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Welcome to the little page for Transformers aimed at little kids, the Tonka
1-2-3 Transformers and the Playskool Transformers. Or Go-Bots Transformers.
Or just Go-Bots. Or whatever they change the name to when the next wave
hits. Also adding the Robot Heroes line of little vinyl figures.
Mr. Potato Head
Probably (hopefully) a one-off deal, but that's what people thought about
Darth Tater.
- Optimash Prime: Leader of either the Tater-bots or
the Autotots, depending on which side of the box you read.
Robot Heroes
Following in the wake of Star Wars and Marvel lines of little chibi figures,
Transformers got some too. About 5-7cm tall, made of soft plastic and with
minimal posability, they're a cute gateway to Transformers. Sold in
two-packs at below the Basic price point.
- Wave 1: Optimus Prime/Ravage, Mirage/Starscream,
Rodimus/Insecticon (Shrapnel), Grimlock/Shockwave.
- Wave 2: Ultra Magnus/Megatron, Bumblebee/Soundwave,
Autobot Jazz/Thundercracker (recolor of Starscream), Optimus Prime (with
Matrix)/Unicron. Review now complete.
- Decepticon Sneak Attack: Wal-Mart exclusive set, with
metallic recolors of Prime and Megatron, clear variant of Mirage, and a
couple of passable recolors (Bumblebee as Cliffjumper, Starscream as
Skywarp). Has really cool packaging.
- Wave 3/Movie Wave 1: Bumblebee/Barricade, Jazz/Frenzy,
Ratchet/Megatron, Optimus Prime/Blackout. Updated 9/29/07 with a quick note
on Megatron, as I finally found an intact one.
- Best Buy Exclusives: Battle Damaged Optimus Prime,
Cliffjumper. Repaints of Movie Prime and Bumblebee offered in a package with
the Transformers movie DVD at Best Buy.
- Wave 4/Movie Wave 2: Optimus Prime (sword)/Scorponok,
Protoform Jazz/Brawl, Ironhide/Bonecrusher, Armor Bumblebee/Starscream.
- The Final Battle: Wal-Mart exclusive set with diorama,
repaints (but not renames) of Movie Wave 1 Prime, Jazz, Ratchet, Megatron and
Blackout. Not as nifty as Decepticon Sneak Attack.
1-2-3 Transformers
Released under the Tonka brand name, these toys are intended for rougher use
than the average Transformer, and a younger age group. So far, all have
voice chips and rather chunky shapes.
- Rescue Roy: A big Super-Level fire engine with
light and sound in both modes.
- Charlie Chopper and Policeman Pete: Mega-level
toys with no light gimmicks but with sound chips. Charlie is a coast guard
helicopter and Pete is a police SUV.
- Rescue Chopper and Fire Marshall: Red recolors of Charlie Chopper
and Policeman Pete to go together better with Rescue Roy. Didn't bother
getting them, as I'm reluctant to get $15 recolors. Especially since the
voice chips were not, as far as I could tell, any different.
- Knockoffs: Stripped-down and joint-fused knockoffs of Charlie and Pete
came out at Big Lots in Fall 2005 for $4 each. Not really worth it.
Playskool Go-Bots
Originally called Big Adventures Transformers (and then Go-Bots Transformers,
and then Go-Bots, and then Snookums...er, wait...in any case, they seem to
change the name of the line every time a wave comes out), this line is even
more rugged and less complicated than the 1-2-3 toys. They all originally
had cutesy Autobot symbols, but now have their own stylized G symbol. They
also have bio notes (but not numerical techspecs).
BASICS$8 price point, mostly no electronics,
but Glow-Bots added lights.
- Wave 1: REVIEW here.
- Gorillabot - Beast Machines Optimus Primal in simplified form. He has a
minor "autotransforming" feature that causes his heads to swap when you move
his robot legs. He's also a buttmaster, with his robot head coming out of
his gorilla butt and vicve versa. Heh.
