Review – Tomy Acrobot

Manufacturer: Tomy * Year: 1978

1978. Yeah, I kinda remember 1978. That Christmas was our last in the US before moving to Turkey, and that was the Christmas when I got a cool robot toy, a Star Wars comic (a big one, collecting all six of the original Marvel issues), and some other assorted toys. Including one of these Tomy Acrobot toys.

Packaging

As you can see, the Acrobot was released on a card — with the robot available in a variety of different colors — that was pretty generic and kinda dull. On the front we see a time lapse photo of the Acrobot standing up and moving forward while the back of the card shows us a few simple line drawings that no doubt had me super excited when I was six. Today? Well, today I toss the card aside and dig into playing with the Acrobot. Just like I did when I was six years old.

The Acrobot Design

Standing 2-inches tall, the Acrobot looks like a completely forgettable robot toy from the late seventies. With a shiny, domed body, cheap plastic arms and legs, and stickers on the chest and face, this was very likely as inexpensive in 1978 as it would be if it were released today. He’s a fairly generic robot, without any real features that make him unique in design, and he’s very, very cute.

Acrobot Acrobotics

Wind up the Acrobot and he walks; though not very quickly, since his thirty years of existence hasn’t been kind to his windy mechanism. Acrobot ambles along until he winds down and is a pretty common, basic wind-up toy . . . until you knock him over. Once he’s on his back, the excitement hits you as the Acrobot . . .

. . . leaps to his feet! Well, leap is a pretty strong word, but he does stand back up on his own. And once back on his feet he returns to walking around aimlessly. At least, he does if the mechanism hasn’t wound down.

And that’s basically it. Even when I was younger this wasn’t one of my A-list toys, but it was a fun little robot toy and there’s always room in my heart for cute robot toys. Especially cute robot toys that are kinda old, fairly cheap to buy today, and are actually a bit junky.

Closing Thoughts

It’s a short review, but what can you say about a 2-inch tall wind-up toy from 1978? I can’t recommend that you start searching the internet for an Acrobot toy, but if you see one at a flea market then you’ll at least know what he is. And if he’s only a buck or two, and his wind-up mechanism still works, then go ahead and grab him. After all, will another robot toy in your collection really hurt anyone?

It isn’t that Philip Reed loves bad toys. No, it’s that everyone else out there doesn’t have the vision to see just how good bad toys can be.