The Space Patrol II

 

The Space Patrol II gets their rather clunky sounding name through a garbled Weft Authority translation. The Weft Authority are known throughout the multiverse for their efficient and faithful translations. Even the angels of Daath, who mull over their acquired knowledge of the multiverse, consult the Weft Authority on translations. But no one’s perfect, and the languages spoken in the Sungold Galaxy are notoriously difficult for non-native speakers, and so the Weft Authority produced “The Space Patrol II,” when the Sungold Galaxy never had a Space Patrol I.

 

A more direct translation of the phrase that became Space Patrol II would be something like “The recklessly double-edged prowlers who go through space.”

 

In other words, they aren’t what Earthling think of when they hear “space patrol.” To most humans, space patrol means an organization of law and order. That’s not these guys. These guys are space pirates.

 

The Space Patrol II are a band of pirates, which unfortunately aren’t uncommon in the Sungold Galaxy. The Sungold Galaxy does not revolve around a supermassive black hole as do most other galaxies, instead, it orbits a supermassive “sun,” a bright, massive entrance to a naturally formed worldtunnel. The “supersun” radiates exotic energies taken from throughout the multiverse across the Sungold galaxy and causes sungold crystals, powerful stores of potential energy, to form on planets. There is power for the taking, for those unconcerned with the property rights of native populations.

 

Pirates swarm the Sungold galaxy–the Black Hawk gang, the Nighthawk groundlings, and the X-Terminators are all pirates who traveled across the Sungold galaxy stealing sungold crystals. Superteams have arisen to oppose them, most from the Acamas star system, such as the Star Marshalls, the Battlehawks, and the X-Troopers. But despite stemming the tide of piracy and putting an end to several armadas, the superteams have been unable to fully eradicate piracy from their galaxy, as Space Patrol II proves.

 

Space Patrol II is primarily formed of blue-skinned Nabasians from the planet Nabas, though they take on members of all races provided they aren’t afraid to steal and kill. They do not make use of ships, which makes it difficult to track them through space. Instead, they use portal technology stolen from Acamas and controlled by their member Expanse. They make use of several other superscientific accessories stolen from other factions–even other pirate factions, which makes the Space Patrol II despised throughout the entire galaxy.

 

 

The King Of Enigmas

 

“Fools! Do you think you make progress against me? Do you think you even can? Your actions were predicted. You move to my tune.”

 

 

Once a Nabassian king, the King of Enigmas was overthrown by his own people for his tyrannical and oppressive policies. Fleeing to the stars, he plied his genius as a weapons designer for various pirate factions until he decided he liked being pirate more than making weapons for pirates.

He stole a Battlehawk helm, which grants him the ability to telepathically sense objects over incalculable distances. The Battlehawks were designed to be human-sized starships. Their armor grants them all the abilities of a Sungold starship–faster than light travel, energy beams, shields, and a navigational computer inside the helm. It is through this helm that Battlehawks are able to travel across the galaxy without getting lost. The King of Enigmas uses his helm to guide Expanse’s portals. Expanse makes the portals, but the King of Enigmas is the one that guides him to place them properly. Expanse is the vehicle, he is the driver, and it is through this fact that the King of Enigmas commands the obedience of his followers. Without him, they’re stranded.

 

The King of Enigmas is a vain intellectual. He believes he’s already outthought his opponents before they even make their first move. He’s cautious by nature and does not engage an enemy unless he’s sure of victory–for battles where chance is involved, he uses his subordinates to take the measure of his enemy while he observes the battle and makes calculations to ensure that when he does participate, his victory will be as certain as mathematical fact.

 

Because he can see across planetary distances with his helm, the King of Enigmas prefers to use an Uzay “unlar” rifle, a type of force projector known across the universe for its impressive range. He also uses a Sungold empowered shield that he calls “the shield of ruin” depicting two lightning bolts striking the same target. The image hints as to the shield’s power. It can absorb the force of attacks and redirect them back at the attacker two-fold. The shield was a gift from his minion expanse and was manufactured on the mysterious planet Ferror through alien science.

