I'm looking for the name of a brand of action figures/toy vehicles.  I believe
they were on sale in the mid-to-late-80s.  The vehicles were the main
attraction - you would wind them up and then they would so all sorts
of things - transform, move, etc.  But what was so interesting was
their mechanics.  They didn't seem like typical "wind-up" toys - they
moved as if they were powered by batteries.  I remember thinking that
they must have had little motors inside, because they did some pretty
complicated stuff.  (I sort of remember a truck with a back that would
open up really slowly, the way a top will rise off of a convertible
car.) Also, there were figures that you could put in the vehicles. 
All the figures has magnets on their feet, and the vehicles had
magents too, so you could attach them together.  Sorry to be so vague
- I really don't remember much!

Hello.

I believe that you're thinking of the "StarCom" toys.

"Anyone else have these dope space toys, StarCom?  They were all mechanized and 
stuff, you'd press a button and the wings would unfurl or something, all the 
figures had magnets on their feet and they would stick to panels on the 
things.  Those were hot for a while, I had almost all of them, they even had a 
cartoon for a bit, then they disappeared.  I loved those toys...but no one I 
talk to ever heard of them."
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&selm=6ht8v1%247ob%40mozo.cc.purdue.edu&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dstarcom%2Bmagnets%2Bfeet%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26c2coff%3D1%26selm%3D6ht8v1%25247ob%2540mozo.cc.purdue.edu%26rnum%3D7

"To stave off the wholesale subjugation of humanity we've got Starcom:
The US Space Force (and what future would be complete w/o the United
States, right? 9_9), a joint venture between the military forces of
the future...
...
The figs themselves were about an inch 'n three quarters tall and had
little magnets implanted into their boots (a primary component of the
toys' "magna-lock" feature). These magnets had quite a few useful
applications. Other than allowing the figures to stand freely on metal
plates that were attached to the vehicles and playsets, they were
often used to trigger switches that activated other action features."
http://arcanus.diaryland.com/010718_62.html

Of course, various toys from this line are for sale on eBay:
http://search.ebay.com/starcom_Toys-Hobbies_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsacategoryZ220Q26catrefQ3DC6QQsotrZ2QQcoactionZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQcoentrypageZsearch

----
search strategy:
transformers "magnets * their feet"
starcom magnets toys

I hope "Starcom" is the toy brand that you had in mind. If not, please
let me know via the "request clarification" feature. Thanks.

Thank so much!