Turbo (G1)

The name or term "Turbo" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Turbo (disambiguation).

Turbo is (possibly) an Autobot from the Estrela portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Obscurest street fight in history.

Turbo is a Bat-Robô. He goes vroom, crashes, and then becomes an invincible robot!

Sometimes he sounds like he's from Brooklyn.

Fiction

TransTech

In Axiom Nexus, the offworlder zone for extra-dimensional travellers on TransTech Cybertron, Turbo was a member of the Malignus Revolutionary Army. The Malignus were a band of street toughs and minor criminals, but ultimately amounted to little more than a nuisance to the Security Administration and Freelance Police Legion.

On one occasion, Turbo was playing scraps with Jipe and the boys when two punks came in looking for a bot named Bug Bite. Turbo told them to slag off until the kid named Bad Boy tried to get rough with him. The scrappy little punk blindsided him with a right cross! The two rough-housed for awhile until Turbo was impressed with the kid's chops, and gave the GoBots the info they was looking for. Withered Hope

Toys

Transformers

• Turbo (Bat-Robô, 1986?)

Released only in Brazil by Estrela, Turbo transforms into a Nissan Fairlady 300ZX. The toy features a friction-driven motor, which, as part of its gimmick, is used to trigger its transformation. After pulling it back, the car drives forward until it hits something with its front bumper, whereupon it springs up into robot mode and then will roll back the other way as a robot.

Turbo was released simultaneously in red/light grey and blue/dark grey color schemes. It is unknown which, if either, is more difficult to come by.

Notes

• The Turbo mold was originally made in Japan, designed by Masahiro Tao for Asahi Tsusho KK (朝日通商 株式会社), otherwise known the Asahi Corporation. After being created in 1984, it seems the design was shortly thereafter licensed by the Ertl Company in 1985 and sold in their Pow-R-Trons line in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Ertl's use of the mold included the evil Fy-Ton (black/grey), heroic Turboid (yellow/grey), and "Knight Rider" (black/red, based on the TV show, possibly only available in the UK and mainland Europe).
• From there, the Pow-R-Trons cars, minus "Knight Rider", were sold in 1985 by Fujisho (株式会社不二商) - a sister company or subsidiary of Asahi with a large business as a toy importer - who marketed Ertl's unchanged toys as the "Fairlady 300ZX" in a short-lived Japanese toyline called Attack Change Machine Powertron (アタックチェンジマシーン パワートロン). As far as can be discerned, Asahi seems to have made the physical toys for Ertl, then had Fujisho put the Ertl stock they were already making into localized packaging for Japan.
• While a 1986 Tokyo Toy Show catalog has the Powertrons being offered by Asahi Tsusho itself in unique decos, all of the samples on the Japanese aftermarket retain Ertl's color schemes, stickers, and copyright stamps, suggesting the toys weren't sold in Japan either before or after Asahi's collaboration with Ertl.
• It is uncertain what company Estrela licensed the Bat-Robô molds from, as the only copyright stamps on them are for Estrela itself (which state the toys were physically made in Brazil). In any event, the color schemes Estrela used appear to be unique to South America.
• Due to the lack of faction symbols on the toy or packaging, it is not explicit what faction Turbo fights for. However, the toy does use Hasbro's Autobot style packaging, so we're going to default to Autobot (at least, outside of Axiom Nexus; the Bat-Robôs were not sold under the Optimus / Malignus series).

External links

• Bat-Robôs at Super Toy Archive