Robot-Man Z

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

Robot-Man Z is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

His packaging calls him a "nave espacial", but we're not buying it.

Robot-Man Z might be a Decepticon Jumpstarter. He might also be Twin Twist's evil brother. He might also be a demolitions expert. Your guess is as good as ours.

He looks identical to that other guy but is actually a completely different character!

Toys

Generation 2

(Blue/yellow version is from the earlier Salt-Man run per chromed rifle, missing multiple stickers)

• Robot-Man Z (Robot-Man, 1994)

• Accessories: Rifle

Made available by Antex exclusively in Argentina alongside his wavemate Robot-Man X, Robot-Man Z is essentially a rerelease of Salt-Man Z, itself a redeco of Twin Twist, transforming into a Cybertronic twin-drill tank via a very simple, one-step process. Its vehicle mode features a pull-back motor which propels it forward; after a short distance, a latch on its body releases his spring-loaded legs, and the weight and momentum flips Salt-Man Z up onto its robot-mode feet. A small lever on the back of its head adjusts the timing of when its head hits the floor, and thus its kickoff angle, hopefully making this gimmick work better.

His packaging art depicts him as having black limbs with a yellow torso, but it is super-unlikely the toy was released in this deco, as Antex never made the toy in those colors in the original series, despite recycling Estrela's Brazilian-release box art for the toy (which did come in those colors in that line). Currently, the only confirmed Robot-Man Z deco so far is black limbs with a white torso, one of the original 1985 Antex Salt-Man Z decos. It's possible the 1985 blue limbs/yellow torso version was released in this series, but this has yet to be confirmed.

Robot-Man Z's gun is unchromed grey plastic, with a handful of samples with black-plastic guns; while most of the original run of the Antex Salt-Men had chromed guns, some late-run releases had unchromed gray guns, presumably as a cost-cutting measure.

While most of the South American Transformers have poor-quality factory-applied paper decals that are prone to losing their adhesiveness in short order, the Robot-Mans' stickers seem to have a stronger adhesive than their forebears.

• More information on Salt-Man Z/Robot-Man Z at TFU.info

The Transformers mold: Twin Twist
Hasbro: The Transformers Twin Twist IGA: Transformers Twin Twist Twin Twist (red face) Estrela: Transformers Salt-Man Z (black & yellow) Salt-Man Z (blue & orange) Antex: Transformers Salt-Man Z (blue & yellow) Salt-Man Z (black & white) Generation 2 Robot-Man Z (black & white)

Notes

• Technically, "Generation 2" does not appear on the Robot-Man packaging, but that's also true for some of the Hasbro Generation 2 toyline packaging, and it does use the Generation 2 font, faction symbol, card style, etc, so....
• The packaging also gives us the tagline "Un salto mas hacia el futuro", meaning "One more leap into the future"... which is pretty freakin' great, honestly.