#412 FORMULATOR FORCE – F-FORCE TRANSFORMING TANK (Around 1992)

This transforming robot came to me in a lot with some Masters of the Universe figures, and I decided to keep. Although bootlegs and knock-offs do not appear very often in my blog, I love this type of toys, and this robot is a nice example from the early 1990s.

At the time, Chinese toys arrived massively to Europe, and they were available almost everywhere. Those first toys had a very good quality, compared to what would come next… it is quite robust and simple, but it still looks great.

This tank is a transformer bootleg. It is not a knock-off, because the design is not copied from any of the Hasbro’s robots. Only its head seems to be identical to Autobot Sunstreaker (G1). Note also, that there are a lot of colour variations, of this figure. All of them have similar colours, but not the same combination.

The same toy was available in different blister cards or boxes, but the ones that I could find, say the toy line is called: “The Formulator Force”, and it consisted of this tank, a car and a jet (but they did not combine with each other). The names are: F-Force Transforming Tank, F-Force Transforming Ground Vehicle and F-Force Transforming Jet.

The slogan of the Formulator Force is: “mighty mutating machines that transform before your eyes!”, with the word “transform” highlighted in white. In that sentence, “before” has been wrongly translated, I guess it should say “in front of”.

More interesting things which can be seen or read in the packages are that the toymaker is called “ES¬ Toys” (Ever Sparkle Industrial Co, Ltd.), and they’re made in China. Toys were marked with a little golden sticker, which in many cases has survived until today.

Box package - Pictures taken from eBay – seller: the_usa_girl05

The same manufacturer seems to have released some Micromasters-alike robots for the Formulator Force. These smaller transforming robots are called Mighty Minis, and the slogan has been changed to “mighty little mutating machines that transform before your eyes!”. I have never seen them, but the toyarchive says, they are their own desings, so again, they are not a knock-off.

 Blister package - Pictures taken from eBay – seller: theuniversalstore

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: F-FORCE TRANSFORMING TANK
• Toy Line: Formulator Force
• Year: Around 1992
• Company: ES Toys (China)
• Size of the figures: Around 16 cm.