We've repeatedly asked what "a science store" is and why the Science Alliance would be found there, but some stuff (the lower-end stuff, by scientific equipment standards) could totally be found at those super-expensive stores that sell, like, massage chairs and GPS-enabled kayaks. Today's BotBot is a prime example.
A Transformers microscope? It'll never work! Beginning with Series 5, Hasbro no longer included a map of the mall or instructions for the toys, or even released the official art of the characters any more. But the promotional photo of this one showed it being brown instead of white for some reason. How odd! This is a pretty standard tabletop microscope, the kind you could find in a typical school science classroom. It's got two eyepieces, and three lenses poised above the sample tray (though they don't rotate to give increased powers of magnification). They're different colors, however, so at least they stand out.
BotBots are usually easy to convert. This one just has a weird little quirk where when you're folding the "feet" out of the bottom, you also need to slide them down. It's easy to miss.
It's not Ee-Goon, it's Eye-Goon. He's very particular about that. If a mad scientist bot wants Eye-Goon to help him with his experiments, he better pronounce it right. Though, it won't make Eye-Goon a better lab assistant. He'll still come back from gathering the Energon for the experiment - with an energy drink. Easy mistake.
Was not expecting an extended Young Frankenstein gag! With his square head, tank-tread feet, straight arms, and microscope kibble on his stomach, Eye-Goon looks like a cross between Short Circuit's Johnny 5 and Nintendo's R.O.B. Also, because the scopes get rotated up in this mode, it looks like he has a cannon in his chest. Violent! This is definitely one of the most "robotic" robots in this line, but in a cute way.
Eye-Goon is available in a Science Alliance 8-pack, or a Wilderness Troop 8-pack. The mold was also used to make Series 5's Special Optics.
Neat, but I was expecting it to be a review for that Leader class Slag that's been popping up in stores.
This guy's robot mode could use some extra color...
There's been a whole load of mainline Transformers toys in Earthrise, Studio Series, SS86, Kingdom etc. But so rarely ever get reviewed here, but Botbots almost every week. I don't get it. It is what it is I guess. And I buy the TFs I like anyways but yeah.
Well when there's dozens of primes and bees etc, casual collectors get a bit burned out on the characters. And it's easy to get a bunch of botbots all at once for cheap.
While I can see your point there, several characters from the recent War For Cybertron (Siege, Earthrise, Kingdom) _haven't_ had toys in ages. Like, the last time we got a Beast Wars Dinobot was back in Classics, I believe. And an actual Air Razor hasn't been done since... the original Beast Wars toyline?
It's understandable to be a bit disappointed not to see reviews of those. In my case, for example, I was very on the fence on getting the Studio Series 86 Jazz, but I was sold by the review here. I liked Jazz so much I decided to get SS86 Grimlock too (since he was a similar Masterpiece-level but much more affordable toy).
On the other hand, considering Hasbro hasn't been too good with distribution for some reason (e.g. I only saw the Quintesson Judge _once_, while there are still plenty of Ironworks around), maybe they just haven't been able to actually find the toys?
I did order the Quintesson, but Target kept delaying it and then cancelled the order. I didn't know it ever came out!
i don't know why we are not getting anything main line or current. i haven't seen these in wal-mart in ages. i don't know where they keep digging them up at.
Ohh that RotF Scout Scalpel. I need to get one of those. Or the recent third party one. Still wrong scale I guess. Though the same third party company also did a TLK Mohawk that's in scale with Studio Series and is a fun toy. But irrelevant to this Botbot review. 😛