Dave's Transformers BotBots Rant: Greaser Gang 2 Poo Sham (shampoo) Point Dexter (pencil) Major Lee Screwge (drill) Waddlepop (eskimo pie) S'up Dawg (corndog) Shredder Jack (nachos) Fit Ness Monster (fitbit) Game Over (game controller) Permalink: https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/BotBot/Greaser2 One of the Greaser Gang-themed eight-packs, with assortment number #E4143. General line notes: http://www.eyrie.org/BW/BotBot/Packaging I've decided to just copy in reviews of anything that's been covered in another review rather than fill these with links to each other. CAPSULE $15 price point. Greaser Gang 2: A decent batch, but it runs the gamut from "nearly impossible to transform without tools" to "won't stay in either mode solidly." Mildly recommended. RANTS See general line notes for packaging. NAME: POO SHAM Tribe: Toilet Troop Altmode: Shampoo Bottle Role: Perfectly stylish shampoo Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 6 Available In: Toilet Troop 3, Greaser Gang 2, Greaser Gang 3, Jock Squad 2 (One of only two figures to show up 4 times in the multipacks, King Toots is the other.) Poo Sham spends all his time looking in the mirror, fixing his hair (even though it's always perfect), and trying to give other bots makeovers. He also things it's funny to give his friends bubble mohawks. Altmode: This is one of those cases where the chibification of the altmode makes it look like something entirely different. The very short and wide bottle top ends up looking more like the top of a can of baby wipes. Maybe that'll ba a future redeco? 1.25" (3cm) tall in white and shades of blue. All the plastic is white, the bottle top and bottom are painted medium blue, and a "teardrops and bubbles" image is printed on the front in blue and light blue. Transformation: Okay, this one is pretty clever and involved. Unfortunately, it also needs good fingernails or a knife for almost every step unless you get clever. The feet fold down from inside the bottom (there's a tab to push on to get it started, but too much friction and too little leverage...I was able to get it open with my teeth). Panels covering the face pull out and become wings (twist the neck until they warp enough to to pry up without a tool). Then rotate the head 180 degrees so the revealed face is on the same side as the bubbles. Finally, pull the arms out, which I needed to use a knife for...and even that took some effort. Botmode: A happy little cylinder with arms, legs, and wings. The eyes are tightly shut, as if he got shampoo in his eyes. But it's a smiling expression with blushing cheeks, so he's not in any pain. Notably absent is any sort of hair, so maybe the writer of the bio note didn't have access to any images? 1.5" (3.6cm) tall, still all white plastic. There's medium blue paint on the arms that are molded inside the pop-out panels, and on the toes (which are molded to look as if they're part of the bottle bottom). The blue paint on the bottle bottom does go all the way around underneath the arms. The face is light blue with pink cheeks, and black line printed details (including blush lines on the cheeks). The shoulders are swivels and the neck turns. The hands can hold shallow pegs, the hole doesn't go all the way through the hand. Overall: I want to like this for the more involved transformation, but in practice it's one those toys that assumes all kids have claws or something. NAME: POINT DEXTER Tribe: Backpack Bunch Altmode: Pencil Role: The Planner Pencil Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 3 Available In: Sugar Shocks 3, Greaser Gang 2, Jock Squad 4 Point Dexter is the bot the Backpack Bunch turns to when they need to draw up a plan. He knows what to do every time. He may be nerdy, but he's always write. Legend has it he's never had to use his eraser. He's sort of the faction symbol exemplar, except that the Backpack Bunch sigil has glasses, and he doesn't. Altmode: A very stumpy pencil stub, extremely deformed for the sake of cuteness...basically, take a regular pencil stub and make it three times wider and a third as long. The metal collar around the eraser doesn't go all the way around, interrupted by a hinge on one side and by the need to have free space around the shoulder joints on the other. 