Editing Estrela

[[Image:Estrela logo.jpg|right|thumb|Making children happy, and parents broke!]]

'''Estrela''' is a popular [[Brazil|Brazilian]] toy manufacturer, being first founded in São Paulo in 1937 and remaining active until today.

They are best known internationally for holding the license to produce and market multiple [[Hasbro]] toylines during the 1980s like [[GI Joe]] (under the localized name of ''Comandos em Ação'', i.e., "Commandos in Action"), [[My Little Pony]] (under the localized name of ''Meu Querido Pônei'', i.e., "My Dear Pony") and, of course, [[The Transformers (toyline)|''The Transformers'']] (under the localized name of, uh, "Transformers"). Although much of the ''Transformers'' mainline was ignored by Estrela, their aforementioned freedom to manufacture their own toys during this time resulted in multiple variants of existing molds - and even some entirely unique ones! - that remained exclusive to the Brazilian market.

Estrela also distributed most ''Transformers'' toylines in the country up until ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (toyline)|Cybertron]]'', being later replaced by Hasbro's own Brazilian subsidiary.

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==Overview==
[[File:Estrela_Catalogue.jpg|thumb|left|Being a kid in 1980s Brazil was a masterclass in [[repurposing]]. Red and blue robot? That's gonna be your Optimus Prime! Red sports car? Get used to calling it Sideswipe! Red and white vaguely jet-looking thing? Buy five and you have your Aerialbots!]]
====Estrela's Transformers toyline====

Estrela's approach to localizing ''The Transformers'' was somewhat unusual. The first edition of the comics would be sold nationally in November of 1985 and the cartoon would only premiere on Brazilian airwaves in 1986, however; Estrela decided to preemptively release their ''Transformers'' line in May of 1985, quite a few months before most domestic audiences had been introduced to the characters.  The stars of this toyline were a handful of [[Mini-Vehicle|Mini-Vehicles]] and [[Jumpstarter]] redecos, each being renamed into Robocars and Salt-Man (the ''Salt'' here being a contraction of "salto", the Portuguese word for "jump"). The fact that there was no known fiction for these figures within the Brazilian market left Estrela to name them after their alternate modes instead - and thus, the [[Bumblebee (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Bumblebee]] mold became known as [[Bumblebee (G1)/toys#Estrela|Volks]] (per his [[Volkswagen]] Type 1 "Beetle" mode), the [[Cliffjumper (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Cliffjumper]] mold as [[Cliffjumper (G1)/toys#Estrela|Carrera]] (per his [[Porsche]] 924 Carrera GT alt mode <ref>Cliffjumper's original Micro Change version refers to him as a 'Porsche 924 Turbo', but his rear fender flares are clearly inspired by the Carrera GT version of the 924 instead.</ref>), and so on. The [[Topspin (G1)#Toys|Topspin]] and [[Twin Twist (G1)#Toys|Twin Twist]] molds were also renamed into, respectively; [[Salt-Man X]] and [[Salt-Man Z]]. The lack of a pre-established mythology also meant that this first batch of toys did not have faction insignia, instead featuring stickers identical to the original ''[[Micro Change]]'' and ''[[Diaclone]]'' versions of their respective molds. This was changed in a second run of the Robocars, as the introduction of The Transformers comic book in Brazil by the end of 1985 would bring about the renaming of the [[Autobots]] and [[Decepticons]] into "Optimus" and "Malingus" - and thus, the toyline would also get its own [[Optimus (faction)|Optimus]] and [[Malignus (G1)|Malignus]] factions in 1986, now also sporting [[Neon|much flashier]] decos.

