GoBots Combiner Puzzler
Review by Ginrai
When I was a kid, I got into GoBots before Transformers, which makes sense, since Transformers came out here first. But even when Transformers did hit, I still kept getting GoBots. One Christmas at a very young age I got the Transformer Jetfire, perhaps better known as the VF-1S Super Valkyrie from Takatoku's Macross toy line in Japan. I loved this toy dearly... for exactly two days, until I broke Jetfire's shoulders and we returned the hapless robot to Toys "R" Us.
Now, I could have gotten a new Jetfire, but the allure of a Staks Transport and this toy, Puzzler, for less than Jetfire on his lonesome, won me over. I made a snap decision, and I went home with a semi truck and six cars that all turned into robots. Some would say I made a poor decision (hell, I regretted it for years), but come on, I was 4 years old and these GoBots are actually pretty damn cool toys. The concept of combining robots goes back to the '70s, but Puzzler really owes a lot more to the Diaclone combiners like Construction Vehicle Robo Build Combination (the Constructicons and their combined mode, Devastator from the Transformers line) than Getter Robo, despite the Bandai/Popy pedigree.
Take six fairly realistic cars, give them each individual robot modes, then give them a combined mode that does not require any extra parts and is far more poseable than any combiner out of Takara/Hasbro in those days, built out of hard plastic, diecast metal, and rubber tires, and you have a winning recipe. Puzzler sort of an apt name. The actual combination is a lot more complicated than you might expect (especially compared to its Transformers contemporaries), and it's not that easy to tell if you've actually done it right. On the plus side, it still looks good in a number of configurations, so who cares?
The combined mode is both steady and pretty well articulated. Yes, this robot has elbows. The white police car (Jig Saw), is really quite poseable and that poseability is necessary for Puzzler, though it is kind of terrifying that the top half of the robot and the bottom half are connected by the light bar on top of Jig Saw. I was sure I was going to snap this tiny chromed plastic in half, but it was totally fine and on reflection, I never even broke that part when I was a kid. It seems flimsy, but it's not. I'm still really impressed that the heads and head of the giant robot are hidden inside the smaller robots. While Puzzler doesn't have any guns (or the silly rubber suspenders of the Japanese Machine Robo release), it's still cool, as long as you don't mind your robot looking like a balding former high school football player.
The individual robots are of uneven quality. While they all have some metal on them, some of them are a little iffy. Crossword and Pocket (the orange Porsche and the yellow Countach) both have spindly little arms, Rube and Zig Zag (the black Mercedes and the blue Nissan) have giant feet, and Tic Tac (the red Corvette) looks like he got his hands caught in a thresher. Don't go thinking that means they are crappy robots. They are actually about on par with most of the 600 series toys, though they might be a little larger. They still easily beat out most of the early small Transformers like the Huffer or Brawn. And there's still the allure of a little diecast in your life. My favorite color was orange, so as a kid I loved Crossword, even though an orange Porsche would probably be hideous in real life and the robot looks like it is wearing extremely uncomfortable high heels. I also always would pretend Pocket was the Transformer Sunstreaker. Come on, it's a yellow Countach and it has the same kind of weird head wings.
Maybe this doesn't sound like a glowing endorsement, but compare this to its direct competition: the Stunticons and their combined mode Menasor from the Transformers line. It's night and day. The Stunticons are almost entirely plastic, they are just uncomfortable add-ons to a larger, extremely awkward truck robot, and require all sorts of parts that don't go anywhere when it's not a giant robot. And besides that, Menasor is just uglier. Squat, mostly gray... Puzzler is the clear winner. The engineering of this robot is really clever and while Monsterous (Devil Satan Six in Japan) is probably a slightly better toy, it's easier to cheat when your alternate modes are made up monster things and not realistic cars. Should you get this? Do you like robots that transform into actual cars? Do you like robots that have some diecast on them but aren't immobile blocks of zinc? Do you like giant robots built of smaller robots that combine without extra parts and look good from different angles? Yes? Good news! GoBots are cheap! Hit your local auction site, flea market, or toy show! The GoBots' bad reputation is your gain! Puzzler is available as both separate cars and a giftset containing all six. As usual, the Japanese commercial is a lot cooler. I guess the US commercial does have one advantage though. While it's less atmospheric, it gives the viewer a much clearer idea what the toy is and how it works.
