This is the latest in a series (of indefinite length and regularity) of blog posts memorializing cancelled toys. Our figure today is Hasbro's ROM.
For those of you who don't remember ROM, he was an electronic robot man created in the 1970s by Parker Brothers, though he's more famous for his 1980s Marvel comic. There's been some discussion that Hasbro (current owner of the property) should make a modern 6" version that would integrate with Marvel Legends, but apparently they were thinking of putting him in a different toyline altogether.
Toy Fair earlier this year saw a small display featuring a handful of new Bot Shots. Not a lot of attention was paid to them (just like the rest of the line at that point), and no names were given. However, poking around on Hasbro's Customer Service website has revealed a file with a list of upcoming Bot Shots product, including names. Through the process of elimination, fans have realized that the unknown silver Bot had to be "TRA BOT SHOTS ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT A2587" - and since it was just a repaint of an existing mold, we can also guess what his altmode would have looked like:
That may not be very "ROM-like," but it would have been something. The Bot Shots line seems to have been quietly cancelled (if the clearance stickers and lack of any new product is any indication), so ROM has failed to make the jump into the future.
