Name: Gobots
Series: Generation 2
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Rear Guard
Alternate Mode: Rally Car
CAR MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 11cm Width: 5.5cm
An orange rally car with colours transparent windows, gold foil racing stripes on the sides and a yellow spoiler, Gobots has black plastic tyres and grey sunguard painted on the back window. The doors sport gold foil stickers with "TRANSFORMERS" on the stripe part and the number 6 in orange, which also adorns the bonnet. Gobots is a repaint of Jetstorm, with brighter colours that give better definition. The rear side windows have added stickers, which are mid blue with circuitry details for some reason. I'm not sold on the gold foil stickers - foil peels and gold over bright orange is a rather strange effect.
This is a believable rally car for the most part. The pink bellows on the spoiler are somewhat unrealistic, but the dark blue sportslight rack on the front, moulded headlights and grille are nice. There are taillight stickers on the back and a G2 Autobot logo sticker on the roof, which is small enough to not ruin the rally car theme. The colourless windows reveal seats, a steering wheel and gearstick inside the cockpit, very nice features not apparent on Jetstorm.
Gobots is one of four G2 water squirting toys, who share a central gimmick based on a water-squirting mechanism. There's a small nozzle hidden under the sportslights, which shoots water stored in the bellow at the back when the bellow is compressed. It's not a terribly impressive gimmick although it works reasonably well. There's a secondary gimmick based on the painted hood. If Gobots is himself shot with warm water on the painted bonnet, the paint will turn white. The changing paint is unimpressive, although unlike most of the toys in this line the painted bonnet matches the rest of the car well. Annoyingly, the orange paint on mine has faded significantly since I got him, resulting in a permanent colour mismatch.
The gimmick isn't impressive, and isn't anywhere near good enough to justify the discolouration on my Gobots. The rally car is pretty good for the era, although the gold foil was a bad idea. The water shooting mechanism is well integrated here, which is a plus.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Push down the sportslights and detach the water mechanism, set aside. Flip over the rear to form the boots, slide out the doors to form the arms, which will pull the hood apart as shoulderpads. Flip up the shouldepads, rotate the roof (his back) to line up the head and fold his head down onto Gobots's shoulders. Unfold the handle on the weapon and plug it into either hand.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 7cm
The orange is now on the edges - the shoulderpads, boots and forearms to be exact, while Gobots's thighs, upper arms and torso are mid blue. The head is painted blue with a silver mouthplate and colourless eyes. The blue head is the only aspect that's the same as Jetstorm here, and while the orange and blue is significantly brighter, the solid blue works a lot better than Jetstorm's questionable transparent green. The lightpipe isn't quite as successful, since it's no longer bright pink, but it still works. The colours are actually fairly good despite being typically bright G2 colours, and are an overall improvement on those of his predecessor. The gold stickers are far less prominent, incidentally.
The hood halves look good as shoulderpads, while the boots are clearly the back of the car. There's a slot down the middle of the torso where the shaft of the gun sits in car mode which doesn't look so great. Otherwise the robot mode is fairly well formed.
The weapon is a long yellow affair with the nozzle and sportslights on the front and a kibbly spoiler at the back supporting the bellows. It's huge compared to Gobots and looks a little awkward. There's not a lot of poseability - the elbows lift up 90° and that's it. The gun can point slightly down at best - rotating shoulders would have been very helpful, although the shoulderpads would probably get in the way. The water gimmick is mildly effective again, and the limited angle of the nozzle is doesn't help matters at all.
Gobots has the best robot mode of the four G2 water squirter toys in my opinion, and while his colours are bright, they come together okay. The gun is a waste of time and the shoulderpads will look odd if they fade as on mine. This is a decent robot mode without being anything special.
VARIATIONS
None as such, although all four G2 water squirters are recolours of various Aquaspeeders. The Aquaspeeders were only available outside North America, while the G2 versions were only sold on that continent (both lines were sold in the same year).
OVERALL
The name seems to be a tribute to the Tonka Gobots, a onetime competitor to the Transformers - by the time G2 rolled around Hasbro had acquired Tonka. The name is probably the facet of this toy that gains the most attention, but he is the best of the G2 water squirters and the only one I would really recommend. The rally car and the robot mode have some nice aspects, the colour scheme has some issues but is on the whole nicer than his late G1 counterpart's. While he's not worth tracking down unless you have a thing for rally cars, Gobots is worth a look if you come across him - 5.5/10
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