Review: Toyworld (Not) Throttlebots Combiner

A long time ago Toyworld began releasing semi-reimagined versions of the old Transformers Throttlebots, one every few months. Besides the colour of X being not exactly G1-accurate, I really liked these guys. They looked good, were good quality, retained 'hoods' even though their transformation was more complex and were generally fun little figures.

Which is probably why Toyworld gave up releasing them. Because everyone hates me and is out to ruin my fun.

It came as a bit of a surprise then when, earlier this year, Toyworld released the final 3 figures in the line all at once with little notice. Which is why, in part thanks to Auto Assembly, I've only just managed to complete the set.

Long suspected, right from the initial release of Grindrod, was that all six Throttlebots would eventually be able to combine into a Big Figure. Obviously nothing like that has ever been even hinted at in G1 literature for the Throttlebots, and it didn't take anything away from the 'base' ToyWorld robots, so it was always simply going to be a nice bonus if this indeed turned out to be the case.

Which it is.

The final gestalt figure doesn't have a name, as far as I am aware, so you can pretty much call him anything you like. To make my writing life simpler, for the remainder of this review I shall refer to him as 'Throttle'.

Besides the six individual robots, there's a fair amount of extra kibble required to form Throttle: a head/shoulders piece, fists, waist decoration (purely decorative), upper legs and feet. The version of Goldbug is not essential and just makes a sort of backpack.

Mostly all the parts lock together really nice and securely and everything is hunky dory. Mostly, that is, part from where the torso clips into the shoulders which isn't very secure and is definitely not hunky dory. It is quite easy for the shoulders to detach, especially when posing, and I definitely wouldn't hold the figure by this part alone unless you want to take it fall crashing to the ground. As I said, everything else locks in brilliantly, so the shoulders are a tad surprising in their ineffectiveness.

Throttle is, overall, a really good, solid figure - even though he's made up of a bunch of smaller ones clipped together. He's not super-easy to pose, but he is very poseable (if that makes sense) - you just have to sometimes rotate the arms slightly to get things to bend as you'd like them. All the joints are tight and most things are on ratchet joints which give a satisfying 'click' when you move move them. The firm ankle (and toe) tilts ensure Throttle's stances are secure.

People who were there from the beginning with this set never knew that Throttle was coming and he's a really nice bonus if you buy the complete set. If you don't like him, simply ignore him - he takes absolutely nothing away from the amazing individual figures. None of them are compromised by having in incorporate this extra mode.

But I think it's highly unlikely anyone will have anything bad to say about Throttle. He's simply a great figure and a lot of fun to play with. I'm not sure where people are going to end up displaying him - he fits reasonably well with either Classics or Masterpiece figures - but I'm sure people will be happy wherever he places his big feet.