1.25" (3cm) long and almost an inch (2.4cm) wide at the collar, it's a slightly oranger shade of "pencil yellow" for the most part, with light yellow paint for the sharpened wood part, black on the blunted lead, silver on the collar, and pink on... well, some of the eraser. It's more of a ring most, but not all, the way around the side of the eraser part and a little onto the end. The yellow-orange is the color of all the plastic. This version does not have the assortment brand. Transformation: Pull the "metal" parts away to form the arms, that's simple enough. Unfortunately, the only good grips I can get on the feet (eraser end) to pull them down end up squeezing them together and increasing the friction to the point I can't overcome it. I end up having to use a knife to work the feet loose every time. Botmode: One of the more awkward uses of a face cover panel as a chestplate, especially since they decided to print a squat "home plate" sort of pink pentagon on the chest panel rather than painting the entire middle part of it pink as in the instructions. Of course, while we're talking mismatch, the art suggests that the entire lower body was going to be hidden inside eraser half shells, and he'd have a chest shape more like Clogstopper's or Nrjeez's. Slightly taller in this mode, at just under 1.5" (3.5cm). The face is light yellow with medium blue eyes and black printed lines, he has a variant of the "angry bulging vein" going on with his forehead. As mentioned earlier, he has a pink point-down pentagon printed on his chest. The only articulation is the shoulder joints, which are ball joints but located almost at his spine, so the arms really just wiggle around a little, although he can scratch his head. The hands can hold 2mm rods. Overall: Okay in both modes, frustrating to transform. (This copy is no easier than my first.) NAME: MAJOR LEE SCREWGE Tribe: Shed Heads Altmode: Power Drill Role: Loud drill sergeant Level: 2 Transformation Steps: 3 (really just two) Available In: Greaser Gang 2, Jock Squad 3 Major Lee Screwge is the one who's in charge. The Major can always be counted on to lead his troops into mischief. He's just not very good at sneak attacks. Other bots can hear him yelling from a mile away. Altmode: A very chunky power drill with a short grip and some sort of switch on the top (probably a variable speed control rather than on/off). It's clearly battery-powered, as the grip ends in the thickening typical of a battery pack. Oddly, it's got a left-handed drill bit...it has to turn in what's normally the reverse direction for the bit to cut into anything. So I guess he's just majorly screwed? (And another thing, that name only barely works if he's got a screwdriver bit, it definitely ill-suits a drill.) There's lots of random tech greeble details all over the boxy body of the tool. 1.5" (3.8cm) long including the bit, made of bright yellow plastic with black and silver paint. The grip, the mandrel, and some details really meant for botmode are painted black, while the bit itself is painted silver. No articulation of note, the bit does not spin (and it's a little under 5mm, so it can't be firmly set into a 5mm peg hole to make it look like he's drilling into someone). Transformation: Bend the grip back to become the legs, then get a knife to pull the arms out from the sides. That's it. Two of the steps in the instructions are "pull the arms out" and "rotate the arms down." It would be nice if there were a panel to pull down to reveal more of a face, as well as to cover the torso gap left by the legs swinging down. Botmode: This one feels like it got budget-cut early in the design process, and it reminds me of the Lego Block Heads (their attempt to get in on the Funko Pop niche). Or maybe Minecraft, because aside from the mandrel and bit it's very much a bunch of rectangular blocks. The black rectangles on the forehead seem intended to look like non-angled hazard stripes, giving a yellow Constructicon vibe. The sunken chest gives the vague impression of wearing a vest, so construction worker in general. The face is a rectangular plate, with a smaller rectangular shape below it for a mouth, I guess? While there's just a single foot, there's two legs molded going into it. A bit more than 1.75" (4.6cm) tall. Only the lower hald of the grip part is painted black, leaving the upper part yellow for the sunken chest. The visor and hands are painted very dark gunmetal gray, the mouth slot is silver, and the rectangles on the forehead look printed black rather than painted. Like, a tampograph. Oddly, these rectangles are not molded, while rectangles on the back of the head are molded but not painted. The shoulders are swivels, the hands can hold 2mm rods, and I guess the "waist" joint right under the chin can bend for a bowing pose. Overall: Mediocre in both modes, and the struggle with the arms is not worth the resulting botmode. NAME: WADDLEPOP Tribe: Sugar Shocks