Dave's War Planets-ish Rant:

     Galaxy War: The Planet

     This toy is part of a fly-by-night toy line called Galaxy War made by
Hinstar (HIL).  The back of the box shows the smaller toys in the line, and
three of them are obviously knockoffs of Attack Pack alien ships.  The online
toy merchants "Toy Planet" have been selling these, and I finally decided to
pick one up to join with my War Planets.  Lucky for me, but maybe not so
lucky for anyone reading this, I got the last one they had.  It still may be
findable in California, however.

CAPSULE

     Pretty nifty toy, but plagued with the usual knockoff-level quality
control problems, plus serious wobbliness when fully deployed.  If you can
find it in the store for $10 or less, grab it.  Otherwise, don't make a big
effort.  

RANT

     Planet Mode: All closed up, this toy forms a somewhat flattened ball
five inches (12cm) in diameter, being somewhat shorter than it is wide.  The
exterior color is uniformly silver, with various technobits studding it.  As
far as appearance goes, it would make a credible Tek fortress to match the
Scorpizoid tank.  It rests on three stubby legs and despite looking like it's
about to tip over forwards, it's fairly stable.
     Transformation: Twist the top and the three main levels separate on a
spring-driven central shaft.  Then it's just a matter of folding out the six
panels and dropping the stairs.  Pretty simple.  However, with a little
fiddling around, you can find a few intermediate modes which are only
partially open (although the top platform is rotated oddly in these modes).
     Battle Station Mode: Fully extended (to a height of 7 inches (18cm)),
the central shaft is simply not that stable, and the whole affair wobbles a
lot.  This can be fixed by finding one of the intermediate modes and using
only two of the three levels, it's much more steady.  The various parts of
the interior are filled with weapons, control stations, chairs, stasis tubes,
searchlights and so forth.  Most of these elements are either molded out of
the hull section or glued into place, which was a little disappointing.  On
the other hand, the more loose pieces in a knockoff, the more likely some
won't fit where they're supposed to go.  Only a few pieces are movable (4
searchlights, crane, radar dish, one gun), and the paint job's a little on
the iffy side, but it's not too bad for what it is.  There's also a trap door
which is supposed to drop a figure out of the bottom of the ship, but it
doesn't open far enough to let any of the figures through.  At the top
platform, there's a "nipple" like those on the War Planets, but it's too
small for the Shadowraider connectors and too large to borrow any of
Scorpizoid's weapons. Finally, the platforms which fold out from the top of
the station don't fold down all the way, another common knockoff trait.
     Weapons: None.  At least, none that fire.  They seem to have used up
their spring budget on the central shaft.
     Figures: Comes with six monochrome (bronze) unposeable robot figures a
bit smaller than the War Planets figures (I'd guess 20mm scale if they're
supposed to be human-sized).  Most of them look pretty cool.
     Overall: If you're really into War Planets, this is a knockoff worth at
least looking around a little for, since it's about the right scale to be
another Tek fortress.  Otherwise, don't bother, it's not terribly exciting
on its own.

     Dave Van Domelen, will have scans of the planet once the scanner's
available tonight....