#371 Z-BOTS / MICRO MACHINES - LINKBOT WASPWINGO (1993)

The most important spin-off of Micromachines are probably the Z-Bots. These are not cars or vehicles, but action figures, and most particulary, robots.

Z-Bots (also ZBots) have the Voids as enemies. There were 4 series between 1992 and 1994, consisting of robot blisters (with 3 figures each), similar to the blisters used for cars and other vehicles for the main Micro Machines line. There were also a few larger playsets and vehicles.

The Z-Bots motto is "Designed to Defend!", while that from the Voids is "Made to Menace!". The defenders are a creation of scientists from the year 2025 to protect the world, while the Voids were created by other scientists who stole the technology from the first group. The storyline was later modified to explain that the Voids are actually Z-Bots infected by a computer virus that corrupted its circuitry. This corruption leaded to a war between machines in the 22nd century.

The starting point for this collection might be the Micromasters subseries of Transformers. If I think the Micromasters line was inspired by Micro Machines, Micro Machines got its inspiration for Z-Bots from the Micromasters, especially in the bigger playsets. Some robots could transform, and other could combine to form a bigger robot, qualities that could be found in existing Transformers from Hasbro/Takara.

As it happened with the Micro Machines vehicles, in the Z-Bots toyline there were many subseries with different features: Morphbots (transforming robots), Combots (military themed), Bitebots (with opening mouths, jaws or traps), Linkbots (could be combined to form a bigger robot), Mini Z´s (extra small robots), Revbots had wheels or even motor...

Some figure casts were recoloured to extend the line that was also a common thing in the Micro Machines, where the same cast was offered in different collections and sub-series. Most of them had a logo on the body of the robot. Z-Bots are more numerous than the Void enemies.

In this case, the figures are Linkbots, the three figures are called: and they combine into: These nice names are used for every set of Linkbots, like BA-ZOO-KA or KON-STRUK-TON

Despite being a magnificent collection of toys, they are not very sought after by collectors. That makes that every robot and every set, even the big playsets, can be found on eBay and other portals for almost no money. Some sets, however, are more difficult than others, and there might be some ultra rare Z-Bots out there.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: WASP, WIN and GO = WASPWINGO
• Toy Line: Z-Bots (Wave 3)
• Year: 1993
• Company: Galoob (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 3 to 5 cm