The line-up was also supplemented by larger toys licensed from other companies which were not featured in any other of the many international Transformers toylines. These included the auto-transforming [[Bat-Robô]] figures with pullback motors (three years before [[Throttlebot|the American line did the same]]) which were originally from Asahi Tsusho KK's ''Attack Change Machine Powertron'' toyline, the also auto-transforming [[Eletrix]] figures that doubled as rudimentary remote-controlled vehicles (thirty five years before [[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys#Robosen Collector.27s Edition|Robosen kind of did the same]] with uh, a ''marginal'' difference in quality) which were originally from Yonezawa Toys' ''Remote Change Robo Series'' toyline, and... This was it, these are all the figures released under Estrela's ''Transformers'' toyline, and also the only ones available on domestic toy aisles throughout the following years as the show premiered. Noticeably absent from this line-up is nearly every single major ''Transformers'' character, therefore depriving Brazilian fans during the 1980s of some of the most important figures like [[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Optimus Prime]], [[Megatron (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Megatron]], the [[Seeker (body-type)|Seekers]], the [[Dinobot (G1)|Dinobots]], the [[Diaclone]] ''Car Robots''-derived characters like [[Jazz (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Jazz]], [[Prowl (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Prowl]], [[Sideswipe (G1)/toys#The Transformers|Sideswipe]] et al., and many, many, many more. A common part of the experience of being a young ''Transformers'' fan in Brazil, in fact, often involved filling in the ranks of missing characters with [[GoBots]] (which were actually localized twice in the country, first by toy company Glasslite as ''Mutante'' and then by Mimo as ''Convert''), using toys like [[GBWiki:Road Ranger|Road Ranger]] as a stand-in for Optimus or [[GBWiki:Leader-1|Leader-1]] as a stand-in for Starscream!

The fiction of the toyline is... fuzzy. The cardback [[bio]]s for the Robocars are direct Portuguese translations of their base molds' Hasbro bios (with the obvious exception of Bumper-mold [[Sedan (Robocar)|Sedan]]), thus this wiki places those toys as those already-established characters. However, the Salt-Men have unique bios, placing them as all-new characters. Every other toy lacks a bio. While this is not so big a deal when it comes to the Bat-Robo and Eletrix (who have no ''Transformers'' analogues whatsoever), things get hinky when it comes to the Optimus and Malignus, who use the same names as their Robocar forebears; for simplicity (or as close as this can generally get), this wiki treats all of the Optimus and Malignus as new characters. Odder still, since none of the pre-Optimus/Malignus toys or packaging featured any [[insignia|faction symbol]]s, their allegiance is mostly conjecture, but between the re-use of "Autobot" character bios on "Autobot" molds and all of them using the "Autobot" style packaging, plus the lack of any indication in what bios exist that any of the toys are villains, the general fandom assumption (and wiki default placement) is "Autobot".

[[File:466045151 10233222796167098 471527722920300965 n.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Because who needs a second kidney anyways? (Pictured: ''every'' single Estrela ''Transformers'' toy)]]
Add to all of this the fact that, as mentioned, the Optimus and Malignus factions were originally just the localized names for the Autobots and Decepticons in the comics, however; the 1986 toyline featured them with entirely new insignia ''while'' the cartoon that was concurrently rolled out in the same year abandoned the "Optimus" and "Malignus" names in favor of the original Autobot and Decepticon faction titles: the result, thus; was that fans tended to treat the Optimus and Malignus of the Estrela toyline as independent "good" and "evil" factions that exist somewhere in the Transformers universe, and this would eventually become part of the canon with cameos in later media like ''[[Beast Wars: Uprising]]'' and ''[[Transformers: TransTech]]''. As such, for the sake of conformity with more recent material and in line with the most common fan interpretation, the characters in this wiki that were originally labelled as Optimus and Malignus will be treated as belonging to those factions specifically rather than either to the Autobots or Decepticons.

====Licensing and distribution in Argentina====
Estrela licensed out the ''Transformers'' toyline to  [[Argentina|Argentinian]] company [[Antex]], who also released their Transformers toyline in 1985. Considering Hasbro's ownership of the brand, whether or not Estrela actually had the legal right to do so is... questionable, but regardless, neither company seemed to suffer for it, as both Estrela and Antex would go on to become official distributors of Transformers figures in their respective countries during later years. Antex's line-up was mostly similar to Estrela's pre-Optimus vs Malignus toys, featuring some of the Robocars (albeit in different colors) and the Salt-Men molds (also bearing some, albeit smaller, deco changes), but no Bat-Robôs or Eletrix. They also reused the logo created for Estrela's toyline, as well as the unique character names.

