Botbots Appreciation thread!

[NovaSaber]

Only available in $40, $60, $70 sets?! Yeesh. $15 for an 8-pack where you only wanted one or two was bad enough.

The 32-figure and 20-figure ones both explicitly say that they're 4 8-packs and 4 5-packs respectively, and the $70 "set" is just a whole case of individually packaged ones.

(The vehicle set is probably also two different packages bundled together, but Amazon doesn't explicitly say so.)

EDIT: And they don't come out for another full year. Friggin' hell.

That might be a typo.
When does Hasbro ever reveal stuff this way a whole year ahead of release?

Question - Does anyone know what the playing card repaint with the skull is meant to be? My first thought was Tarot, but I'm not sure that's it.

-ZacWilliam, he looks interesting regardless.

A trading card game would be a better fit if it's a Gamer Geeks, but if that's the intent I don't think it's referencing a specific real one.

 

[Dvandom]

My guess is that the 2023 release date is a CYA move, so that they can't get anyone demanding refunds for late product. I've seen Amazon do that before, distant release date during pre-order, then actually shipping fairly soon because the container ship arrived on time.

---Dave

 

[Demovere Xeno]

GIVE ME THOSE VEHICLES RIGHT NOW. Immediately ordered those. Debating the rest but i might. But those vehicles are just perfect.

Probably my only complaint about the vehicles is that the pizza slice only has two dedicated seats for Botbots. Maybe also that the controller's vehicle mode turrets barely have anything that can keep Botbots on them relatively securely.

 

[Cradok]

I can't be sure until we see in package, but it looks like they've pared down the duplications, so there's just 4 8-packs, 4 5-packs, 24 singles and the two vehicles with only about half a dozen duplicates if you get everything.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Wouldn't the pets just be new BW toys?

Though why a suburban mall pet store has an African black spitting cobra needs to be further investigated.

I'm surprised none of these have ever been sold in Japan yet. They seem designed to become "gachapon" (clawgame) toys and/or bundled with Beast Wars and regular TFs (well, the ones that actually look like robots that turn into mechanical objects or biological animals/plants).

Anyone notice the Gee-Wunner bots?

But honestly, are these the first and only official scatological TFs? A bag full of dog-eggs, a brush covered in diarrhea and a literally sh*t Transformers toy, made by Hasbro?

 

[NovaSaber]

But honestly, are these the first and only official scatological TFs? A bsg full of dog-eggs, a brush covered in diarrhea and a literally sh*t Transformers toy, made by Hasbro?

Well, Botbots already had Poo-Shoo (shoe that, based on the name, stepped in dog poo...though it really looks more like mud), and the cancelled series 6 was going to have The Dooks (fake poo, presumably, since the Gifted Guild's apparent theme was "cheap novelty store stuff")

 

[Dvandom]

That's a plunger with poo on it, not a brush. The plunger mold has been used a few times already (including once as a bell...I guess it doesn't so much "ding" as "dung").

Oh, and the cat has a Crazy Cat Lady inside it.

---Dave

 

[Platypus Prime]

Their team battle cry is "It'll all come out in the end".

Edit:

 

[lastmaximal]

More concept art, once more from Robby Musso!

 

[ZacWilliam1]

God I want that rocket ship.

ZacWilliam, that should have made Wave 6

 

[Noip]

Yeah the rocket looks neat. That would be instant buy, and any repaint they came up with. Maybe one could be colored as Flash Gordon's ship.

 

[lastmaximal]

I hope the series 6 stuff continues to find its way to retail plans as we go. I wonder if any of them were produced, since they got as far as the pack-in catalog design phase. And then they'll turn up only having been released in obscure markets.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

God I want that rocket ship.

ZacWilliam, that should have made Wave 6

If a Japanese release only concentrates on the "proper" looking ones, like this rocket, the binoculars, the "Beast Wars" styled ones, etc, then I think the toys might do well in Japan. Takara could even repaint most of the toys but just make the faces look more "cute, chibi, anime G1" styled (like the Legends comics or Choro-Q styled TFs), and I think they could be popular over here. Heck, Burgertron could easily be repainted as Optimus Prime, etc.

