#1055 GO-BOTS - HANS-CUFF (MR-13) and SLICKS (MR-32) (1983 and 1984)

The first model today is a police car called Hans-Cuff or Police-Robo (MR-13). It belongs to the first series from 1983. It represents a Toyota Crown S110, which I tend to guess that it was used as a police car in Japan in the 80s. The car looks great, and the robot transformation is simple and nice. It has the same construction as many transforming robots that turn into cars.

As a general rule, I think that Go-Bots took special care on the alternate-forms of the robots, which are much nice than the alternate forms of Takara/Hasbro´s Transformers (personal opinion here).

The Formula 1 represents a Renault F1 from the early 80s and its called Slicks, although it is also known as F1-Robo or Renault Man (MR-32). It was part of the second series from 1984. As you probably know, the term slicks refer to the tires used in the speed racing championships, especially those used for good weather conditions which had no thread pattern at all (they are completely flat for a better grip). 

 

The Go-Bot behind it is rather complex, and difficult to transform. Due to its many parts, it is difficult to let it stand in a particular position, as, with the use, some connections or articulations are a bit loose. Still, as shown in the pictures, it looks truly great also in robot form.

Both robots were designed and commercialized by Tonka in 1983 in US, Canada and Japan and one year later by Bandai in other parts of the world, maybe with some colour changes or variations. The original Slicks was partly black, while this European Machine Robo version is completely yellow.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: HANS-CUFF (MR-13) and SLICKS (MR-32)
• Toy Line: Go-Bots
• Year: 1983 and 1984
• Company: Bandai (Japan)
• Size of the figures: Approx. 7-9 cm length

#1032 TRANSFORMERS – POWERMASTER DREADWIND with HI-TEST (1988)

It took me around 15 years to complete this toy. I found the plane/figure first so many years ago, then the two guns around 5 years ago, and finally, last year, I got the Powermaster figure in a lot where it was not depicted! It was a “gift” from the seller. I had actually bought other Transformers stuff, but not this part.

This model is one of my favorite transformers in my collection (I do not have too many), not just for the difficulty of completing it, but also because both the plane and the robot look great, it is easy to transform and has nice accessories. The colours are also interesting, with grey and light blue for a plane plus deception-purple. 

The Powermaster Hi-Test is also a nice cute little robot that transforms into a simulated motor that fits into the upper part of the plane, and, due to its size, is very difficult to find. It has a chromed part on the back, and it is only roughly articulated. Its arms move and its legs fold up to fit in the slot.

Dreadwind couples with Darkwing (a very similar jet, but made in darker shades of grey) to form Dreadwing. Also their weapons combine.

DREADWIND

    Faction: Decepticons
    Subgroup: Powermasters
    Function: Air Defense
    Motto: "Fear is a friend whose presence is felt long after he's left."
    Bio: As ominous as a storm cloud and as chilling as a winter breeze. Grim and gloomy -- always acts as if his best friend just became permanently inoperative. Binary-bonded to the Nebulan, Hi-Test, a thrill-seeking, over-achieving perfectionist, constantly striving to keep Dreadwind's morose mind on his evil work. Equipped with two thermal melters and two air-to-air missiles. Combines with Darkwing to form Dreadwing.

    Tech Specs for Dreadwind

        Strength: 6
        Intelligence: 8
        Speed: 7
        Endurance: 8
        Rank: 6
        Courage: 7
        Firepower: 7
        Skill: 8

FACTS and FIGURES:

    Name: POWERMASTERS DREADWIND with HI-TEST
    Toy Line: Transformers (G1)
    Year: 1988
    Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
    Size of the toy: Around 20 cm in Jet mode

#973 SHOGUN WARRIORS – 3 INCHES/COLLECTOR’S SERIES GREAT MAZINGA, POSEIDON and COMBATTRA (1979)

 
Mattel imported and sold under his name several series of robots made in Japan by the end of the 70s. They represent famous robots from popular anime series of the time.

The figures shown here are the smallest produced (Collector’s series), and have around 3 inches of height. There were other 5 inches (Die-Cast Metal), 6 inches (Two-in-One) and up to 24 inches (Jumbo). All but these have spring loaded missile (or fist) launchers, and therefore included small accessories that are easily lost.

