Mashtooth

Boss: Mashtooth
Japanese name	ダイール, Daīru
Hit Points
Species	Crocodile like creature/Dragon
Family	Unknown
Affiliations	The Terrible Trio, Swabbies
Fought at	Bunnera
Residence	Temporarily: Planet Bunnera
First appearance	The Legendary Starfy
Latest appearance	The Legendary Starfy

“Listen up, Nerd Nugget! Strength is everything! And power is strength! So power is... Everything too, I guess... Whatever! I have the power to take over this galaxy! Once Bunston is mine. I will be invincible... And won't that be fun... HARR HARRRRR! Prince Bunston! If you value your precious planet, you will bow before me! And if not... Kiss your home good-bye... HARRR HARRRRR!”
—Mashtooth, The Legendary Starfy

Mashtooth the Pirate redirects here. For the Special in The Legendary Starfy's Stuff, see The Legendary Starfy/Stuff#Specials.

Mashtooth (Daīru in Japan, possibly Daiiru, but a common, possibly false romanization is Dire) is the main villain and final boss of The Legendary Starfy.

He is the leader of the Daīru Pirate Squad, who consists of The Terrible Trio and underlings known as the Swabbies; that are divided into four groups, Land Swabbies, Sky Swabbies, Space Swabbies, Sea Swabbies.

Mashtooth was eventually defeated by Starfy, with the help of many others. He is a space pirate with a thick sword who attempted to conquer Planet Bunnera to absorb the powers of its inhabitants, in particular the prince of the Bunnerans, Bunston, and become the most powerful force in the galaxy. He has two forms when facing him. His second form is like a dragon.

Personality

Mashtooth is a power hungry tyrant that thinks power and strength is everything (which he states multiple times). He is shown to be very cruel since he attacked the inhabitants of Bunnera and stole their power just so he could rule the universe. He is shown to be short-tempered and will crush all that defy him. An example of this behavior is when he sent a Swabbie flying after the Swabbie objected to Mashtooth's plans believing that they weren't nice. He is shown to strike fear into his enemies as well as his minions since The Terrible Trio were scared about calling him and when a Swabbies told him that Bunston was in Pufftop he begged Mashtooth not to eat him.

Mashtooth is much different in the original text however. During localization, much of Mashtooth's dialogue was changed. For example, in the localization, the reason Mashtooth flubs the word "domination" and says that he can "finish here and eat some real food". In the original text, Mashtooth says that Bunston is all that's standing between him and taking over the universe, saying that the other Bunnerans did not have nearly enough power for him to gain power without equal (instead of them simply being snacks that he can eat a lot of). Put simply, Mashtooth was made seemingly less intelligent and given gluttonous traits in English (though this could be seen as an adaptation of his power-hungry nature in both versions).

Abilities

Mashtooth

His abilities include:

• Absorbing power - He can absorb the power of others in two ways, firstly by using his nose suction to inhale the person, secondly by eating them. He can cause rocks to come towards Starfy or Starly while using his suction attack.
• Attacking by charging into Starfy or Starly.
• Summoning lightning - He only uses this attack after being hit multiple times. He can create a blue flame around himself and then disappear while summoning lightning. The lightning can strike multiple areas of the room.

Mega Mashtooth

Mega Mashtooth has some new abilities, including:

• Summoning lightning - He can summon thicker lightning bolts that are yellow instead of blue.
• Laser beams - When Starfy or Starly deplete all of Mashtooth's health points, he fires a laser beam from his mouth. He uses it to try to push The Moon at Starfy or Starly, but the player can keep pressing the Y to push it back.
• Asteroids - He can now throw asteroids at Starfy or Starly.
• Flight - He now has wings so he can now fly.
• Extra durability - It takes more hits from Starfy or Starly for Mega Mashtooth to take damage.

Boss Battle

First Form - Mashtooth

Mashtooth sitting in his chair

At first, Bunston tries to help Starfy by turning him into his Monstar transformation, but it ends up with Mashtooth having a forcefield. The player loses the Monstar fight, and then reverts back to the normal Starfy. To defeat him in his first form, the player can keep using Star Spin or Shooting Star on him. He attacks by charging. When the player gets his health down to five, he turns temporarily invincible, then disappears and starts to shoot lightning down the screen. The lightning shoots down either left or right, and is difficult to dodge. When the player gets him down to at least three health, he will try to inhale Starfy with his nose and rocks will fly into Starfy. If the player get caught in his nose, the player must keep pressing left and right on the D-pad in order to escape. If he or she doesn't get out in time, Mashtooth will swallow Starfy and the player must try it again. However, the best way to get away from him is to dash. A Star Spin can be used to break the rocks.

