The Vintage "Lesser" Brand Robots Thread. "Give me your Converters, your Androform, your huddled Zybots yearning to transform."

[CoffeeHorse]

I'm going to put on my admin hat and decree that Robolinks are on-topic. I want to see!

I can't picture them but the name absolutely rings a bell. I must have seen them at some point.

 

[Donocropolis]

Agreed! Shows off them Robolinks!

 

[Stepwise]

I have one Robolinks set. Force 10, IIRC - got it for Christmas when I was a kid, and still have everything but the box.

It'd be awesome to see more of these.

 

[Haywire]

Found this while I was digging out my Robolinks:

...I mean, Robert and Agent Knight are practically twins!

 

[Haywire]

So, this might take up a couple posts...

This is the set that was my introduction to Robolinks, Force 22, aka Megalotron in my headcanon, since he was my stand-in for Megatron back in the day. Of course, this is a replacement for my original, which didn't fare so well:

Megalotron's Elite Guard, all my examples of Force 20, 21, and 22 robots and vehicles:

Packaging and Instructions:

Incidentally, I think the Force 10 (and 11 and 12) sets were the armored bots from the Force 20/21/22 sets.

Also, note that there is both silver and dark blue armor, and red or silver vehicle bits. I don't know if this was a running change, or just the usual 'colors may vary' game.

 

[Haywire]

The base Robolinks bots. There are 2 designs, but notice that even the arms and legs have different detailing despite having the same shape and construction. As far as I know, there was no running change, and larger sets came with examples of both designs. Colors would vary quite a bit, though.

Combination along the X and Y axis

And along the Z axis...

Other possible combination styles are possible, this one looked a bit like a funeral procession...

...and for old times, Megalotron and Targetmaster Blurr and Haywire meet up to swap stories...

...and weapons. This illustrates how most of the Robolinks connections are the same 5mm post system that Targetmaster Transformers and later figures use.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Something else must have used the Robolinks name at some point, because the name rings the loudest bell in my head but I have absolutely not seen these before.

This is why these toys are great. It's not all documented to death yet. There's still discoveries left.

 

[Haywire]

Packaging and Instructions from some of the larger sets:

The boxes used Styrofoam inserts; I know those weren't the best for the environment, but the 80s kid in me still gets nostalgic for that.

Also, somehow I have boxes for Force 40 and 42, but no instructions?

Also also, the hose accessories have not survived the test of time, sadly.

 

[Haywire]

So, this image is based on some promotional artwork I'm sure I saw for the original Takara Blockman. There was a combined bot standing on a floor and in front of a wall made up of Blockman bots. Can't find the image now, of course...

A couple extra angles on the floor and wall structure. Plenty of more toyetic combinations are possible, but this one amuses me the most, maybe because the idea of robots that are basically Lego bricks just seems so weirdly awesome!

This is the bulk of my Robolinks collection. I ran out of time to build anything more complex, but you can see all the wings, tank treads, nose cones, lasers, rockets, etc. There's a lot of possibilities for combinations and just using imagination to build!

 

[Haywire]

Lastly, I wanted to call attention to the cockpits. These are all the basic variations I have:

The 2 largest ones have retractable heads for forming super-robots:

The largest one even has a further large head for even bigger robots:

And what goes in those cockpits? Drivers!

These guys remind me a lot of Diaclone drivers, which makes sense with their Takara origin. If I remember the history of Blockman, it was developed after Diaclone and Microchange, but before Transformers really took off, so it would make sense that there were similarities to Takara's previous works.

Anyway, that's my Robolinks collection. If you want a closer look at something, let me know and I will try to get better pics!

 

[Haywire]

Something else must have used the Robolinks name at some point, because the name rings the loudest bell in my head but I have absolutely not seen these before.

This is why these toys are great. It's not all documented to death yet. There's still discoveries left.

It sticks in my mind that you are right; when I was looking for these 15 or so years ago, there was another toyline with the same or similar name that cropped up on ebay more often than these. Now, though, this is the only Robolinks I saw with a quick search.