JoeCanuck
General Section => Reviews Section => Topic started by: olyeller01 on September 05, 2010, 09:17:38 PM
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Review – Armor Bot
The Highs:
1. It’s friggin’ huge!
2. Neat play features
3. Heavily armed
The Lows:
1. Not enough missiles to fill the spots for them
2. Not a lot of articulation
3. Electronic voice sounds are extremely corny
The Verdict: Not a must have, but a nice piece for the price.
Well, since I’ve been in a Joe mech-reviewing mood this week, I figured I’d finish it up with a review of the granddaddy mech of them all…the 1993 GI Joe Armor Bot. In the last years of the original line, Hasbro tried plenty of sub-teams to try and breathe some life back in the line and recapture that mid-80’s success. Ninja Force, Eco-Warriors, Drug Elimination Force, Star Brigade…a lot of these teams are heavily derided by hardcore Joe fans, but every now and then, we’d still get some nice toys out of them. The Armor Bot is one of them. Hasbro also had a tradition of releasing one or two really big toys each year. The General, Terror-Drome, Defiant, Rolling Thunder, and of course the mighty Flagg were all examples of this. The Armor Bot was the last of the big Joe toys in the original line.
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0697.jpg)
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0698.jpg)
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0699.jpg)
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0700.jpg)
The first thing you notice about the Armor Bot is that the thing is frigging huge. It stands over a foot-and-a-half tall (almost 2 feet if you count the antennae) and the arms make it about a foot wide. The body is primarily white, with the left arm, waist, cockpit canopy, and laser cannon all black, the rest of the weaponry blue, and the toy’s accents gold. These colors aren’t too military, but considering this is supposed to be a sci-fi, space-faring toy, I’m not going to knock it for the color choices. The feet are fused together, but have wheels in them so the Armor Bot can roll around easily. The legs are setup in a reversed knee configuration, similar to the PoC Deviant or the Star Wars AT-ST “Chicken Walker.” The right arm is a six barreled missile launcher, and the left arm is a giant, spring-loaded claw. The head contains a two-seater cockpit, accessed by flipping up the forward “face” plate. The Armor Bot has articulation in the hips, shoulders, waist, neck, and at the wrist of the arm with the claw. It’s decently articulated, but not tremendously. I wish the legs were more articulated and could be moved independent of each other. There’s also a large handle on the back of the Armor Bot for easy transport and handling during play. The handle’s kind of awkward-looking, but it doesn’t look too bad.
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0702.jpg)
The big Armor Bot also has BIG firepower. As previously mentioned, the right arm is a giant, six-barreled missile launcher. Pushing down a black, spring-loaded tab near the arm’s elbow fires a missile and cycles the gun to the next missile. It works well, but I worry about the long-term durability of that tab, as I can see it breaking. Besides the fact that the right arm is just a giant missile launcher, there’s plenty of other armament as well. The feet contain four spots for missile storage, and the chest has spots for a whopping eight. The only problem is that the Armor Bot doesn’t come with enough missiles to fill all the spots. If you unload the launcher on the arm, you can, but otherwise you’re limited to having six in the launcher and six on the chest, which looks kind of goofy. Also, if you put the missiles in the spots on the feet, they stick out way too far. I ended up buying two more missiles off eBay so that I could have a fully loaded arm and all 8 spots in the chest filled.
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0706.jpg) (http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0704.jpg)
There are still more weapons here, though. The AB’s “chin” has a large, black laser cannon attached to it, which can be rotated from side to side and raised up and down. The right side of the head/cockpit has both a single and double-barreled cannon, and a large quad-barreled cannon dominates the left side of the head. All three guns on the head can be moved up or down so they can engage targets individually.
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0703.jpg)
There are other play features here, too. The left arm has a spring-loaded claw that can easily grab a figure, or be used to tear off a piece of the vehicle. In a somewhat strange feature, the three gold “fingers” can be pushed back and locked, and pushing a small button on top of them makes them spring forward. I don’t know why this is here, because they don’t snap forward very far. The “waist” section of the Armor Bot is really a battery box with a built-in speaker. There are two buttons on the back of the box, accessed from the Armor Bot’s rear. Pushing the right-hand button makes a laser firing sound, and a red light in the laser cannon on the Bot’s chin flashes in time to the sound. The left button activates five voice commands, in a cheesy, robotic-sounding voice. The Armor Bot says, in order, “Check Laser,” “Fire Laser,” “Check Armor,” “You’re dogmeat, Cobra!” and, in one of the cheesiest sounds to ever come out of a toy, “Let’s kick Bot!” MAN, that is so cheesy it should be on a pizza!
