Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

Finishing off this run of Playskool Go-Bots with -- who else? -- another version of Speed-Bot. This unique one turns into a Le Mans-style race car, and like previous "racer" styled cars comes with a pilot robot figure and a Gas-Bot figure. This design was intended to be part of the 2004 line, but it was cancelled in the US before it ever made to market. It did appear in UK retail in 2005, however. 

So many of these Playskool Go-Bot Invisibility Force toys are basic redecos of existing designs that I didn't want to spent too many days on them, so here's a group shot of four reissues with transluscent plastic designs. From left to right is Reptron , the dinosaur; Racer-Bot ALPHA (a redeco of the Speed-Bot muscle car ); Strong-Bot in his ATV version ; and finally another Speed-Bot in his original car mode . 

Strong-Bot is back in an all new design that sees him turn into a cement mixing truck. Because this was released as part of the Invisibility Force line of Go-Bots, he has translucent plastic parts. One of the few all-new designs released in a line that consisted mostly of redecos. 

Blazing through some more Playskool Go-Bots redecos with group shots. Here, Fire-Bot has been recast in translucent plastic, making him part of the Invisibility Force. So has Racer-Bot BETA.  

Preditron is a noteworthy addition late in the Go-Bots line. It's not particularly for his design, which is just a redeco of the Big Adventure Cheetor toy with a remolded head. It's not for his finish, which is done with parts in translucent plastic because he's part of the Invisibility Force line. No, it's because he's the only villain character included in the otherwise friendly Go-Bots line. According to his minimal on-box bio, Preditron is a new incarnation of Beast-Bot turned bad. 

Another Speed-Bot! He just keeps coming back in new shapes and forms. This time, this Playskool Go-Bot turns into a red and black muscle car. This incarnation came out particularly late in the line, in 2005.

These last few waves of Playskool Go-Bots released up till 2005 include many redecos/repaints, re-releasing established characters in molds first introduced as other characters. So in this case, Strong-Bot appears again but now as a pick-up truck first seen as Flash-Bot  and then as Truck-Bot . In the background of this drawing are Cop-Bot, who is now a police motorcycle who was previously Buzzer-Bot. And then there's Gorilla-Bot who, after a stint of being the purple Beast-Bot , has returned to his gorilla form and now is in black and kind of resembles Optimus Primal. 

Another popular character to fill out the Playskool Go-Bot shelves is Strong-Bot, now reformatted to an all-new design.This version of the character turns into an all-terrain jeep-like vehicle. He does not have hands. 

Here's another incarnation of Speed-Bot, this time with an all-new design. Released in 2004, near the tail-end of the Playskool Go-Bots line, this Speed-Bot turns into a different red sports car than previous versions. 

Released near the tail end of the Playskool Go-Bots line is this new incarnation of Buzzer-Bot. He was previously a mechanical wasp , and then later a motorcycle . Now, for 2004, he is a convertible sports car. Sharing this drawing with him is a new incarnation of Beast-Bot, with similar colors he had before but now instead of turning into an ape or big cat , he's a dinosaur. 

 Yesterday's Hauler-Bot was more than just the truck that turns into a robot. He also included a car-carrier trailer (scaled and shaped to fit the Playskool Go-Bots aesthetic) that also transformed. It split into two, with the upper portion of the carrier turning into a pterodactyl, and the lower into a wheeled turtle (or maybe it's an ankylosaur). Neither were named, so the whole assembly is collectively known as Hauler-Bot.  As an additional 'Super Mode,' the Hauler-Bot robot can stand on the turtle base and wear the pterodactyl on his shoulders. I don't think that will warrant a separate drawing, unlike some of the more complicated Super Modes elsewhere in the line. 

The largest of the Playskool Go-Bots toys,  Hauler-Bot is turns into a big, chunky semi truck packed with lights and electronic features. His trailer splits apart into two other components, which will get their own drawing. Hauler-Bot was available in 2003. 

Here's another Speed-Bot, now designated a "Racer," he is a deluxe figure that turns from a sports car into a highly poseable robot. This version of Speed-Bot comes with two unnamed pack-in figures, a new version of a "Kid-Bot" like driver, and a redeco of the existing "Gas-Bot" design.

Now in Ultra-scale, this largest rendition of Speed-Bot has been reformatted to turn into a road-hugging dragster. The large toy has a spring-loaded parachute deployer meant to slow him down in car mode. He was one of four versions of Speed-Bot available in 2003.

A couple more redecos to finish off this week. Speed-Bot was reissued many times throughout the Go-Bots run, and this version has the G-logo on his chest. This version came with a VHS cassette with episodes of the short-lived Go-Bots on it. Next to Speed-Bot is Scrap-Bot, a lime green redeco of the yellow Strong-Bot toy that turns into a bulldozer.  

The Go-Bots assortment known as the "Glow-Bots" were named such because of some luminous features in their toys. Most are redecos of existing Go-Bot designs, but front and center here is Racer-Bot BETA, a robot who turns into a generic '30s style hot rod with light-up engine block feature. The other 'bots with him are Buzzer-Bot , Truck-Bot (a redeco of Flash-Bot ) and Taxi-Bot (another redeco of the original Speed-Bot ).  

Skipping past posting basic redecos daily, I've combined a quartet of previously released Go-Bot designs into a single drawing. This is the "Mission: Earth" team, an assortment of individually sold Go-Bots from the 2003 line connected by packaging text branding. The team consists of (from left to right): Tigatron (a redeco of Cheetor ); Reptron (a redeco of Dino-Bot ); Cop-Bot (a redeco of Speed-Bot ) and Beast-Bot, a slight redeco of his earlier Gorilla-Bot release.  

Strong-Bot is back, now as an earth mover dump truck. This was his inclusion in the Botropolis wave of 2003-2004 GoBots line. The first version of Strong-Bot was redecoed in this assortment, as a green bulldozer named Scrap-Bot. 

Though the Playskool Go-Bots line frequently relied on redecos to bolster its product assortment, the occasional new design would freshen the franchise. Flash-Bot here is a new one added to the 2003-2004 toys, turning into a bright blue pickup truck.

Buzzer-Bot, who had previously been released as a mechanical wasp , now has been reformatted to have a motorcycle mode. He was part of a subset of city-dwelling vehicles dubbed Botropolis. By this time, the Go-Bots line had evolved to do away with Transformers branding, and the cutesified Autobot symbol that had adorned the figures was replaced with a industrial-looking "G" logo.