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

Transformers G1: Grimlock (Classic Pretender)

Towards the end the the 80's, it seemed as if Hasbro was running out of ideas to keep the Transformers brand afloat. The Pretenders were created, humanoid (or monster) disguises/shells in order to aid themselves in battle...or just to disguise themselves.

In 1989, Hasbro introduced four new Pretenders - the Classic Pretenders, Transformers that had been around previously: Bumblebee, Grimlock, Jazz and Starscream.

While I love the Pretenders and those were some of the first G1 toys I sought out when I started to collect again, I have never cared for the Classic Pretenders. When I finally got around to upgrading my method of displaying my G1 collection, I decided there were a few G1 toys that I just no longer cared to own. Classic Pretender Grimlock was one of those.

I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about this Pretender shell that I don't like...perhaps all of it?! Perhaps its the large fin on top of the helmet? Or the armor of the shell? I just haven't ever cared for his look. 

He comes with two weapons. The large rifle is an Atom-Smashing submachine gun and the inner robot's little tail also doubles as a rocket launcher.

The designers did a good job at trying to keep the elements of the original Dinobot toy, from the head sculpt to the look of the robot chest. He can wield his tail as a weapon just as the Pretender shell can.

Grimlock still retains his original Dinobot Tyrannasaurus Rex form, but now the toy is much smaller and more simplified. The dinosaur arms can rotate a full 360 degrees, as can the back legs.

If you like the Pretender toys then you know what you are getting here, I just don't care for it. Perhaps it's because it's based off of an existing character that I don't like. I didn't care for the Action Master toys either that were based on earlier G1 characters. Needless to say that when I added this guy to my eBay store, he didn't sit there long before someone scooped him up. I'll just stick to the "original" Pretenders.

Transformers 3rd Party: Justitoys - WST Dinorobots Commander (Dark Retribution)

It seems like long before the plethora of third party companies started making unofficial add-on kits and unofficial Transformers action figures, there was a company called Justitoys.  When Takara released their line of World's Smallest Transformers, they had a hit on their hands.  Well at least with a segment of the Transformers collecting community.  A lot of fans will say that Takara abandoned the line too early...enter Justitoys.  They decided to take the World's Smallest banner and run with it, starting off with the Dinobots...or Dinorobots as they are called for legal reasons.

Eventually the entire group would see release, alongside color variations that were exclusive to certain conventions or retail stores online.  Then in 2009 Justitoys created a box set of Dinorobots featuring black plastic and gold chrome bits.  They dubbed it Dark Retribution.  While I could afford to pick up the individually released regular Dinorobots, these new box set was a little pricey so I opted to sit this release out.  Later on I found a TFW2005.com board member selling a few of these Dark Retribution figures individually so I grabbed Grimlock and Snarl.

Justitoys did an excellent job with the scale of these WST Dinorobots.  They are larger than your standard Takara World's Smallest toy, yet right in scale with them.  After all the Dinobots were bigger than most of their Autobot friends.

The toy looks and transforms very much like the real G1 version of Grimlock.  I have to say the black and gold fits the toy nicely and I'm not always a fan of black repainted TFs.

Notice the blue waist piece?  Most TF collectors know that the G1 release of Grimlock featured a red waist, where as the pre-TF Diaclone version featured the waist piece in blue.  I'm not sure why Justitoys went with the blue over the red, but I actually prefer the blue.  It blends in well with the back whereas the red may have stood out too much.

Each figure in the Dark Retribution set came with their own G1 style instruction booklet, sticker sheet and a bag of weapons.  These weapons are smaller reproductions of the G1 weapons.  Rifle, sword and missile launcher w/ 3 missiles.

Justitoys did a great job with their WST Dinorobots...no matter what color they used.  They are built well and a fun to transform.  I can see how they may not fit into everyone's TF collection, but if you have a chance to pick one up for less than $20 I say buy it.

KO Korner: G1 Transformers Les Robots Dinosaures "Grimlock"

QUICK INFO:
Name: TL-331 Tyrannosaurus

Line: LesRobots Dinosaures (Aptoys)

Year: unknown
Price: unknown


Today's review will be different than any of the past as we'll take a look at a knock-off or bootleg toy. I normally steer clear of these for oh so many reasons, but this is one that I stumbled across that I just couldn't say no to. Why? Read on.

As you may be able to tell from the packaging this is a transforming dinosaur robot. What the trained eye may not be able to tell though (unless you are a geek like me!) is that this is no ordinary transforming dinosaur. More specifically a knock-off of the 1985 Transformers Generation One Dinobot Grimlock. This toy was made in Taiwan by a company called Aptoys. I have no further information on the history of this toy unfortunately. The figure is simply referred to as TL-331 Tyrannosaurus. As you can tell from the packaging it is very colorful sporting a lime green color with yellow trim and multicolored dinosaurs. What kid wouldn't have wanted this back in the day? I should note my specimen here didn't come with a plastic window on the box. Not sure if it ever had one to begin with.

The back of the box is a little better than the front as it features some artwork of this toy as well as the other 2 released in the line. TL-332 Triceratope is obviously a knock-off of G1 Slag while TL-333 Prontosaurus is a knock-off of G1 Sludge albeit with some changes! Our new version of Grimlock here isn't without his own changes either. At first glance you may not notice anything different on the artwork, but if you look closer at the back you'll see there is now a stretch of scales making a rigid fin running from the base of the neck to the tip of the tail. More on that later. You may have also noticed a crude transformation sequence of instructions printed on the upper left hand of the box. I can tell from the 4 tiny pictures that this transforms in the same manner as G1 Grimlock.

Now let's take Grimlock out of the box so we can take a closer look. The toy is sealed onto a cardboard insert featuring more realistic art. After looking at the art on the back of the box and even the front this seems a little out of place. But who cares about the art...we bought this for the toy! Grimlock here is cast in a dark green plastic with the neck joint being a translucent neon yellow plastic. The toes, tail, arms and other bits are a gold chrome (replacing silver chrome on the real toy). Here we can also see some of the changes they made to the mold outside of the color differences. Earlier I noticed the new spine on the back. Here you can see this new molded spine runs from the base of the neck to the tip of the tail. The portion of the spine on the lower back (which forms the legs) doesn't seem to fit very well and doesn't look integrated at all. The other new part isn't quite as noticeable at first. On top of the dino head is a gold chrome bump. I'm not sure how else to describe it! What purpose it serves I have no idea. Perhaps something that was just thrown on to avoid legal ramifications?

Without taking the toy completely out of the packaging it's hard to get a good camera angle of this gold bump added to the top of the head. Sorry guys.

I was surprised to see that the weapons included are all reproductions of the original. The sword is now gold chrome instead of the softer red plastic used in the original. All the weapons seem to be in the same scale as the original which is a plus.

I've seen the knock-off version of Sludge from this line before, but I've never seen this toy let alone packaged and still sealed. I'm not planning on opening it since I have a G1 Grimlock and since I don't how good (or bad) the plastic quality is. I do think it's one of the better looking G1 knock-offs I've seen in my years of collecting and a nice little conversation piece.