Galaxy Warpers

Galaxy Warpers were a 2000s Toy/Music/Cartoon franchise developed by Bandai, Cartoon Network and MGA Entertainment. The line first ran from 2003 and was no longer active by 2006.

SYNOPSIS
A figurine toy line for both pre-teen boys and girls to adore! 15 year old Hugo lives in a town where music is forbidden. However, when he has to move his furniture, he finds a secret compartment in his wall, which hides 3 different jewels. An emerald heart, an amethyst star and a ruby diamond. Once he picks up the emerald heart, it begins to glow and not only summons him a new attire and electric guitar, but a pixie prince named Glow. Glow informs Hugo that what he just did was the first step to changing the future and restoring music to his town. But he’ll also need the help of two other friends. Tyson, a boy from the 1970s/Past that inherits the Amethyst star and Utah, a boy from the Future that inherits the Ruby diamond. Glow transports them using their jewels, and now they must work together to find ways to show the importance and beauty of music and rocking out around town. They are now the Galaxy Warpers!

GALAXY WARPERS
HUGO (Voiced By: Ian James Corlett): Hugo is the boy from the present (2000s) that inherits the Emerald Heart, plays the electric guitar and is the self appointed leader and heart of the group. Hugo is extremely cheerful and outgoing, always hoping to make a friend and help them out when in need. He can also be a heartwarming and sensitive guy. However, he can have very high anxiety levels when things don’t go his way, and likes things to be neat and tidy.

OTHER INFO

AGE: 15

HAIR COLOR: BLONDE

EYE COLOR: BLUE

ZODIAC: GEMINI

LIKES: COOKING

JAMMING OUT TO FUN BEATS

DISLIKES: SEEING A FRIEND DOWN

MESSY ROOMS

TYSON (Voiced By: Ben Small): Tyson is the boy from the past (1970s) that inherits the Amethyst Star and plays the Keytar. He is a kind hearted, dreamy and supportive person who is always there to step in when things go wrong. He is the most imaginative and has big dreams for his future. He also has a sense of courage as he stands up to those who hurt his friends. However, he’s very short tempered and can get very angry when things go wrong but he doesn’t mean it. He’s also the most vain, bragging about his appearance, fashion and music skills and can sometimes care more for his appearance.

OTHER INFO

AGE: 15

HAIR COLOR: FADED GRAY/DARK BROWN AND DARK PURPLE.

EYE COLOR: BLACK

ZODIAC: SAGITTARIUS

LIKES: DANCING

DESIGNING FASHION AND INSTRUMENTS

DISLIKES: A MESSED UP APPEARANCE

BULLIES

UTAH (Voiced By: Jaret Reddick): Utah is the boy from the future that inherits the Ruby Diamond and plays the percussion and drums. He is the smartest out of the trio and is very resourceful, always having a plan and idea on what to do. He is also the calmest member and isn’t one to have a short temper. However, he can sometimes have a sense of sarcastic humour which can be found annoying. He can also be quite stubborn.

OTHER INFO

AGE: 15

HAIR COLOR: BLACK TO FADED DARK RED

EYE COLOR: BROWN

ZODIAC: CAPRICORN

LIKES: SCIENCE

INVENTING

DISLIKES: SCARY BUGS

PEOPLE WHO DON’T LISTEN

HISTORY
The concept was first pitched sometime in 2002 by toy executives working for Cartoon Network. However, it wouldn’t be until early 2003 that the concept would be greenlit as a collaboration between them as well as Bandai and MGA Entertainment (Both who had previous experience with directing toys and products). The aim was to make a dolline that appealed to both gender demographics. It would have personalities of boy toys as well as personalities of girl toys. An instance of a 6-7 and up toy with an androgynous audience. Concept art was a collaboration with Quebec animation studio Cinegroupe (Who would eventually work on the animated series) and Russian-Canadian artist Svetlana Chmakova.

