Bot Shots (toyline)

Bot Shots Toyline Online game BeCool toyline BeCool cartoon

The two teams line up at opposite sides of the Flutney and play seven Ogres of fifteen minutes each—unless it rains, in which case they play eight Ogres.

Bot Shots is an action-figure-based game that involves small super-deformed auto-transforming figures with combat rules similar to "Rock, Paper, Scissors". Players transform their Bot Shots figure into vehicle mode, send it into their opponent's figure, and hopefully the collision will trigger a transformation into robot mode.

A three-sided rotating symbol in their chest (either a fist, a blaster, or a sword) is put into place before the game by the player, and is judged against the opponent's pre-set symbol using the below hierarchy, determining the winner.

• Fist beats sword
• Sword beats blaster
• Blaster beats fist

In the event of a draw, the figure's individual power ranking determines the winner. If a figure does not transform, its owner loses by default.

Aside from the regular Bot Shots, there are also the Super Bots. These robots are cast in translucent plastic, have more lopsided power stats, and are numbered as their own "Series". For the single-packs, one bot in each wave is designated as the Super Bot, with unique packaging deco calling out their "Super Bot" status, and their identities being blacked out on the back of the packaging of the other figures in the wave. Most of the three-packs have one designated Super Bot.

As a tie-in to the toyline, Hasbro also released the Bot Shots Battle Game! as the toyline's official website.

Toys

Hasbro Bot Shots line

Series 2 introduced new auto-transformation formats-slash-attacks: Jump Shots (crash to jump), Spin Shots (crash to spin), and Flip Shots (crash to flip). Figures recycled from Series 1 were given the name "Blitz Shots".

"Super Bots" are marked with italics.

Singles assortment

Series 1 Wave 1 Barricade Bumblebee Optimus Prime Sentinel Prime Starscream		Series 1 Wave 2 Decepticon Brawl Bumblebee Mirage Autobot Ratchet		Series 1 Wave 3 Jetfire Lockdown Megatron Thundercracker Autobot Topspin		Series 1 Wave 4 Ironhide Autobot Jazz Leadfoot Optimus Prime Powerglide		Someone will find a way to get alcohol involved with this game.
Series 1 Wave 5 Bumblebee Megatron Roadbuster Shockwave Skywarp		Series 2 Wave 1 Bumblebee Ironhide Shockwave Sunstorm		Series 2 Wave 2 Decepticon Brawl Cliffjumper Optimus Prime Scourge		Series 2 Wave 3 Autobot Hound Inferno Megatron Skywarp Twinstrike
Canceled Hydrax Prowl Rom the Space Knight Skystalker		Smokescreen Soundwave Strafe

Launcher assortment

Series 1 Wave 1 Megatron with Tank Launcher Optimus Prime with Trailer Launcher		Series 1 Wave 2 Ironhide with Trailer Launcher Starscream with Spaceship Launcher		Series 2 Wave 1 Bumblebee Launcher Optimus Prime Launcher		Series 2 Wave 2 Cryo Scourge Launcher Warpath Launcher
Series 2 Wave 3 (Canceled) Hun-Gurrr Launcher Starscream Launcher		Series 2 Wave 4 (Canceled) Bluestreak Launcher Buzzclaw Launcher

3-Pack assortment

Series 1 Wave 1 Bumblebee / Sentinel Prime / Prowl Megatron / Nemesis Prime / Acid Storm		Series 1 Wave 2 Skyquake / Jetfire / Powerglide Decepticon Brawl / Shockwave / Ironhide		Series 2 Wave 1 Cliffjumper / Decepticon Brawl / Dirt Boss Shockwave / Bumblebee / Skyquake		Series 2 Wave 2 Scourge / Sergeant Kup / Blitzwing Cindersaur / Optimus Prime / Autobot Jazz
Series 2 Wave 3 Red Alert / Ultra Magnus / Mirage Twinstrike / Skystalker / Bumblebee

Ultimate Battle Set / 5-Pack assortment

Series 1 Wave 1 Battle for the Matrix (Decepticon Brawl, Bumblebee, Megatron w/ Tank Launcher, Optimus Prime w/ Trailer Launcher, Matrix trophy card)

Series 2 Wave 1 Autobot Polar Assault Team (Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jetfire, Mirage, Optimus Prime) Stunticons (Breakdown, Dead End, Decepticon Dragstrip, Motorbreath, Brake-Neck)

Series 2 Wave 2 Autobot Air Force (Air Raid, Autobot Firestrike, Quickslinger, Silverbolt, Skydive) Decepticon Fire Assault Team (Barricade, Lockdown, Megatron, Shockwave, Starscream)

Series 2 Wave 3 (Canceled) Combaticons (Blast Off, Decepticon Brawl, Onslaught, Swindle, Vortex) Protectobots (Protectobot Blades, Protectobot First Aid, Protectobot Groove, Protectobot Hot Spot, Protectobot Streetsmart)

Track sets

• Dragon Track (2013)
  • Accessories: UB001 Optimus Prime and UB002 Megatron Bot Shots

The Dragon Track set includes a spinning "dragon pit" with a dragon's head and tail molded into it. On either side of the pit, the included lengths of straight track and launchers can be attached, giving two Bot Shots a battle arena to be launched into at speed. Also included are two Bot Shots to fight with—a Generation 1 style Optimus Prime whose vehicle mode sports a trailer with a rocket vent at the back, and a Megatron who turns into a jet.