 

X-7

 

“I’m the best. That’s why I have this battle harness. Father wouldn’t trust it to anyone less. And that’s why you’re going to lose.”

 

 

X-7 is the 7th in a series of bio-servants grown by the King of Enigmas to be his right-hand man. The first three died in development. X-4 was killed in a dispute with the X-terminators. X-5 went insane and had to be put down like a mad dog. X-6 broke his mental conditioning and escaped, his whereabouts so far unknown.

 

X-7 is genetically programmed to serve the King of Enigmas with all his heart and soul. He sees the King as his creator, as his father, and will not and cannot question his commands. He would do anything for him, and because of this the rank-and-file members of Space Patrol II fear him as heartless enforcer of the King’s will.

 

X-7 was created to be superstrong and superfast. His speed is particularly impressive. He can use his perkunite sword to cleave through an entire army in less than a blink of an eye, and this speed is further enhanced by an experimental battle harness stolen from the X-Troopers.

 

This battle harness lets him move fast enough to keep up with starships, with the Battlehawks, while projecting an energy field around his body. The battle harness turns X-7 into a living missile, but at a great cost–continued use can potentially vibrate his body into paste, but that doesn’t stop him from wearing it. He believes he is perfect. He believes he cannot possibly fail. He truly, truly believes that there will never be an X-8, the poor fool.

 

Expanse

 

“Dear me, are we about to invade in fisticuffs? That is so barbaric!”

 

 

Expanse is not a funny-looking Nabassian, though he would like others to think so. He hails from the mysterious planet Ferror, which he describes as a world rich with sungold crystals and technological marvels built by a lost race. Space Patrol II would invade–but Expanse warns that doing so without first amassing more power would be walking into a trap, and the King of Enigmas is a warry mastermind.

 

Expanse is glad he ran into the King of Enigmas and follows him out of sincere sense of gratitude. He fled planet Ferror because he disliked how primitive and warlike its inhabitants were. Apparently, the emperor of their planet had vanished, and his holdings dissolved into squabbling factions. Using a “warp shield” of his own invention which could create portals across space, he left the planet, but found himself lost in space. He had underestimated the difficulty of using his portals to travel over great distances. The King of Enigmas picked him up, saved his life, and offered him a position on his crew, which Expanse readily accepted. Now, with the King’s Battlehawk helm guiding him, Expanse can use his warp shield with precision.

 

Expanse likes to present himself as a learned scholar, as planet Ferror is a backwater planet isolated from the wider culture of the Sungold galaxy. When the Space Patrol II invades a planet, he collects cultural artifacts and works of art. While other members of Space Patrol II keep hoards of sungold crystals at their base, he keeps a museum.

In battle, Expanse fights using an axe bestowed with the ability to make its user supernaturally silent, another artifact he brought from Ferror. Combined with his warp shield, this axe of silence allows him to sneak up behind enemies and down them before they know he’s there.

 

Gritton

 

“Tear em’ apart, boys! I want the gods of death to guess as to who they were!”

 

 

Before becoming a subordinate of the King of Enigmas, Gritton was the leader of his own band of pirates. He planned on attacking and slaying Space Patrol II, for they were rivals in his hunting grounds, but when he found himself and his gang surrounded by the King of Enigma’s snipers, he was suddenly in the mood to negotiate.

 

Gritton is a prideful man, but he’s also cunning, and after talking with the King of Enigmas he could see that it was best to serve him. He would be a terrible enemy, but there were benefits to having him as a boss. He was smart, and with Expanse could move his army of pirates across the galaxy quickly and quietly.

 

Gritton allowed his pirates to be absorbed into Space Patrol II and became the King of Engimas’ general. The men respected him, for he always led from the front, always fought the hardest opponents himself, and he served to legitimize the King of Engimas leadership to the rank-and-file. If Griffon was cool with the King, then so were they.

 

Gritton loves battle and slaughter. He is a fearsome opponent with years of combat experience. He is not the most powerful member of Space Patrol II, nor the most intelligent, but he combines power, charisma, and intelligence in such a way as to make him the deadliest.

