Every so often I pore over the quarter boxes in my FLCS and just get something that appeals to me for some reason.

I found Man-Tech #3 from Archie Comics Adventure line of the '80s. Every so often Archie gets into some liscensed product, and this little remembered toy line, not really an optimal property seemed an unlikely choice. And what the heck, Dick Ayers pencilled, so why not?

The toyline itself consisted of 6 figures and some ancillary vehicles. The good guys were Solartech, Lasertech, and Aquatech. The bad guys were Negatech, Doomtech and Terrortech. The bad guys were robots, the good guys were humans that somehow had their bodies replaced with cybernetic parts. The unique thing about the line was that you could take the toys apart, and mix and match the pieces. For instance you could take an arm off Nega Tech and put it on Aquatech. You could make hybrid creations, and even chimeras.

The bad guys were the creation of an evil genius named Tyranik, who wanted to take over the galaxy. Jaxon Goode while trying to find a way to oppose him, found these human from the past and made them into cyborgs. Oh and he was also involved with Tyranik's younger sister. Only having 6 characters really hampered the toy line and the comic book as well.

In the comic, the robots wake up an ancient evil robot called an Octobot, who led a brigade of evil lesser robots. They attack the city where Tyranik's sister lives. The city is weaponless, so the good guys have to try to defend the city from thousands of robots. Good plot. The exectuion just isn't there. In an attempt at characterization, Solartech is the leader, but Lasertech is a maverick who disobeys him all the time, and doesn't get along with Aquatech either, who makes bad jokes. Pretty feeble, but overall, not irredeemable. Unfortunately, the battle scenese lack any real sense of excitement, tension or anything of the sort, despite the fact the heroes are only shooting robots. The great thing about robots is that violence against them is okay, but it is terribly muted here, by editorial choice. The whole point of the toyline was the mix and match stuff among the figures, and that didn't come into the story at all.

Underwhelming comic, but I still enjoyed it. Well worth a quarter.