Toy description

• "It's Mashtooth himself! Famed for his lightning and charge attacks.
  Even his nostrils are scary! Um... I think I hear my mollusk calling. Gotta go, bye!" (No. 079)

• JP Translation: It’s the boss of the Mashtooth Pirates! Lightning and charge attacks are his specialties. Out of all the guys we’ve fought up ‘til now, he was the strongest…

Second Form - Mega Mashtooth

Mega Mashtooth

Mega Mashtooth redirects here, for the Story cartoon, see Mega Mashtooth (cartoon)

After the defeat of Mashtooth, he will inhale Bunston and absorb his powers, transforming Mashtooth into the much more powerful Mega Mashtooth (Strongest Daīru, さいきょうダイール in Japan); who grows huge yellow wings and becomes incredibly large. Mega Mashtooth, later flies off the screen and into space. Starfy, who is assumed to be unconscious remains unable to battle until the encouragement of The Terrible Trio, Moe, Bunston, and others gives Starfy the power to fight Mega Mashtooth.

The power invoked by Starfy's friends is so powerful that a large aura surrounds Starfy, allowing him to fly into space and attack Mega Mashtooth face to face. Mega Mashtooth will shoot even bigger bolts of lightning, however they are easier to dodge than last time. Once Starfy gives him a bit more damage, he'll fly into the background and start to throw meteors at Starfy. Using the Star Spin to deflect them has chance of hitting Mashtooth, doing damage. At even lower health, he'll do both attacks at the same time. Once Starfy defeats him, he will throw the moon of Bunnera at Starfy. The player must rapidly press Y to deflect it, or slide the Y button using the stylus. He'll throw it again, and this time it's even harder. If the player fails to deflect it, the moon will go into the background and destroy Starfy. Once Starfy deflects the moon again, it slams into Mashtooth, defeating him and then a cutscene ensues. Apparently, Mega Mashtooth and the meteors he throws have a 3D look.

Toy description

• "This is Mashtooth after he's drained Prince Bunston of all his power!
  When Mashtooth takes Bunston's energy, the result is Mega terrifying!" (No. 080)

• JP Translation: This is what Mashtooth looks like after absorbing Bunston’s power! Even with Bunston’s power, I never woulda thought he could send the moon flying…

(TL: "the moon" could also be translated as a planet or a star, but moon makes more sense in context.)

Gallery

• 
  Official artwork of Mashtooth.
• 
  Official artwork of Mega Mashtooth.

Trivia

• Mashtooth, like many old men in the series, uses the pronoun Washi in Japanese.
  • However, unlike the many old characters that use it, he does not have the honorific Jii (じい) or Jiisan (じいさん) in his name.
  • Mashtooth shares these similarities with another Starfy final boss, Ogura
• Mashtooth is one of the only main antagonists whose underling(s) betray them in the end, the other being Evil. The Terrible Trio betray Mashtooth to buy more time for Starfy, and Ogura betrays Evil by stealing the final Evil Crystal he had. Both betrayals ultimately end in both Evil and Mashtooth's defeat, and the redemption of Ogura and the Terrible Trio.

Name origin

• Mashtooth is mostly likely derived from 'mash', as in crushing something, and 'tooth'. In an answer to a message sent to Nintendo of Japan, they confirmed that a major reason why Mashtooth's Japanese name is Daīru (Japanese: ダイール) is because Mashtooth's face resembles that of a crocodile (Japanese: クロコダイル), hence an official romanization may be based on 'Dile'.

Various sites have romanized ダイール in the The Legendary Starfy's Japanese title as "Dire" but this may be 'less correct' because of the lengthened イ, and because of the ル being pronounced as 'ru' or 'l' in ダイール (a better romanization for Dire would be ダイア). 'Dire' is an adjective applied to something that causes fear. In Volume 244 of Nintendo Power on page 73, in an interview with Hitoshi Yamagami, the Japanese name of the game is subtitled 'Dire Pirate Squad' too, however, it is possible that this was added by the editors and not Hitoshi Yamagami himself. On the Canadian Copyrights Database, the Japanese name of Mashtooth (as seen in its romanization of the Japanese name of The Legendary Starfy) is romanized as Daiiru.