Radio AM Robot

The Radio AM Robot is a Transformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

I hear the talking of the DJ, can't understand just what does he say?

The Radio AM Robot is a popular musician on Cybertron.

He may look like a cross between Megatron and Soundwave, but he's probably the only Transformer who can pick up the farm report—in Spanish!

Fiction

Wings Universe

Radio AM Robot's latest single was playing at the Cybertronian bar where Take-Off met with Axer. A Team Effort

Toys

The Transformers

I understand just a little, no comprende, it's a riddle.
I'm on a Mexican an Argentinian, ooohh-ooohh, radio!

• Radio AM Robot (AM radio, 1987)

• Accessories: Sword

Originally released by Taiwanese company Best Join in 1985 with the name "Radio Robot" under the Robo Terminal label , the toy we now know as Radio AM Robot was actually a knockoff with his body being an amalgamation of Generation 1 Megatron (head), Blaster (hips), Omega Supreme (arms), and Soundwave (lower legs), with the source for most or all of these parts being the Micro Change and Toybox versions of their respective toys as Blaster and Omega Supreme had only then been recently integrated into the Transformers brand. Surprisingly, despite his bootleg origins, he was actually released in Argentina by Comando Toys sporting both the official Transformers logo and a 1987 Hasbro copyright on his box.

He transforms into a working AM radio powered by a 9-volt battery, with his power and tuner dials actually being placed on his back rather than being reused from any of the buttons on the toy's front portion. As common with Latin American Transformers toys, he was available in two different color schemes: one baby blue, dark blue and grey, and another in a darker, slightly green-ish shade of grey, and red (both of these similar to the original two Micro Change versions of Blaster). The robot mode is about the same size as Blaster, while the radio mode is slightly taller and narrower.

Unfortunately, the blue version tends to suffer from heavy photodegradation (what we tend to informally call "yellowing", although this wouldn't be a very accurate description when it comes to this particular toy), which often results in his baby blue parts developing an odd shade of toothpaste green and his dark blue parts becoming much darker to the point of almost looking completely black - so much so that, at a glance, one might be erroneously led to assume that this is some third unknown variant of this mold.

Curiously, the Radio AM Robot is equipped with a sword that is almost an exact duplicate of the sword included with the first Japanese release of Generation 1 Megatron, though the handle is shaped differently.

• More information on Radio AM Robot at TFU.info
• Radio AM Robot part comparisons at Forbidden Play By Shigrehouse

Notes

• Nowhere on his box is Radio AM Robot indicated as an Autobot or a Decepticon. However, as no Argentine-made Decepticon-branded toys were sold there until Generation 2's Robot-Man X and Robot-Man Z, it is possible that Radio AM Robot is an Autobot by default.
• Radio AM Robot's two color schemes are identical to those used by the Micro Change version of Blaster (which, famously, was also a working AM radio!) - and again, considering his origins as a likely Diaclone / Micro Change bootleg, this feels pretty intentional.
• And speaking of color schemes, the one depicted in Radio AM Robot's box art was not actually used on the toy.
  • The drawn instructions below the packaging art also have a different color distribution compared to the actual toy, with his torso being light blue rather than dark blue and his legs being light blue rather than grey.

See also

• Walkie Talkie Robot
• Freedom Fighter