Altmode: Eskimo Pie Role: Cuddly penguin ice pop Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 3 Available In: Toilet Troop 2, Sugar Shocks 2, Greaser Gang 2 Bio: Waddlepop is a cuddly, but melty, penguin ice pop. When she isn't chilling in the freezer, she loves encouraging her friends and can spend too much time waddling around high-fiving them, which is why she gets melty. Altmode: It's an ice cream bar on a stick, dipped partially in chocolate. So I guess it's not technically an eskimo pie, as those are generally completely covered in chocolate. The icecream part works well, but the stick...not so much. Especially since there's a penguin tail sticking out as part of it. 45mm long, 25mm wide, and if you discount a hinge bulge it's 12mm thick. It's a mix of dark brown, white, and golden yellow, but it's all made of dark brown plastic. There's white paint on the "naked ice cream" parts and golden yellow paint on the feet/stick. This is the one in the set with the assortment number (#E4143) on the back. I guess they just like branding the penguin. Transformation: The top of the pop folds back to reveal the penguin head. The top is VERY firmly attached, this isn't some cheap snap-off piece that will fall off and get lost, I think it used mushroom pegs to snap in firmly. The stick separates into legs, and the arms pull out from the sides. Botmode: Penguin! In a hoodie, if you decide the cap piece is supposed to be part of the character and not just kibble. The checklist art shows the cap as a backpack or hood, but it also shows flippers rather than the more humanoid robot arms that the toy actually has. Waddlepop's face has pink cheeks for maximum kawaii, and a more robotic scalp divot sort of thing on top of the head. 36mm tall in mostly the same colors as the altmode, with the added pink cheeks. The face is painred white with medium blue eyes, pink cheeks, and golden yellow beak. The divot vent whatever on the top of the head is also painted yellow, although it's either a less golden shade, or a thinner layer affected by the brown plastic underneath. The arms flap at the shoulders, and while technically the hips are ball joints, the figure can only really stay stable in a seated position. The hands are 2mm C-clips, but flexible enough to hold onto 3mm pegs or Lego rods (just not for long). Overall: I like penguins, and this is a clever way to thematically tie the altmode to the bot mode. Too bad the backpack/hood gets in the way of letting Waddlepop sit on Break's feet. NAME: S'UP DAWG Tribe: Greaser Gang Altmode: Corndog Role: Corny Corn Dog Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 3 Available In: Single (10), Greaser Gang 2 S'Up Dawg is always there to pump up his team or a crowd - even if he can be a little corny. He throws really big parties, and wants every bot to have an a-maize-ing time. Altmode: A chibi corndog with a squiggle of ketchup. The backside has lots of obvious robot bits, but they do at least hide the face. The stick is short and fat, since it has to split into bot feet. The corndog does not seem to be properly cooked, though, as it's a rather lighter tan than any corndog I can recall seeing. More like the color of the corn coating under the fried surface. 1.5" (4.1cm) long and just under an inch (2.3cm) wide at the thickest point, mostly very light tan with a medium brown stick and red ketchup. All of the plastic appears to be very light tan, with paint on the stick and ketchup. No assortment number branded on this version. Transformation: Flip up the visor to reveal the face, pull the arms out to the sides (reminiscent of how Eve from WALL-E deploys her arms), separate the stick halves as legs. Botmode: There's a very faintly Kirbian influence here, especially on the nosepiece/brow of the helmet. Very good chibi proportions, and even the stick halves as legs work pretty well. 1.75" (4.3cm) tall, with a lot more red in this mode, plus some blue, white, and yellow. The chest, face, and molded upper legs are painted red. The hands are also painted red, albeit a bit sloppily. The eyes are medium blue, the teeth are white, and facial details printed in black. The chest has mustard yellow details, while the belt is left unpainted. The shoulders are swivels and the visor can be lowered if he's watching a scary movie or something. The hands can hold rods and the opening goes all the way through. (Seriously, hoping they release official accessories these guys can hold.) Overall: A bit weird in altmode (a pale chibi corndog?), but a decent bot. NAME: SHREDDER JACK Tribe: Greaser Gang Altmode: Nachos Role: Tubular nacho