Toy Commander

Dreamcast Magazine January 2001 Vol. 10 w/ Playable Demos of F355 Challenge, Sega Marine Fishing, Kao the Kangaroo, Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6, Pod Speedzone, Speed Devils, Toy Commander.

Sky Commanders is an animated television series made by Hanna-Barbera with the co-production of Toei Animation. It premiered in July 1987 as part of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera and lasted for thirteen episodes. It was based on the action figure line from Kenner Toys.^[1]

Plot[edit]

The storyline of Sky Commanders comprises the daily adventures of a multi-national group of soldiers and mountaineering specialists from all over the world who battle the evil General Lucas Plague and his goon squad of villainous mercenaries and miscreants, 'The Raiders', whose aim is to seize control of the planet. The series is set on a new continent deep in the South Pacific which was created by the emergence to the surface world of a new and powerful, unstable radioactive element called Phaeta Seven.

This lethal energy source can only be stabilized for containment by exposure to temperatures of 200 degrees below zero. It is known that whoever can control the element and harness its enormous power would be the ruler of the world; a goal that the amoral General Plague wants strongly. It is up to General Mike Summit and his highly trained soldiers to stop him.

Complicating the Sky Commanders' objective of stopping the criminal ambitions of the Raiders is the fact the new continent (collectively referred to in the series as 'The High Frontier') is routinely beset by sporadic, unstable and highly dangerous weather conditions and environmental hazards such as landslides, earthquakes, cave-ins, whirlpools, etc. There is also the need for monthly shipments of fresh supplies, new advanced technology and weapon systems. Constant attack by the scheming and underhanded Raiders and the aforementioned environmental dangers make the Sky Commanders's mission only that much more dangerous.

Travel throughout the new continent is only possible by means of high-altitude flight, or by using Laser Cables: a specialized version of a rappelling cord emitted from combat backpacks worn by both Raider and Sky Commander. When used, the cables shoot out from the combat backpacks in the form of energy beams. When contact is made with a solid object, the Laser Cable solidifies into a solid metal cable line upon which travel is possible.

Phaeta Seven, the radioactive element that both sides fight to control, came from the deepest subterranean recesses of Earth itself, and it has brought with it, on its rise to the surface of Earth, not only the new continent itself but also a wild and voracious, bizarre menagerie of utterly horrific creatures to inhabit it. These lifeforms are either the products of long-term mutative exposure to Phaeta Seven's radiation or were just naturally brought about the way that they are. Occasional violent encounters with these monstrosities is yet another danger waiting for both sides of this battle for the future freedom or enslavement of the world.

List of episodes[edit]

Characters[edit]

Sky Commanders[edit]

• Bob Ridgely as General Mike Summit, leader of the Sky Commanders
• William Windom as 'Cutter' Kling, a man whose daughter is missing and is reportedly in the new continent.
• Soon-Tek Oh as Kodiak, an Eskimo man
• Tristan Rogers as 'Spider' Reilly, an Australian man
• Richard Doyle as 'Books' Baxter, a Canadian man and electronics expert
• Dorian Harewood as Jim Stryker, a Jamaican man
• Lauren Tewes as Red McCullough, an Irish woman
• Darryl Hickman as R. J. Scott, the youngest Sky Commander

Raiders[edit]

• Bernard Erhard as General Lucas Plague, leader of the Raiders
• B.J. Ward as Dr. Erica Slade, the scientist of the Raiders
• Charlie Adler as Kreeg, the green-haired Raider
• Paul Eiding as Raider Rath, the black-haired Raider
• Dick Gautier as Mordax, the stout Raider and Plague's brother-in-law

Home Media releases[edit]

On August 28, 2012, Warner Archive released Sky Commanders: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.^[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 557. ISBN978-1538103739.
2. ^'Sky Commanders - 'The Complete Animated Series' Now Available: Box Art, Cost, More'. Archived from the original on 2012-10-01.

External links[edit]

• Sky Commanders on IMDb

Toy Commander is an action game for the Dreamcast developed by No Cliché and published by Sega.

A Microsoft Windows version was planned for release in 2001, despite being almost completed, it was ultimately cancelled, due to No Cliché shutting down the following year.

Plot[edit]

The game's plot revolves around a child named Andy (Guthy in the European game, mostly referred to on screen as 'Toy Commander'), who gets new army-themed toys for Christmas, and neglects his childhood favorites. The toys, led by Huggy Bear, Andy's childhood teddy bear, rebel and try to destroy the new toys.

Each boss in the game has taken over a specific area of the house, serving as one of Huggy Bear's Generals.

Gameplay[edit]

In the game, the player must complete missions by controlling toys (usually in the form of vehicles). These missions take place in rooms of a house. The game is known for its unique tasks themed around the various household areas. For instance, the first mission, which takes place in the kitchen, is a basic training level involving swapping vehicles and different types, including a helicopter, pick-up and plane. Meanwhile, the second level involves using a toy car to roll eggs over to a pot of boiling water.

