20.6.08

+ Gobots - Beemer +

In 1985, Tonka struck a deal with US food chain Wendy's to give out free Gobots at their restaurants.

As the diecast/high quality plastic ones were too expensive (relatively speaking) for this sort of thing, Tonka decided to design and make brand new figures for the offer. They took the weird choice of making them brand-new characters as well. through some quirk of someone in marketing having time to kill, each actually received a very small biography on their packaging, something very few other figures got (I believe the American releases of the Series 3 Super Gobots, and another giveaway toy, the bright green Creepy, are the only other ones to get this treatment).

The only one of the toys I have is Beemer, a Guardian. His vehicle mode is a red sportscar, not sure of the type (I don't think it's a BMW, anyway...). It's a simple little all-plastic thing, about the same size as a regular Gobot, and with a very straightforward transformation. If the robot mode was a bit more thoughfully laid out (a larger moulded head would have helped) he might even have had some charm to him. He's harmless enough, and stands up fairly well to more recent things of this ilk (such as the McDonalds Transformers Armada figures), but he's a bit awful.

The Wendy's Gobots are cheap and plentiful second-hand (only Breez' rotor blades being halfway tricky to find), but they were exclusive to America. Thus I only have the one, as they're not worth the additional cost of shipping over to Blighty.
WATCH THE ORIGINAL COMMERCIAL: -
video

0 comments:

About Me