Review – Construction King

Another toy find in Hong Kong last week, I picked up these cheap transforming robot toy — identified as Construction King on the box — solely because the instant I saw it I thought of the Marchon Roadbots transforming robot toys from 1984 (Loadorr review here, Hookorr review here, and Cementorr review here). And after dragging Construction King around with me for a day I can say that I’m quite happy with the toy. Why? You know better than to ask that so early in a review.

Packaging

Actually a lot higher quality than we usually see with cheap transforming robot toys, it was this box for Construction King that caught my eye in the shop. Each of the three construction vehicles in the box is attractively illustrated as is the robot mode of the combined vehicles. The back of the box (above, right) shows you how the toy “transforms,” and if you’re familiar with the Marchon Roadbots then you’ll instantly see why I thought of those toys when I saw this set of instructions. That’s right, this guy “transforms” by snapping the three vehicles apart and reassembling them into the robot mode. It’s cheating, sure, but the sense of nostalgia I got looking at these instructions demanded that I drop the $38 HK dollars (less than $5 US) for the toy.

Construction Vehicles

The box includes three small vehicles — shown above and below — and each is brightly colored with yellow and silver-colored plastic. There’s no paint on the toys, but instead we get stickers (already applied) to give each piece a bit of extra color and detail. Everything about this toy feels like it could have come from 1984 or 1985 and in my book that’s a good thing.

Each of the vehicles holds together quite well and all three have nicely rolling wheels; no snags when rolling across the table. And driving them around the table I can happily report that the plastic feels good — it’s not the insanely cheap plastic we usually encounter with the cheaper transforming robot toys — and overall these are excellent little construction toys.

These aren’t the greatest construction vehicle toys you’ll ever find, but for what are essentially “dollar store” transforming robot toys these are at the top of their class. And for less than $5 I’m very happy with the quality; I’ve never seen this series here in the US but the quality is high enough that I’m going to start to keep my eyes open for more of these. Yes, these little construction vehicles feel that good. Hell, I may even search online to see if I can find a place to order some more of the toys in this series.

Robot Mode

Rather than each vehicle forming its own robot all three of them come together to form one 6-inch tall robot toy, Construction King. I won’t go into the details of the transformation process — see this photo of the back of the box for the instructions — but I’ll say that it’s a very simple task to transform the toy into robot mode. Again, everything about this feels like it’s from the mid-80s when Transformers first hit the market here in the US.

Once assembled the toy has almost no articulation at all — the arms swing up and down at the shoulders — but the design looks great and Construction King fits in perfectly with the Marchon Roadbots. The metalized silver plastic is suitably shiny and toy-like and the simplistic robot head has just enough character to give Construction King a little personality of his own.

Reverting to Vehicle Mode

It’s snapping the pieces apart and reassembling them into the three vehicles when Construction King starts to show just what an unexpectedly high-quality toy he actually is. The stronger plastic — still semi-cheap plastic but not the really brittle stuff we often find on these types of toys — holds up well to the twist force necessary to pop the lower halves of the legs from the torso section and while it is a simple design it is effective. This toy won’t win any awards with hardcore Transformers fans who adore today’s more complex transformation designs, but any of you who have a love for the cheap transforming robot toys of the eighties would probably fall in love with this guy after a few moments.

Closing Thoughts

It’s kinda sad that there isn’t more information on the box, because I would love to find out which other toys are from the same series as Construction King. This is unarguably a cheap transforming robot toy, but it’s such a higher level of quality than we usually see in these toys — and it’s so firmly rooted in the eighties transforming robot toy family — that I want to know what else is available.

Construction King fits in perfectly with the Marchon Roadbots (see the photo, above) and it’s that plus the fact that he was so much better than I anticipated that makes this possibly my favorite toy find in Hong Kong. I know it’s just a $5 transforming robot toy, but it’s one I had never seen before and will likely never see again so I’m quite happy that I grabbed it the instant that I saw it.

I know, I know. Admitting this makes me kinda lame. But oh well. Toys are meant to be fun, and Construction King is clearly fun for me.

Philip Reed must now track down some Marchon Roadbots in the blue/gray colors. Why? Because he must. It’s vital to the survival of mankind. No, really.