[[File:InvasionGalacticaCamaro.jpg|left|thumb|Robots in disguise in disguise.]] On another odd note, Estrela's original versions of the Sedan, Camaro, and Pick-Up molds were also sold across some locations in Argentina in 1985 under unusual circumstances by an unknown company: the toys and their bubbles were manually cut off the Transformers branded cards and then attached to new cards featuring the logo ''Invasion Galactica'' and art of a flying saucer. The original design of the Transformers cards was still plainly visible beneath the bubble, with the distinct red background elements now depicted as part of a newly-drawn fireball. Collectors from South America have long maintained that these packaging swaps were done by legitimate retailers and toy stores in Argentina, who were attempting to find a way to move their Transformers merchandise during a time when protectionist laws forbade selling products that had been manufactured in foreign countries <ref>https://www.toyarchive.com/Transformers/Brazilian/Invasion.html</ref>. This is corroborated by the fact that, beyond the aforementioned ''Invasion Galactica'' logo, the only piece of writing in the packaging for these toys is a small "Industria Argentina" on the bottom left of the blister cards, a common label identifying a domestic product (essentially the Argentinian equivalent of a ''Made in USA'' or a ''Made in China''): considering how these are the Brazilian versions of the Robocars, it stands to reason that this is, most likely, a sneaky little bit of deception added to the packaging to evade suspicion from authorities.

====Later partnership with Hasbro and lawsuit====  
Eventually, as the 90s came and the ''Transformers'' brand proved itself to be a reliable long-term investment for Hasbro worldwide, Estrela went from being a manufacturer to a distributor for the post-Generation 1 toylines, with figures from [[Beast Wars: Transformers (toyline)|Beast Wars]], [[Beast Machines: Transformers (toyline)|Beast Machines]], and all the way into the 2000s with [[Transformers: Universe (2003 toyline)|Transformers: Universe]] and the [[Unicron Trilogy]] getting Estrela-branded releases in Brazil. Other Hasbro toylines, like the then recently-obtained ''[[Star Wars]]'' license (formerly belonging to [[Kenner]] before it was absorded into Hasbro), were also similarly distributed by Estrela. In contrast, multiple popular Hasbro-owned board games like [[Monopoly]] (sold in Brazil as ''Banco Imobiliário'', i.e., "Real-Estate Bank") and Cluedo (sold in Brazil as ''Detetive'') that had been provided through similar licensing deals kept on being manufactured locally by Estrela, as well as a few other toys like Play-Doh (sold in Brazil as ''Super Massa'', i.e., "Super Dough"). 

By 2007, Hasbro had stopped renewing their distribution contract with Estrela in favor of a self-owned South American distribution chain - thus, future ''Transformers'' figures, starting from the [[Transformers (2007 toyline)|2007 movie toyline]] and beyond up until today, were released in Brazil directly by Hasbro. Still, Estrela kept manufacturing Super Massa and the aforementioned board games under their own localized titles, which led to Hasbro suing Estrela for royalties in 2008 and culminated in a long legal battle lasting a whole 15 years. Eventually, the Court of Justice of São Paulo ruled in 2021 that while some of these brands, like Detetive and Super Massa, still belonged to Hasbro, others, like Banco Imobiliário, had been made sufficiently legally distinct to belong to Estrela instead <ref>https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2022/02/14/em-nova-decisao-de-disputa-com-hasbro-tj-sp-manda-estrela-destruir-apenas-super-massa-brasileira-segue-com-banco-imobiliario.ghtml</ref>: thus, to this day, both the original Monopoly and its localization as Banco Imobilário can be found in Brazilian stores. Interestingly, this court ruling also determined that ''Comandos em Ação'' / Brazil's localization of G.I. Joe was a property of Estrela rather than Hasbro, although nothing with the ''Comandos em Ação'' brand has been done by Estrela since.

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==Toys==
[[Image:TransformersEstrela-Logo.png|center|120px]]
===''Transformers''===
As mentioned, the 1985 line was mainly made up of a small handful of Mini-Vehicle and Jumpstarter molds from the Hasbro toyline, and it was further bulked up by giving most toys two different decos. Notably, this line made repeated use of the "[[Bumper (G1)#Toys|Bumper]]" mold (perhaps because of his shared engineering with Bumblebee and Cliffjumper helping to keep manufacturing costs low) that was extremely rare in the US, and not released as a Transformer at all in Japan. The Bat-Robôs also had two decos each, whereas the Eletrix somehow had the restraint of only providing a deco for each toy. On top of the aforementioned reused ''Micro Change'' and ''Diaclone'' sticker designs in place of faction insignia, one of the redecos - the blue and red version of Salt-Man Z - also features the same color scheme as its original ''Diaclone'' counterpart.

