Marshal Bravestarr & Thirty-Thirty

Then one day, a lawman appeared. With powers of hawk, wolf, puma and bear. Protector of peace, mystic man from afar. Champion of justice, Marshall Bravestarr!

In a time when the Masters of the Universe toyline was beginning to wane in popularity, Mattel tried to find a new cash cow in the boys' market. Enter Marshall Bravestarr, star of the science fiction western series. The planet New Texas, a stand-in for the American West, was the place. The mineral Kherium, a stand-in for gold, was the goal. Outlaws plagued the settlers and miners, and a Galactic Marshall was called to restore peace. As the ad went, they needed a hundred lawmen. They got one. And he was enough.

The Bravestarr toyline was a bit of a weird thing as the figures were huge, nearly twice as tall as the He-Man figures. There were also lots of play sets and vehicles. Here we have the main hero of the series, Bravestarr himself, and his equine companion Thirty-Thirty (or 30-30), who transforms from a mechanical horse to a... well, an upright mechanical horse, really. While toy Thirty-Thirty looks great as a horse, he barely resembles the Cyborg-like humanoid Thirty-Thirty could transform into when stood upright. Would have made more sense in my mind to have two different toys for Thirty-Thirty's two modes. Anyway, Thirty-Thirty comes with saddle, reigns, saddle bags, and of course his big rifle Sarah-Jane.

But back to Bravestarr himself. As mentioned he was a huge figure for the time, easily dwarfing pretty much every other boy figure on the market (except possibly the Centurions (Power X-Treme!). He was also very nicely articulated, much better than most other figures on the market at the time. While his chest plate does look a bit different than it did in the Filmation cartoon, he does come with most of his accessories, including the gun, rifle, and hat. Sadly the figure forgoes Bravestarr's ponytail from the cartoon and one can debate whether the toy really looks Native American or not, but overall this was a very nice toy.

Back in the day I had nearly the entire line of Bravestarr toys (truth is, the line did not last all that long, so it wasn't that big a number) and I played with them a lot. Today I only have Bravestarr and Thirty-Thirty, but that's plenty to keep the memories alive. Not the most successful toyline of all time, but definitely one fans still remember with fondness. 

Rating: B

Picture Gallery: