Playskool Go-Bots: Preditron

In the early 2000's Playskool (subsidiary of Hasbro) released a line of child friendly toys under the Go-Bots banner. Thanks in part to Hasbro acquiring the Tonka brand (and the rights to the Go-Bots/Gobots name), these chunky and easy to transform toys were pretty cool. I didn't become a father until 2009, but I didn't let that fact stop me from buying several of the early toys.

At the beginning of the Playskool line all of he toys featured cutesy looking Autobot symbols. Later on these were replaced with a large "G" logo. Never in the series was there a Decepticon or the equivalent released...until 2004's Invisibility Force wave. Preditron. The only evil Go-Bot released, but in true Transformers fashion there is more than meets the eye.

According to Preditron's small bio on the back of his packaging, Preditron is actually Beast-Bot! Somehow he was accidentally transformed into the unruly robot. The full story on the packaging reads:

 An accident has turned the once valuable Go-Bots team member Beast-Bot into Preditron. As Preditron, he creeps around in his wolf mode causing trouble across the galaxy.  He's smart and may be the biggest threat the Go-Bots team has ever faced!

All of the toys in the Invisibility wave featured translucent plastic, but in my opinion Preditron looked the best and was my only purchase.

This mold has been used several times previously, but Preditron gets an all new head sculpt...and I love it. The huge silver jaw looks awesome and for some reason when I look at this figure I get a Beagle Boys vibe from the old Duck Tales cartoon.

The reason the chest is void of much detail is that it houses the alternate forms beast head. When you lift up one arm the center will rotate around hiding the robot head and revealing the wolf head.

Not only did the robot receive a new head sculpt, but so did the beast form. His bio calls him a wolf, but I still think he looks more feline than canine.

For a kid's toy it doesn't feature as articulation as a standard Transformer would have. The arms have a swivel joint in the bicep area and in the wrists. The arms can rotate a full 360 degrees at the shoulder. The hips have the same style of joint allowing the legs to rotate all around.

Since I didn't have a proper shelf to display this guy on I ended up passing him on to my girls. They still aren't enamored with TFs like their daddy, but I do see my youngest (18 months old) carrying Preditron around the house from time to time. Even she thinks he looks like a cat as she holds him up and makes a "meow" noise!