(C) 2010 Jeremy W. Kaufmann & CollectionDX
Comments
26 comments postedThis was one of my favorite GoBots when I was a kid. I liked it better than the combiners of the time that the Transformers line had. Good review of what I think is an over-looked and under-rated toy from the era.
Puzzler was my 1st combiner ever when I was 7. I've played with that toy for hours. I had so much fun playing with it, so fun that it distracted me from watching family sitcoms like 'Mama's Family' or 'Gimme A Break!' on NBC primetime on Saturday night with my family.
It was way better than G1 Menasor, Devastator, & the rest of the gestalt teams from TFs.
Of course G1 Predaking's a marvel of epic porportions, but not as phenomenal as Go-Bots Puzzler.
What am I talking about here? Puzzler's phenomenal, but not as astronomically awesome as the Go-Bots Power Warrior.
-R78
.... G1 Transformers, at least in car mode? In the car mode picture
the right side looks like sunstreaker, camshaft and smokescreen. The
far right red camaro could be tracks. Maybe Tonka borrowed the outer
car molds from takara?
Don't be ridiculous. No, it is not sharing the "outer mold" from some Transformers. Those were just the popular cars in the '80s. These are different (BETTER) designs than the Stunticons (which came out later, by the way), and the GoBots were designed by Bandai. Tonka just repackaged them for the US.
It's not ridiculous to think that. Not everyone is a gobots "expert"...
Bandai manufactured these for Tonka who re-did some stickers, paint etc. from the japanese originals.
Overall, I prefer the vintage TF and do not own any gobots. Even the box packaging of the japanese MR ones kills the US Tonka carded figures. I just dig the chunky designs of the Stunticons far more than these gobots.
No, I mean it's ridiculous to think Bandai would copy the outside of a toy and then somehow completely re-engineer the inside to be a toy that is totally different. These aren't even close to the shape or proportions of the Transformers with the same car mode. These cars are not even half as big as Transformers like Sideswipe.
...but there's no way for someone who isn't intimately familiar with this toy already to guage the size of these from your article/photos.
Not everyone is as up on their gobots as you, friend...
What are the chances that any legitimate toy company anywhere would cast a new transforming robot toy from the same mold as a competitor,but change everything inside in both form and function?
Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just resculpt the wole thing?
---------------------------------------------
A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
I actually have two of these guys now, the red and the white. Picked them up in a huge lot of Transformers. They are missing their tires, but pretty tight otherwise. I agree that these are way better than the TF combiners of the time. No extra fiddly bits to lose! I'll definitely be looking for the others.
I think the car modes are better than Menasors combiners, but the robot mode still looks kinda goofy... like someone hot glued a bunch of cars together. :P Would've been nice if Puzzler mode had some more distinct looking limbs.
But hey, transforming robots! What's not to love? :P
Allow me to humbly submit that if you think Menasor looks better than Puzzler, you probably haven't seen Menasor in a while. Here's a website that has comparison pics: http://www.mechaworx.com/toyreviews/results1.asp?strToyName=Gobots+vs+Transformers
A couple weeks ago,I watched the episode that introduces these guys,and they're integrated into Earth culture as normal cars (like Bumblebee in the TF movie) waiting to make their move. Anyway,TicTac is at a car lot or something,and the one guy goes,"This one's a real Tic Tac!" What the hell does that even mean? I thought Tic Tac was a candy brand.
Later,when they all merge,the other GoBots keep referring to it as "that big puzzler," and similar comments. It was like they worked so hard to reason their names. It doesn't make any sense because noone else is named that way. Noone was like,"wow that plane is a real leader-1,amirite?" or "hey,that's a real smallfoot of a truck."
Stone Cold Steve Austin isn't from Antartica.
On to the toy,I don't think I ever had it,which was weird since I certainly had several of the Gobots,but I guess I just liked the other characters more at the time,or maybe they were harder to find where I lived. Without having it here in front of me,and relying on pictures and descriptions,I'd say this guy's the best of the eighties combiners. I've read other reviews where people have the same concerns over the lightbar,but like you,they've never actually broken it.
Obviously nowadays Jetfire is seen as more valuable and desirable to collectors,but as a kid I'm sure Stacks and these guys were more fun.
---------------------------------------------
A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
"Obviously nowadays Jetfire is seen as more valuable and desirable to collectors,but as a kid I'm sure Stacks and these guys were more fun."
Stacks, Leader-One, Cy-Kill & Co.
