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.

Ay, I’m flyin’ here!

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

Sometimes he sounds like he's from Brooklyn.

Fiction

Obscurest street fight in history.

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

UUHHH, FLEX YOUR MUSCLES! FLEX YOUR MUSCLES! BE HARD! BE STRONG!

• Turbo (Bat-Robô, 1986?)

Released only in Brazil by Estrela, Turbo transforms into a Nissan Fairlady 300ZX. The toy features a friction-driven pull-back 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

Congratulations, you've navigated through enough obscure pages on TFWiki that you've discovered a rare overlooked toy that was simultaneously both a Transformer and a GoBot.

• The Turbo mold, much like his Bat-Robô brother Pick-Up, has a long and complicated history. More can be read on the notes for the Bat-Robô page, but the gist of it is that these were originally made in Japan for Asahi Tsusho KK (朝日通商 株式会社) and were later distributed by Fujisho (株式会社不二商), a sister company or subsidiary of Asahi , as the Attack Change Machine Powertron (アタックチェンジマシーン パワートロン). 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, and eventually saw multiple re-releases elsewhere. Eventually, sometime during the mid 1980s, they would also make their way to Brazilian toy manufacturer Glasslite, which would release Turbo as Turborg and Pick-Up as Blocker under the Crash Tron label as part of the Mutante toyline - which was, in itself, a localization of the GoBots, meaning that there's actually been a point in time in the history of Transformers where you could get the exact same mold out of both a Transformers and a GoBot toyline!
• 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 (as is the "BAT ROBÔ" sticker, obviously).
• 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