Battlebots rock!
Written: Feb 16 '02
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Pros: Very good likeness to the real bots, great prices, good quality toys for the price.
Cons: Only handful of the fan-favorites are produced, often in more then one incarnation. NeedsMore variety.
The Bottom Line: These are all great toys, great quality, nice design and accuracy to the real Bots and great prices. If you love BattleBots you are sure to enjoy these!
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| Furbster's Full Review: Jakks Pacific Battlebots |
I'm 25 years old, female, and I love BattleBots - the show, the competition and the toys!
Epinions has made Jakks Pacific BattleBots a category, while they produce many toys. If Epinions ever separates these into categories, I'll split up my review and make it longer on each subject. Until then... here I present you with my guide to the many different incarnations that Jakks Pacific offers and you can decide which ones you like best.
Battle Bashers
-What are they?:
These toys that have two main features.
Each one has a small motor and a set of wheels. Pushing the toy forward will cause the toy to keep going for a long time. The faster you push it, the faster and longer it moves across any flat surface.
Pushing your bot into another bot or object will cause the weapon to react on impact. With BioHazard if the front of his wedge, the front of his lifting arm, is pressed, the arm will pop out from within the body of the bot. This will cause the lifting arm to react, which will also cause the bot to "break apart". This means that the body of the bot will open up - acting like damage to the toy. Simply pressing the arm back down and folding the armor back onto BioHazard will fix him so he's ready for another battle.
-Battery operated?:
No.
-Size:
They all are less then 3 to 4 inches in each direction, depending on the bot.
-More then one series?:
I believe there is no more then 2 series out there. As they seem to be releasing them pretty fast, I could be very wrong.
The two series I know of is the regular battle bashers and the damaged battle bashers. The difference between the two is the damaged set is marked with dark spots and damage spots - painted on. The function between the 2 sets is the same. Both sets have these BattleBots: Vlad The Impaler, Minion, BioHazard, Ronin, El Diablo, Backlash, Alpha Raptor and Atomic Wedgie.
-Cost:
At most places they are priced between $3.99 and $4.99.
Grip N' Grapplers
-What are they?:
These have the bot attached to a tethered cord inside a clear tube that leads back to a handgrip. The handgrip has a handle like trigger you pull back on to make the toys weapon move. Some of the toys use the knob on the handgrip to control another part of the bot or weapon. With Tazbot the trigger moves his flipping arm while the knob controls the rotation of turret.
The bots also have tabs or spots somewhere on the front of the bot where if pressed in, like the Battle Bashers, this will cause the GNG to break apart. Most of these have two tabs or spots that cause damage. On Deadblow one of the tabs will cause the hammer arm to separate from the body thus disabling it. While the second tab will cause the two front wills to pop up thus disabling the ability to move.
The wheels are free moving, no motors, the user is in full control of motion and weaponry.
-Battery operated?:
No.
-Size:
The toy is the end is no bigger then 3 to 5 inches in either direction. The gripper handle is about 4 inches tall and long, an inch wide. The overall length of the toy from grip to toy is between 9 and 11 inches, varying from bot to bot.
-More then one series?:
Yes. I know of 4 incarnations.
The first series was the regular set of bots. These are: Deadblow, frenZy, Mauler, Tazbot, Diesector, Toro, Grendel and Ziggo.
The second series was the same, except they were the damaged ones, like for the bashers - painted on damage.
The third series is different in a couple of ways. First of all Grendel isn't part of this series, he was replaced by Killerhurtz. Second of all this series is the "Winner Pogs and Trophies Collection". Meaning that some come with Giant Nuts and some come with Winners Pogs. Deadblow, Mauler and frenZy come with Winners Pogs - which I believe are real similar in size to the real Pogs given to builders at the competition. The other 5 in the series come with Giant Nuts.
The fourth edition is mentioned on the box of the box of my third editions - "Look out for Fourth Edition Robo-Graphics!" - what exactly this means, I don't know as I don't have any yet.
Keep a look out for others this summer as I know there will in the least be a GNG Voltronic (Finally! Voltronic gets a toy!). Voltronic rocks! :)
Also there are two GNG's packed in with the Ultimate BattleBox and there is a set 3 sold together.
-Cost:
I've seen them for $7.99 up to $9.99 each.
Battle Chains Keychains
-What are they?:
These are small toy bots connected to the end of a keychain. The keychain itself is a chain connected to a loop. The chain is connected to the toy with a small metal ring. On the metal ring is a small free hanging piece of metal with the BattleBots logo etched in it - very nice. At the end metal ring is a soft string that goes into the toy. Pulling on the chain will cause the toys' weapon to react. Ronin's saw will spin if you pull the chain.
-Battery operated?:
No.
-Size:
The bot is normally between .5 inches to 2 inches in all directions. From the chain end to the weapon most are between 5 and 6 inches long.
-More then one series?:
I've heard of 3 series.
The first series has 4 bots: Mauler, Overkill, The Snake and BioHazard.
I don't have a clue about the second series as I have yet to run into them.
The third series has these 4 bots: Ziggo, Ronin, Deadblow and Alpha Raptor.
-Cost:
I've seen them from $2.99 to $3.99 each.
Spinbots Arena
-What are they?:
This is a large plastic arena. On each side are 2 places to place two bots and a place to put the small grip that is used to spin the bots.
