Radio AM Robot
From MediaWiki
- The Radio AM Robot is a Transformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.
The Radio AM Robot 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 bar where Take-Off met with Axer. A Team Effort
Toys
The Transformers
- Radio AM Robot (AM radio, 1987)
- Accessories: Sword
- Originally released by Taiwanese company Tai Fong in 1984 under the name of Robotic Radio, the toy we now know as Radio AM Robot was actually a Transformers (or, at the time of its design, most likely a Micro Change and Toybox) knockoff that took cues from Generation 1 Megatron (head), Blaster (hips), Omega Supreme (arms), and Soundwave (lower legs). 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. As common with Latin American Transformers toys, he was available in two different color schemes: one baby blue, dark blue and grey, and one very dark green and red. 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 lead to assume that this is some third unknown variant of this mold. [1]
- 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.
Notes
- It is unknown what relationship Comando Toys had, if any, to fellow South American toy companies Antex or Estrela.
- 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.
- The color scheme depicted in Radio AM Robot's box art does not appear to have been used on an actual toy.
