Originally written September 2018, this here’s the very first toy review I ever put online!
I know very little about GoBots. But I do know is that this is a cool robot, no matter the franchise it comes from. To briefly sum it up, the GoBots were the chief rival franchise to the Transformers in the 80s (think Pepsi and Coke). Just as Transformers started as multiple unrelated lines of Japanese toys imported to America by Hasbro, GoBots began its life in Japan as Machine Robo, before being imported by Tonka, renamed GoBots, and given a new story and lore. Both shows had cartoons, and even each had a theatrical film. But, for one reason or another, Transformers lasted, while GoBots eventually died off.
By the 90s, Hasbro actually owned parts of the GoBots rights (probably to stop them from coming back), and for awhile, they were the butt of the joke in Transformers comics, where characters would frequently cameo as dead or soon-to-be-dead bodies. But there was a bit of a backlash against that, and over the last few years, GoBots has seen a bit of a small revival in the Transformers fandom (including an upcoming new comic series from the same publisher, IDW) (2021 edit: That series was bananas, and absolutely worth a read, even if you know nothing about GoBots, like I did) as a worthy companion franchise. Along with this revival has come a new line of toys, though they’re not quite updated GoBots.
Turns out, between Hasbro owning a chunk of the license, Hanna-Barbera having the rights to the cartoon, and Bandai owning the rights to the original toys, making new GoBots is kind of a legal nightmare. But, Action Toys has a solution: Officially-licensed updated figures of Machine Robo, the original line that the GoBots toys were drawn from. While nothing on the box says GoBots, they know exactly what they’re doing, having selected the Machine Robo toys that were made into popular GoBots characters as their updated figures.
Action Toys has already produced a whole line of smaller, articulated Machine Robo figures, about the size and scale of Star Wars figures, with a Bike Robo in it already. This version of Bike Robo, however, is the first in their DX line of larger figures (something the original toys did, too, with their Super Go-Bots). In this case, the Bike Robo is better known in the west as Cy-Kill, leader of the Renegades, or, the GoBots answer to Megatron. Like I said at the beginning, I don’t know all that much about GoBots, but what I do know is that this is a fantastic toy simply on its own merits.
Robot Mode
Bike Robo’s big, but not too big, being more or less the same height as a Voyager-sized Transformer, one of the smaller Masterpiece Transformers, or one of the Unrustables bikes. My first visual impression of him was that he’s VERY retro looking, and seems older than even the Transformers designs, with an aesthetic that feels like a 70’s robot, or like something from a live-action Tokusatsu/Power Rangers show. He’s very spindly, with thin arms that end in circular, clampy claw hands. His shoulder wheels add necessary bulk to his silhouette, though.
That retro look extends to his color scheme of bright. primary red, white and blue, with yellow and shiny silver bits on him to finish the look, along with some clear orange bits, like a dome on top of his head. His default face is silver with yellow eyes, an immovable Megazord-like expression on his face.
There’s some significant heft and sturdiness to him in-hand, helped by several bits of die-cast metal in his torso. Magnets are used in his construction, too, keeping his wheels stuck to his shoulders, and his face attached to his head.
A common theme of the kind of retro robots with this look is that they’re unposeable bricks. This guy’s the polar opposite of that, and my instinct is to describe him as “bendy,” particularly in his skinny arms, with double-jointed elbows, wrists and shoulder poseability that make them feel like noodles (in a good way). His claw hands even manage to have a full three poseable fingers on them. Aside from his arms, he’s got all of the standard action figure articulation (head, waist, knees, hips) plus some great extras, like an ab crunch and ankle tilts. His outward hip joints are extremely stiff ratchets, but the rest of his joints are just right, including another set of perfect ratchets in his knees. He’s very stable on his feet, and has no trouble holding dynamic poses and staying standing, something the weight from the metal in him helps with. All this poseability causes kind of a visually jarring effect: His retro design, to my eyes, makes him look like he shouldn’t be poseable, but he’s actually incredibly flexible, so seeing him dynamically posed is a unique look.
His accessories are mostly swappable parts. He has a second set of hands that turn his claws into closed fists, and, more interestingly, a pair of effect parts in the form of giant clear yellow energy blasts that act as another alternate set of hands, which he poses well with.
