Dave's Big Adventures Transformers Rant Mototron Speedbot Gorillabot Cheetor I was lucky enough to find all four at the one non-closing K-Mart in town, it seems that they ship four to a case and the store got only one case. CAPSULES Mototron/Speedbot: Same mold, just different colors. The car modes look okay, but don't hold together well. Nice transformation, but very weak robot mode. Too bad there's not even a tiny mold difference between the two. Neutral, only get if you're a completist. $7.88 at K-Mart. Gorillabot: Ape mode looks a little iffy. Clever transformation trick, good poseability and generally good robot mode. Recommended. $7.88 at K-Mart. Cheetor: The only one to reuse a name, it's a decent-looking Cheetor in both modes. The transformation is pretty typically Cheetor, but with a nice twist (pun intended). Not as poseable as Gorillabot, but looks better in beast mode. Recommended. $7.88 at K-Mart. RANTS Okay, first a note on the packaging. They're in oversized blistercards, with cards 8"x10" (20cm x 24cm). The cards are blue at the top on front, red at the bottom and yellow in the middle 2/3. The backs are yellow shading into orange, with red at the bottom. The bubbles are sloped at the top and square on the other three sides, 4" (10cm) deep. The cards do NOT have hook slots, these are made only for shelf display. "Playskool Big Adventures" is at the top of the card, and a "TransFormers" logo based on the RiD font is across the bottom of the front of the bubble. Yeah, the capitalize the F. I mention all this because Playskool stuff tends to get stuffed in the margins left by Fisher Price's World Domination Scheme, so you'll need to search a bit. Each figure is secured with twist-ties. 4 for Cheetor, 5 for Gorillabot, and 6 for Mototron and Speedbot, plus 2 more thinner ties holding extra bits of blister material to keep the package from collapsing onto the chest of the robot. On the back of the card are photo instructions for transformation in each direction, and a cut-out bio card. The bio card has a photo of the non-robot mode, a short bio note, and a regular Autobot symbol faded out behind the bio. MOTOTRON "His engine is so fast and powerful, it's almost impossible to put the brakes on this bad guy! In robot mode, he wears tough-as-steel armor that protects him from getting side-swiped. Be sure to steer clear of this nasty character!" Between his looks and the reference in the bio, you gotta wonder if he's meant to be a Superdeformers version of G2 Sideswipe. Given that he has the chibi Autobot symbol and not a Decepticon one, I'm guessing he's more of a "bad boy" than a villain. Car Mode: A cute little superdeformed sportscar 5" (12cm) long, a shade over 3" (8cm) wide and a chunky 2" (5cm) tall. The body is black, with dark red windows, a grey and silver front light array and a yellow baby Autobot symbol and yellow taillights. The wheels are hard plastic, gray with silver hubcaps. The wheels roll nice and freely, but the car is not quite solidly put together, so usually only three wheels are on the table at once. This may not be a problem with all copies of this toy, but both of mine (Speedbot is the same mold) have this problem. The left door also tends to sag down and rub against the left rear wheel. Transformation: If you do it right, you can get most of the transformation to robot mode to happen at once. Pull down the legs hard, and the hood will snap down and the arms out, on springs. Then you just need to turn the legs around 180 degrees, which causes the head to pop up on a screw gear of some sort. The reverse operation is a bit trickier, and might be frustrating for smaller hands. I'm already noticing some bending wear on the tab that holds the hood in place, and I wouldn't be surprised if repeated transformations snapped it off entirely and made vehicle mode impossible. Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall with day glo green pieces becoming visible on the legs, arms and chest. Head is gray, silver and green. The hood of the car comes down way too far, becoming more of a beer gut than a chest. It might be possible to glue some pegs onto the sides to stop its motion at the right height (something they clearly did for the pictures!), but it looks like he's got a huge pocket in the front of his coveralls or something. Also, the ratchet that keeps the legs extended is really weak, just setting the figure down causes it to lose height. Poseability is limited. Only the shoulders and hips have any movement, and the hips only move in the "splits" direction. I suppose the hips swivel, but this causes the head to drop back in. The arms only swivel around at the shoulders, and they're significantly blocked by the beer gut: to have an arm point forward, you have to bring it around the back. Overall: Well, it doesn't actively suck, but it's pretty disappointing. I doubt even the target audience of preschoolers will much like it, since it keeps falling apart in the wrong ways. I don't have the problem Zobovor had of the car's hood popping down when you look at it funny, but mine isn't that much better. SPEEDBOT "Speedbot races to the rescue with his high-speed turbo-charged engine! In robot form, he has super-sensitive night vision that lets him find his evil enemies in the dark! This is one vehicle - and robot - that really rules the road!" If Mototron is G2 Sideswipe, Speedbot seems like G1 Sideswipe, albeit not as closely. Speedbot is mainly red with blue windows, and is yellow where Mototron is green, plus has yellow Autobot symbol and taillights. My Speedbot isn't as bad as my Mototron in terms of not holding together well, but the hood clip is weaker (i.e. at least the pieces fit better, but it seems more likely to autotransform on its own). I think Speedbot looks a little better than Mototron, but it's not a better toy otherwise. And there are zero mold variations between the two cars, sadly. GORILLABOT "Gorillabot is an awesome ape who defends Earth from evil-doers with his amazing strength and intelligence. As a robot, he has a jet-engine backpack that allows him to travel at warp speed to wherever monkey business needs to be stopped!" Optimus Primal by any other name...would still fling his, um, never mind. And Paramount's lawyers would like to talk to him about that warp speed bit. Ape Mode: He's a purple, blue, red and metallic green gorilla with silver and gray bits as well. In other words, a bit of a mess, visually speaking. 