Review: Rock Lords

What's the most boring thing a Transformer could turn into? Tom Hanks suggested a building, but I think there's something even more dull. To make matters worse, they didn't just stop with the prototype on these, they went into production and made a huge bunch of the things. And a movie. Yeah, you know where I'm going with this, you've read the post title, it's the Rock Lords!

Review: Tonka Town Fire Station

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was a young lad hanging about after my primary school's jumble sale, waiting for my mum to finish tidying up. I was pushing back and to on the table a battered, old, unsold and rather large Tonka truck. One of the helper mothers asked if I wanted it. A little later I was walking home, truck under my arm.

This was in the 80s (although the truck may have originated from before then), when Tonka produced big construction vehicles, usually involving a large amount of metal. Send my (newly repainted) truck rolling down the sloping driveway and pity anything that got in its way. It was a monster. An indestructable monster that survives to this day. Although Tonka produced a number of other toys in its time, including dolls, this is how I - and many others - remember Tonka: producing big, chunky, strong and tough trucks.

In 1991 Tonka was bought by Hasbro and now HTI have licensed the brand to produce a new range of vehicles, figures and playsets called Tonka Town. They're not made of metal (what is these days?) but they retain their strong, tough roots and have expanded from construction to also include police and fire. To accompany the new line there's a website (www.tonkatown.com) and a Tonka Town magazine launching in mid-October - the first issue of which comes with a Tonka Town figure.

The fire station is the largest set in the range, costing just under £40. It's a 3-level playset, with garage, command centre and training tower. It's big and colourful and, having given it a reasonably good kicking for testing purposes, it seems to hold up to the strong & tough nature you'd expect from something branded 'Tonka'.

Review: GoBots Scooter

Recently I wrote a review of the New Adventures of He-Man Starship Eternia. I mentioned that NA wasn't particularly well liked at the time. Coincidently, today's review is of a toy from another line which wasn't very well liked - GoBots.

GoBots was the competitor to Transformers and, despite starting off well, was soon massively overtaken in popularity and sales by its rival. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon was never as popular as the Transformers Sunbow one. Upon recent rewatching, I discovered it really wasn't as bad as people seem to think it was. In actuality it's the Transformers cartoon which is far worse than memory tries to insist. The cartoon is exactly what you'd expect from something created by the people behind Yogi Bear, Wacky Races et al.

One of the main characters from the show was Scooter who, thanks to ebay, is now mine to own. There were two scales to GoBots toys - the smaller ~4 inch one and the larger deluxe line. This Scooter is of the smaller variety.