 

In battle, Gritton wields a perkunite sword, like X-7, and also a “spear of chaos” capable of projecting a small quantum field that drastically increases the rate of entropy. Armor cracks, weapons break, and an opponent’s body starts to shut down. Unlucky events happen with near certainty. If an opponent can trip, he will trip. If an opponent’s grenade can be a dud, it will be a dud. He also wears a battle harness stolen from the X-Troopers which allows him to fire pinpoint bursts of energy from the shoulders. This small, glowing missiles home in on targets and can skillfully weave through skirmishing minions. Gritton likes to lead by example, but if he find himself on the losing end of a fight, he falls back and sends his boys in to fight in his place while supporting them with energy bursts.

 

(Behind The Scenes Inspiration)

 

 

And the bootleg corner of the Capeworld universe continues to grow.

 

Ah! Make my bootleg files GROW!

 

Get it?

 

Like Devil Warriors, this is another all baddies line, as the wonderful engrish on the cardbacks will tell you–the Space Patrol II guys are “The evil of space.”

 

If you grew up in the 90’s you can probably figure out what Space Patrol II was trying to knock-off, even if none of the figures look familiar to you. That logo, that font, those colors, could the inspiration be anything but Mighty Moprhin’ Power Rangers, that bizarre pop cultural remix that took the leading action figure line baton from the TMNT and ran with it throughout the early 90’s?

 

 

It was hard to find information on this line. It first came to my attention when Phelous mentioned it during a video on Galaxy Warrior bootlegs (Oh man, Galaxy Warrior, I got plans for those guys!). Research led me to conclude that there were four figures in the line, none of which had names, so I’ll be referring to them by the names of their Capeworld incarnations. At first, I thought there might only be two, because figurerealm.com only listed “Alien #1 and Alien #2.” I can see why they came to that conclusion. The other two aren’t too terribly distinctive, and inconsistent coloring is just something you come to expect in bootleg lines, like inconsistent accessories. And the line is called “Space Patrol II.” Since information on a “Space Patrol I” is even harder to find (but more on that later), one could reasonably assume that the the “II” in the names refers to the 2 guys next to the logo. So figurerealm.com, you’re wrong, but I can see how you went wrong, don’t beat yourself up over it.

 

For the life of me, I couldn’t find carded images of Gritton. There may not be carded images of Gritton. Did you ever hear about the Polish Star Wars snowtrooper? It had a cool inverted color scheme, but it’s not valuable because of its colors, its valuable because there’s only one carded on Earth, and it’s valued at around 20,000 dollars. Crazy to think that a little bit of plastic and paper can be worth more than a car.

 

So we know the line is knocking-off Power Rangers, but who are the characters supposed to be, exactly? Most of the time, when Power Rangers gets knocked off, it’s through the rangers themselves. See the Sonic Rangers, Super X Robot, Super Robotic Warriors, Super Samurai Warriors, and Combat Force Rangers for examples. This time though, it’s the baddies that are getting knocked-off, Rita Repulsa’s gang.

 

If you know a little about Power Rangers, you probably got that Gritton is a Goldar knock-off. Blue face, gold skin, and the battle harness is suggestive of wings and armor if you look at it all through the eyes of an imaginative bootlegger limited in what he can use.

 

 

X-7 also isn’t hard to place with a little Power Rangers knowledge. He’s Baboo, complete with the yellow dots on his body representing Baboo’s clocks.

 

 

Expanse was Squat, though looking at his face, I can’t help but think of a Star Trek Andorian, or maybe a furby. You can tell he’s Squat by the lighter blue and dotted pants.

 

 

The King of Enigmas was the hardest to place, as he doesn’t look like anyone that hangs out with Rita in her moon castle. My first guess was that he was supposed to be Goldar, just like Gritton. I mean, who else could be be? Finster? Just because he’s the lightest colored and Finster is white? Naw.

 

This may be a bit of a stretch, but I think he’s supposed to be King Sphinx.

