Matchbox Parasites - Anyone collect these?

[gort]

Parasites by Matchbox were an attempt to jump on the transformers bandwagon in the mid eighties. They were pretty basic, just a Matchbox car that had some kind of folded up robot figure inside.

I only had the one, a kind of green snake thing called Terrosite, but I remember there were quite a few different ones in the range.



The only info I've mannaged to find is a small section about half way down this page: www.x-entertainment.com/messages/626.html and they sometimes pop up on ebay from time to time.

Anyone else remember these?

[sanfords2]

I actually have a carded Gammasite that I picked up at a Flea Market last year for $2. The back of the card shows six different Parasites and has a file card that you can cut out.

[gort]

I'm not looking to pick any more of these up, but if you get a chance to scan that cardback I'd be interested to see the whole line

[drekkus]

He skeletoncrew,
thakns for liking my collection, the only one I know that has the castle is Galaxy warrior. I just have to say I had much luck in getting all these figures together, including all the GW figures complete, but it cost me a lot. Maybe someday we can help each other out completing out collections. And off topic I liked your castings, damn how do you do that? Wrong thread my bad, happened more than once don't know how but finally I got it right this belong is the GW thread, sorry again.

[sanfords2]

I don't collect these either, but if the price is right - I'll buy just about anything! Here's the scan showing the entire line:

[gort]

For that price I'd have bought it too

Thanks for the scan

[zartan015]

I hgad #5. the black van. yellow snake.

[else3573]

I have been thinking about collecting this line for awhile now since it's small and easily completable, as well as more obscure and (IMO) pretty cool. The problem is they are usually anywhere from $15-25 carded, which is more than I wanted to pay for them, considering I didn't have any and it was a new line to undertake. I saw these guys on Ebay for $4.99 apiece! (with $6 combined shipping) so I had to scoop em up:

[skullbooska]

those are awesome! so they actually fit inside the included vehicle? how many of them are there?

[else3573]

Yeah, they fold up and fit in the vehicles. That cards are actually much larger than I thought they were going to be, they take up alot of space. I think there's 7 but I could be wrong as this site only has 6 listed:
www.virtualtoychest.com/p/parasites/parasites.html

[rihia2k]

Holy Hannah. I haven't seen these since they were originally released when I was a kid!!

[kylefromdirtnapp]

I have one loose one, the orange car. Not bad at all. Kinda goofy looking.

[cyberwolf76]

There are 6 in the set...I picked the set up years ago for $100 . You picked yourself up a bragain ...there was plans for a 2nd wave which would have included Kevin fenderline.

[runamuckduck]

I think I've got a complete set. I spent years keeping an eye out for these. Everybody was trying to get into the transforming vehicle market. I think I like them because they're not trying to be too close to Transformers. They really are their own thing.

[inorder2]

Doesn't Mattel Hot Wheels make a similar version?
what was it called?

[kylefromdirtnapp]

Robo Wheels. Search for it in the ID threads, there's some pix.

[microbry]

As a big fan of this line and a longtime occassional lurker here, I felt compelled to finally register!

Parasites were created for Matchbox by California R&D, the same team that licensed Takara's Micronauts to Mego and created the Micronauts aliens, and the conceptual designer on both was Stephen Lee, who unfortunately died last year. The Parasites share a lot of recognizable motifs with Micronauts and the aliens, notably their size, the chrome parts, angular heads, reptilian and insectoid archetypal forms, and limbs that end in weapons, not to mention other minor details. A couple of the figures even use the same color schemes Stephen used for his original MIcronauts Alien concept artwork (Stephen was partly color blind but as a result created some really unique color schemes in this work) and resemble some of the figures that were not developed past the early concepts. Around the same time they also developed the Roadblasters line and another one I forgot the name to for Matchbox. After working with Cal R&D, Stephen went on to make a number of other toys for other companies, notably a number of designs for Exo-Squad including Maggie's E-frame and the Exo-Fighters, and some stuff for Kenner's Aliens line, if I recall correctly.

Some pics from my collection, which I really need to update now I own all six of the released ones:
www.flickr.com/photos/microbry/sets/72157620980987333/

Stephen and Cal R&D also developed prototypes for a trio of Parasites based around tractor trailer trucks where the trailer carried a form that unfolded into a larger figure and the cab hid a smaller companion, which Larry Jones (owner of Cal R&D and inventor of several toy concepts himself) shared recently. I'll see if I can get those pics posted here later if folks are interested.

[brcthrift]

I had Nemisite growing up. I never knew what the line was called. I wish I still had that thing.

[cyberwolf76]

I would love to see a pic of the unreleased 3 tractor trailer parasites.

[proteus]

ive been trying to get these for years- especially gammasite and the yellow one with the pointed nose- they ruled-

[microbry]

They come up on Ebay often as deadstock mint on card and can usually be found fairly cheap for such. I don't think I've ever paid more than $25 for the ones in my collection.

Cyberwolf, I'll see about getting them up soon.

[sf1378]

Weird they never did a team of 'hero' versions to battle the Parasites...? Cool concept - must've been such a design headache to get the aliens to fit inside the toy car bodies.

[funkyterrance]

I saw one of these listed on ebay a few months back that was reslisted a couple times and eventually the seller gave up I think. It was the one that came out of the bronco and I had it on my list as it looked really interesting, just not something I wanted to spend $20 on.

[cyberwolf76]

Would still love to see thos unproduced series 2 figures. Do pictures exist?