hand guard, which is really good idea for an action figure sword, I bet it helped a lot in keeping the sword in the figures’ hands. Note that the guard curves up on the Clash of the Titans sword but down on the Headman sword. Even the pommel is different.

 

So where did the Headman’s sword and shield come from? I got no idea.

 

But you know, maybe that isn’t a bad thing. Part of what makes bootleg toys so fun is that there’s always a bit of mystery to them. Where did their parts come from? Who made them? What were they inspired by? Sometimes you solve the mystery, sometimes you don’t, and in this day and age where you can google anything and gorge yourself on information, not being able to find answers is thrilling.

 

By the way, That Junkman on youtube has a nice video on Uzay figures. Check him out!