Dave's Transformers BotBots Rant: Sugar Shocks 1 Ms. Take (eraser) Shredder Jack (nachos) Lolly Licks (lollipop) Sippy Slurps (slurpee) Clogstopper (plunger) Permalink: https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/BotBot/Sugar1 One of the Sugar Shocks-themed five-packs, with assortment number #E4136. 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 $10 price point. Sugar Shocks 1: Mostly okay, marred by the occasional odd design choice. I'm more interested in the kitbashing I can do with some of these than with them in stock condition, though. This is one of the sets that is skippable if you just want the minimum-purchase-for-all-61, though, and unless you really want to have extras for customizing, skipping it is just fine. RANTS See general line notes for packaging. NAME: MS. TAKE Tribe: Backpack Bunch Altmode: Eraser Role: Constantly erasing eraser Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 4 Available In: Sugar Shocks 1, Techie Team 1, Greaser Gang 3 Well, there's not a lot of clearly female BotBots, but at least this one shows up in a lot of sets. [Later note: There's a decent number of female BotBots who aren't obvious.] Bio: Ms. Take is always erasing things. She's obsessed with everything being perfect and clean. She doesn't mind the other bots making messes. That's just more fun for her to clean up. Altmode: This is one of those art erasers where you push the eraser out through a cardboard or maybe plastic sheath as you use it up, like the Staedtler "Mars plastic" erasers in common use. There's repeated molded detail of a pencil on the casing, with a scribble line I guess is supposed to be erased. There aren't any molded details suggesting a click-advance mechanism, so it's more likely just a thick cardboard shell rather than this being a clicky eraser. 29mm tall, 20mm wide, 17mm deep, in mostly medium-dark blue with a white eraser head and some red rectangles on the front. (Well, it might be the back, but it has no real gaps while the opposite side has several.) It is made entirely of medium-dark blue, with the eraser head being painted white. The red rectangles seem more intended to give the robot mode more visual interest. Transformation: The bottom swings down as legs, then the panel on the back of eraser mode folds down to make the robot chest and reveal the face. The arms swing out to the sides and rotate down. Botmode: She has a mouth, and it shows her to be angry. She's gonna rub you out, see? By which I mean kill, don't go all R34 here, please. A generally blocky bot, she could probably be customized into a chibi version of Lug by those so inclined (although the base color of blue would make it hard to match the mostly red Lug). There's a noticeable gap between the bottom of the chest and the hips, and the figure is a bit front-heavy as a result. 39mm tall, bringing in a bit more white and red, but still all medium- dark blue plastic. The face, hands, and the center of the chest are painted white. There's a red square in the middle of the chest, and red stripes running diagonally on the right and left sides of the chest front panel. The mouth is printed in black, and the visor is painted bright blue. The red paint from altmode is now on the outer faces of the arms. The eraser is now on top of the head, so I bet someone suggested naming her Eraserhead at some point. (Maybe they even meant it as a My Hero Academia reference and they didn't know about the movie...maybe someone then made them watch the movie.) The shoulders are ball joints, and the legs move as a single piece on a hinge. While the chest panel blocks the legs from bending all the way, they do bend enough to allow a seated position. Sitting is more stable than standing, thanks to that imbalance mentioned above. Overall: I like that this line is including some female characters, and even more that they didn't feel the need to give Ms. Take lipstick or any other obvious (or as obvious as possible with chibis) female bodily characteristics. She's here to erase your preconceived notions of gender. 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). 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. (And as I figured out on this second copy, a red sharpie will do the trick.) NAME: LOLLY LICKS Tribe: Sugar Shocks Altmode: Lollipop Role: Sticky sweet lollipop sweetheart Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 4 Available In: Sugar Squad 1, Greaser Gang 4, Jock Squad 1 Lolly Licks is happy, hyper, and so sweet you'll get a toothache just by looking at her. This sweet and silly bot finds the bright side of every situation, no matter what she gets stuck to. Altmode: One of those big swirly lollipops, and like Waddlepop is has a somewhat stubby stick. The result almost looks more like a key than a candy. Or like an update of one of the Federation light ships that has a saucer and one warp nacelle right behind it. The candy part is a disk about an inch (2.7cm) in diameter, and the total length with stick is just shy of two inches (4.6cm). The sucker part is medium-light blue with yellow and magneta details, while the stick is white. The stick itself and parts of the edges of the candy (that become arms) are white plastic, the rest of the candy and the hinge piece where the stick connects is made of medium-light blue plastic. The colored blocks of yellow and magenta are printed on. (Hm, if it were a lighter shade of blue, more of a cyan, this would be a toner-flavored sucker!) Transformation: The stick splits apart and bends to make the feet at the ends. A panel on the back side of the sucker folds down to reveal the "face" and make the chest. The bottom edges of the sucker pull out to make the arms. The instructions have you slide them down about halfway, but I find it more aesthetically pleasing to slide the shoulders down as far as they'll go, so they're below eye level. Botmode: Apparently Shockwave traveled back in time again and this time got stuck in a candy body? Sure, there's other single-eye characters in the line, but they at least hae mouths. There's just the eye with a lot of sparkles in and around it...and teeth above it? I really don't know what they were hoping for here, the face is black with