Power Lords – The Extra-Terrestrial Warriors was a toy-line released in 1983 by Revell. Up until 1980, Revell had done well in the model car, boat and airplane market, however, with this market beginning to dry-up, and an explosion on the action figure market, Revell decided to create their own action figure line. The outcome was Power Lords – The Extra-Terrestrial Warriors.
A year earlier, ET the Extra-Terrestrial had won hearts in theatres all around the world. With that in mind, Revell jumped on the ‘Extra-Terrestrial’ buzzword in hope of cashing in. To create the new toys Revell hired sci-fi and fantasy author/artist Wayne Barlowe. Wayne had created a book on aliens called ‘Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials‘ in 1979, however, Barlowe didn’t own the rights to any of these aliens so started Power Lords from scratch.
With heroes, aliens, and creatures straight from Wayne Barlowe’s own creative and off-kilter imagination, Revell went to work producing the Power Lords toys.
POWER LORDS THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS SERIES 1 (1983)
POWER LORDS
The main hero is Adam Power, an Earthling who was given the cosmic Power Jewel to protect the galaxy. When Adam used the jewel he would transform into Lord Power, an Omni-powerful being with blue skin and red veins of energy coursing across his body. He was accompanied by his friends Shaya and Sydot.
Full List: Adam Power, Shaya, Sydot, Power Ship
ARKUS AND HIS WARRIORS
To match the heroic heroes of the Power Lords was The Evil Dictator Arkus and his villainous henchmen. Arkus was hatched at the center of an unknown red Birth-Sun. He is the evilest of all beings in the galaxy and feeds off of the anguish of his victims. Because of this he never has to sleep or eat and never tired or gets fatigued. Arkus is accompanied by his evil henchman Ggripptogg and Raygoth.
Full List: Arkus, Ggripptogg, Raygoth, Trigor
POWER LORDS THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS SERIES 2 (1984)
The second wave of toys didn’t feature and ‘good guy’ figures, it did however feature four new evil warriors.
ARKUS AND HIS WARRIORS
Full list: Tork, Bakatak, Disguyzor, Drrench
Also part of the second wave of toys were the Beast Machines. The Beat Machines were some of the strangest looking toys you will have ever likely seen. These toys had giant humanoid features from the waist up, but with tank-like features below the waist.
The blond-haired Nordic (and incredibly He-Man like) Savor and the Red skinned and mustached Thrash joined the Power Lord team. The deadly robotic Warbot and Red, devil-like EVOL were part of Arkus evil warriors.
Also released was the Volcan Rock playset, where the Power Lords and Arkus battle for control.
Unfortunately for Power Lords, the second wave of toys was the end of the road for the toy-line. Many toys that were set to be released and shown in catalogs never made it to the production line. This included the Power Transporter, The Exploder, Boulder Blaster and Trap Rock.
While the toy-line came to an end in 1984, just a year or so after it began, other Power Lords material did exist. This included a three-issue comic mini-series, a board game and a video game for the Odyssey 2 console. The video game is the rarest ever released for the Odyssey 2, and incredibly difficult to find.