surfer dude Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 4 Available In: Toilet Troop 2, Sugar Shocks 1, Greaser Gang 2. Hard to find in the checklist because he's in altmode and miscolored (diagonal stripes in the checklist, horizontal top and bottom only stripes on the toy). In the group shot, he's been warped almost out of recognition as well. An appropriate member for the Toilet Troop pack, eat cheddar jack nachos and make a...run for the border. Bio: Shredder Jack always hangs a perfect 10 on the cheese wave. There's nothing more epic than catching a wave of gnarly gouda or far-out feta. Chowabunga, dudes! Altmode: A tall cardboard container of nachos with a splash of cheez sauce on top...more of a bucket of nachos than the usual shallow tray. It only has red paint on the front and part of the back, it really could have benefitted from the stripes going around to the sides. (I'm basically defining the back as the part with the obvious robot details, as I did with Ms. Take, even though this too has the "back" of altmode become the Bot's front.) 27mm tall, 32mm wide, and 22mm deep, including the nachos spilling over the edges. All white plastic, with yellow paint on the nachos, slightly orangey yellow paint on the splat of cheez, and horizontal red stripes along the top and bottom of the front and back (the bottom stripe mostly interrupted by the soles of the feet being unpainted). A nice solid block. Transformation: Fold the feet down, and that allows a panel on the back to fold down to reveal the face and form the chest. The arms fold out from the altmode's front. Botmode: A very blocky bot with nachos for hair. A sort of cyborg effect on the face, with the right eye being a big circle optic, but the left eye being a "regular" cartoony eye, with the smile shoved over to under the left eye because there's no room for it under the right eye. The chest molding evokes a shirt and shorts, but there's no paint on the chest at all. 32mm tall, with some more yellow on the face, but otherwise colored about the same as in altmode. The right eye has a silver border, both eyes are cheez colored, and a black smirk is printed on the face. The shoulders are ball joints, and the unified hip can bend enough to let the figure sit down despite the chest panel partly blocking the legs. The hands can hold 2mm rods and the gap runs all the way through the hand, no shallow bottom. It's thick enough overall to prevent 3mm rods from fitting, though. Overall: Nothing too clever, it just does its job competently. It doesn't fall over easily, it has good articulation for the "species," all I'd really ask for is a bit more red paint in both modes. NAME: FIT NESS MONSTER Tribe: Jock Squad Altmode: Fitbit Role: Intense fitness tracker Level: 2 Transformation Steps: 3 Available In: Toilet Troop 3, Greaser Gang 2, Jock Squad 4 Fit Ness Monster does not believe in lazy. She will not stop until you shape up, tone up, bulk up, get ripped, get jacked, and get shredded. Now get movin' and put some muscle into it! Altmode: The way you can tell it's a fitbit and not a digital watch is the presence of a battery life indicator on the screen. Otherwise, the fact that the time reads "19:84" in old-fashioned bar-style digits would definitely make it feel more like a watch. The strap is not adjustable or openable, and like Dr. Moggly's strap it's too short to really let this be worn by anything of the correct scale. I mean, a 6" (1:12 scale) action figure could wear it, but the actual fitbit face of it is close to 1:2 scale. I can wear it on my pinkie finger, but only up to the middle knuckle...even on the pinkie it won't go all the way on as a rung. The face is 2cm by 2.6cm (long side parallel to the strap), and the whole thing with strap is 3.5cm (a little under 1.5") on the long direction. it's yellow-orange plastic with a silver bezel, black screen, and silver printing on the screen (an Autobot symbol, the aforementioned 19:84 and battery indicator...three bars of battery left). The strap is connected by a pair of swivels, but can be neither removed nor opened up. Transformation: Fold the arms down from the non-silver parts of the face, which will let you rotate the strap enough to have an easier time folding the legs down from the back side. Then rotate the strap back and lift up the 9:84 section of the face to reveal the robot face. Botmode: A smiling cyclops with blue freckles and a big backpack. If you fold the faceplate back all the way, the figure can't stand up without support, thanks to all the weight behind the center of mass. However, if you leave the screen faceplate only partially raised (a la Entrapta), balance is restored. 