 

 

The light blue and yellow match the colors of King Sphinx’s armor and headdress, and the headdress on The King of Enigmas is evocative of King Sphinx’s own. Sure, King Sphinx wasn’t a major villain, he was just one of the many, many one-off monsters that fought the Power Rangers one after the other (even as as kid I wondered why the bad guys didn’t build up their monster army first and then attack en masse), but King Sphinx had something the other one-offs didn’t have–publicity.

 

King Sphinx wasn’t the debut monster of MMPR, that would be skeleton monster with the creative name of Bones, but he was the monster featured in the pilot, which meant he got featured in a lot of promotion material and merchandise. You’d see him on sticker sets and birthday party decorations and, more importantly, as an action figure, one of the monsters to get an action figure. A bootlegger doing a cursory glance of MMPR media likely would have seen him.

 

Now that we’ve established who everyone is supposed to be, let’s go into how they came to be.

 

The creator behind Space Patrol II is, like the creator of Devil Warriors and Amicable Herculean, an unknown Hong Kong manufacturer (and for all we know, the same one for all three lines). The bodies are lifted from Galaxy Warriors, a MOTU knock-off by defunct company Sungold best known as one of the most bootlegged lines of all time. Someone at Sungold must have made serious money “accidentally misplacing” the molds. Galaxy Warriors molds were the chicken pox of the Hong Kong bootleg scenes–everyone got them. You can construct a family tree from the number of lines that bootlegged Galaxy Warriors (which is not a bad idea for a project). I guess if you live by the bootleg, you die by the bootleg.

 

Here’s an example of Galaxy Warriors. Meet Spikes, he’s got a cool “draped in shadows” look:

 

 

All the Galaxy Warriors had the same He-Man body. They’re legs were in the classic MOTU crouch, they had wee booties, arm bands, and fuzzy barbarian loin cloths. And if you look closely on the Space Patrol II figures, you can see underneath the paint the arm bands, boots, and fuzzy loin cloths!

 

But not all the elements that made Space Patrol II came from Galaxy Warriors. A few elements came from Galaxy Fighters, a bootleg of Galaxy Warriors by defunct company Sewco (it’s amazing they didn’t become a sued co.), made their way into Space Patrol II. Galaxy Fighters didn’t just dip Galaxy Warriors figures into new cans of paint, though they certainly did do that, they also added a few new things, things that showed up in Space Patrol II.

 

Here’s Galaxy Fighters‘ Sunhawk. He’s a character unique to Galaxy Fighters, and he may look familiar.

 

 

The King of Enigmas and Gritton stole their heads from Sunhawk, which is why they have massive orbital bones around his eyes–they were supposed to be part of  face mask. The King of Enigmas also got his harness from Sunhawk, which was painted red. Not the harness Spikes wears and how it’s different from what you see above–Sewco created all-new harnesses for their bootlegs.

 

Galaxy Heroes had “feathered” harnesses for good guy characters, like Sunhawk, but bad guy characters had a different harness, as seen with Walph (who went by the much cooler sounding Anubi in Galaxy Warriors) below:

 

 

It’s this harness that was used for Expanse’s.

 

Space Patrol II‘s melee weapons were also taken from Galaxy Fighters, which had different weapons than Galaxy Warriors. You can see the poleaxe used by Gritton in the Sunhawk pic. And below, you can see the straight sword used elf Conan Anobe:

 

 

And here’s the axe used by the owl-headed Robic:

 

 

Expanse’s shield was from Galaxy Fighters, as the pics show, just with a new outer space themed sticker. The King of Enigma’s shield is also from Galaxy Fighters. You can see it here with the warrior Magoon below:

 

 

Speaking of Magoon, he’s the one that gave Expanse his head. Neat how a little bit of paint can turn a warrior with a helmet into a furby-faced alien.

 

There’s a knock-off lineage at work here.

 

We start with Masters of the Universe, which as knocked-off by Sungold to make Galaxy Warriors, which was bootlegged to create Sewco’s Galaxy Fighters, which was bootlegged to create Space Patrol II.

 

But there’s more to Space Patrol II than Galaxy Fighters.