The arena is like the BattleBox floor, except it dips down in a curve. The point is for each player to choose a bot and put it on the grip, wind it up and press the button on the grip that will send the bot flying off the grip spinning into the arena. If done at the same time the bots will spin and smack into each other - the last one spinning is the winner.
It takes time to get used to the spinner, figuring out how many times you should wind it up and how to angle it best for the bot to land stable in the arena without flying out or stopping spinning.
-Battery operated?:
No.
-Size:
The arena is 8 inches wide, 11 inches long and a little over 1 inch tall. The bots are .5 to 1.5 inches.
-More then one series?:
There are two known releases. One set has Bender, frenZy, BioHazard and Punjar. The second set has Bender, frenZy, Mauler and Blendo, I believe. The only difference is two of the 4 bots are different. To be honest I'm guessing which two go to which two in the set, as mine are all out of box.
-Cost:
I've seen these for $7.99 to $9.99 each playset.
Metal Mechanics
-What are they?:
These are some of the coolest BattleBots toys. These come in a box with all the pieces separated out, including stickers, motor and even two "Techno Tools" - two small screw drivers with different ends to hold nuts in place. This is basically a building kit. The back of the box features blue prints of the bot you are going to build. Inside contains more detailed instructions on how to build your fighting robot. I found the instructions to be fairly well written and I believe just about anyone could follow them.
These toys are made up of metal and plastic parts - mostly metal which makes them extra cool!
I found in building these that it took between 30 minutes and an hour to build one of these. I tend to take extra care when building things so it could be less or even more for other people.
In the end the bots weapon works. The wheels are free moving though.
The only encountered problems with two. With Ronin I found the wires for connecting the battery and the motor to be too short. Either I just got a bad set or I was trying to hook it up wrong - I'm in the belief that the wire was just too short. I got around it and Ronin works fine.
On Overkill if you screw down the motor down too tightly the blade will not retract. The way around this is to loosen that single screw half to a full turn and this will solve the problem.
I got these as soon as they came out, it's possible these problems were fixed in future releases.
Overall these are great toys to build and play with. Nightmare has quite a bit of power! If I were to push it to 9 volts I'm sure that baby would really do some damage, but I haven't done so and I don't suggest you do :)
And finally these all come with interchangeable weapons, 3 or 4 variations of the original bot weapon. Changing weapons takes no more then a minute or two, very simple.
-Battery operated?:
Yes! Two AA batteries required on the regular MM, 4 AA on the Deluxe MM.
-Size:
Most are between 6 and 10 inches in length and usually not more then 6 to 8 inches tall and about the same in width.
-More then one series?:
Yes. The original 4 are: Overkill, Deadblow, Backlash and Ronin.
They also came out with Metal Mechanics Deluxe. This contains many parts for two different bots with some of the parts shared, including the motor. This means that only one bot can be built at a time and to build the second one you must disassemble the first one for the parts. This bot is a bit bigger by a couple of inches then the regular 4. The two bots you can create is Minion and Deadblow. The motor is also more powerful then the original 4.
-Cost:
Very good price at $10.99 to $14.99 each.
BattleBox Arena
-What is it?:
The arena is a large playset that you would use to fight your Grip N' Grapplers in. Of course you can use any bot toy you want that fits on the floor though.
The arena is well built with good detail and design. You attach the hammers in the corners, put some stickers on, put in the batteries and put up the arena walls with spike strips and you've got yourself a BattleBots competition right in your own home.
When you start to play you simply press the button turning on the sound in which you'll get a count down then some music while you fight. There is a lever on each side, while fighting you push on this lever and it'll pound the hammers and bring up the saws on your opponents side of the arena, but watch out he can do the same to you!
-Battery operated?:
Yes.
-Size:
14 inches width, 14 inches long and with the spike strip walls attached it's about 6 inches tall.
-More then one series?:
The original BattleBox came with just the BattleBox. Then there is an Ultimate BattleBox set that includes the BattleBox plus two GNG's - Tazbot and Diesector. Ironically those two bots are in two different weight classes and owned by competitor Don Hutson and would never end up battling each other - at least not at BattleBots. :)
-Cost:
I've seen both arenas's going for between $19.99 and $29.99 each.
Other toys:
If you love BattleBots then you'll probably already know / or perhaps be interesting in knowing there are many other toys by Tiger Electronics in stores too. Their line includes battling Pocket Bots, R/C Custom BattleBots, R/C Pro series BattleBots, Walkie-Talkies Headset and Mechadon hand held game. If Epinions makes a category for those, I'll be sure to write about them in the future.
Overall:
Jakk's Pacific toys are all very nicely made. The detail is amazingly accurate to the real Bots. They even include sponsor logos and other familiar markings that some of Tiger Electronics toy lines don't include in their models. Jakks Pacific is very good at not changing the look and design of the bot, they are all very nicely designed.
The prices for these toys are excellent for what they do. I highly recommend these to BattleBots fans and collectors. I also highly recommend that if you haven't - go see the competition live! It's an amazing experience. :)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2.99-29.99
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older
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Epinions.com ID:
Furbster
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Location: La Habra, CA
Reviews written: 51
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Web developer/programmer who lives in CA with two Aibo puppies, Spaz and Ziggy.
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