Battlestar Galactica | Vintage Action Figures

Lieutenant Starbuck from Mattel’s Battlestar Galactica

Light years before the name “Starbuck” added an “s” and became synonymous with caffè latte, the world’s most famous Starbuck was the fictional first mate of the Pequod, the whaling ship at the heart of Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick. In fact, it was in homage to this literary character, that our Lieutenant Starbuck here, the protagonist of the cult 1978 sci-fi television show Battlestar Galactica, was named, although the gambling, womanising, and cigar smoking Viper starfighter pilot, and the Quaker first mate on the Pequod, could not have been more different!

Colonial Warrior from Mattel’s Battlestar Galactica

Don’t worry if this character isn’t familiar to you. His face isn’t likely to ring any bells with even the most die-hard fans of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series from 1978 either! When Glen A. Larson’s short-lived sci-fi show was launched as a somewhat blatant attempt to rival the small screen success of Star Trek, and in the clear hope of cashing in on the cinematic box office success of Star Wars the previous year, Mattel won the license to produce the tie-in action figure merchandising. Whilst their 3 ¾ inch figures offered up recognisable characters from the show such as Lieutenant Starbuck and Commander Adama, their 12 inch hero was this chap, a generic “Colonial Warrior” who had never appeared in the show.

Ovion from Battlestar Galactica: Insect enemy from the TV space saga!

With this 1978 Battlestar Galactica action figure of Ovion, Mattel managed to pack six points of articulation into a 3 ¾ figure. Of course, when the figure in question is an alien bug with four arms and two legs, they clearly had a head start on the articulation front! Sadly, the neck is firmly one piece with the torso, although with all those limbs I’m sure kids at the time had lots of fun with this one.

Ovion appeared as part of the first series of figures, which was launched to tie in with the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica sci-fi TV show and was a clear attempt to ride the tail of Kenner’s success with their Star Wars line.