Invasion Galactica

Invasion Galactica was a mysterious short-lived Argentinian toyline consisting of three (known) out of Estrela's six Brazilian Robocars, crudely repackaged by unknown parties. These were released in 1985, the same year when Antex was releasing its own Robocars in Argentina, though there are no known links between the two.

The packaging for Invasion Galactica figures consists of a single-sided cardback, featuring art of a UFO shooting at the figure. A red fireball is drawn around the figure, presumably to mask the fact that the bubbles are, in fact; just straight-up cut from the original Estrela cardbacks and pasted into the newer packaging (you can even see remnants of the Generation 1 Autobot grid design if you look closely!). Given the time period, the new name is presumably meant to build on the popularity of V and Battlestar Galactica.

The cardbacks say nothing about the toys - not even any names - or any manufacturer involved. The words "Industria Argentina" ("made in Argentina") appear at the bottom of the card, but this is a lie since the toys themselves are, of course, Brazilian. Collectors from South America have long maintained that these were fashioned together by legitimate Argentinian toy retailers, in an attempt to avoid protectionist tariffs by pretending that the foreign-manufactured toys were actually a domestic product.

Toys

Robocar Camaro, sold in "Invasion Galactica" packaging.

Robocars

• Camaro (Windcharger)
  (red/grey or white/black)
• Pick-Up (Gears)
  (blue/red or orange/red)
• Sedan
  (white/black or blue/black)

Trivia

• Another set of Estrela figures — the Bat-Robôs Turbo and Pick-Up — were also released in Argentina under very similar circumstances, packed in mostly plain packaging featuring the title "Robot-Car" and bits photocopied from Estrela's boxes. Similar to the Invasion Galactica assortment, these toys also do not feature any manufacturing or distribution information on the packaging... But unlike the Invasion Galactica batch, they seem to be entirely new copies of the Bat-Robôs, with a few deco discrepancies such as their alternate mode greenhouses being unpainted giving it away. As such, these toys are most likely bootlegs rather than legitimate Estrela-made or Estrela-licensed figures. .
  • As a funny extra bit of trivia, the bootleg version of Turbo features a new sticker sheet with sponsoring from Albilad Capital, a Saudi company with a very infamous bit of history. .