TakaraTomy BeCool line

Doubly mysterious!

BeCool (ビークール Bīkūru, a double pun on ビークル "vehicle" and ビックリ "bikkuri", or "surprise") is TakaraTomy's version of Bot Shots. The line first surfaced in mid-September 2012, when six Bot Shots toys were found in a single store in Japan under the BeCool name without any advertising or other promotion. The sales display featured a sign welcoming customers to "Bikkuri Town". Each figure was sold in two different packaging styles that called out their surprise transformation gimmick. No changes from the Hasbro versions are known so far. This is assumed to be a test market release, and BeCool was made widely available in December that year in a single type of packaging.

Unlike their Bot Shots counterparts, BeCool toys aren't used to play a game, as TakaraTomy uses their quick and easy transformation as the main draw instead. For this reason, their chest stickers don't display stats but images of their vehicle mode and/or something related to it, such as a lightbar for Prowl and a syringe for Ratchet. Some toys are also different colors from any of their Bot Shots releases, including a red Mirage, green Jazz and orange Megatron.

The BeCool line isn't widely marketed as a Transformers series: the toy packaging is void of the franchise's name and logo and the website isn't part of TakaraTomy's main Transformers portal. The toys did however get advertised on an episode of From the Cybertron Satellite, Transformers Division. The characters do still have their Transformers names, but these are relegated to being written in tiny parenthesis as their "robot name" while the toys' proper names are simply the name of their vehicle modes, like Optimus Prime being "Trailer" and Bumblebee being "Yellow Sports Car".

• B01 Patrol Car (Prowl)
• B02 Ambulance (Ratchet)
• B03 Trailer (Optimus Prime)
• B04 Yellow Sports Car (Bumblebee) (with battle mask)
• B05 Red Jet (Powerglide)
• B06 Tank (Decepticon Brawl) (blue version)
• B07 Firetruck (Sentinel Prime)
• B08 Red Sports Car (Mirage)
• B09 Blue Sports Car (Topspin)
• B10 Black Off Road Car (Ironhide)
• B11 White Jet (Jetfire)
• B12 Special Sports Car (Bumblebee Clear Color) (without battle mask, sold at a lower price as an incentive)
• B12 Garbage Truck (Clean Optimus) (replaced Special Sports Car after 3 months, sold at full price)
• B13 Highway Patrol Car (Patrol Ratchet)
• B14 Blue Jet (Thundercracker)
• B15 Green Sports Car (Autobot Jazz)
• B16 Battle Tank (Shockwave)
• B17 American Patrol Car (Decepticon Barricade)
• B18 Tank Lorry (Megatron)
• BS01 Trailer and Trailer Base (Optimus Prime) (launcher version)
• BS02 Rescue Car and Rescue Base (Rescue Ratchet) (with Ironhide's launcher)
• BS03 Yellow Jet and Air Base (Sunstorm) (with Starscream's launcher)
• BS04 Hyper Tank and Hyper Tank Base (Megatron) (launcher version)

Notes

• Each figure's design is a mix of various incarnations of the characters, though usually settling somewhere between "Generation 1" and "movie".
• The power ranking numbers on the various releases of any character are different each time. Optimus Prime, for example, has different stats as a single, as a launcher, and as part of the Battle for the Matrix set, plus slightly different decos.
• Released in the Transformers Go! toyline is a BeCool set featuring Bot Shot styled versions of Kenzan, Jinbu, and Ganoh. BeCool Ganoh uses the Blitz Shot Sentinel Prime body with Brawl's head and chest, and BeCool Jinbu uses a yellow decoed Blitz Shot Starscream's body with Powerglide's head and chest, while Kenzan is a redeco of Blitz Shot Prowl with Mirage's front bumper.
• The massive product listing leak that revealed Rom the Space Knight's identity also contained the following Bot Shots-related entries: "TRA BOT SHOTS RING OF FIRE BATTLE PACK A5112", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT AND SPEED BUMBLEBEE A1672", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT AND SPEED GALVATRON A1673", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT AND SPEED PACKS A1671", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT N SPEED DLX AST A1668", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT N SPEED METRO TITAN A1670", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT N SPEED METROPLEX A1669", and "TRA BS 3 PK DINOBOT A3032". Considering the line's wholesale clearance across major North American retailers and apparent quiet discontinuation in general, it's unlikely that any of these products will ever see the light of day.

External links

• Official website
• Official Japanese website of BeCool