This series I present today were sold in individual cardboard boxes with window and inlay.

Great Mazinga

The characters were basically the same for all series (with some variations). There were also vehicles. For the collector’s series, the characters included were:

• Great Mazinga
• Poseidon
• Combattra
• Dragun
• Grandizer
• Gaiking

A second release would add:

• Dangard
• Leopaldon
• Voltes V
• 17

Poseidon

The collectors series were later sold in a different kind of package “Mini GoDaikins”, and they are identical except for a Taiwan instead of Japan marking on the back and metallic stickers. Some are very rare, while others are much more common. As always, only complete und unbroken toys are really valuable, and some of the references in this toyline are really fragile. See the little antennas of Combattra, or Mazinga head’s spikes, they are often missing! Also stickers are important. The Poseidon in the pictures is missing its head sticker, that it why it looks so strange.

The Shogun Warriors toylines with firing missiles were discontinued in 1980 due to safety regulations, but this line continued for a few years more. Because of this, and also because they were cheaper than the others, there are much easier to find nowadays. They were very popular in Central Europe.

Combattra

I’d definitely like to get all 10!

ReAction recently released a series of articulated figures inspired in this old Mattel collection.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: GREAT MAZINGA, POSEIDON and COMBATTRA [COLLECTOR’S SERIES] (3 INCHES)
• Toy Line: SHOGUN WARRIORS
• Year: 1979
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A./Japan)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm (3-3.5 inches)

#972 METALCAR - RONY ROBOT (Around 1986)

APRIL IS THE MONTH OF THE BOOTLEGS and KNOCK-OFFs!

Some years ago, I published an unknown toy car that some reader helped me identify as a Metalcar from Hungary. Since then, I have as a task to write an entry about this company. 

Unfortunately, there is nothing I could find about this maker from Hungary, maybe there are some information sources in Hungarian in the net, but I didn´t found them, so I cannot talk about the company at all.

What I could find are many products made by Metalcar, where most of them are Matchbox knock-offs. This ambulance robot is much rarer, as it was more expensive to produce due to its great number of parts and difficult assembly.

The model may be familiar to many of you, as it is a knock-off of a Go-Bot called Rest-Q, released by Tonka/Bandai in 1983. It was probably made around 1985 or 1986 and it is an ultra rare figure. It was probably made in very low numbers, and its construction is not very sturdy. You can see that the paintwork is not very good, and some parts are scratched or missing its stickers.

It was sold originally in a blister pack, either with the Metal Car brand and the name Rony Robot, or in a generic blister card with the name “Transformer”. In the pictures I could find (in the-liberator.net), the blister “Rony Robot” shows a figure with red body, while the Transformer blister has a robot with blue body. Maybe they were packaged randomly, or there could have been even more colours available. The figure is completely unmarked.

Blister packs taken from www.the-liberator.net

 As a knock-off, the figure is the same size, construction and even the materials are similar. There are only subtle differences among them. The most significant is the wheels, which in this knock-off case, are made of only one piece. The original Go-Bot wheels had plastic hubcaps and gum tyres.

The cast and the stickers are also copied, but they are not identical. In the blister pictures, we can see that the stickers came unapplied.

Other differences are: red windshield, no chromed parts, body in red or blue instead of White, simplified head part.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: RONY ROBOT (GO-BOTs REST-Q Knock-off)
• Toy Line: None?
• Year: Around 1986
• Company: Metalcar (Hungary)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm (between  2’’ and 3’’) in robot mode

#944 GOBOTS – VAMP amd SCORP (MRD-101, MRD-103) (1984)

The Go-Bot line with vehicles, called Machine-Robo, had more than 50 references, including every type of vehicle. This one is the most famous line that everybody remembers, but the Go-Bots also had an alternative line of “monsters”, called Devil Invader Series, that had references with the letters MRD (RMD in Europe), instead of just MR (or RM), I guess, the “D” comes from Devil.

