Dave's TEK Toys Rant: Robo-Beast 4-in-1 Transformable Robot Toys R Us has gotten in the latest offering from TEK Toys, the longest lasting distributor of cheap transforming toys that I'm aware of. This time it's a combiner team obviously meant to be in the vein of Power Rangers Zords. Specifically, Power Rangers Zeo, since each has a geometric symbol. CAPSULE Very good plastic for a knockoff, even for TEK, which is usually at the high end of knockoffs. Iffy robot modes, unstable gestalt, unclear instructions, but it's a reasonable effort. Nice computer-generated box art. Very mildly recommended, mainly because the price is good and the plastic quality is pretty high. $9.99 at Toys R Us. RANT Like most TEK releases, this comes in a box with an open face and bubble-carded toys. Instructions are on the back of the box, and the names are frighteningly unimaginative. The box art is obviously generated for this product, since I don't think there's any CG anime sentai yet...so no real clues where, if anywhere, this group is from. Might even be original designs. Patent is in the name of "Leader Shine" in China. Be careful when opening the box: there's a small baggie of important connector pieces hidden up in the top foldover part of the box. There is no place on any of the individual robots to hide these bits, they just sit around when the gestalt isn't formed. General Notes on the individual toys: Each is largely one color plus white and gold chrome. There's a lot of bumps and tabs to keep them in position, and they can slip out of the tabs fairly easily (hence the need for a higher quality of plastic). None of the robots has poseability beyond waving their stubby arms. Each has a shield and a weapon, and the weapons combine into a big sword while the shields combine into a big shield. Bull-Bot: Looks a LOT like the blocky Zeo Ranger bull Zord. Legs swivel back and forth in bull mode, and the tail moves up and down. Oddly proportioned, and you can see the robot fists under the bull's chin. Transformation requires splitting the bull apart first to swing out the robot head (unless you have long nails, this will require some kind of tool). After that, it's the same basic pull-in-the-beast-limbs trick with a torso twist to get a block with stubby arms and a tiny head. 5.5" (14cm) long in bull mode, about 4" (10cm) tall in robot mode. Green is the color, circle is the symbol. His weapon is an axe. Lion-Bot and Puma-Bot: Identical except for the heads and minor details, these guys become the legs. Robot forearms come out of beast forelegs, beast lower legs swivel away, pull out head, ta dah. More blocks with stubby arms. The beast modes at least look okay, with two points of articulation in each leg, plus a moving tail. Each is about 6.5" (16cm) from snout to tail tip in beast mode, and a somewhat floppy 4.5" (12cm) tall in robot mode. Lion-Bot is yellow with a chevron symbol, Puma-Bot is blue with a triangle symbol. Lion-Bot has a trident while Puma-Bot has a funky axe-thing that forms part of the hilt of the big sword. Eagle-Bot: Weird looking bird mode, helped a little by the fact that the wings can extend to a respectable 7.5" (19cm). However, he has the absolute worst robot mode of the lot. While his upper torso is actually stable fully extended (the others can be taller than the listed heights, but flop over) at 4.25" (11cm) tall, his bird wings trail out behind him for several inches at his feet, along with lots of other foot-kibble. You also need a tool or long and strong fingernails to pry his arms out from his sides. Eagle-Bot's color is red, his symbol is a circle, and his weapon is a weird broken-tipped sword that forms the main blade of the big sword. Transformation-to-Gestalt Notes: Bull-Bot: The instructions are pretty much clear and correct on what to do with these parts, although the shoulderpad chrome bits may be somewhat floppy. The bull head forms the helmet of the gestalt. Important note: the left arm will hold on better if you leave the bull's tail up. Lion-Bot/Puma-Bot: The instructions are somewhat vague on how to prepare these guys for attachment. The toy must be in robot mode, but with the head down and the arms retracted. There are two small tabs on the back of the robot torso which snap into the white parts of the hip piece. The hip piece is that extra red and white part, I'll say more on it in a moment. [Late note: if you pull apart the torso and legs hard enough, they'll snap into place, adding about an inch to the gestalt mode's height.] Hip Piece: There's two parts to the hips, a red and white piece and a gold chrome piece. Attach the gold chrome piece so that the crossbar part of it is on the same side as the two widely spaced pegs on the red and white piece. The closely-spaced pegs are on the top half of the front side of the hip part. Eagle-Bot: Hoo boy. This one is a mess. Start from bird mode. Remove the bird head, fold the tail up and the wings back. WITHOUT rotating the hip pieces (no matter how much the diagrams make it look like you should), pull the bird feet up into the hips as far as they'll go. Now flip up the gestalt face, which is in the bird's butt. Next, pull the bird's own robot head out a little bit. This is necessary because otherwise it gets in the way of connecting the hip piece. Snap in the assembled hip piece so that the chrome part is on the same side as the gestalt head is facing. Putting It All Together: Put the bull head on over the gestalt face as a helmet. It's easiest to do this before adding all the other bits. The face will be largely obscured, and the horns should just touch the bird feet. Now put the lion head onto the chest by sliding it down over a couple of runners. This should pull the bird feet down so they end up touching the top of the mane...the mane won't fit well if the bird legs remain in a pegged spot. The diagrams seem to think the bird feet magically disappear, but they don't. The result should be that the feet look kinda like shoulder cannons. Next, attach the legs. The small pegs on the backs of the robots fit into the slots in the white bits of the hip piece. Slide one peg in, push in as far as it will go, then slide back to get the other peg firmly in. Just snapping it into place doesn't result in a firm connection. Finally, place the remaining heads on the proper shoulders and peg the arms into place. They will not rest completely at the figure's sides. Oh, and put the weapons and shields together, but this is easy. You may also want to lay the wings flat against the figure's back now. Robo-Beast: 8" (20cm) tall if you count the bull horns, it's reasonably solid if you put it together correctly. Poseability is practically nil, just at the shoulders, and those are pegs which will loosen as you move the arms. I tried to increase the poseability by exploiting the waist joints of the robots as elbows, knees, etc, but they were too floppy and bend wrong. Still, it does look pretty cool, although the helmet overhangs a bit too much. Unfortunately, it can't really hold its nifty combining accessories. I can see where the handles expand to fit the larger fist holes of the gestalt, but there's a different problem for each accessory. The sword's peg is actually too loose, plus the hand is set too far back and the sword can only be held as if to smash someone with the flat of the blade. And the shield pegs are too big, and simply won't fit into the hand. I can force them in a little, but they pop out seconds later. So the shield just hangs loosely by the smaller individual-size pegs. [Later note: Clever use of the Bull-Bot's robot arms helps a lot with the accessories of Robo-Beast. Yields a firm grip on the shield and turns the sword into a lance.] Overall: Not bad for $10, but not as good as the Fire Dug-On knockoff available at Odd Lots/Big Lots for $8. Higher quality plastic than that, but weaker design. Dave Van Domelen, kinda scared that Vanilla Ice not only still has a career, but is coming to a local venue this weekend....