Dave's War Planets Page - Shadowraiders

	Dave's War Planets Page: Shadowraiders
All images are copyright their owners (Diamond, Trendmasters) and used for purposes of review and news reporting. All trademarks are property of their owners, no infringement intended. Text of reviews is copyright 1997 by Dave Van Domelen.
Last Updated 5/3/98 New Supermoon pictures added.

The Shadowraiders are small moons which act as scouts and, well, raiders for the Auroran planets. Because there's not a whole lot you can do with a half-sized moon set, these toys also have lots of external stuff, like vehicles and monsters, plus they can link together, as seen below:

Second Wave Moons
Toys from 1998 to date There's a slew of new moons for 1998, including a new size of toy, the Supermoon, which will sell for $10 (smaller than a Planet, but more stuff). As of 4/3/98 the Fire, Remora and Tek Supermoons have arrived in Columbus, and the rest can be seen on the Trendmasters site.

Fire Supermoon - A fold-out minifort with a Big Cannon.
Remora Supermoon - Larger moon unfolds into a battle platform.
Tek Supermoon - The moon transforms into a stubby robot.
- Review of Fire, Remora and Tek Supermoons. I'd scan the pictures from the packaging, but the pictures are so small and the colors so inaccurate you might as well just hit the Trendmasters site.
- Picture of Fire, Remora and Tek Supermoons from the packaging of Planet Water. I blew it up to double size, but it's still pretty dinky.
Storm Supermoon - The new faction has only a Supermoon, it seems. Looks like it has moon pieces roughly the size of Shadowraiders, but two vehicles.
Robotron Moons Alpha and Omega - Nifty Shadowraiders, with "monsters" that are more, well, robotic than the Rock ones. One has legs as a "vehicle".
Beta and Zeta Moons - The six first-wave moons are recolored and released as Beta and Zeta instead of Alpha and Omega. I will not be buying these to review.
Sand Moon - A pyramidal moon. This one ROCKS. Great-looking moon, vehicle and beast. This is the one I'm most looking forward to.

First Wave Moons
Toys from 1997 REVIEW of all six first-wave Shadowraiders. The price point is $7 per set, and the review begins with a listing of the elements each set has in common.

WARNING: I've now seen two different formats for the backing cards of the Shadowraiders. The one I used to scan the pictures below is the wrong one, but I put the pictures after their correct names.

Images of the Shadowraiders - Be warned, almost every single color in these pictures is wrong, in that the final toys are painted very little like the prototypes. The Ice Moons come closest to the pictures.

Bone Moon Alpha - The beast is maroon and silver, the vehicle (the Cthulhumobile) is black with silver accents, the moon is green and bright yellow. The picture incorrectly calls this Bone Moon Omega.
Bone Moon Omega - The beast is actually green and silver, the moon is mostly purple and black, the tentacles are metallic grey. The picture incorrectly calls this Bone Moon Alpha.
Ice Moon Alpha - Very close to the picture, which incorrectly calls it Ice Moon Omega. Main visible difference is that the actual toy has silver figures and sparkly stuff.
Ice Moon Omega - Also pretty close to the picture, which calls it Ice Moon Alpha. Figures are light purple, as are other parts of the toy. Plus there's the blasted sparklies.
Rock Moon Alpha - The moon is dark metallic grey where the picture shows brown, dark red where the picture shows silver. The vehicle is silver, the beast is dark red, as is the claw.
Rock Moon Omega - The moon is dark red where the picture shows yellow and grey where it shows purple. The beast and vehicle are reddish orange with little detail painted.

Somewhat differently colored pictures (the Beta and Zeta vesions) of these Shadowraiders are on display at the official War Planets page. You can also see a fuzzy picture of the Shadowraiders in their packaging taken from Previews Magazine by clicking here.

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