 

[lastmaximal]

If either Hasbro or Takara Tomy concerned themselves with "proper looking ones", they would be utterly missing the very goddamn basic point of this toyline.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

If either Hasbro or Takara Tomy concerned themselves with "proper looking ones", they would be utterly missing the very goddamn basic point of this toyline.

Not really. As I've stated, Takara and Hasbro have done cute, chibi versions of TFs, complete with abstracted faces to fit that aesthetic. Japanese anime also does it all the time with SD Gundam too. They're not exactly like their "regular" counterparts, but close enough to be attractive to those that collect the main lines. I could be wrong here, but perhaps one reason BBs haven't been sold in Japan yet is because they're too "childish" for, what is argusbly now, an older collectors' market in Japan. Giving select figures from the line, plus perhaps some nicely painted Tiny Turbo Chargers (which also haven't been released, to my knowledge, in Japan yet), might make for a nice new Japan-only TF line of some sort?

 

[lastmaximal]

Again, missing the point of this toyline This line was never meant to fit into any of those categories. Tiny Turbo Changers, sure, that's much closer to that sort of thing, harp on that. But this line has from day one been a clean slate, and that's by design. It's not "here are the nth chibi versions of characters you've seen a million times and are seeing a million times right now". It's "look, a transforming hot dog, toilet roll, donut, stapler, shrub, pair of headphones, cannoli, and more, who are 100% new characters with punny names and wacky personalities." That is what this line IS.

I couldn't tell you why it isn't being sold in Japan at the moment. Maybe it's just one of the side lines Japan doesn't pick up. Japan also largely skipped Kre-O, which is considerably closer to the traditional style (allowing for adaptation to the block figure aesthetic) than Botbots and which did get featured in some manga stuff. And how big are Shopkins and the like, which Botbots takes after more than the typical TF line, over there? Maybe that's a factor as well.

Or hey, maybe yet another subline that (up to now) hasn't had any fiction they could adapt is not something they can put on their plate right now. Maybe the sheer size of the line by this point keeps it from being as sustainable at retail, especially in addition to the stuff they already have going.

Or maybe you're right and this just isn't for "collectors" who are too cool for this kiddy stuff. But maybe that's entirely their problem and not a deficiency in this line that needs fixing.

 

[lastmaximal]

So anyway. Boy, are they really going to stick to that 2023 release date for the Netflix series 6?

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Again, missing the point of this toyline This line was never meant to fit into any of those categories. Tiny Turbo Changers, sure, that's much closer to that sort of thing, harp on that. But this line has from day one been a clean slate, and that's by design. It's not "here are the nth chibi versions of characters you've seen a million times and are seeing a million times right now". It's "look, a transforming hot dog, toilet roll, donut, stapler, shrub, pair of headphones, cannoli, and more, who are 100% new characters with punny names and wacky personalities." That is what this line IS.

I couldn't tell you why it isn't being sold in Japan at the moment. Maybe it's just one of the side lines Japan doesn't pick up. Japan also largely skipped Kre-O, which is considerably closer to the traditional style (allowing for adaptation to the block figure aesthetic) than Botbots and which did get featured in some manga stuff. And how big are Shopkins and the like, which Botbots takes after more than the typical TF line, over there? Maybe that's a factor as well.

Or hey, maybe yet another subline that (up to now) hasn't had any fiction they could adapt is not something they can put on their plate right now. Maybe the sheer size of the line by this point keeps it from being as sustainable at retail, especially in addition to the stuff they already have going.

Or maybe you're right and this just isn't for "collectors" who are too cool for this kiddy stuff. But maybe that's entirely their problem and not a deficiency in this line that needs fixing.

Except I'm talking about the JAPANESE release, not the American one. For example, the American release of those TFs with the spinning "cubes" in their chests were radically changed for the Japanese releases. Beast Wars had gender changes and a tone that was more "immature" than the western one. The whole of "Headmasters" and other Japan-only G1 cartoons also made significant changes to "established" western lore/aesthetics.