- Cheetor - Beast Machines Cheetor in simplified form. He has a
minor "autotransforming" feature where raising or lowering one of the arms
causes the heads to swap.
- Speedbot - Red sportscar.
- Mototron - Black sportscar (same mold as Speedbot).
- Wave 2a: REVIEW here.
- Dino-Bot - A dinosaur mold.
- Reptron - Recolor of Dinobot.
- Buzzer-Bot - Cute widdle Waspinator.
- Beast-Bot II - Purple recolor of Cheetor
- Wave 2b: REVIEW here. Separated into two
batches because that's how they're boxed.
- Aero-Bot II - Speed-Bot recolor in Aerobot colors (with fixed hood
clip).
- Prowl-Bot - Police car remold of Speed-Bot, extensive remolding of the
car body.
- Fire-Bot - Red Alert color scheme on Prowl-Bot mold.
- Strong-Bot - Essentially a Playskool version of Wedge in terms of color
scheme and vehicle mode. 9/29/07: This mold has been knocked off for the
Transformax line available at Dollar General. The knockoff even kinda has
the motion gimmick, but it works poorly and lacks a spring.
- Wave 3a: REVIEW here. Same theory of
wave-bunchings. The packaging and line name changed again.
- Strong-Bot - Now in Dump Truck mode!
- Buzzer-Bot - As Waspinator became Thrust, so Buzzer-Bot gets this sleek
motorcycle mode.
- Flash-Bot - Ah-aa! King of the impossible! Sorry. An off-road 4x4.
- Scrap-Bot - Green recolor of the first Strong-Bot (NOT the steamroller
remold).
- GO-19 Randy - Japanese-only remold of Scrap-Bot, with
steamroller hands instead of shovels.
- Wave 3b: No review of this batch of all recolors.
- Beast-Bot - Original Gorillabot with new faction symbol.
- Cop-Bot - Blue and white revision of Prowl-Bot.
- Reptron - Black, silver and a little red repaint of Reptron.
- Tigertron - Red, silver and a little black repaint of Cheetor.
- Wave 4: REVIEW. Glow-Bots, mostly remolds with
light-up gimmick.
- Taxi-Bot: Prowl-Bot recolor with the police lights replaced by an LED
Taxi light.
- Buzzer-Bot: Wasp version with the abdomen replaced by a light-up one of
a larger size. Less paint colors on it.
- Truck-Bot: Flash-Bot recolor with the roof lights replaced by an actual
light.
- Racer-Bot BETA: 50s muscle car hotrod with light-up engine block. Only
entirely new mold of the series.
- Wave 5a: REVIEW here. No real gimmick to this batch,
but they do have a few cases where the Kid-Bot minifigs can ride in them.
The new molds are all a little smaller than previous Basics. The TRU receipt
lists these as "Secret Shield", but that's nowhere on the packaging.
- Beast-Bot Dinosaur: Reptron mold in Beast-Bot colors. Odd choice,
considering that Beast-Bot is also Preditron in 5b.
- Strong-Bot All Terrain: New mold, Strong-Bot as a 4x4 jeep sort of
vehicle, no top (so that Kid-Bot can ride in it).
- Speed-Bot Race-Car: Yet ANOTHER Speed-Bot, an entirely new mold that for
once doesn't use the front of the car as the chest.
- Buzzer-Bot Convertible: A new mold convertible with the top down and a
special depression inside to fit the Kid-Bot feet.
- Wave 5b: REVIEW here.
Invisibility Force! These four all make heavy use of clear
plastic, and feature the first true villain of the series, Preditron (who is
Beast-Bot turned bad). It doesn't seem that the other three Invisos are evil
as well, but they might be. The Glow-Bots are built to counteract the
Invisibility Force, more or less.
- Preditron: A remold of Cheetor into a wolf (new heads and tail) in clear
blue plastic. He's a badguy, yay!
- Racer-Bot BETA: Same mold as the Glow-Bot, but without the glowing bit
and done in clear purple.
- Strong-Bot Cement Mixer: Clear yellow and has the mixer as a hand.