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The game has five basic types of playable vehicles: race cars, which were primarily used in racing missions (though some missions would have the player navigating mazes in race cars), armed ground vehicles such as tanks or trucks with rocket launchers, airplanes, helicopters, and transport vehicles (which are always unarmed, but would typically be used to transport various smaller toys). Not all vehicles are available for use outside of one-player, which are the unarmed and transport vehicles.

A battle mode, with other modes, is also available in the game for multiplayers, allowing up to four players, with no online play.

Choosing the latter can result in some what-if historical events emerging and creating an alternate historical timeline. The developer wasn’t able to go into detail with this feature, but it sounds interesting nonetheless.Gameplay plays out as you would expect out of a typical WWII air combat sim.

Reception[edit]

The game had a number of mixed reviews, IGN gave it an 8.9, claiming 'The strong sense of atmosphere can be attributed in large part to the game's subtle but spectacular visuals.' but also had said 'Most of the time, the game finds a nice balance between challenging and competitively frustrating.' GameSpot gave it a 6.7, Stating 'Toy Commander does a nice job in the graphics department, The game has an extremely frustrating learning curve, since you must get used to the control while dealing with missions that require an extremely delicate touch.' Then remarking at the end of the review 'It should make for an excellent rental, but most players won't remain interested for more than three days.' In most of the causal reviews of Toy Commander, players enjoy the graphics more than the tricky control scheme on difficult levels.

Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that 'you owe it to yourself to try this one.'^[3]

No Cliché[edit]

No Cliché was a French-based game development company who created games for the Dreamcast, lead up by French developer Frédérick Raynal. The core team was previously established in Adeline Software International, before being bought by Sega. Adeline's parent company, Delphine Software International, retained the rights to Adeline's intellectual properties.^[4]

No Cliché was best known for its first Dreamcast title, Toy Commander, released in 1999. In 2000, it produced Toy Racer and helped Raster Productions into coding localisation for the European release of its Dreamcast Quake III Arena port. In 2001, Sega Europe stopped development on many Dreamcast European games, causing the company to cease development on its current project at the time, Agartha, a survival horror game.^[5] No Cliché remained together for a little while after the cancellation, attempting to create a PC port of Toy Commander. However, the group split before it could be finished. No Cliché went quiet, but Adeline Software continued to remain active until they were shut down in 2004. Raynal went on to work for a new developer, F4-Toys, which failed to find a publisher for their first title, Trium Planeta, and then switched to developing serious games. He then founded Ludoid, and has also begun working with Ubisoft.

Games[edit]

• Toy Commander (1999)
• Quake III Arena (2000) (European release coding localisation)
• Toy Racer (2000)
• Agartha (cancelled 2001)

Legacy[edit]

No Cliché created a special Christmas-themed demo of 'Toy Commander' exclusive for Official Dreamcast Magazine. The game, entitled 'Toy Commander: Christmas Surprise', appeared in both the U.K. and U.S. editions in their Holiday 2000 issues.^[6]

No Cliché also created a special summer-themed demo of 'Toy Commander' exclusive for Official Dreamcast Magazine. The game, entitled 'Toy Commander: Summer Special', appeared in both the U.K. and U.S. editions in special issues.^{[citation needed]}

A sequel/spin-off, entitled Toy Racer was released in Europe on December 22, 2000 for the Dreamcast. It was developed by No Cliché and published by Sega. The game also serves as an expansion to Toy Commander and it's racing sections, designed exclusively for both offline and onlinemultiplayer modes for up to four players. As a result, there is no possibility to play against AI controlled players, being the only single player features of the game both a Practice and a Time Attack modes. Toy Racer was only released in Europe at a low budget price of £5, £1 of which was designated to charity. North American and Japanese releases were planned and all set in 2001, but were cancelled for unknown reasons. It didn't meet the same commercial success as its predecessor, having a much more limited single-player mode but shares similar toys, often in a different livery and using the same rooms in the house. The online functions of Toy Racer was revived as a part of the project dcserv.org on December 3, 2014.

References[edit]

1. ^Gantayat, Anoop (November 19, 1999). 'Toy Commander Gets a Japanese Date'. IGN. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
2. ^http://www.gamerankings.com/dreamcast/199093-toy-commander/index.html
3. ^ ^abLundrigan, Jeff (December 1999). 'Finals'. Next Generation. Vol. 2 no. 4. Imagine Media. p. 104.
4. ^'In the Studio'. Next Generation. No. 34. Imagine Media. October 1997. p. 26.
5. ^Fahs, Traves. Alone in the Dark Retrospective, IGN, June 23, 2008
6. ^'The Land Before DLC: Toy Commander'. www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-06-19.

External links[edit]

• Toy Commander at MobyGames
• Toy Racer at MobyGames