Transformers: BotBots (toyline)
From MediaWiki
Transformers: BotBots is a toyline released in late 2018, involving small, cartoony, super deformed robot characters who transform into mundane items. These 1-inch tall soft-plastic bots are marketed in the same style as the insanely popular Shopkins toys and other collectible mini-toys. BotBots seems to take place in its own continuity, with no ties to extant Transformers universes or incarnations of existing characters. The line is also quite kid-focused, with wackiness and toilet humor galore.
In the universe of the BotBots, a mysterious cloud of energon gas drifted through a shopping mall, bringing tools, electronics, and even food to life as tiny transforming robots. By day they hide, and by night, mischief aplenty.
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!official synopsis
Overview
Each BotBot is a tiny, roughly-1-inch tall PVC-plastic toy that converts from a robot into some other object in a few short, simple steps. Though accessories are exceedingly rare in the line, many BotBots have hands that are compatible with accessories that use 3mm posts.
Each character belongs to a themed team depending on the "store" their alternate mode is found in, though the individual members of the team are spread out among a lot of packages:
- Blind Bag Mystery Figures with a single Bot inside
- 5-Packs with two Bots from the pack's theme team, two Bots from two other teams, and an additional blind-packed (but not random) "Lost Bot"
- 8-Packs with two Bots from the pack's theme team, five Bots from five other teams, and an additional blind-packed (but not random) "Lost Bot"
- 16-Packs with twelve Bots from the pack's theme team, and four from other teams
Naturally, there is a ton of overlap, with many figures available in multiple different packs; some Bots can be found in up to four different packages per Series. These redundant Bots are meant to encourage trading among the kids.
The blind-packed portions are opened by pulling up a tearable flap on the back of the card, revealing a perforated paper layer. The instructions say to then push the plastic bubble with both thumbs to pop the Bot out through the paper, but you can just tear the paper and pull it out too.
Single-packed Bots and Lost Bots in multipacks have individual ID numbers that allow you to tell what toy is inside. For Series 1, these are lightly embossed (by hand, strangely) on the back of the card on the bottom-right, near the pull-up flap. There are clearer, stamped-on ID codes located under the flap, though pulling them up while you're still in the store may get you in trouble. Beginning with Series 2, the ID numbers are instead properly printed onto the back of the card, near the top edge.
Toys
As each individual toy can appear in multiple multi-packs, this section is... a little more complicated than most. For each Series, we'll first list a complete roster of characters, broken down by their "tribes", then a listing of the individual packages and their contents.
Series 1
- Character roster
| Backpack Bunch | Greaser Gang | Jock Squad | The Lost Bots |  | ||||
| Shed Heads | Sugar Shocks | Techie Team | Toilet Troop |
- Packages
Single-pack bots are listed with their ID numbers. Bots in italics are found only in that pack/assortment. Entries highlighted in green are "recommended" buys, minimizing the number of sets to buy to complete a Series.
Blind Bag Mystery Figures
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You only need to buy one of the Jock Squad packs with Grit Sandwood in them. Everyone else in either pack is a duplicate found in other "recommended" packs, so pick the set whose extras make you happier.
Series "1.5"
This series features special "color change" BotBots with heat-sensitive paint, revealing splotches when warmed up. It appears to be an "add-on" to Series 1, and includes a modified Series 1 checklist.
It was revealed via Hasbro Australia's website[1]. But its lack of appearance at Toy Fair 2019, as well as apparently not being included in the Transformers BotBots Official Sticker Book, indicate it was originally meant to be a store exclusive; most likely Toys"R"Us, as they are sold through that chain in Canada, Taiwan and Hong Kong. With that chain's US death, Amazon would eventually release the toys to US buyers (as would several smaller online outlets well before then).
- Character roster
| Bakery Bytes | Lawn League |
- Packages
Bots in italics are found only in that pack/assortment. Entries highlighted in green are "recommended" buys, minimizing the number of sets to buy to complete a Series... but see the note below about the special circumstances surrounding this batch.
