Post by zephon on Oct 30, 2006 10:53:32 GMT 8
Roadbots have finally been sighted on local stores! They're being sold for P999.75 at Landmark. My wife was kind enough to agree to get me one ;D Since she drives a 90's Lancer, I decided to get the Roadbot Evo VIII model.
The items they have in Landmark are packaged in robot mode. It's a mix of cardboard and blister packaging similar to how the 1st wave of bootleg combiners were packaged. There's no way you'll have it back in MIB condition once you've opened the package.
Happywell reportedly has 2 ways of packaging the Roadbots -- either in car mode or robot mode. Due to that fact, they have an ingenious way of printing the instructions -- one side has the car to robot and the other side has the robot to car.
I stuffed mine in a bag to be able to do the review from my desk at work
Here's the 1:18 scale Evo VIII:
Wheels turn in tandem like BT/Alts. Press the black button on the hood to activate the "firing sound" and red flashing lights on the headlights. Side mirrors are made from some rubbery type of plastic.
The hood, trunk and all 4 doors open:
It's a right-hand drive car. The interior and dashboard is present as well as all 4 seats.
A slight complaint from me is that the back windshield is just a piece of black-painted plastic. Not transparent plastic :grumpy: That takes away points in being "realistic".
As opposed to BT/Alts, certain parts would have to be removed and re-attached to the figure to achieve complete transformation:
The picture above shows the trunk's cover/spoiler, 2 back doors, the roof and the engine block removed from the main body of the car.
After a few twists and turns, here is the robot form:
Note that the parts that were removed are still lying on the table.
The engine block is combined with a couple of parts hidden in the inner thighs of the robots and a translucent piece on the chest to form the crossbow-type weapon. As always, the roof becomes a shield. This guy has more intimidating firepower than those pistol-packing alternators.
More robot mode pics:
The rear trunk's cover/spoiler is attached to a couple of pegs at the back. The 2 rear doors are attached to the windshield.
The flashing light accompanied by a weapon-firing sound can be activated by pressing the black button on top of the weapon.
Here's the Roadbot in scale with an MP-2 box and a 12" ruler:
To sum it all up, this presents a cheap alternative to BT/Alts. Though I've got some complaints on the long-term durability of some parts and the non-transparent back windshield, I'd still like this toy. Suddenly, Takara/Tomy and Hasbro don't have monopoly on the "transforming real car model" genre of toys.
Roadbots aren't a threat to the current line of BT/Alts but fill that gap with models which fans want (Evo, Celica, Supra, Hummer, Ford GT). There's still much room for improvement as far as QC and engineering go but the current line is enough to create an identity of their own.
I find the price just right. The toy pays for itself in the plastic mass/weight. I wouldn't pay more for these, though.
Here's my looking forward to the 1:18 Roadbot Hummer H2!!!!
The items they have in Landmark are packaged in robot mode. It's a mix of cardboard and blister packaging similar to how the 1st wave of bootleg combiners were packaged. There's no way you'll have it back in MIB condition once you've opened the package.
Happywell reportedly has 2 ways of packaging the Roadbots -- either in car mode or robot mode. Due to that fact, they have an ingenious way of printing the instructions -- one side has the car to robot and the other side has the robot to car.
I stuffed mine in a bag to be able to do the review from my desk at work
Here's the 1:18 scale Evo VIII:
Wheels turn in tandem like BT/Alts. Press the black button on the hood to activate the "firing sound" and red flashing lights on the headlights. Side mirrors are made from some rubbery type of plastic.
The hood, trunk and all 4 doors open:
It's a right-hand drive car. The interior and dashboard is present as well as all 4 seats.
A slight complaint from me is that the back windshield is just a piece of black-painted plastic. Not transparent plastic :grumpy: That takes away points in being "realistic".
As opposed to BT/Alts, certain parts would have to be removed and re-attached to the figure to achieve complete transformation:
The picture above shows the trunk's cover/spoiler, 2 back doors, the roof and the engine block removed from the main body of the car.
After a few twists and turns, here is the robot form:
Note that the parts that were removed are still lying on the table.
The engine block is combined with a couple of parts hidden in the inner thighs of the robots and a translucent piece on the chest to form the crossbow-type weapon. As always, the roof becomes a shield. This guy has more intimidating firepower than those pistol-packing alternators.
More robot mode pics:
The rear trunk's cover/spoiler is attached to a couple of pegs at the back. The 2 rear doors are attached to the windshield.
The flashing light accompanied by a weapon-firing sound can be activated by pressing the black button on top of the weapon.
Here's the Roadbot in scale with an MP-2 box and a 12" ruler:
To sum it all up, this presents a cheap alternative to BT/Alts. Though I've got some complaints on the long-term durability of some parts and the non-transparent back windshield, I'd still like this toy. Suddenly, Takara/Tomy and Hasbro don't have monopoly on the "transforming real car model" genre of toys.
Roadbots aren't a threat to the current line of BT/Alts but fill that gap with models which fans want (Evo, Celica, Supra, Hummer, Ford GT). There's still much room for improvement as far as QC and engineering go but the current line is enough to create an identity of their own.
I find the price just right. The toy pays for itself in the plastic mass/weight. I wouldn't pay more for these, though.
Here's my looking forward to the 1:18 Roadbot Hummer H2!!!!
keeping the site active as a place to dump info for easier backtracking.