 

The power harnesses used by X-7 and Gritton came from X-Changers, a line of power armor using sci-fi heroes by defunct British toy maker Acamas…sort of. It’s going to require a little explaining.

If you’d to here a guy enthusiastically talk about the X-Changers of his childhood, check out this video right here by Actionjackman.

 

 

Look at Daark Lord! So cool! He’s like shogun Tron! Neat!

 

Now, when I was researching where the Space Patrol II harnesses could have came from, I had my marker on X-Changers. But if you look closely, the harnesses don’t match. They’re similar, certainly, but not exact. What’s more, Space Patrol II harnesses came in one piece of plastic, but X-Changers harnesses came in two pieces–one for the torso and one for the shoulders. So I was stumped for awhile, but then I dug deeper.

 

I found these tantalizing thumbnails from deleted Spanish ebay auctions for “X-Changers.”

 

 

 

That’s them!

 

I mean, they clearly aren’t X-Changers, but those are the harnesses! You can tell even as small as they are.

 

So, the Space Patrol II harnesses came from an X-Changers line that wasn’t X-Changers. What are we dealing with here? Mexican knock-off X-Changers?

 

I went deeper.

 

I found a South American action figure blog and translated it. It’s pretty neat, I recommend checking it out. I know I’m going to make a return trip.

 

According to it, a European company called Solidico, a subsidiary of Sewco (remember them? They’re the Galaxy Fighters people) released “X-Changers” in South America, and this is what they looked like:

 

 

Yep, now that we got a good look, you can totally see Gritton’s harness, they didn’t even change the stickers for it. And the Sewco connection is solid because I can see some Galaxy Fighters heads. Look at the top right figure, that’s an Anobe head.

 

So there are, in fact, Mexican knock-off X-changers. Were they released under any other names?

 

You bet.

 

They were released as MX-Space Robots and, believe it or not, Space Patrol.

 

What a twist! There was, in fact, a Space Patrol I!

 

Thanks to the blog, I was able to look up Solidico, and figure-archive.net gave me all they worked on…including Space Patrol II!

 

It’s unknown manufacturer has been found!

 

Now, we can pinpoint where the harnesses came from.

 

Assuming that MX Space Robots is the earliest incarnation of the Space Robots/Space Patrol/Mexican X-Changers series, then Gritton’s harness came from Space Ant of the MX-Space Robots line:

 

 

And X-7’s harness came from…X-7 of the same line…

 

 

Well huh, and here I thought I was onto something clever naming him after what was on his clothing…

 

And hey, bonus reveal–Gritton’s face isn’t what I thought it was. I had assumed that he used Sunhawk’s head, like the King of Enigmas, just modified a little, but no. He actually uses the head from the Space Patrol character Egal.

 

 

So, lets sum up Space Patrol II’s bootleg lineage!

 

It starts with MOTU, which was knocked-off by Sungold’s Galaxy Warriors, which was bootlegged as Sewco’s Galaxy Fighters, which was bootlegged by Sewco’s European subsidiary Solidco as MX-Space Robots and Space Patrol. These two lines were released in South America as X-Changers, which was a power armor sci-fi line created by British toy company Acamas and knocked off by Solidico to create MX-Space Robots/Space Patrol and bootlegged as their own X-Changers.

 

Still with me?

 

Solidico wanted to bootleg MMPR villains. They used bodies, melee weapons, and a few heads from Galaxy Fighters. The sci-fi looking weapons came from MX-Space Robots as did the battle harnesses. The head for Gritton came from a Space Patrol figure, and for whatever reason, Solidico decided to market the brand-new line as a sequel to Space Patrol.

 

I love this, I feel like I need a big conspiracy board graphic!

 

Whew! That was a fun one! I love doing this pop culture archeology, tracing back what copied what, and at the end, I found myself right back where I started–with a weird MMPR bootleg called Space Patrol II.

 

…I wonder though…let me check figure-archive.net’s page on Space Patrol II…

 

..3! They got 3 figures, missing Gritton! They did 1 better than figurerealm, but man, no one on the Internet listed the complete set? Wild!