The first line of toys would eventually be released by Bandai and MGA in the fall of 2003 in stores through North American such as Target and Walmart. Figurine dolls of Hugo, Tyson and Utah were made and released. These figurines were smaller than typical Barbie dolls but bigger than the currently popular then Diva Starz dolls. The box the dolls came with could fit a single doll and had a galaxy background composed of the trio’s main colors. The back of the box’s featured the characters bios and a link to their website. The dolls bodies themselves were made of plastic (Outside of their hair) and were fully articulated. However, because one couldn’t make them stand properly, a stand was included. The dolls also came with 2 outfits, their respective instruments, a jewel light up brooch and a sheet of stick of jewels (Based on their gems). The dolls were also sound operated as they could each say 15 different phrases and sing 2 songs. On the back of their heads, they had 3 labeled buttons. One for phrases, one for the first song and one for the second song. Their instruments also could play music with batteries and provide instrumentals to the vocals. 2 buttons were given to play the instrumental songs for the instruments.

Though the dolls were received well and eventually became quite popular amongst kids, there were also flaws and criticism. One being that the sound buttons were too small and had labels that could fade away over a period of time, which could make kids irritated if they wanted to time the mix of instrumental and vocals correctly or didn’t want to sing. Another being the clothes and how they were meant to be put on. Instead of a typical stick on patch, the clothes were required to be zipped up, which got annoying for kids when the zipper was tight, or was stuck. Regardless, the franchise was a huge success.

In October 2003, just a month after the release of the dolls, a CD album was released in stores called: Galaxy Warpers, Stars Shine! Under the label Rhino, who also labeled the Powerpuff Girls CD’s. There were 10 songs on the album, with 3 of them being the theme of a certain character and 4 of them being originally incorporated as sounds and songs on the dolls. The album was performed by Corlett, Small and Reddick themselves, who were the official voice actors for the trio. The album was met with fairly average to positive reviews.

In promotion of the new dolls and CD, a Flash operated website was released just a week before the album release. The website was filled with videos, characters bios, album previews and 4 games. The website also provided a link to the Cartoon Network website back then. Once the franchise became inactive in 2006, the website was no longer updated. But stayed and laid doormat until it was sold in 2017. Fortunately, archivers have archived the site on flashpoint and archive.org and can still be accessed with Ruffle after the 2020 shutdown of Flash.

In the Summer of 2004, the dolls got their second theme. This theme was called Summertime Song to coincide with their second album by the same name. The dolls were fairly the same but with 15 brand new phrases implanted as well as them singing 2 new songs each as well as having new pop out scene stands of the beach, a concert and a beach city, they also got new summer themed outfits. Changes were also made to some of the elements after the criticism given, such as the buttons having more visible labels, an upgrade to their size and the outfits no longer requiring to be zipped up but strapped on by patches. Their second album also consisted of 10 songs. 5 of them being original but 5 of them being covers of popular summer themed songs from bands such as The Beach Boys and even from musicals such as Grease.

Late 2004 to early 2005, Cartoon Network had been pitched the concept of an animated series based off of the doll line and soon the concept was green-lit. 26/22 minute episodes in 1 season was planned for the cartoon and eventually it began to be promoted on Cartoon Network and the official franchise's websites. The show's first episode would premiere on Cartoon Network on June 2nd 2005. The series was animated by Cinegroupe and saw the return of Corlett, Small and Reddick voicing the main characters. The show would continue to air 25 more episodes until the 26th and final episode premiered on September 7th of the same year. After that, Cartoon Network continued to air re runs of the series until 2008. The show had average reviews from critics, praising the series for it's voice acting and their singing, the music and the script but criticising it's animation, plot points and hammed in message of "Following your dreams".

After the series ended, the franchise went on a hiatus. Plans for a third themed set of toys and album were planned, but due to the slow sales and battles against other toy companies, Cartoon Network, Bandai and MGA decided to discontinue the franchise in 2006. Toys and music were no longer produced by then, but toys and albums were still available in stores until 2007.