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0705.jpg)
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0707.jpg)
The Armor Bot’s huge and it’s got some neat features, but it’s far from perfect. Besides the lack of enough missiles, lack of articulation, and the corny-assed sounds, there are a few other problems. I don’t like the orange hose that runs from the back of the Armor BotThe stickers are kind of fragile, and they’re those crappy old paper ones. When I was applying them, several of them had some colors smear. Fortunately, CobraStickers has replacements available, but they’re a whopping $15 a set. Finally, there are two platforms on each foot with space for figures…but why would any Joes want to ride on the robot’s feet?
The Armor Bot is a massive toy, but it won’t cost you massive bucks. You can still find these, MIB, from around $50-80 depending on where you look. I believe that a large amount of these were clearanced out when the original Joe line went down the tubes, and collectors took advantage back then by snapping them up for next to nothing. I personally remember a ton of these on the clearance aisles at Wal-Mart and Kay Bee Toys. That’s why MIB examples aren’t exactly rare. If you want a loose Armor Bot, plan on paying around $25-30, though you might be surprised how reasonably you can get one off eBay…not counting shipping, of course. All in all, the Armor Bot isn’t one of those must-have giant Joe toys…but it’s not bad for the price!
(http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Vintage%20Reviews/IMG_0708.jpg)
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Let me know what you think of my high/low/verdict format, guys. I stole a page out of Car and Driver with that one, but I'm undecided on whether I like it or not.
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I liked how you set up this review. Now I know about this Armor Bot, thanks for the review.
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It stands over [s:xakvb9lr]a foot-and-a-half[/s:xakvb9lr] 44,5 cm tall (almost [s:xakvb9lr]2 feet[/s:xakvb9lr] 61 cm if you count the antenna) and the arms make it [s:xakvb9lr]about[/s:xakvb9lr] aboot [s:xakvb9lr]a foot wide[/s:xakvb9lr] 30,5 cm.
Fixed that for you :wink:
Thanks for that review... I didn't know it even exist! :o
Martin
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It stands over [s:ln1v0qiq]a foot-and-a-half[/s:ln1v0qiq] 44,5 cm tall (almost [s:ln1v0qiq]2 feet[/s:ln1v0qiq] 61 cm if you count the antenna) and the arms make it [s:ln1v0qiq]about[/s:ln1v0qiq] aboot [s:ln1v0qiq]a foot wide[/s:ln1v0qiq] 30,5 cm.
Fixed that for you :wink:
Thanks for that review... I didn't know it even exist! :o
Martin
Actually Martin, I'd love to do my measurements in metric instead of American standard. Unfortunately my tape measure only measures in inches. If you know where there's a conversion chart, I'd be more than happy to use it in the future!
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Nice review again, olyeller! I like the high/low verdict too. Sadly, I remember seeing this sit on the shelves long after the figures disappeared from the pegs. I've always loved mechs that accomodate figures but the non-moving chicken-walker legs were the deal-breaker for me.
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I was making a joke... but since you asked: 1 inch = 2,54 cm, so:
- 6 inches = 15 cm
- 1 foot = 30,5 cm
- 2 feet = 61 cm
... and 100 cm = 1 meter!
Martin
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It stands over [s:vkl3271v]a foot-and-a-half[/s:vkl3271v] 44,5 cm tall (almost [s:vkl3271v]2 feet[/s:vkl3271v] 61 cm if you count the antenna) and the arms make it [s:vkl3271v]about[/s:vkl3271v] aboot [s:vkl3271v]a foot wide[/s:vkl3271v] 30,5 cm.
Fixed that for you :wink:
Thanks for that review... I didn't know it even exist! :o
Martin
Actually Martin, I'd love to do my measurements in metric instead of American standard. Unfortunately my tape measure only measures in inches. If you know where there's a conversion chart, I'd be more than happy to use it in the future!