5" (13cm) tall in a hunched over Beast Machines Primal sort of pose, he has big gear pieces exposed on his chest. And his limbs are obviously robot limbs reversed (robot mode toes still stand out, the rear feet still look like fists, etc). He looks strongly like a guy bending over and mooning you...except that he has a monkey face for his butt. At least the transformation conceals his robot head. Oh, his Autobot symbol is on his back. Transformation: This is pretty nifty. Bringing the shoulders of either mode together causes gears to do two things. One, the shoulders of the other mode separate. Two, the new mode's head moves up into place. Essentially, the two heads are connected by a bar that moves up and down. After that, it's a matter of repositioning the limbs. Oh, and I found a "Gerwalk" mode reminiscent of B'Boom's assault platform mode. Robot Mode: It's still a mess of colors, but they look better on a robot. The robot is 5.75" (14cm) tall, with an Autobot symbol on the right side of the chest. The jetpack looks more like the back of a knee-length coat, and it's a nicer-looking effect than you might think. The figure is pretty poseable, all things considered. The shoulders are universal joints, albeit a little limited by the overall chunkiness of the toy. The elbows are angled swivels, so the arm can't straighten out, but can point different directions (like on TM2 Cheetor, but not as frustrating). These joints combine for a pretty respectable range of arm poses. The hips are simple swivels, and the knees are hinges. However, there's a swivel just below the knee. The head does not turn, however. The feet are really big and chunky, making him pretty stable. You can even put him in a walking pose, with one foot forward...the heel is wide enough to provide support. Overall: The colors leave something to be desired, and the ape mode has some appearance problems, but it's got a clever transformation and a very nice robot mode. Nothing seems like it's going to break in the hands of your average whirlwind of destr...er, child. And it's really Optimus Primal, but I guess the presence of other Optimi on the shelf made them decide they didn't want to confuse any inventory systems. CHEETOR "Cheetor is a supersleek hero who uses his incredible speed to chase down evil wrong-doers. When changed into a robot, he has high-tech armor that makes him invisible to radar. This is one cat who is purr-fect in every way!" However, there's no Cheetors in RiD or Armada, so this is a way to keep the name out there. And make no mistake, this isn't just name reuse, this is a Cheetor toy. Seriously. It's Mega Beast Machines Cheetor with thicker limbs and no chrome. }-> Cheetah Mode: 6" (15cm) from nose to tail tip, it's a kyoooote cheetah with big feet and flared shoulder armor. It really does look like a Superdeformers Cheetor with a few mods. The metallic dark green paint is a nice touch, and this really does look good. Yellow Autobot symbol in a red patch on his left front shoulder. Transformation: It's cheetor. You stand him up and swap heads, essentially. You fold the front paws back into forearm armor of sorts, and snap the tail onto the back. But here's the nifty part. You do the head swap by moving the left foreleg. The chest spins around and the heads swap thanks to a gearing mechanism. You do have to manually put the cheetah head in the right position first, though. When it's in "normal" position, the autotransforming mechanism is locked. Similarly, snapping the tail into place in robot mode locks the mechanism. When locked, the left arm just ratchets, it can still move. Robot Mode: Standing 6" (15cm) tall, it's the tallest of the quartet. The face looks nothing like any previous Cheetor face, but otherwise the resemblance is clear in the body. A red Autobot symbol is on the right side of the chest. The coloring is symmetrical, in red, yellow and gray with metallic green accents and a bit of silver on the chin. The shoulders and hips are simple swivels, as is the neck (the neck is REALLY stiff, tho). The forearms swivel around, but there's no angle to it, so there isn't the elbow-effect as seen on Gorillabot. You do need to swivel 'em around a bit to put his arms at his sides, though, or they hit his thighs. While his feet are big, they're triangular rather than square, so he can't stand up in a walking pose with one leg forward, but he can stand in a pose with one leg back. Overall: Not as poseable as Gorillabot, but very good-looking. A fair amount of amusement value in the autotransformation gimmick for little kids (and the easily amused, and people who are on mind-altering substances...man, the effect this might have one someone tripping!). Line as a whole: A good idea, and I hope to see more molds in this line. However, if they do more vehicles, I hope they're better than the one we got. The two beasts tromp all over the cars, and there should be a little more equality. Dave Van Domelen, going back to packing up toys for the move...at least now he has some shelf space for these chibi guys for the next couple months.