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This "minimum buy" arrangement only works if you can obtain the toys in-person and can see what you're getting. Amazon, the US distributor, does not allow you to pick specific items from BotBots assortments, and will send you random ones. In this instance, you are better off ordering the two Lawn League packs —which contain all of the toys in wave 1.5 except for the two color-changing Bakery Bytes— and a single Bakery Bytes pack, which no matter which one you get, will have said two color-changing Bakery Bytes. There's still an off chance you might get two of the same Lawn League pack, but retailer Kohl's accepts Amazon returns. Yeah, it's a pain, sorry.
Series 2
- Character roster
| Backpack Bunch | Greaser Gang | Jock Squad | Lost Bots |  | ||||
| Music Mob | Shed Heads | Spoiled Rottens | Sugar Shocks | |||||
| Swag Stylers | Techie Team | Toilet Troop |
- Packages
Single-pack bots are listed with their ID numbers. Bots in italics are found only in that pack/assortment. Entries highlighted in green are "recommended" buys, minimizing the number of sets to buy to complete a Series.
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Series 3
- Character roster
| Arcade Renegades | Fresh Squeezes | Goo Goo Groopies |  | |||||
| Jock Squad | Lost Bots | Music Mob | Playroom Posse | |||||
| Seasons Greeters | Spoiled Rottens | Sugar Shocks | Swag Stylers |
- Packages
Single-pack bots are listed with their ID numbers. Bots in italics are found only in that pack/assortment. Entries highlighted in green are "recommended" buys, minimizing the number of sets to buy to complete a Series.
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The Arcade Renegade packs have an ID number printed on the back, just to the right of the group shot, next to Sweet Cheat, appropriately enough. The number corresponds to their listing here; obviously, "6" is the only one you want to keep in mind.
Yes, for some reason, non-Lost-Bots ended up in two of the Seasons Greeters Lost Bot bubbles. We don't know why.
Series 4
Information on Series 4 is currently scarce, having only just been revealed at the MCM London Comic-Con in late October. Information here comes from the art assets and Hasbro shipping information, and will change as more is revealed.
- Character roster
Winner's Circle
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Magic Tricksters
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Retro Replays
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Seasons Greeters
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Sugar Shocks
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Movie Moguls
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home goods team (name TBA)
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outdoor goods team (name TBA)
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- Packages
Blind Bag Mystery Figures
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The usual 5-packs and 8-packs are confirmed to be continuing, but no other information on them has been released.
Exclusives
San Diego Comic-Con
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Merchandise
- 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)
- Transformers BotBots Official Sticker Book (2019)
- Publishing date: September 24, 2019
- Published by Random House, the Transformers BotBots Official Sticker Book contains over 500 stickers, with character profiles on 123 BotBots characters (including the Series 1 & 2 Bots, and the two moved from Series 1 to Series 3).
Notes
- The instruction leaflets (as well as the official BotBots website) provide all of the individual BotBot characters with a "Level" of between one and three stars. This corresponds to the illustrated checklist (included in every BotBots package), depicting the BotBots within a shopping mall. To make each BotBot easier to find on the checklist, the one-starred BotBots are on the ground floor, the two-starred BotBots are on the second tier, and the three-starred BotBots are on the top floor. The star rating appears to have no other purpose, and is not a reliable indicator of rarity. 3-Star bots are usually only available in a single pack, but many one-pack-only bots aren't 3-Star rated. None of this is helped by the fact that Series 2 has several discrepancies between the pack-in checklist and website's Levels for many bots.
- Promotional material for Series 1 shows two Bots who are not actually in Series 1, a baseball and a soccer ball.[2] Both were moved to later Series.
- All of the characters introduced thus far are entirely new, separate from any traditional "Generation 1" characters: a rarity in today's Transformers toy market.
- On that note, many characters have Autobot and Decepticon symbols on them (though the latter has not been found on anyone without the former also present). However, it does not appear that this is meant to indicate factional allegiance... but in-universe marketing. Absolutely no mention of the Autobots, Decepticons, Cybertron, or the like is made in the promotional materials, only "energon". Several Bots like Skillz Punk have both faction symbols on them, typically in the context "Autobots vs Decepticons" branding. It looks like in this universe, "Autobots" and "Decepticons" are... well, intellectual property used to advertise products. Meta!
- 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 period, and that's including convention-exclusive offerings! (And not counting toys that had no bio upon release and were later retconned as female.)
