Review – FlipTrons Re-Flexx (1984)

If you never once had a cheap transforming robot toy during the eighties then it’s tough to really explain the mixed feelings that came with accepting one of these toys as a gift. On the one hand it was great to get a new transforming robot as a gift, but on the other hand it was always a little disappointing to open the gift wrap and discover something that was not at all a character or toy with the Transformers character.

And then there were the times you discovered a toy that was almost just like one of the Hasbro Transformers toys.

Packaging

With a 1984 copyright notice for Gordy Toy, this FlipTrons packaging is as retrotastic as we could ever have hoped for. An illustrated logo, illustrated transformation instructions on the back of the card, and even a drawing of the toy makes all of this a real pleasure to stare at and absorb. That bright green card is blinding, and in keeping with the cheap transforming robot nature of the packaging the back of the card is simple black and white. The only thing that would have made this even better would have been a price tag somewhere on the package.

FlipTrons?

Hey, you know as much about this line as I do. I ran some searches online, but there’s very little info about the company or the toys. I did uncover this fredsworkshop.com page of Jumpstarters which states:

“Fliptrons. A pretty cheap looking likeness of them; however, these actually work. 🙂 And the company was bold enough to copyright-stamp them. I suppose they felt they altered them enough from the originals. There is no adjustment for their balance when flipping; the adjuster knobs are molded as one piece with the head.”

Not Quite Jumpstarters

If you’re at all familiar with the transforming robot toys of the eighties then you already know about Hasbro’s Transformers Jumpstarters (see the TFWiki). These FlipTrons auto-transforming toys are copies of the Jumpstarters, with Re-Flexx here a near-exact duplicate of Topspin, but there are lots of little details that are different. Different guns, different heads, the blasters on the ends of the wings are different, panel lines in spots are different . . . yep, lots of little differences that show this isn’t just the classic Topspin tooling in new colors. Someone went to a lot of work to copy the official design . . . before Hasbro had their own version on shelves.

Auto-Transform Doesn’t Work

I’ll assume the problem is my particular instance of this toy, but the pull-back motor doesn’t work at all and the toy cannot transform on its own. That’s not a huge loss for me — I’ve transformed Jumpstarters before — but it kinda would have been fun to race this guy across the floor and watch him transform. Oh well.

Closing Thoughts

I never had (or even knew of) the Gordy Toy FlipTrons when I was a kid, but looking closely at this I can safely say that had I encountered this cheap transforming robot toy as a kid I very well may have bought it for myself if no official Transformers were handy. I can remember a few times in 1985 when I bought cheap toys because official Hasbro Transformers weren’t there, and this feels exactly like the sort of toy I would have bought for myself that summer of 1985.

I’ll keep trying a few different searches to see if I can find more about this line, but for now all I can say is that these appear to be unusual and unloved. If you have any information at all about the company or the toy please leave a comment. I want to know more!