Review – GoBots Staks Transport

The Super Go Bots Staks Transport* demonstrates just how unfair I’ve been to the GoBots toys over the years. For the longest time I’ve unfairly looked down on all of the toys in the line, painting with the same brush of negativity even though not every toy in the line was a weak and simple design.

Now I can admit when I was wrong, but honestly I feel a lot of my newer interest in the GoBots series is more an interest in a simpler age than it is any true acknowledgement that the toys are actually better than I once thought. The Super Go Bots Staks Transport* shown here is clearly not as robot-like or involved as the Optimus Prime toy of the same era, but I can admit to there being a simple charm about the toy that made me happy when I opened the box.

Car Carrier Mode

The below shot shows the Super Go Bots Staks Transport* in its vehicle mode, all ready to be loaded down with cars. The trailer alone is over 7-inches long, making it great for carrying the smaller auto transforming robot toys in my collection.

The vehicle mode is excellent, with everything locking together without any difficulty and the toy rolling nicely across a hard floor. The trailer doesn’t transform, which is kinda sad, but that truck mode looks cool enough that I’m happy with the overall design.

Robot Mode

Here’s where the Super Go Bots Staks Transport* leaves me really torn. Standing over 5-inches tall, the toy generally looks great in robot mode and has no more and no less articulation than the official Transformers toys from the same era.

And by articulation I’m talking the most minimal of joint movement. In robot mode the Super Go Bots Staks Transport* has:

• Arms – Ratcheting swivels at the shoulders and hinged elbows.

And I’m done. Yep, that ends our look at the toy’s articulation in robot mode. But remember, guys, that most of the Transformers toys from 1984/1985 were no better in the articulation department.

He Needs a Head!

As with many of the GoBots toys, the Super Go Bots Staks Transport* really falls down for me because there’s no actual robot head. The cab of the truck acts as the head, with the windows treated like giant eyes, but if they had only designed a flip out robot head I think I would have been far more excited about the GoBots toys when I was a kid.

I know that weird headless design is a lot of the charm of the GoBots for some — even me these days — but as a kid all I thought when I saw the toys without robot heads was: “Why didn’t they finish making the robot?” Can it really be something as simple as the lack of a human-like head and face that made me so anti-GoBots for so long? And not all of the GoBots suffered from this problem, but for unknown mental reasons I classify all of the toys in the “needs a head” category.

Closing Thoughts

Almost thirty years old, reviewing and playing with the Super Go Bots Staks Transport* really took me back to being a kid and despite my complaints I would love to open another original GoBots toy. The toy’s actually far more fun than I was expecting, with a quick transformation and lots of metal to give it some heft.

Yeah, I should find another old GoBots toy to open.