{| style="margin-left:1em;" width="100%"
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[Mini Vehicle|Robocars]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{bp-multi|[[Windcharger (G1)#Estrela|Camaro]] (Windcharger)<br>(red/grey or white/black)}}
{{bp-multi|[[Cliffjumper (G1)/toys#Estrela|Carrera]] (Cliffjumper)<br>(red/black or gold/black)}}
{{bp-multi|[[Brawn (G1)/toys#Estrela|Jipe]] (Brawn)<br>(green/yellow or light beige/dark beige)}}
{{bp-multi|[[Gears (G1)#Estrela|Pick-Up]] (Gears)<br>(blue/red or orange/red)}}
{{bp-multi|[[Sedan (Robocar)|Sedan]]<br>(white/black or blue/black)}}
{{bp-multi|[[Bumblebee (G1)/toys#Estrela|Volks]] (Bumblebee)<br>(yellow/black or silver/black)}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''Salt-Man'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{bp-multi|[[Salt-Man X]]<br>(white/red or white/green)}}
{{bp-multi|[[Salt-Man Z]]<br>(black/yellow or blue/red)}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[Bat-Robô]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{bp-multi|[[Pick-Up (Bat-Robô)|Pick-Up]]<br>(orange/black or green/blue)}}
{{bp-multi|[[Turbo (G1)|Turbo]]<br>(red/white or blue/grey)}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[Eletrix]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{bp-multi|[[Esporte]]}}
{{bp-multi|[[Jipe (Eletrix)|Jipe]]}}
{{bp-multi|[[Porsche (Eletrix)|Porsche]]}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top" rowspan=2|[[File:G1-toy Esporte.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Eletrix [[Esporte]]]]
|}


[[Image:OptimusXMalignus-Logo.png|center|150px]]


Estrela's second batch of ''Transformers'' toys, usually known as "Optimus x Malignus" (per a concurrently released sticker album featuring this as the sub-title), are their most well-known outside of Brazil. The six Robocar molds were trotted out again, each one getting two new color schemes, but this time they were split into proper good-vs-evil factions. These releases are particularly rare, and even loose samples are expensive, especially the (generally more gorgeous) Malignus.

{| style="margin-left:1em;" width="100%"
<ul class="iconlist">
|-
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[Optimus (faction)|Optimus]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{bp-op|[[Carrera (G1)|Carrera]]<br>(white/black or blue/black)}}
{{bp-op|[[Sedan (Optimus)|Sedan]]<br>(green/black or yellow/black)}}
{{bp-op|[[Volks (G1)|Volks]]<br>(orange/black or red/black)}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[Malignus (G1)|Malignus]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{bp-mal|[[Camaro#Toys|Camaro]]<br>(black/pink or teal/yellow)}}
{{bp-mal|[[Jipe (Malignus)#Toys|Jipe]]<br>(black/purple or blue/white)}}
{{bp-mal|[[Pick-Up (Malignus)#Toys|Pick-Up]]<br>(maroon/pink or green/purple)}}
|width="20%" valign="top" rowspan=2|[[File:Volks-Orange.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Optimus [[Volks (G1)|Volks]]]]
|}

==Merchandise==
[[File:JogoDosTransformers_Estrela.jpg|right|thumb|250px|''[[Jogo dos Transformers]]'' board game]]

On top of the toys, Estrela also backed their toyline with a staggering amount of merchandise, boasting everything from the usual knick-knacks you'd expect like the aforementioned sticker album, puzzles, lunch boxes, and pencil cases, to more esoteric stuff like wall clocks, multiple extensive home decor sets with bed sheets and curtains <ref>https://www.toyarchive.com/Transformers/Brazilian/Novlety.html</ref>, and, for whatever reason (perhaps for those keen on starting their own separatist nation using the Estrela Robocars as national icons?), even a large yellow flag featuring Pick-Up / Gears. <ref>https://www.facebook.com/groups/351790058700754/?multi_permalinks=1717331488813264</ref>  While most of this merchandise was based around the Robocars, it also occasionally featured art of the more popular characters that ''weren't'' included in the toyline, like Optimus and Megatron, serving as a constant reminder to Brazilian kids of all the toys they wouldn't be able to get unless they had rich parents who traveled abroad.

