Review – Machine Robo “Battle Robo”

It’s no secret that I wasn’t a GoBots fan when I was a kid; I’ve written before about how — when I was a kid — the GoBots were always the inferior toys when it came to transforming robots. Well, earlier this year I mentioned how Tank, identified as Battle Robo, would be my first purchase of Action Toys’ updated Machine Robo/GoBots toy designs (find at Amazon.com*). And after having the toy out of the box for close to a week I can say: This is fantastic!

Tank Mode

Battle Robo’s vehicle mode is a small, boxy tank-like design that moves on four treads and has a total of three cannons on the turret. It’s a cube, yes, but it’s a durable and fun design and far better than most transforming robot toys I’ve seen in the last year. Even Hasbro’s fantastic Titans Return line — which I’ve been reviewing lately — isn’t anywhere near as durable and amazing as this Battle Robo toy. What makes this toy so fun? Two things:

• Die cast parts.
  
• Transformation design.

Die Cast Metal Transforming Robot Toy

It’s like nineteen eighty-four around here with this chunk of metal and plastic that transforms into a robot. If all of the Action Toys Machine Robo/GoBots designs (find at Amazon.com*) are going to be this hefty and awesome then I’ll be buying every single release. This may be about three times the price of a comparable Hasbro Transformers toy, but it’s at least five times as fun and ten times as tough so the increased cost is well worth the money.

Transformation Design

These days, when transforming robot toys, I often find myself checking video reviews to get over some weird stage in the transformation design. A few too many designs are created around the idea of “look at what a clever engineer I am!” and not enough “how do I make this playable and fun?”

There have been several spectacularly clever transformation designs, but most days all I want is a design that’s simple enough that I can switch the toy between modes in under five minutes. Think of it as a transforming robot stress ball and you’ll be close to my desired level of transformation; Battle Robo is perfect in this way. I kept the toy in my pocket for ten hours at the office last week and it was a great pocket toy, holding up fine and fun to transform between modes as I sat in meetings.

Robot Mode

Battle Robo stands 4.5-inches tall, and transforming between modes is fun! Seriously, we need more transforming robot toys that are this much fun to change between vehicle and robot modes. I sure hope that the other Action Toys Machine Robo/GoBots toys (find at Amazon.com*) are this much fun because we deserve die cast metal robots that are great toys.

Even the articulation works out well, right down to swivel hips and even a swivel neck that lets the face rotate left and right while the rear of the head/helmet remains in place. The one (minor) complaint I have with the toy is that the hands pop off sometimes, but they are on posts and simple to reattach so it’s not that big of a deal. I would just hate to lose one when the toy is in my pocket in robot mode.

Closing Thoughts

As my first purchase in the Action Toys Machine Robo/GoBots series (find at Amazon.com*) I couldn’t have asked for a better toy. Battle Robo feels good in hand, can survive a day in the pocket, and is fun to transform. These may be a little pricey for their size — between $45 and $50 — but the cost is worth it if you’re like me and appreciate transformation designs that are playable and quick and if you can appreciate how much metal they shoved into the design.

Time for me to open my next Machine Robo toy. I’ve got Eagle, and I hope that the toy is just as good as this one.