Review – Vending Machine Camera Bots (1986)
If you found yourself with fifty cents in 1986 you might be tempted to shove your quarters into a vending machine and buy a D.V.S. Camera Bot toy. If you did then you would walk away with one of the worst of the cheap transforming robot toys of the time; these little guys are pure garbage and a perfect example of the sort of stuff insane kids (including me!) would buy in an attempt to have another transforming robot you in our hands.
Fantastic Header Art!
Not the greatest of transforming robot toy artwork in the eighties, the camera and robot artwork on this header card is nevertheless a blast and an amazing example of what it took to sell me cheap transforming robot toys in the eighties: semi-decent artwork showing a robot and whatever it transformed into. Yep, that was all I needed. Don’t look at the actual toys next to the artwork and, if you do glance at them, please ignore how many of them are a jumble of plastic parts.
Transform?
Not exactly. Each of the little robot toys has moving parts, but the parts are more likely to separate completely from the rest of the toy than they are to fold into the shape of a camera. That’s okay. I don’t think any of us shove fifty cents into a capsule machine and expect the greatest of quality when it comes to little toys. I’m just happy that I managed to assemble some of the bits into robot-like forms. Camera? Nah. That’s not at the top of my list of “must do” with these parts.
As Cheap As They Come!
These D.V.S. Camera Bot toys make every cheap transforming robot toy from Select, Remco, and other tiny companies look like works of art. These little guys refuse to hold together, don’t transform well at all, and are purely bits of designed plastic without any paint or stickers. And they’re fabulous! The three shown here are definitely going into the display with other transforming robots from the eighties, and getting my hands on these tells me it’s likely every other vending machine robot from the time is garbage. I still want them all.
