Stone Protectors

Stone Protectors was a multi-media entertainment property consisting primarily of an action figure line and animated series. The series also had a video game on the Super Nintendo. It served as a late attempt to market the troll doll craze of the early 1990s to young boys. While not particularly successful, nor inspired by a prior medium, Stone Protectors generally followed in the same vein as contemporaries like Toxic Crusaders, Swamp Thing, and the highly popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Back-story
A kingdom built of crystals came under attack by the Saurians whose leader, Zok, desired the powerful crystals protected by the Queen. Zok broke into the castle and reached for the crystals only to see them explode into pieces and fly to Earth.

After being thrown out the back door of a New York club, an awful rock band known as the Rock Detectors found the five magical stones which gave them troll-like appearances and special skills (not the least of which is playing good music). This put them at odds with the music-hating Zok and his henchman Zink, collectively known as The Predators.


 * Cornelius, the group's leader, holds the green stone and became a samurai with an assortment of appropriate weaponry (katana, shuriken, and a pair of nunchaku made of microphones). He's the band's lead singer, but also plays guitar.
 * Chester holds the orange stone and became an expert at wrestling and received great strength. He plays bass guitar and saxophone.
 * Clifford holds the blue stone and became a "rock climber." He is the band's drummer.
 * Angus holds the yellow stone and became a "soldier" and an expert at turning mundane objects into weapons. He plays keyboard. Angus ostensibly built up the Protectors' bizarre attack vehicles from things like barbecues and lawnmowers.
 * Maxwell holds the red stone and became an "accelerator" with in-line skates. He plays guitar.

Animated series
A short-lived cartoon series based on the characters debuted in 1993. In it, Princess Opal of Mythrandir splits the legendary Great Crystal into six pieces to keep it out of Zok's hands. Zok manages to capture one piece, but the other five bond with the future Stone Protectors, spiriting them away to Mythrandir to help Opal upset Zok's schemes and spread a sentiment of peace and freedom with their music. The series lasted one season; 8 out of 13 episodes were released on VHS in 1994 by Family Home Entertainment.

It's notable that while the advertisements for the action figures attempted to tie the Stone Protectors into the troll doll fad, the cartoon seemed eager to avoid the comparison. For instance, it replaced the line "trolls on a roll" from the theme song in the commercials with "Don't you know?"

Action figures
The Stone Protectors action figures were produced by the Ace Novelty Toy Company. All of the figures were roughly 5" tall and featured cut joints at the neck, shoulders, and elbows as well as ball joints at the hips. Their heads were a soft, rubbery material with tall, synthetic hair sticking straight out the top. In rotating the right arm of a Stone Protectors figure, a flint module would ignite inside its chest, creating a quick yet bright flash seen through the translucent chest emblem. A second series of sports-themed figures was also released. Princess Opal was never made as a figure, nor were there any generic Saurian Guards.

Unfortunately, the toyline as well as the cartoon that followed it were seen as poor imitations of the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of toys and cartoon series and overlooked by many.

Video game
A Super Nintendo game based on the property was released in November 1994 by Kemco. A Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version was developed and completed, but not released. This version, intended to be published by Vic Tokai, was made when ESRB was in place and had a T rating. It featured alternate case and cartridge artwork than the SNES version. The fully finished Mega Drive/Genesis prototype was finally leaked to the public domain in 2010.

Stone Protectors features 10 levels in which the heroes - Clifford, Cornelius, Chester, Maxwell, and Angus - battle The Predators throughout their mission to retrieve Zok's crystal and bring them all back to the kingdom. Weapons can also be acquired but only used by certain characters. Depending on the difficulty setting, the game's ending scene also features different music in which the Stone Protectors are seen performing as a band.

The game has received moderately positive critiques in terms of crisp graphics, pleasant music, and accurate collision detection. On the other hand, Stone Protectors' plot and the repetitive nature of beat 'em up titles has led to criticisms of blandness. In December 1994, GamePro gave Stone Protectors a 3.5 out of 5 rating.

Other merchandise
Pressman Toy Corp. released a Stone Protectors board game. In late 1993, Harvey Comics debuted Stone Protectors "Premiere Issue" (effectively an issue #0), followed by issues #1-3.