1.25" (3cm) tall with the faceplate folded all the way back, no new plastic colors revealed. The face is painted silver with blue for the eye lens (silver glisten ovals left un-blued), black printing for the eye border and the smirk. There's three blue dots on each cheek, basically freckles. The fists are painted matte black. The inside facing of the faceplate is patterned with unpainted circuit lines. Looking at the back of the figure, the hollow inside of the head has the same printed pattern. The shoulders are restricted ball joints, and the hands can hold shallow 2mm pegs. She can blindfold herself for party games or stupid internet challenges by closing the faceplate and rotating the strap around to the front. This also stands better. Overall: I'm not really keen on unremovable straps that are too small to actually do anything, especially since in this case the strap doesn't even look like it could be properly used if it were made from multiple pieces (the detailing is weird). It just serves to unbalance the bot mode. Decent enough bot mode otherwise, though, and no tools needed to transform it. NAME: GAME OVER Tribe: Lost Bots Altmode: Game Controller Role: Ultra-skiller game controller Level: 2 Transformation Steps: 3 Available In: Sugar Shocks 3, Greaser Gang 2, Jock Squad 3 Game Over is the best of the best. He's all about getting the high score. He never backs down from a challenge and he never loses. When Game Over shows up, everyone else is playing for second place. Altmode: It's a game controller with legs folded up behind it. I guess you could call them a rumble pack or something? Analog stick is more of a cylinder, D-pad is a proper cross, there's a - to the right of it that's probably a simplified row of start/select buttons. The ABCD buttons are in red/blue/green/yellow, and there's what I'm guessing is a second analog stick in a wrist-breakingly bad position on the right grip. Rocker buttons are molded but not painted. A bit of the bot visor is visible, maybe it's supposed to pass as a logo or decoration or something. (Personally, I'd have molded buttons onto the forehead, since a lot of controllers put their start etc buttons up on the top center, and that would have let them put the second analog stick where the minus sign is.) 1.75" (4.2cm) wide, making it anywhere from 1:3 scale to 1:6 scale depending on how stupidly made the full sized controller is. The grips on the sides are 1.0cm thick, limiting what action figures or Transformers could actually hold it. All made of dark gray plastic, with light gray paint on the left analog stick, D-pad, and mysterious minus. A-D buttons painted as already noted, and the bit of visor poking up is bright blue. Stability is so-so, nothing is really locked in place. Transformation: Fold the legs out from behind the controller, pull up the head, lift the sides out to reveal the arms. The side pieces become huge shoulderpads, and shoving them inward can help keep the head from sliding back down inside. Botmode: This is pretty close in look and feel to a RiD-style Mini-Con, and the head seems to be at least slightly inspired by the Frenzy/Rumble type of head. He has a teeth-clenched open-mouthed snarl, and even his visor looks vaguely angry. Maybe he's angry that his arms are too short to let him reach the controls of another game? Random pseudo-circuitry is molded on the back of the head 1.25" (3.3cm) tall and 2.5" (6cm) wide, he's a bit of a challenge to display in a group. Probably best to put him in back against a wall and let others lean against his mighty shoulderpads. The face below the visor is painted light gray with white teeth and black printed lines. The hands are light gray as well, and can hold 2mm rods. The shoulders are restricted ball joints, and the shoulderpads are hinged onto them. While not pinned, the shoulders are snapped on VERY firmly. The legs soft-snap into place, but the head is on a fairly loose slider. Mine can't stand up very well. Either the legs don't swing far enough forward, or the feet are a little warped, or it's just a bad design. To get it to stay up, at least one arm (and shoulderpad) needs to be pointed forwards. Overall: Not too bad in altmode, although it could've used a little more thought in terms of making it look like a usable controller and not a parody of a bad one. Needs more stability in both modes, and this copy has all the flaws of my first one (loose head, falls over backwards, floppy). Dave Van Domelen, now to spend all his executive time for the next two days grading exams....