Transformers: BotBots (franchise)

Collect the mall!

Transformers: BotBots is a Transformers franchise that began in 2018, involving small, cartoony, super deformed robot characters who transform into mundane items.

In the universe of the BotBots, a mysterious cloud of energon gas drifted through a shopping mall, turning tools, electronics, furniture, food, toys, sports equipment, and just about anything else into tiny transforming robots. By day they hide, and by night, mischief is aplenty.

Starting off originally as a toyline, the running success helped grow the franchise enough for it to gain books, a mini-comic, a pack of convention exclusives and a bunch of other merchandise. A Netflix-original cartoon premiered in March 2022.

BotBots takes place within its own continuity, and—for the most part—ignores any of the factions or concepts that had previously been used in Transformers. Instead, the line gave birth to a wide variety of "squads" based on the stores or places they were brought to life inside. On very rare occasions, references would be made to extant Transformers universes or incarnations of existing characters; which indicate those to exist as mass-market fiction within the BotBots universe.

One stormy night at a mall nearby, Energon power fell from the sky. It hit the mall with its powerful might, and gave everyday objects robot life!{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:official synopsis|official synopsis{{#if:|, {{{3}}}|}}|}}

Franchise elements

The BotBots franchise features the following components:

• A toyline — (2018 – 2022)
• A sticker book — (2019)
• A promotional mini-comic — (2019)
• A 3-step reading book — (2020)
• A Mad Libs book — (2021)
• A cartoon series — (2022)
• And several pieces of merchandise (see below)

Squads

As the story goes, every single BotBot gathered together, forming their own squads inside the respective stores or environments of the mall that they were brought to life in.

The squads are as follows: {{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 3 }}

|

3

|

• Arcade Renegades (Game Palace arcade)
• Backpack Bunch (school supply store)
• Bakery Bytes (bakery)
• Caffeine Collective (coffee shop)
• Cardio Clique (gym)
• Frequent Flyers (travel goods store)
• Fresh Squeezes (juice bar and health food)
• Gamer Geeks (tech department)
• Gifted Guild (??)
• Goo-Goo Groopies (baby store)
• Greaser Gang (food court)
• Hibotchi Heats (Asian restaurant)
• Home Rangers (department store)
• Jock Squad (sports store)
• Lawn League (gardening store)
• Los Deliciosos (Mexican restaurant)
• Lost Bots (Lost and Found)
• Magic Tricksters (magic store)
• Movie Moguls (movie theater)
• Music Mob (musical instrument store)
• Oil Slicks (auto parts store?)
• Party Favors (party store)
• Pet Mob (pet shop)
• Play Plexers (play area)
• Playroom Posse (toy store)
• Retro Replays (vintage electronics)
• Science Alliance (science store)
• Seasons Greeters (holiday decoration store)
• Shed Heads (home-and-garden store)
• Spoiled Rottens (trash can)
• Sugar Shocks (Sprinkles, the sweets shop)
• Swag Stylers (fashion store)
• Techie Team (Tech Store electronics)
• Toilet Troop (bathroom)
• Wilderness Troop (camping supply store)
• Winner's Circle (trophy store)

}}

Additionally, there was a "bonus" squad released as a San Diego Comic-Con-exclusive. However, this pack of BotBots was made with the intention of being completely convention-related and thus has very little (if any) connection to the mall and the other BotBots that exist in this universe.

The "Con Crew", is separated into three miniature "sub-squads" that specialize in different tasks relating to a convention.

These "sub-squads" include:

• Fantastic Fuelers (food and drinks)
• Line League (tools for waiting in line)
• Meet N' Greets (tools for meeting idols)

Merchandise

"Well, do ya?"

• BotBots apparel (2019)

Available through Amazon.com, BotBots has a number of t-shirts, long-sleeve tees, and hoodies for kids and adults:

• Botbots group shot
• "#Brobots" (group shot)
• "At First I Was Like..." (group shot)
• "I (Donut) Care (Sprinkleberry D'uhnut)
• "I'm About To Do Something Awesome!" (group shot)
• "Nacho Business" (Shredder Jack)
• "Power Player" (Game Over)
• "That's How I Roll" (King Toots & Rootwing)
• "To Do List:" (group shot)
• "Today I Am:" (group shot)
• "Whatever Happened, It Wasn't Me!" (King Toots)
• "You Want A Pizza Me?" (Duderoni)

Notes

• All of the characters introduced thus far are entirely new, separate from any traditional Generation 1 characters: a rarity in today's Transformers market.
• BotBots easily has the highest percentage of female Transformers in its cast of any Transformers toyline, and by a stunningly wide margin. In the first two series alone, 39 of the 121 characters are female. In fact, it took Transformers as a whole thirty years to approach that number of female toy characters, and that's including convention-exclusive offerings! (And not counting toys that had no bio upon release and were later retconned as female.) As of Series 5, roughly a third of the cast is female, with a few bio-less 'bots and some with no gendered pronouns in their bio at all.
• The premise of sudden exposure to Energon radiation bringing random objects to "robot life" is similar to the AllSpark Mutations of the live-action film series.
• The BotBots' various groups were referred to as "tribes" in most fiction until around 2021, when all media began using the term "squad" instead, likely to avoid potential cultural insensitivity issues. As such, for consistency's sake, TFWiki.net has opted to use "squad" in all instances except for fiction that explicitly refers to these groups as "tribes".
• Storyboards for a pitched but unmade BotBots commercial done by Sahle Robinson can be found on the Sahl'good Studios YouTube channel, humorously featuring sound effects performed vocally by Sahle to help sell the concept.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqPehlg9vw8&t</ref>

External links

• Page on the Transformers website

References

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