Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 27, 2010 22:31:37 GMT
As a coda to the Minibot reviews here's what I think of their successors the Throttlebots:
Goldbug
Yes it's another one of Phil's "lump a load of similar toys in together" reviews. All Six of the Throttlebots have a lot in common. We'll start with their poster boy, Goldbug, and highlight the features common to all. The Throttlebots appear in 1986 occupying a similar price point to their predecessors the Minibots.
Goldbug is a VW Beetle, modelled so he's better proportioned and larger than the original Bumblebee , who is meant to have been upgraded into this form. How he was upgraded will vary depending on the which continuity you read/saw: blown up by the GI Joe team and rebuilt by them & Ratchet in the US comics, blown up by Death's Head, yes?, and rebuilt by Wreck Gar in the UK comic or rebuilt following damage sustained during the hate plague in the cartoon. Whichever way you look at it *everyone* accepts that Goldbug *is* Bumblebee. Apart from IDW, but that's just madness. Goldbug's car mode is moulded in a dull yellow plastic which is meant to represent gold, but to be honest it's less attractive looking than the original bright yellow.
Goldbug's vehicle mode has an action feature common to all six Throttlebots: Pull him back and a friction drive motor will propel him forward. Wheee! All well and good, but this was done better with 1985's Jumpstarters Topspin & Topspin and 1986's Battlechargers Runamuck & Runabout who roll forward and then transform.
Goldbug's Transformation is the same as the other Throttlebots too: Fold the majority of the car up 90 degrees at the bonnet. Push the motor towards the front of the car. Fold the sides of the car out to become the arms. Fold the back of the car back to reveal the head. Simple. So simple that I'd wager that these were meant to have an auto-transforming gimmick like the above mentioned Jumpstarters and Battlechargers but it was abandoned (cost issues maybe?)
Goldbug's figure resembles the original Bumblebee but now he's a stumpy dwarf with his body resting on the feet formed from the front bumper. There's a trend in Transformers towards remaking toys so they look closer to their cartoon appearance. Not so Goldbug! His head, now picked out in blue plastic, is otherwise the spitting image of the original Bumblebee's toy head. Articulation? Forget it for any of the Throttlebots. The ankles lean back as part of the Transformation and the arms bend back, also as part of the articulation. But that's it. And it is useless. And the design gets even worse if you turn the figure round: stretching out behind the feet is the friction drive mechanism that you used in car mode. You can still use the friction drive in this mode but it's virtually the only plus point.
OK but plasticy car with ok gimmick but a horrid useless robot mode. The only reason the toy is remotely liked is because it's meant to be Bumblebee.
Goldbug was released in Japan as Transformer toy C-97 Goldback.
Rollbar
Rollbar is a green covered jeep. Uniquely amongst Transformers his windows aren't clear or a plain colour: they're stickers showing a reflection of a desert landscape.
Gimmicks, Transformation, Articulation and horrid proportions as per Goldbug. Lets take that as red from now on?
Rollbar's robot mode reveals a grey head with a painted yellow face.
Exactly the same outcome as Goldbug I'm afraid but this time without the existing character back story to support the toy. But I suppose he is quite similar to the Minibot Brawn....
Rollbar was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-95.
Wideload
Wideload is an orange tipper truck with a dark blue load on the tipper bed. The tipped bed doesn't tip back so I'm not happy to start with.
Transforming to robot mode we get the same problems as on the previous two toy. Most of the load now forms the chest, with the head, uniquely for the Throttlebots, being the same colour as most of the vehicle: orange.
I had a Wideload when I was younger: I liked him because he has a different vehicle mode from the other Throttlebots having a slightly chunkier robot mode. Plus the orange and blue together on a truck put me in mind of the Mini Autobot Huffer . Hmmm, that's three for three so far matching Throttlebots to Minibots, can we stretch this to the rest of the team?
Wideload was released in Japan as Transformers toy C-92 Wide Load.
Freeway
Freeway is apparently a blue Chevrolet Corvette. I say "apparently" because I can't tell the remaining three Throttlebots apart - to me they're just 3 cars of different colours! Now there's no Chevrolet Minibot but there is a blue one so I guess this is Gears' Trottlebot incarnation. Transformation to robot mode reveals a white head with gold painted face.
Freeway was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-96 Runway.
Chase
Chase is a red Ferrari Testarossa. Red cars are nice. I know what a Testarossa is, I played Out Run. I'm not sure this is it though! Transformation reveals a blue robot head with gold visor & face plate. He's nearly Optimus Prime done as a car then! But if we're following out Minibot theme he must be one of Cliffjumper or Windcharger. My nomination would be Windcharger: both have odd things going on with their back windows.
Chase was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-94 .
Searchlight
Searchlight is a white Ford RS200 rally car. I can now just about work out which of the Throttlebot cars is Searchlight: he's the one with the lights along the front of the car. The clue is in the name. His other prominent feature in car mode is a rear spoiler which makes me think he's more likely to be Cliffjumper than Windcharger out of the Minibots fighting who gets to be the red car and who looses and becomes white. Now there is a white Brazilian repaint of Cliffjumper (OK there's Wincharger's remould Tailgate too) so ..... Transforming to robot mode reveals a blue head.
Searchlight was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-93 .
Transformers Classics
All six Throttlebots return in the European Transformers Classics range where they're packaged on gold cards. All except Wideload were re-tooled to remove the rubsign indent found on the top of the vehicle mode which becomes the robot chest. For these five toys the rubsign is then replaced with an Autobot sticker - see the variations on the linked TFU pages for pictures.