As for my point about "collectors" in Japan, it's because that Takara seems to have moved away from aiming TFs at the very competitive (and arguably shrinking) young childrens' market in Japan, and aimed them at older collectors (anime MP, etc).

I would also proffer that some objects or related themes with certain Botbot figures may have cultural issues, making them at the worst offensive, it at least irrelevant to the average Japanese person. The puns in the names, for one thing, would need to be changed, just as they were in the extremely limited release of "Garbage Pail Kids" in Japan during the 80's-90's.

 

[lastmaximal]

None of those changes parallel your earlier idea of streamlining Botbots to focus on the "proper looking ones" and repainting a new-character burger to look like Optimus Prime.

Lines can (don't always do, but can) change when brought from one market to another, but that isn't always the case: sometimes you get a Bot Shots/BeCool, and sometimes you get a Kre-O. And even in BeCool's case the change was not to align the toyline to more traditional whatevers, just to focus on the spring-conversion physical toy rather than bring them in line with classic styling. Hell, the color schemes they went with tended to be new (and where some might have coincided with the old, that was never a focus). And Botbots has more in common with that as a side line than with Beast Wars, a main line then.

And cultural appropriateness, now? If you'd led with that maybe there'd be a germ of a point there, rather than it being moving the goalposts. Translation is typically a part of the shift of lines, but that's not always a given these days. And that isn't even close to the changes you were suggesting previously, which mainly involved "pick and choose recognizable stuff that doesn't break the Japanese collector culture's paradigm of what Transformers is". Japanese toy lines have seen a wide range of stuff and a similarly healthy variety of transforming stuff, including soda cans and ramen bowls. The collector line even got an exclusive Fort Max head retool featuring two comedians. I think they might not mind a transforming pizza slice or wedge of cheese.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

None of those changes parallel your earlier idea of streamlining Botbots to focus on the "proper looking ones" and repainting a new-character burger to look like Optimus Prime.

Lines can (don't always do, but can) change when brought from one market to another, but that isn't always the case: sometimes you get a Bot Shots/BeCool, and sometimes you get a Kre-O. And even in BeCool's case the change was not to align the toyline to more traditional whatevers, just to focus on the spring-conversion physical toy rather than bring them in line with classic styling. Hell, the color schemes they went with tended to be new (and where some might have coincided with the old, that was never a focus). And Botbots has more in common with that as a side line than with Beast Wars, a main line then.

And cultural appropriateness, now? If you'd led with that maybe there'd be a germ of a point there, rather than it being moving the goalposts. Translation is typically a part of the shift of lines, but that's not always a given these days. And that isn't even close to the changes you were suggesting previously, which mainly involved "pick and choose recognizable stuff that doesn't break the Japanese collector culture's paradigm of what Transformers is". Japanese toy lines have seen a wide range of stuff and a similarly healthy variety of transforming stuff, including soda cans and ramen bowls. The collector line even got an exclusive Fort Max head retool featuring two comedians. I think they might not mind a transforming pizza slice or wedge of cheese.

No goalposts have been moved and every point I've made was relevant, even if some of the things include what I also want to see in the line. My main point regarding Japan is that I can't see the (arguably main or even now, one and only) target adult TF collector market in Japan buying Botbots as they are, due to the "kiddy" nature and lack of traditional aesthetic. Even "strange" TFs in Japan were either limited ranges (The Disney, sport caps, trainers and Sanrio TFs for example), or they were limited edition versions of existing molds (the Japanese comedian Headmasters, which were arguably sold to an even smaller amount of the Japanese TF collectors' market). The target Tf aesthetic has mainly been "cartoon accurate" (G1, BW, etc), which is why that aesthetic shift occurred in the MP line.

Thus, IF Takara decided to make a Japan-centric line of Botbots, I suspect they would be aimed at the older market and include any of the figures from the line, with repainted/restickered details (mainly flat areas, such as faces, chests, etc) to look more "kawai" from a Japanese POV, with more nods to existing TF face designs, similar to how SD Gundam, or the "cute" sections of Japanese G1 cartoons personified characters.

As such, I believe my points stand.