More...much more fun and valubable than you could possibly imagine. Just don't reimagine them and it'll be possibly more...much more imaginative than meets the ego's eye.
-R78
I don't understand any of what you just said.
---------------------------------------------
A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
The GoBots cartoon is terribly corny and badly written, but the robots are all named after different kinds of puzzles or games. Tic Tac is named after the game of tic tac toe.
If you think that's bad, read the first issue of the original Transformers comic where each character says things like, "Ironhide will use his magic juices on you!" "Frenzy will get you in a frenzy!" Ugh.
"Ironhide will use his magic juices on you". uh huh.
And yes, the Go-Bots toys rocked. The cartoon sucked nuts. I'd take Machine Robo anyday, despite the incest in it
I understood part of it. I'm not sure whether to be proud of that fact or not!
Great review, Jeremy. I never had this guy. Always wanted the power suits, the Command Base (or Thruster, the Regenegade base/ship)...or even Zod. I guess Puzzler was just never on my radar. When I was little, I just figured this was too much like a TF toy...and in my mind, TFs were superior.
After reading this review, I'd certainly say this toy's much better than I thought. Still, there are a few beefs with it. The colors are atrocious. There's no uniformity and each car has a fugly off-primary shade. Yeesh. Menasor may have been boring, but at least the combined robot had some uniformity. He was mostly black and dark grey...with purple accents. VERY Decepticon.
The other major issue I have with the design is Jig Saw. See how the front of the car is kinda long and pointy? Well, uh, wonder why there're no side shots of the combined mode??? ;)
Anyway, this thing's clearly a lot sweeter than than I thought. Still, I just cannot see it holding a candle to Predaking. That thing's probably the greatest 80's gestault.
--
Sanjeev
IMO gestalts are cooler when the colors don't match. It makes it more obvious that it's several smaller machines making up one big one.
---------------------------------------------
A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
Hey, it works for Voltron!
I guess it's different for each case...
--
Sanjeev
I... want Go-Bots?
O.o?
------------------------------
CollectionDX Staff
No evil can stand up to my "Henshin"
out of the gobots i have seen this is one of the few i want, good review btw
I had Puzzler as a kid. He was damn cool. Got him MISCed as an adult (from a seller who wasn't on Ebay who I also got 6 MISC Gobot Renegades AND the Grungy Powersuit combiner!) and he impresses me more NOW than he did then.
No parts forming whatsoever. Decent amount of posing. Looks good combined. Die Cast Metal. Rubber Tires. Put it this way. I have the TF Car Robots version of Bruticus. I put them back in the box and will probably sell them off unless I keep them as an example of G1 combiner teams.
Puzzler is just that GOOD.
Some of the robot modes are meh, but have you looked at G1 Scramble City combiner figures? Most of them look WORSE than Puzzler's bits do. And they have tons of stickers. (Puzzler is mostly paint apps, another big plus.)
Comparing them to Predaking is unfair. They were slightly bigger than minicar (modern day TF Legends class) figures while Predaking is made up of Voyagers or Beast Wars era Mega Class figures. And its STILL a partsformer, though one that seems to use the parts on the individual toys. The big feet become big ugly gun mounts and so on.
(That being said if the rerererelease of Predaking is sub 100 bucks or I can buy each figure in a bot of the month club thing I would still get it. And I be BROOOOOKE.)
Now Puzzler isn't as good as Rail Racer or Build King, but I think his combined mode is still superior to the modern TF Energon combiners, though they have way better individual modes. (Sold my Classics Devastator. Only 2 different limb types is CHEATING.)
If I actually see Legends Movie Devastator in my local Wal Mart I may revise my opinions on what wee toys can do combining though.
odd i got these this past weekend at my local fleamarket carded too! not much to look at in pictures but damn fun in person
I have had puzzler for a few decades and thought he was a much better combiner than any of the 80s combiners. The only combiner I thought was cool as puzzler was when Predaking came out and he was still very limited.
I got these for either my 10th or 11th birthday (carded versions). I had recieved one for xmas, then I recieved the rest as birthday presents a couple weeks later. I had to trade in one though because I had gotten 2 copies of the one leg (the blue one, IIRC). It was my first (and for a long time, only) combiner, and I thought it was great. Amazingly, I still have 5/6s of him, I'm just missing one of the arms.
The weakest part of the whole thing is the heads of the leg robots. The button that you slide broke off of the one many years ago, now it's difficult to get up (I guess it needs robo-viagra) and tends to fall all the way out.