The Classics Throttlebots were available during 1991.
Goldbug
Yes it's another one of Phil's "lump a load of similar toys in together" reviews. All Six of the Throttlebots have a lot in common. We'll start with their poster boy, Goldbug, and highlight the features common to all. The Throttlebots appear in 1986 occupying a similar price point to their predecessors the Minibots.
Goldbug is a VW Beetle, modelled so he's better proportioned and larger than the original Bumblebee , who is meant to have been upgraded into this form. How he was upgraded will vary depending on the which continuity you read/saw: blown up by the GI Joe team and rebuilt by them & Ratchet in the US comics, blown up by Death's Head, yes?, and rebuilt by Wreck Gar in the UK comic or rebuilt following damage sustained during the hate plague in the cartoon. Whichever way you look at it *everyone* accepts that Goldbug *is* Bumblebee. Apart from IDW, but that's just madness. Goldbug's car mode is moulded in a dull yellow plastic which is meant to represent gold, but to be honest it's less attractive looking than the original bright yellow.
Goldbug's vehicle mode has an action feature common to all six Throttlebots: Pull him back and a friction drive motor will propel him forward. Wheee! All well and good, but this was done better with 1985's Jumpstarters Topspin & Topspin and 1986's Battlechargers Runamuck & Runabout who roll forward and then transform.
Goldbug's Transformation is the same as the other Throttlebots too: Fold the majority of the car up 90 degrees at the bonnet. Push the motor towards the front of the car. Fold the sides of the car out to become the arms. Fold the back of the car back to reveal the head. Simple. So simple that I'd wager that these were meant to have an auto-transforming gimmick like the above mentioned Jumpstarters and Battlechargers but it was abandoned (cost issues maybe?)
Goldbug's figure resembles the original Bumblebee but now he's a stumpy dwarf with his body resting on the feet formed from the front bumper. There's a trend in Transformers towards remaking toys so they look closer to their cartoon appearance. Not so Goldbug! His head, now picked out in blue plastic, is otherwise the spitting image of the original Bumblebee's toy head. Articulation? Forget it for any of the Throttlebots. The ankles lean back as part of the Transformation and the arms bend back, also as part of the articulation. But that's it. And it is useless. And the design gets even worse if you turn the figure round: stretching out behind the feet is the friction drive mechanism that you used in car mode. You can still use the friction drive in this mode but it's virtually the only plus point.
OK but plasticy car with ok gimmick but a horrid useless robot mode. The only reason the toy is remotely liked is because it's meant to be Bumblebee.
Goldbug was released in Japan as Transformer toy C-97 Goldback.
Rollbar
Rollbar is a green covered jeep. Uniquely amongst Transformers his windows aren't clear or a plain colour: they're stickers showing a reflection of a desert landscape.
Gimmicks, Transformation, Articulation and horrid proportions as per Goldbug. Lets take that as red from now on?
Rollbar's robot mode reveals a grey head with a painted yellow face.
Exactly the same outcome as Goldbug I'm afraid but this time without the existing character back story to support the toy. But I suppose he is quite similar to the Minibot Brawn....
Rollbar was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-95.
Wideload
Wideload is an orange tipper truck with a dark blue load on the tipper bed. The tipped bed doesn't tip back so I'm not happy to start with.
Transforming to robot mode we get the same problems as on the previous two toy. Most of the load now forms the chest, with the head, uniquely for the Throttlebots, being the same colour as most of the vehicle: orange.
I had a Wideload when I was younger: I liked him because he has a different vehicle mode from the other Throttlebots having a slightly chunkier robot mode. Plus the orange and blue together on a truck put me in mind of the Mini Autobot Huffer . Hmmm, that's three for three so far matching Throttlebots to Minibots, can we stretch this to the rest of the team?
Wideload was released in Japan as Transformers toy C-92 Wide Load.
Freeway
Freeway is apparently a blue Chevrolet Corvette. I say "apparently" because I can't tell the remaining three Throttlebots apart - to me they're just 3 cars of different colours! Now there's no Chevrolet Minibot but there is a blue one so I guess this is Gears' Trottlebot incarnation. Transformation to robot mode reveals a white head with gold painted face.
Freeway was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-96 Runway.
Chase
Chase is a red Ferrari Testarossa. Red cars are nice. I know what a Testarossa is, I played Out Run. I'm not sure this is it though! Transformation reveals a blue robot head with gold visor & face plate. He's nearly Optimus Prime done as a car then! But if we're following out Minibot theme he must be one of Cliffjumper or Windcharger. My nomination would be Windcharger: both have odd things going on with their back windows.
Chase was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-94 .
Searchlight
Searchlight is a white Ford RS200 rally car. I can now just about work out which of the Throttlebot cars is Searchlight: he's the one with the lights along the front of the car. The clue is in the name. His other prominent feature in car mode is a rear spoiler which makes me think he's more likely to be Cliffjumper than Windcharger out of the Minibots fighting who gets to be the red car and who looses and becomes white. Now there is a white Brazilian repaint of Cliffjumper (OK there's Wincharger's remould Tailgate too) so ..... Transforming to robot mode reveals a blue head.
Searchlight was sold in Japan as Transformers toy C-93 .
Transformers Classics
All six Throttlebots return in the European Transformers Classics range where they're packaged on gold cards. All except Wideload were re-tooled to remove the rubsign indent found on the top of the vehicle mode which becomes the robot chest. For these five toys the rubsign is then replaced with an Autobot sticker - see the variations on the linked TFU pages for pictures.
The Classics Throttlebots were available during 1991.
