Locust Marauder - Robot Changers
Originally designed by Takatoku in Japan for their Beetras line and sold as 'Beet-Vadam', the model was licensed to MARK who made a low cost, plastic version for their own Zectron / Mecha Insect Zectron release.
Bird Robo VS Zectron (Convertors Avarians VS Insectors) was the subtitle for the otherwise separate lines linking the two and indicating them to be rivals.
MARK also released this model to the West via Select seeing it renamed 'Morphus' for Convertors in the United States, Canada and Australia (and likely other regions). In parallel MARK distributed it directly to Europe under the Robot Changers banner as, 'Locust Marauder'.
Both Convertors and Robot Changers releases of Morphus and Crawler saw the weapons swapped vs. the Zectron release.
When Tatatoku ended Bandai picked up the license for the Beetras designs and later leased them to Hasbro leading to them becoming the four Deluxe Insecticons; this design specifically becoming Ransack.
All of the Zectron figures bar Scorpion Robo were later re-released in Japan by the Japanese company JAM as Candy Toys; toys that come with candy. They came in kit form under the title, 'Mecha Insects' with the English text on the packaging incorrectly shown as 'Mecha Insecter'. It's supposed Scorpion Robo's more complex form may have been problematic or too expensive to replicate in a cheap, snap-together kit.
At this time a connection between MARK and JAM has not been established, nor has how JAM acquired the Zectron moulds.
See index main Convertors & Robot Changers page for more details.
Region Codes Used: JP Japan / US United States / CA Canada / EU Europe / AU Australia
NOTE: Location codes only shown where items were known to be released. This list is accurate yet likely to be incomplete.
Convertors Insectors US/CA/AU Select 1985
Robot Changers EU MARK 1985
Zectron JP MARK 1985
Mecha Insecter JP JAM Date Pre-1999 (kit form)
Morphus was also released in an Insectors three pack with Crawler and Tenticus.
Trendmasters [see example below] released the Masterbotix Winged-Bots line with the unnamed grasshopper model showing reused wings and insect legs from Morphus. It's unknown whether Trendmasters were aware these and possibly other parts in the line were reused from existing moulds by the manufacturer.
