Saturday, January 21, 2017

Racetron

On March 24, 2014, I shared my first post in the Racetron series of transforming robots, Chrysbot. Ever since I picked up a loose and a carded specimen of this toy I've had the Racetron toys on a saved eBay search, hoping more (affordable) individual robots would show up. Needless to say that hasn't happened, thus the lone Racetron entry in the blog's database of reviews.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by ConteDDracula. He had ran across my review of Chrysbot and had asked if I still owned the carded copy he had seen in the review. He told me about himself and his quest to complete the figure and needed a new Chrysbot to complete his quest. I still had the figure, sitting in the top of my closet. He offered to buy it and I didn't hesitate as I knew my chances of finding the other 5 were slim to none. Plus it felt good knowing I was helping a fellow collector. So off when Chrysbot on his long trip to Italy.

ConteDDracula told me he was going to share some words and pics with me after the package arrived. I was just as excited to see what he was going to send over as I am today with sharing it with my readers. While these toys may leave a lot to be desired, one can't help appreciate what this combining team of robots still is able to bring to the table. Thank you for sharing this with me ConteDDracula, I really do appreciate it.


After some years of research, I finally completed the Racetron thanks to my friend and fellow collector Colbey (Flywheels) too. The Racetron is a combiner made in Taiwan of 6 small car-robots (Bmbot, Fiabot, Chrysbot, Cadilbot, Porschbot and Pontibot) very similar to Gobots and with a good amount of die-cast metal. 


To do this I preferred to buy individual packages as were sold in Italy through the importer/distributor GLOBO and other minor brands. Curiously, in individual packages, the weapons were placed randomly while in giftset have fulfilled the picture of the final product.


The producers, though it is not written on the cards, are the same of funny not-Devastator Mr. Hard Hat and many other robots of cheap vintage American line, "Transistor Robots" by Four Star. To complete it I bought 2 members already previously opened and had to open 4 others blister MO(S)C! 


But having it in the collection is priceless, despite having spent about EUR 200/250 in a handful of years. I spent good money and enough time after all. The giant robot is pretty sturdy, heavy, about 26 cm tall and has a head like a robot of an old Japanese anime series: Galaxy Cyclone Braiger. The rifle instead is the same of Mr. Hard Hat.


At last Its final shape and the hooks do look like a Puzzler of Gobots "shaked" with Multiforce of Zybot Z. But Four Star will give us more surprises, to be continued!"

ConteDDracula (staff of www.giocattolivecchi.com)


3 comments:

  1. Never heard of Racetron, but these figures brought back some great memories. When I was a kid, one of my neighbors was fortunate enough to have Devastator and everyone on the block was jealous of him.

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  2. Do you have an extra #4 Porschbot you can sell to me?

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  3. On my 8th birthday, my father took me to a toy store to pick a present. I saw this set and wanted all of them, obviously, but he told me to pick just one. I never saw the set again so for years I only had Pontibot, until it fell apart from use and was thrown away. Recently I told my son about it, not even remembering what it was called. My only clue was that it was a cheap Transformers knockoff, and considering the period, probably made in Taiwan. These keywords led me, eventually, here where the decades old mystery was solved. Thank you for this post!

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