Review – Moto-Bot Pick-Up

“A motorized robot disguised as a vehicle. Change it from one to the other.”
— from the front of the card

Last December we looked at two Moto-Bot toys from 1984 — the Moto-Bot F-15 Jet Fighter and Moto-Bot Dump Truck — and this morning it felt like time to post another ancient transforming robot toy for everyone to enjoy. He’s not fantastic, but he’s kinda fun and should bring a smile to the face of any kid of the eighties who owned cheap transforming robot toys.

Basically the Same at Dump Truck

If you remember the Moto-Bot Dump Truck review from last year (of if you’ve hopped over and read that before continuing this review) then you’ll not be at all surprised to find out that Pick-Up here is pretty much the same toy. Diecast metal and plastic parts with a pullback motor, Pick-Up looks a little different from his companion, and has a slightly different transformation process, but it’s so close to Dump Truck that it’s almost as if owning one is a good as owning both.

The one significant difference between the two transforming robot toys is that Pick-Up has a removable accessory — the roll-bar — that can be lost. Once you transform the guy to robot mode there’s no official place to attach the accessory; what I did was pop it into the back of the robot so that the accessory will be with the toy. This wouldn’t work if Pick-Up was going to go outside and play, but for a shelf display toy it works perfectly.

That’s One Ugly Robot

Sure a lot of the transforming robot toys of the eighties were boxy messes, but Pick-Up here follows the Moto-Bot tradition of being especially ugly. The face is simply awful and the leaning back design — forced by the pullback motor gimmick — makes it look like the toy is zipping along so fast that his body can’t keep up with his wheels. The addition of shiny stickers actually makes the toy even uglier than it would have been if they had just painted him; the sticker colors are as bad as the toy’s face.

And Despite All That I Still Want More

Maybe not more of this exact design, but there’s something about playing with bad transforming robot toys from the eighties that makes me wish I could track down more robots from that time. I’m sure it’s just the nostalgia talking, but racing this guy across the floor makes me admit that the pullback motor makes him way more fun than the Autobot cars ever were. And while the face is ugly I have to admit that the transformation isn’t really any worse than the classic Windcharger or Gears. Yeah, taking one of these down and playing with it always sends me to the web to search for other toys from that time. And that’s a true sign that I’m enjoying the toy.

Closing Thoughts

Trust me, you either are already hitting eBay and searching for these toys or you’re scratching your head in confusion and even getting a little disgusted that I wasted time posting this review. And if you just wanna see more stuff from this line — and other transforming robot toys from that era — see this page at Counter-X and have a good time. I know I’m having a good time looking at these toys . . . and I’ve got another box set of these to play with so get ready for more.

Philip Reed will now turn off the computer before he gets tempted by cheap transforming robot toys from the eighties.