I have just two robots belonging to this series, one Batmobile-alike vehicle that trasnforms into a vampire robot, and a Robot-Scorpion. Both are very cool and imaginative, they do surprise much more than the vehicles line.

All MRD references seem to be evil characters, unlike the MR references, who belong to one of two factions: “Friendly Robots” or “Enemy Robots”, although this was not always like this… at the beginning, there was no reference to the filiation of the robots, if any at all, but in later catalogues, there are some that show the robots in two separate groups. Maybe this was a consequence of the animated series (1984-85) in which there were good a bad go-bots that fought against each other.

I just discovered a great website with all Go-Bot toys and I think it deserves being promoted so it stays the reference site on the Internet about this Popy/Bandai/Tonka toyline. Pelase visit: http://www.the-liberator.net/

It has been a long time since the last entry dedicated to these nice transforming robots, but I guess we won’t have to wait so much for the next one… I have some more robots awaiting in the line to be presented.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: VAMP amd SCORP (MRD-101, MRD-103)
• Alternate Names: CASMODON, ZARIOS (Machine Robo names/ Japan)
• Toy Line: Go-Bots (Series 2)
• Year: 1984
• Company: Popy/ Bandai (Japan) / Tonka (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 8 cm

#876 TRANSFORMERS MICROMASTERS - BATTLE and OFFROAD PATROLS (1989)

Another two squads of Micromasters for my collection. 

 

The first one is the Battle Patrol, Note this includes four figures, some of them with movable parts that are sometimes missing. That is why it took me a little bit to complete all of them. I had three of them since a long time ago, but one of them was missing its cannon.

The members of this squad are (left to right): Big Shot, Sunrunner, Sidetrack and Flak.

BATTLE PATROL

• Faction: Autobots
• Subgroup: Micromasters
• Function: Rapid Deployment Strike Force
• Motto: "It is better to strike first, then to not strike at all!"
• Bio: This tough-talking, battle-hardened foursome believes that the best offense is one that's fast, furious, and ferocious! They don't slow down until the enemy has been defeated and thrown into the scrap pile! With this in mind, Big Shot, Sidetrack, Flak, and Sunrunner use their brute force capabilities to hammer their Micromaster adversaries with devastating attacks! .
• Tech Specs for the Rapid Deployment Force:

• Strength: 9
• Intelligence: 7
• Speed: 6
• Endurance: 8
• Team Work: 8
• Courage: 9
• Firepower: 6
• Skill: 8

BIG SHOT

• Motto: "One good shot is worth a hundred bad ones!"

FLAK

• Motto: "Good luck is the residue of good planning."

SIDETRACK

• Motto: "A battle that isn't worth winnin' isn't worth fightin'!"

TUNRUNNER

• Motto: "Rule the skies and the ground will bow before you."

 

The second patrol is the Offroad patrol. Its member are (left to right): Powertrain, Mudslinger, Highjump and Tote.

 This series is simpler in contruction, are usually complete, since they came with no cannons or small movable parts.

OFFROAD PATROL

• Faction: Autobots
• Subgroup: Micromasters
• Function: Covert Activities
• Motto: "Don't follow orders, follow instincts."
• Bio: This quartet has an independence streak that runs as long as the Appalachian Trail. Experts at covert operations. Always work well together in any combat situation. Specialize in going where no one's ever gone and doing what no one's ever done. Continually caught up in some sort of enemy intrigue. Autobot Command trusts them to come up with brilliant counter-measures to be sprung on the Decepticons.
• Tech Specs for the Offroad Patrol:

• Strength: 6
• Intelligence: 9
• Speed: 3
• Endurance: 8
• Team Work: 9
• Courage: 8
• Firepower: 9
• Skill: 6

POWERTRAIN

• Motto: "If I can't go through it, I go over it"

MUDSLINGER

• Motto: "No Road is too Rough. No Foe too Tough."

HIGHJUMP

• Motto: "Keep it Down and Dirty."

TOTE

• Motto: "A rolling Autobot gathers the most Decepticons."

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MICROMASTERS BATTLE PATROL and OFFROAD PATROL
• Toy Line: TRANSFORMERS (G1)
• Year: 1989
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 5 cm