Gonna Throttle some Bots

Nothing like a bit of G1 to fill those robot blues.  Today I thought I would take a retro look at a team that I always wanted but had trouble finding until a friendly friend was changing their collecting habits, providing me with these little suckers.

My first knowledge of the Throttlebots was through the UK comic, and the issue where the Throttlebots were up against the Scraplets.  I thought that was a good story and showed the compassion of the Autobots rather well.  Well, most specifically Goldbug (and by default Bumblebee).

  These guys were called Throttlebots as they had a little pull back friction engine in them, much like the Battlechargers but without the auto-transforming majigger.  Therefore Throttlebots are small and simple and very very fun!  They all Transform the same way, fold up the front of the vehicle for the feet, fold out the side for the hands, flip down the back to show the head and shorten the friction engine doodad.

So, starting with Goldbug, we can check them out and get a general feel for the toy style as a whole.  Goldbug is generally the leader of the bunch.  I’m not 100% sure if that it’s written in his bio, but that is the general consensus.

Vehicle mode is nice and not as Penny Racer as Bumblebee with quick a bit more sculpted detail slapped on him.  I really like the black windows on him, shame they didn’t complete the set with one on the back, but hey, thems the breaks.  not really all that much to say, except for;
TRANSFORM!

As you can see there isn’t much to him.  Quick and easy.  The foot is really huge due to the engine, but at least with this style they don’t sag over time like the Battlechargers.  The head sculpt is pretty nice and looks like it was indeed inspired by G1 Bumblebee’s (toy) face, I do like the way his hands have been sculpted onto the doors and they manage to not be noticeable on the vehicle mode either.

Next up is the comedian of the group, Freeway.

According to online resources, this guy is a Chervolet Corvette C4.  I guess the small size detracts from the design a bit. He looks a tad puffy, which takes away some of his detail.  The blue isn’t the best colour for him either, I suspect, he just doesn’t look as cool as it should I think.

Robot mode is pretty much the same as Goldbug.  He is more angular I guess, but hey, these dudes are simple and fun.  So I’m not going to bag them for being more.  I am going to bag him for his colours too.  He’s just a bit plain.  I do really like his face though!

Next in the line is the another one whose name I don’t have to google to find out, Rollbar, the quintessential macho-bot.  I think he’d be good friends with Outback.

I like this vehicle mode a Jeep CJ-7.  looks a lot like a character from Cars, or do Cars characters look like the Throttlebots.  Well, guess which existed first!  He has a nice simple design, the green is good and seems to have adequate detail.  I really do like that the stickers on the windows look like an outback/bush design, I see mountains, with clouds and the sky reflected in his windows.  Awwww!

Robot mode is pretty fat looking.

Once again, nice head sculpt, I always wondered if that’s supposed to be some facial hair there?

Next on the list, Chase.

This guy is a Ferrari Testarossa apparently.  Well, I guess he suffers the same pudge issue that Freeway has.  Also, I notice the back looks quite a bit different to the rear of the Testarossa I know the best .

Hurdy hur hur.
Moving on to robot mode, let’s see what we has.

Another chunky fat robot mode, but hey, once again the face sculpt is… Oh… Um… Bland.  Nice hair?


Next on the list is Searchlight a Ford Rs200.

I like that this guy has a bunch of lights on his roof, very sexy and he looks like some sort of cool rally car of the day.  Not too shabby at all.  Shame that some of the sculpted detail is kind of missed because it blends into the plastic so much.  It also makes a nice change to see his rub sign somewhere different than the roof of the car.

Robot mode comes off OK.  The blue of the windows manages to break up the white of the vehicle roof quite nicely.  I quite like the head sculpt on this guy a well.  It looks like he has a robot-goatee!

Finally it’s the ever delectable Wideload!  A dump truck that always wants to be clean.

It always struck me as odd how this guy managed to carry anything considering how his tray is always full.  Crazy!  I liked him as he was the most colourful of the Throttlebots.  He’s meant to be the biggest and strongest, but he is much the same size as the others here.

Robot mode is certainly the most chunky looking of them all.  Stumpy little arms and it looks as if his stomach goes straight to his toes.  I guess that’s part of the reason why he has that big blue bit in the tray to differentiate the various parts .  Must admit that I think the colours work fairly well for the robot.

Oh and if I haven’t mentioned it (don’t think I have), there is no robot mode articulation with any of these guys, unless you count their wheels.

All together these guys are incredibly simple, but that’s part of their fun.  Just pull them back and let them rip!  No Problems.    Colour wise I quite like the look of them.  They are varied and since they don’t combine that’s just fine.  Similarly themed groups can still exist without combining.  They’re cute, quick to transform, and most of all fun.  I recommend them.  At least one of them.  Probably not all of them.