Quick Change Insect Robots

Review by JoshB

This is another cheap dollar store set sold by the notorious Polyfect company. These molds have been around forever and some have their origins going back to long defunct companies such as Takatoku and JAM. Lets take a look at each insect robot and see if we can see where they came from.

First off we have the Grasshopper, known as

Batta Mecha バッタメカ

This green robot is reminiscent of, but decidedly different than it's original Japanese counterpart. The body retains the same shape, and the transformation is similar, but the legs and arms are different. Bug mode is decent with translucent wings and nice yellow antenna. this is an even simpler form of the Locust Bot reviewed here.

Transformation is simple and the parts are rather loose. Something happened in the transition from the original to this that really dumbed down the design. He seems like a midget now.

Beetle - Kabuto Mecha カブトメカ

We reviewed an ancestor of the Kabuto Mecha earlier in the Convertors Crawler toy. This one while stylistically similar, has had some radical changes to the design that originate with the original JAM interpretation. Also note the the front horn was missing from my sample in the box.

As you can see, there's a large panel missing from the chest, as well as missing joints in the arms and legs. It just looks awkward.

Dragonfly Tonbo Mecha トンボメカ

Dragonfly mecha is probably the best looking one of the bunch. Still, he's simplified from his Japanese counterpart with joints in the arms and toes removed, as well as missing holes in the hands.

Robot mode is great and retains the same proportions. Stickers are new for this version and do not appear on Japanese versions.

Bee - Hachimeka ハチメカ

While it makes a good insect, it makes a poor robot. Once again, things are changed since the original.

Robot mode once again has changes to the arms and also the hip area. This makes for an awkward stance and goofy robot mode.

Each has a makers mark stamped somewhere on it. Where Polyfect is actually stamped into the mold, it's possible they re-tooled many of the parts to remove joints and thus simplify the mold, and therefore the cost.

They are a crappy group all together, but well worth the 10 bucks or so for the set. If anything it fuels the fire to track down the originals even more.