white for the eye and what is maybe an eyebrow, but it looks like pointy teeth. As if she opens her mouth wide and reveals an eye inside her mouth? Did del Toro design this one? About 1.5" (4cm) tall, same colors as altmode plus the black and white horror that is the mouth-eye thing. The arms are white plastic with blue paint (good match) on the armor panels. There's no paint on the fold-down chest piece. The legs are hinged side to side, so she can stand with feet together or apart, the toes can point down, the shoulders are restricted ball joints. The hands can hold 2mm rods all the way through. Overall: All of the "thing on a stick" BotBots have trouble with the stick, I'd say this one does about as well with it as is possible. And it can be redecoed into a toy space ship pretty easily. Still kinda creeped out by the face. NAME: SIPPY SLURPS Tribe: Sugar Shocks Altmode: Slushie Role: Super-Chill Slush Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 3 Available In: Single (5), Sugar Shocks 1, Greaser Gang 1 Sippy Slurps is unbelievably chill, probably because she's taken too much ice to the brain. She always moves at the same mellow speed and helps other bots chill out: they get brain freeze from touching her! Altmode: A slurpee cup with a straw, suitable for repainting into Master Shake. Unfortunately, part of the lid is unpainted, and it's a spot where there's joint scraping during transformation, so hand-painting it won't work well unless you can carve out part of the lid to give more clearance. The cup itself doesn't even try to have its own pattern, it's just the robot coloration. 1.75" (4.3cm) tall including the straw, in a mix of bright blue, white, and medium gray. All of the plastic is bright blue, but the lid is mostly painted white, and there's medium gray paint around where an insulated sleeve would go. This version has the assortment brand, #E4136, on the bottom. Transformation: Basically the same as Nrjeez's. In fact, I think they might have just applied a skew to his model in the computer to turn a straight-sided can into a slope-sided cup, she even has the same chest detailing. The different shape of the head makes it easier for the top part to tip back part of the way, though, and it's on the floppy side. The arms are the opposite, with the heavier use of paint making them almost locked in place. Botmode: She looks not so much mellow as in pain from her own brain freeze, to be honest. Or even angry. Similar general shape and appearance to Nrjeez, including the fairly useless wobbly arms and legs. In fact, trying to lift the arms up too much just makes them pop off. About 1.5" (4cm) tall, with legs that have a tendency to collapse back down. Same colors as altmode, with the addition of black ink for printed face detail (white eyes and teeth). The helmet border is also painted white, if not very well. The assortment and production date stamps are on the bottom of the right foot. Overall: Kinda disappointing, but it might just be a QC issue, given how tight it is where it should be loose and vice versa. (Unfortunately, my second copy has the same problems, so it may be the norm.) NAME: CLOGSTOPPER Tribe: Lost Bots Altmode: Plunger Role: Fearless plunger Level: 1 Transformation Steps: 4 Available In: Sugar Shocks 1, Greaser Gang 1, Jock Squad 4 Clogstopper is the fixer. He goes where no bot wants to go to get the job done. He'll stick his face into any mess and get things working again. Just don't ask him to talk about what he's seen on the job. Ew. Altmode: Well, it's supposed to be a plunger, but with all of the bot bits sticking out at the edges, it feels more like a cloche style of turret, as in the Maginot Line. But with a 6mm thick wooden handle sticking up out of the top. (Hm, if it weren't for red plastic in ball joints on the sides ruining the effect, I'd paint it gold chrome and call it a bell.) 1.5" (3.5cm) tall, with the bell end of the plunger being about 1" (2.5cm) in diameter, although the feet bits sticking out make it wider in places. All red plastic, with light brown on the wood-grain-patterned handle, and some light gray visible where the bot hands aren't completely hidden. It's unfortunate that they decided to go with 6mm for the handle... or maybe they deliberately didn't want other Transformers waving around a plunger? Transformation: The legs are actually split in half with the fronts on one side and the backs on the other, so they fold together on the front to back rather than undoing Van Damme Splits. Then pull down on the legs to make the face appear (unfortunately, it doesn't snap into place, so the helmet tends to sag), and pull the arms out from the sides of the bell to rotate down. Frankly, it'd have worked better if the handle were attached to the head, so that pushing it down made the face pop into view. That might also help with keeping the helmet from sagging down, even if it were just extra friction. Botmode: A little guy in an oversized bucket helmet with a pole on top, basically. It feels like it should be strutting about shouting about Rebel Scum or something. (Imperial officer, not stormtrooper.) Or serving the Kaiser. Only about in inch (2.7cm) tall at the top of the helmet, but 2" (5cm) to the top of the handle. Still all red plastic, but more paint in this mode. Warm light gray paint on the face, hands, and the front half of the pelvis/thigh section (no paint on the rear half). The front and sides of the upper torso are paitned the same wood-shade tan as the handle. The eyes are bright blue, the teeth white, and the facial details printed in black. The shoulders are ball joints, but restricted so that they can only lift up and down or rotate along their long axis. While one could potentially mess about with the transformation hinges in the hips, the instability of the helmet makes it difficult to set up more complicated poses. Overall: Not a bad idea, but suffers from the lack of a snap-in mechanism for the bot mode helmet. And would it have killed them to make it a 5mm handle? (Hm, I have 5mm rods and brown dye, maybe I'll modify a spare to connect the handle to the head?) Dave Van Domelen, two Sugar Shocks packs to go, then on to the mostly- repeat 8-packs....