- Fire-Bot: Clear colorless recolor of Fire-Bot.
- Wave 5c: REVIEW here. A batch of mostly recolors,
plus a Speed-Bot-ing of the as-yet unreleased Racer-Bot ALPHA. Rang up as
Invisibility Force, but they're not clear plastic.
- Gorilla-Bot: Optimus Primal style recolor of the original Gorillabot.
- Cop-Bot Motorcycle: Buzzer-Bot Motorcycle in Cop-Bot colors.
- Strong-Bot Pickup Truck: Flash-Bot recolored, reassembled and remolded a
bit into another Strong-Bot.
- Speed-Bot Muscle Car: A Mustang-ish street racer originally scheduled to
come out as Racer-Bot ALPHA. Not a great mold, tired of Speed-Bot name.
- Wave 6: REVIEW. Wave 2 of the Invisibility Force, all
recolors of earlier molds. Never sold in mass market in the U.S., but
eventually showed up at closeout stores like Tuesday Morning.
- Speed-Bot: The original mold in clear plastic. Looks nice, but I wasn't
about to buy ANOTHER copy of this mold. Update: a friend wanted it, though,
so I picked it up and reviewed it in-package before sending it off.
- Reptron: Similar to the dark-color Reptron of Wave 3b, but with clear
blue and clear smoky plastic. May be one of Preditron's "unruly" bots.
- Strong-Bot: Strong Bot All-Terrain with the yellow plastic made clear,
and less paint apps.
- Racer-Bot ALPHA: The Speed-Bot Muscle Car in its original name before
getting absorbed into the Speed-Bot Collective. Another unruly bot, looks
nice.
DELUXE$12 price point, sound but no
lights.
- Mirage-Bot and Speed-Bot II - Formula One race cars,
partially autotransforming. They come with driver figures and one other
figure each. Kinda disappointing in robot mode, but decent otherwise.
Speed-Bot II was later re-named Speed-Bot Racer.
- Speed-Bot Racer (v2) and Aero-Bot Racer - Aero-Bot is
a recolor of the above two, Speed-Bot Racer is a new mold but has the same
sound chip as Speed-Bot II. New driver figure for this wave. Pic of
Speed-Bot Racer in a dynamic pose.
- Speed-Bot Racer (v3), Mototron Racer and Fast-Bot - Speed-Bot Racer is a
new mold, Formula 5 I think. Mototron Racer is Speed-Bot Racer (v2) with
Mototron colors. Fast-Bot is Speed-Bot Racer (v1) in yellow and red, with a
new driver figure. Never released in mass-market stores in the U.S., only
overseas. But they may end up at Tuesday Morning as well.
MEGA$14-15 price point, light and sound
gimmicks.
- Aerobot - A jet. I forgot to mention in the review,
but a "gerwalk" mode is possible. Renamed Aero-Bot in the Go-Bot packaging.
- Silverbolt - An extensive remold and recolor of
Aerobot with new voice bits. Also called Silverbolt II on the bio note.
Later renamed Silver-Bot.
- Chrome Aero-Bot and Silver-Bot - Same jets, in chrome. Packaged in jet
mode instead of robot mode, not sure if the sounds changed.
- Flying Fists Aero-Bot and Silver-Bot - Forearms are remolded to launch
fists (on the ends of strings) with a spring mechanism. Some color tweaking
as well. REVIEW of Flying-Fists Silver-Bot.
- Final recolors - Both regular versions got one more tweak of color
schemes about the same time the Invisibilty Force toys came out.
ULTRA$20 price point, no
electronics.
- Speed-Bot Dragster - Speed-Bot gets yet another
form, a huge dragster with a Jay Leno chin.
- Copter-Bot - Sadly, this one never made it to stores anywhere.
SUPER$40 price point, light and
sound.
- Hauler-Bot - HUGE. Truck and trailer, the trailer
splits into two animal bots or combine with the main robot to make a 14" tall
Super Go-Bot Robot.
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