STAR PATROL ROBOTS

Sometimes you just can't avoid Imperial entanglements... These robot toys were made by the Imperial Toy Corporation in 1978, the year after Star Wars (A New Hope) was released. I doubt that's a coincidence, though, more likely Imperial wanted a slice of R2-D2's pie.





Take a closer look at the image on that robot, it's a Star Destroyer knock-off!



Here's another one of the Star Patrol robots. This one's a little more like R5-D4 than R2-D2. Both toys stand about 4 inches (10.16 centimeters) tall each.

These came in a display box that held a dozen of the toys.





The display shows a third robot design, seen in the close-up below.



Each of the three robots came in two varieties: silver heads and gold heads.

Here's the side of the box. This is where we learn about all their action features. Free wheeling (the wheels on the toys' base aren't restrained from movement), bendable arms, and grip action hands (the claws are rubbery, so the robots can hold things like pencils, straws, Star Wars figures' necks, etc.).



The back informs us further. It states, "Imperial TOY CORPORATION 1978 LOS ANGELAS, CALIF.", "CONTENTS: 1 DOZEN", and "MADE IN HONG KONG".



The display was also printed in a bilingual version which I'm assuming was for use in Canada. It's the same as this english one just with a few lines of French added, and some of the box's sides are completely French, such as the side with the largely printed "PATROUILLE DE L'ESPACE".