Transformers Robots in Disguise: Drink & Play

The Transformers license has been a popular license and has been used on a plethora of items since the 80's. However a cross branded apple flavored water kids drink is something that I would have never expected to find.

During the mid 2010's when the Transformers: Robots in Disguise cartoon was being aired, I found these kids drinks at my local Food Lion grocery store. Normally I would have snickered at the thought and carried on about my business, however these had a yellow capsule attached (more like embedded) into the bottle and it advertised a toy inside. Wait...what?! Seriously? Well you know I just had to check them out and when I decided to pull the trigger I happened to find them on sale and I was able to find all 5 different character bottles.

These plastic bottles housed 10 fluid ounces of apple flavored spring water. I never tried the water, but one of my daughters did and she said it didn't taste that great. Oh well, we're not here for water...we're here for toys! I originally thought the yellow capsule was just attached to the bottle by the character wrap, but it turned out that the bottle had a concave area where the capsule rested. My only clue as to what the "surprise toy" inside was the little circle on the packaging that showed a small (PVC I suspected) figure of Sideswipe and Strongarm.

To get to the capsule the character wrap around the bottle had to be removed. I started with the Optimus Prime bottle and inside was the female Autobot, Strongarm. These were in fact small PVC figures. This one I actually had to attach the arms to, though I believe the glue must have been weak as the other 4 I opened were intact inside their capsules.

The plastic used was softer than your typical PVC figure. The paint apps were rather sloppy too in certain places, however the fact that some of the figures contained multiple colors was a little surprising to me.

 

The figures themselves stood around 1 1/2 inches tall. Grimlock obviously had more heft than Sideswipe or Strongarm. None of the figures are articulated. I should also mention that inside the capsule was a small "catalog" that also showed pencil toppers being available. Whether or not they were randomly included in these same capsules I don't know.

These are fun little novelty toys and a must for die-hard Transformer RID fans. If you're looking for a set now I would start my search on eBay. I have no idea how long these were on store shelves or if they were offered across the US or released outside of the US.

Displayed with a Legends scale Robots in Disguise Bumblebee