Review – GoBots Bubble Man
Fans of the Tonka GoBots toys of the eighties (Amazon.com search*) may be scratching their heads in confusion today. “Why,” you’re probably asking, “Would anyone ever invest energy into Bubble Man?”
Because this cheap transforming robot toy from 1984 deserved to be shared with all of you. I suspect that it is toys like this one — a GoBots toy not from Tonka — that most-influenced my poor opinion of GoBots toys when I was a kid. (Well, toys like this one and the fact that the Transformers cartoon was so damned fun.)
Radical Robot Art!
Okay, I can fully admit that the card art for the GoBots Bubble Man toy is awesome work. Seeing this painting makes me again wish for a GoBots book that shares all of the toys and packages, but no matter how great the artwork looks I just cannot see how the art at all represents the toy. The faces don’t look like they’re of the same design and the chest designs are completely different!
That’s One Dirty Robot!
You’ve probably noticed that the packaged robot is blue while all of the other shots are of a green robot. Tootsie Toy, manufacturer of the GoBots Bubble Man toy, released this in a variety of colors and I managed to find a loose one and a packaged one. I thought it might be fun to snap pics of the green robot exactly as it reached me: filthy from three decades of exposure to the world. I’ve now washed off the toy and will let it dry. I’ll probably have to attack it with a brush to really clean the decades of grime off of the plastic.
And there is no way in hell I’m putting that thing to my lips to activate the bubble feature.
Transform!
At the core of Bubble Man is US Patent 4246717, a bubble pipe design that:
“. . . comprises a wide outer tube and one or more shorter narrower inner tubes that project beyond the outer tube. The inner tube or tubes may be slidable within the outer tube.”
In order to transform between bubble pipe and robot modes you just fold one piece 90-degrees. Done! Oh, yes, children! This is one amazing example of a cheap transforming robot toy of the eighties.
Robot Mode
Standing 4-inches tall, the GoBots Bubble Man stands there. The toy has no articulation (unless you count where it folds to transform between modes) and the design is very simplistic and basic. I can’t call this toy all that exciting or interesting. Hey, robot stick, stand there and wait for me to find a good toy to play with!
Closing Thoughts
The Tonka GoBots toys of the eighties (Amazon.com search*) deserve better treatment and attention than I’ve given them in the past, but toys like this one from Tootsie Toys are completely worthy of any and all ridicule we wish to throw at them.
I cannot recommend this toy to anyone. However, I will admit to an odd urge to grab as many of the different colors as exist and create a rainbow of cheap transforming robot toys. I won’t, but that would be a fun display to see.