Most notably, this line-up of merchandise included an original board game, also manufactured in-house by Estrela:


<u>'''Board Games'''</u>
{|width="20%" valign="top"
<ul class="iconlist">
{{bp-multi|''[[Jogo dos Transformers]]'' (The Transformers Game)<br>(featuring miniature vehicle mode versions of [[Bumblebee (G1)/merchandise#Estrela|Volks]], [[Windcharger_(G1)#Estrela|Camaro]], [[Cliffjumper (G1)/toys#Estrela|Carrera]], and [[Sedan (Robocar)#Estrela|Sedan]])}}
|}
{{--}}

==Notes==
[[File:Glasslite-Mutante-Turborg.jpg|upright=1.5|220px|thumb|This feels sacrilegious.]]
* Surprisingly, the [[Bat-Robô]] molds were also simultaneously released in Brazil by rival toy company Glasslite as the ''Crash Tron'' figures '''Blocker''' and '''Turborg''', under the GoBots-localized ''Mutante'' toyline. It's still hotly debated amongst GoBots fans whether or not the ''Mutantes'' were a true licensed localization or just bootlegs - on one hand, Glasslite was a reputable company that produced official Brazilian releases of many toys from popular mass-media franchises like ''Thundercats'' and ''Star Wars'' and the quality of the toys does seem to check out as being on par with official products, but on the other hand, none of the packaging and known promotional material for ''Mutante'' actually mentions Bandai unlike Estrela did with Hasbro - but assuming that they are, this might make for an unprecedented instance of a toy being simultaneously a Transformer and a GoBot at the same time in the same region during the 80s!
* The promotional catalogue for the toyline featured box art of Salt-Man X in his original [[Topspin (G1)|Topspin]] colors, rather than those of either of his two redecos. Eventually, this was changed by the time that the figures actually hit shelves.
* Despite still owning the distribution rights to Transformers in the early 2000s, Estrela would also release a small self-branded line of transforming toy robots under the ''Mutantes'' toyline (which, strangely, seem to bear no relation to the previously mentioned Glasslite ''Mutante'' toys) during this time. These were simple bulky figures that'd transform into either die cast vehicles or plastic dinosaurs,  with the molds consisting of basic budget toys repackaged from other non-Transformers toylines that you'd commonly find in budget toy shops during the 2000s.
**Estrela brought back the ''Mutantes'' line again in 2014, eight years after their relationship with Hasbro had ended, with the introduction of the dinosaur-based ''Mutantes Dinossauros'' figures. Among these were a Velociraptor and a Deinonychus which, despite being heavily simplified, are nonetheless very clearly molded after the engineering of the original ''Beast Wars'' [[Dinobot (BW)/toys#Beast Wars|Dinobot]] toy <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqaPbruw8Nw</ref> - meaning that yes, Estrela technically became a [[Knockoff|bootleg]] distributor, albeit only briefly! The extent to which they were even aware of the similarities between these figures and the Hasbro originals is debatable since again, as with their first batch of ''Mutantes'', these were simple repackages of common budget toys licensed from other companies, but it is nonetheless interesting that a company would have both a relationship with Hasbro and yet also distribute Transformers knockoffs throughout their history. Even crazier that they were [[GiG|not the first to do so]], and [[Simba Dickie Group|neither would they be the last]].
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== See also ==
* [[Antex]]
* [[Multibrink]]
* [[:Category:South American-original characters|Category:South American-original characters]]

==External links==
* [https://www.estrela.com.br/ Estrela (official site)]
* [http://www.toyarchive.com/Transformers/Brazilian/Transformers.html Brazilian Transformers] at the Super Toy Archive

==References==
{{reflist|1}}

[[Category:Companies]]