Toy Review - Machine Robo Series 08: Missiletank Robo/Gobots Masterpiece Blaster

Let's just get this straight from the start - yes, we all know about the Transformer of the same name. No, you're not big and clever asking whether he comes with any cassettes. You can cut that right out, don't make me get the Sit Down Gun out. Besides which the Gobot came first, so ner, Gobots is definitely better than Transformers, so shut up, you're gay, no comebacks. That out of the way, I wasn't especially enthused by the choice of Missile Tank Robo; I mean, I wanted him at some point but alongside Shuttle Robo it made for a less than enticing relaunch for the range and in a way a fairly brave one when series lead Blue Jet and the more obviously popular Supercar Robo are there for the remaking.

Basically I've never really liked anything about the guy. The original figure was a gangly, fragile mess and Tonka adding green at random didn't help. In the American cartoon he was one of the least welcome guest team members from Gobotron with his nasal whiny voice and shit face while in Revenge of Cronos he was another who just turned up in the background for the most part; like Battle Robo and Supercar Robo he seemed to be something of a go-to for the animators if they needed someone to talk to a main character. To be fair most of the "600 Series" characters do that with the exception of Blue Jet and Rod Drill; it will be interesting to see how long Action Toys stick with them as the backbone of the line - a prototype of Pro Truck Racer has been revealed so I guess the larger characters are on the menu, though hopefully that won't extend to fucking Rom and Leina Stol for some time.

Missiletank Robo's alternate mode was originally a made-up missile tank, another of the designs with that whole Gerry Anderson thing going for it. You could picture this thing juddering out of one of Thunderbird 2's pods with the round faced one at the controls as it tries to rescue an atomic ambulance from a swamp by firing high explosives at pockets of natural gas. The problem the original toy just had a big old pair of arms on the top. The Action Toys version covers this somewhat with the hands and various joints hidden away into a big sort of missile mount on the top, though while it's not overly arm-like it's hardly a smooth edifice. It does all hinge up and rotate but yeah, it's just that the robot arms are hidden, there's still no reason why even such a fictional missile tank would have such a clumsy, overcomplicated mount. The rest of it isn't much better really; if anything the cab and tracks are less defined than the original and the thing looks even more like a pile of robot bits overall. 

His transformation is excellent, however. While I criticised Shuttle Robo for overcomplicating a simple sequence that was because it was awful and here it's not. The way the torso is formed from two parts of the launcher base is very cool, as are the way the legs compact down to bring them into better proportion with the body is some good work. It's all pegs and panels but surprisingly good fun and never frustrating. Like several in the line there's some serious natural unfolding from a relatively small, compact vehicle.

The robot mode is a joy too. Beautifully proportioned and low on clutter, with the tracks and cab halves on the legs avoiding him being a plain generic, though he's a bit generic to stay true to the original. At least the orange is broken up a bit by the strip down the chest and the thighs. Missiletank Robo is very, very orange though. He's also very solid and dynamic; with everything compacting onto his limbs he can pull of a wide range of poses and has excellent balance. Everything clips in so well that he's not far off the articulation of a non-transforming figure, while very little blocks the movement of most of the joints. Plus he has a decent head too, which avoids the tiny size of the original and thus allows the design to be rendered in much more pleasing detail.

Accessories-wise Action Toys play it smartly by including a pair of big silver missiles, with two slightly different mounting points for each mode. I'm glad they didn't try and incorporate any sort of launching mechanism as it would've distracted from the simplicity for a cheap gimmick. Rather more mystifying is that they do continue to include strange unrelated weaponry, in this case a handgun with a weird horizontal magazine. I don't really recall Missiletank Robo using a handgun in the anime, tending to go with the gigantic missiles. Maybe these are all going to combine together at the end or something - if you connect them in the right order it suddenly looks like Triple Jim or something. It doesn't do any harm I guess.

I'm probably too against the basic design to really give an unqualified recommend. The alternate mode is too silly and ugly even in cel form and really here Action Toys don't do a huge amount to fix that. But this seems to hugely benefit both the conversion and the actual robot. It's certainly hard to imagine a Missiletank Robo toy being made any better and it's certainly a welcome return to decent engineering after the horrors of Shuttle Robo.