Actually I think he was only kidding. "Aboot"? Yeah, like we say that all accross Canada :lol: :shifty:
It is safe to think that we can all do our own conversion ourselves. But just for the record, I use this site to convert just about any unit type: http://www.onlineconversion.com/ (http://http://www.onlineconversion.com/)
BTW, I used to have this huge robot. It is indeed freaking huge and fully functionnal. I loved the missile launcher guntlet, an awesome feature. And the claw, this actually reminded me of a Shogun warrior because of the wheels it had under the feet. I wonder if this was anticipated by Hasbro's toy designers...
Thanks for another great review Olyeller! P.S: So how's my Earthquake review coming along ;D
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Thanks man, that was cool. I love that thing. Way cool. Two seater cockpit, wow. Stick to the inches. Well, ok, whatever you wanna do!
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Stick to the inches.
This!!!
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There was a variation on this item too.. I think the other version had the reversed colors (blue and gold)! I'm 100% sure but there's nothing on YoJoe 'bout that??
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Thanks for another great review Olyeller! P.S: So how's my Earthquake review coming along ;D
Well LJ, the whole problem is my Earthquake is buried WAY in the back of my closet. And if you saw my Joe closet you'd know why that's a problem. Imagine a walk in closet stacked almost to the ceiling with plastic tubs and playsets ;D
However, I plan on ordering some more JRuben stickers in the very near future, so that'll give me an excuse to drag all my Joes out again so I can dig out what I need to sticker :wink:
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There was a variation on this item too.. I think the other version had the reversed colors (blue and gold)! I'm 100% sure but there's nothing on YoJoe 'bout that??
I saw one on ebay with the reversed colors the other night, I was wondering what the deal was. Right now, these puppies are buy it now for like 80 to 150 bucks!
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never heard of this thing before but at that time I think I had more then enough joes. Great review. The format is good too. I'm not really picky about how you do it as long as I have a nice picture to view what your describing.
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I saw one on ebay with the reversed colors the other night, I was wondering what the deal was. Right now, these puppies are buy it now for like 80 to 150 bucks!
Then you'll have to wait.. 80 to 150 is crazy! I think I paid something like 35$ shipped for a mint loose and complete one some months ago! The reason why the demand is high right now is because of the great olyeller reviews.. ;D
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I saw one on ebay with the reversed colors the other night, I was wondering what the deal was. Right now, these puppies are buy it now for like 80 to 150 bucks!
Then you'll have to wait.. 80 to 150 is crazy! I think I paid something like 35$ shipped for a mint loose and complete one some months ago! The reason why the demand is high right now is because of the great olyeller reviews.. ;D
Mine was a whopping $48 shipped, MIB, in probably a C7.5 box! And yes, I did indeed open it bc these things MIB aren't exactly rare.
Those BIN prices on eBay are ridiculous. I saw a loose complete one in good shape in a regular auction with 0 bids with not much time to spare, & the opening price was $9.99. In fact that's how I got my MIB (at the time) one, no one else even bid on it!
And I'm really glad you guys enjoy my reviews so much!
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That's a nice price for a boxed specimen! I wonder what was the original price on them in '93??
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That's a nice price for a boxed specimen! I wonder what was the original price on them in '93??
5h4rK, your inquiry prompted me to pull my box out of my Joe closet and take a closer look at it. There's an old price tag on it that says $34.99, which means I paid about $13 more than it originally cost to have a boxed example shipped to me. ;D Not bad!
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5h4rK, your inquiry prompted me to pull my box out of my Joe closet and take a closer look at it. There's an old price tag on it that says $34.99, which means I paid about $13 more than it originally cost to have a boxed example shipped to me. ;D Not bad!
Not bad at all indeed! :o
Did you get the Gen. Hawk with the black or pink gun? cause there was a variant on this thing too.. ::)
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5h4rK, your inquiry prompted me to pull my box out of my Joe closet and take a closer look at it. There's an old price tag on it that says $34.99, which means I paid about $13 more than it originally cost to have a boxed example shipped to me. ;D Not bad!
Not bad at all indeed! :o
Did you get the Gen. Hawk with the black or pink gun? cause there was a variant on this thing too.. ::)
Pink gun. It looks ridiculous, like the figure.
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That would be cool to see a review of the Power Fighters with their drivers.. these mechs are so ridiculous!
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That would be cool to see a review of the Power Fighters with their drivers.. these mechs are so ridiculous!
Because of their rarity, the price on the Power Fighters is pretty ridiculous as well! I see em going for over $100 regularly.