It’s the faces that are a major selling point of this figure. First of all, it’s worth noting that you can swap them out by pressing down on the top of his head to eject his face. I truly believe more action figures need to have a face-ejecting button. So, aside from his default retro-robo face, what are his other options? A set of three orange and grey faces sculpted to resemble Cy-Kill as he appeared in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
While I’m not familiar with the cartoon, these faces are really neat-looking, cartoonishly expressive and well-sculpted, and most importantly, chock-full of character. One face is a neutral stare, the second one is an exaggerated, angry grimace, and the third is an incredibly smug smile. Putting one of these faces on him totally changes the vibe of the figure, changing him from a retro-robot into a theatrical supervillain, which plays well with that equally-expressive poseability of his. Screenshots from the GoBots cartoon tell me that Cy-Kill was already pretty toy-accurate in animation, so with the face swap, this becomes a Masterpiece-level representation of that character. Even not having knowledge of who he is, I appreciate his characterfulness. There’s another, really odd accessory, too: A small grey plastic slab with arms and legs that you can mount a single one of his faces on. I’ve got no idea what or why, but it’s a neat extra.
Transformation
Here’s where I’ll note a bit of an odd, disappointing feature of the toy: On top of his regular instructions, he comes with a small sheet of paper warning you about some parts you can break if you move them the wrong way. The good news is that you won’t do it by accident, the bad news is that they had to tell you. Specifically, you can only spin his kickstand clockwise, and not counter-clockwise, and you have to make sure not to rotate a particular split in his thighs that his transformation uses.
When it comes to that transformation, he’s a bit of a parts-former, where you take the wheels right off of his shoulders and replace them in their correct spots in bike mode. Another accessory comes into play here, as well: An extra face that’s just a blank white space, which you apply to hide his face in bike mode.
His upper torso is easy and intuitive to transform, but the way his legs fold and compress can be a challenge to figure out at first, with at least one step in the instructions that left me confused as to what to do. Still, once you figure it out the first time, it’s easy and intuitive every other time. Protip: Despite the breakage warnings, don’t be afraid to push on his thighs until they split inwards, and keep pushing until they click. The warning is not to rotate them, they can take the force of the push just fine.
Bike Mode
Here’s the other side of coin when it comes to the retro-robot look: From some angles, in this mode, he reads as a stylish sci-fi motorcycle, with tailpipes and fins on his back that give him an interesting silhouette. From other angles, though, this is definitely a humanoid figure curled up, holding wheels with his hands and feet, and pretending to be a motorcycle. Unrustables, this ain’t. However, that’s how the original Bike Robo and Cy-Kill looked, and it certainly fits his aesthetic. At least his face is hidden on this one.
He’s also very sturdy and solid in this mode, and all of his robot bits seem to have pegged together really well. You can adjust the height of his suspension, which, combined with his kickstand, lets him sit upright, without the need to lean. His wheels can roll, though it’s a very tight roll. He does have a seat, picked out with some black paint, and I immediately got to work finding figures that could ride him. Star Wars, GI Joe and Unrustables riders are all too small, but I had luck with Deluxe-sized Transformers: Titans Return figures, who even have hand holes the right size to grip the handlebars.
Final Thoughts
Bike Robo is a really, really good transforming robot. They’ve taken a straightforward, basic retro design and given it modern poseability and engineering, without sacrificing its vintage charm, or making it too complicated, giving you the best of both worlds. He’s solid, poseable, sturdy, and expressive, working as both an old-school super robot, or a cartoon villain with a simple face swap. Even if you don’t know or care much about GoBots (and I certainly didn’t), this is an excellent figure for collectors of good robot toys in general, one that’s worth picking up.
If there’s plans for more of these larger ones, I haven’t heard anything, but I’d like to see this line continue, based on the strength of this release. Even if it doesn’t continue, this is a great one-off figure, who can hang around with your Transformers, your Unrustables, or your stable of bad guys. Plus, he’s going to star in his own comic series pretty soon, so you might want to grab one before he becomes popular again.
(2021 thoughts: I was loaned this figure for review at the time, and I have a bit of regret not picking one for myself up at the time. Unfortunately, the Action Toys Machine Robo line ground to a standstill, and got stuck in development hell, with only one other large figure coming out after years of delays, and the smaller ones trickling to a standstill. It doesn’t help that the smaller ones that I handled weren’t very fun (too complicated and fiddly, bad handfeel, weird tolerances), and seemingly didn’t sell very well. Still, if you ever get a shot at owning this guy, he’s still worth it as a one-off cool-looking motorcycle-bot.)
