Roboto is one of my favorite vintage MOTU toys, but when he was announced for MOTU Classics I wasn’t feeling very intrigued. I didn’t know what it was, but I wasn’t as excited as I should’ve been. Now, he’s arrived and it’s his chance to win me over. Also, I promise not to make any “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto” jokes.
Roboto is all-new from the waist up, sharing his lower body with Optikk (who got most of his parts from Trap Jaw). Pretty much everything is a faithful recreation of the original – he’s mostly a straight update. Everything is slightly improved of course. The head looks great – I wasn’t thrilled about the ‘duckbill’ jaw, but it’s tilted (instead of horizontal like the vintage figure) and it looks much better. The circuitry pattern on the arms is more clearly defined, and the gears in the chest have been resized to accommodate the addition of his heart-shaped emotion chip from the mini-comics. And let me tell ya, that piece really looks awesome in there.
You know, looking at this “Usual Suspects” shot, I just realized that vintage Roboto and Classics Roboto are the same basic size from the hips up (vintage Roboto had a chest a little bigger than the others while Classics Roboto has a chest a little smaller than average). It makes the old figure’s legs look really weird. And, if you were keeping track, MO2K Roboto in the middle there did not come with an axe. Apparently, I rectified that by cutting up some random He-Man variant’s axe and adding it to Roboto. Ironically, I don’t remember where his actual attachments are anymore. Ha.
The gears work great, spinning with the turn of the waist, though they are no longer attached to the head to make the mouth guard move up and down. One thing that really fascinated me about the gears was that some of the folks over at He-Man.Org who took steps to crack the chest and swap the shoulder pieces found that his gears are basically self-contained on a chest-insert (similar to the bubbles in Chemo’s torso from last year’s DCUC9).
Then, there are the shoulders. What do I want to say about the shoulders? I’ve held off on making too many comments because I wanted to get the figure in-hand and decide for myself. When we were opening up the shipping case at IAT, I popped Roboto out of the package, looked him over, and played with his bicep joint. There was no obstruction, no scuffing, none of the issues I had with my original reversed shoulders He-Man back in early 2009. There was a gouge in the shoulder, but it wasn’t from the shoulder being reversed – just more bad QC. Anyway, I looked around and wondered if my IAT cohorts would feel the same.
And they did. Even our favorite curmudgeon, Mr. Rant. We all agreed that Mattel should be less cavalier should a future error arise, but the mismatched circuitry and the slight gaps ended up not really being a problem in our eyes. And besides there was other “fun” bad quality control to address anyway.
While the sculpt was wonderful, the paint wasn’t. We all had different amounts of slop on each of our figures. Most of the figure is molded appropriately and just requires highlights while other parts are molded completely different colors and painted. That’s where some problems come in. Roboto’s boots and head are molded in red and painted silver. The one I’m reviewing here had some areas where the silver was letting some red show though, but nothing too terrible. The hands (molded blue, painted red) were a different story, particularly the left one.
Yep, my Roboto is melting. Vault ended up with a melting one as well. We haven’t decided if we’re going to bother with Mattel’s replacement policy yet. We both also ended up with a Roboto that doesn’t feature the “2nd degree burn” hands (that’s one of the reasons we buy doubles). In addition to this hand being gnarly, I’m also slightly annoyed that this arm is different from the rest of the entire line.
While Toy Guru & Co. worked quick to make sure that Trap Jaw and Roboto had compatible right arms, they weren’t able to get to the left arm switched around in time. What I don’t understand is why the arms were sculpted opposite in the first place? Why was the left arm sculpted to have the peg instead of the left hand? If the figures had been done like the rest of the line, we could surely customize a quick fix for the attachments to fit on both hands. As it is, we’re out of luck minus some serious surgery. Continue to Page 2 for the Attachments…
I got mine today. Biggest complaint I have is that he has some serious bobble head action going on. Outside of that, he is pretty awesome.
Ick. A bobblehead would’ve been extra annoying. He is pretty awesome, just a few warts to get past. LOL
The shoulders didn’t bother me either, but that hand would drive me nuts. Is that the same Roboto in all the pics? The top of the hand looks fine in the other pictures.
He’s the same in all pics. The hand is normal from the top/front.
Great review! Bummer about the melted hand! I don’t know that I’d bother returning it either…like the shoulders, it probably wouldn’t affect me too badly. Still, lots of QC issues with this figure from the looks of things. I like mine, he’s not my favorite reveal from SDCC, nor is he becoming one now that I have him in-hand, but I do like him.
Count me in as someone that would love to see an “upgraded” version down the line!
I have a good one and some custom plans, so I may not.
That’s two of us for the upgrade team… now we need to find three…
Nice Review but I was expecting more funny bubbles. I can feel Roboto and all his issues disappointed you…
A little bit, but I also had to show his three accessories, the two qc pics, and the standard closeups and long shots. I ran out of space somewhat…
I received all 3 of mine on Wednesday & they all look excellent too me. Only problem I have is that they have the “Original” on all 3 of the packages!! I’m like what the F!! Besides that I’m good!!
It’s easier for Mattel to design the regular and reissue packaging all at once, so the original version is always ready to go. Looks like that was just one more mixup on Roboto.
Glad all yours worked out!
Superd review! I have 200x Roboto and I cant wait to my Motuc Roboto to arrive my home =).I use regular hand to my Roboto
The regular hand looks good. It’s kinda funny.
As mad as the fanbase appeared to get I think it’s odd that we haven’t seen much review-hate coming from the reviewers on the shoulder issue.
Its not hate as much as its a QC issue that needs to be addressed. The whole, “we know its out there but sorry you’re SOL thing so just live with it” is getting kind of old.
And today, there was some pics showing it could be a thing they didn’t catch in design. Meaning the factory isn’t at fault and some guy at Mattel (Bill Benecke or one of his staff) didn’t catch it. I know those guys are super busy on other lines but how they couldn’t catch these and other obvious mistakes in recent months is puzzling.
Reviewing them is a bit different. I don’t know how to explain it. I always feel like I can’t just say “this sucks” and once I elaborate, some of the emotion is drained out of it.
Yso has a good point too. I would rather focus my energy on Mattel’s lazy stance and saving my ‘loud’ for when something is really unacceptable.
Am I the only one that loves the Vitruvian Roboto? Good reviewcas usual, Noisy!
Thanks, Rystar! I had a blast making that last image. It was a bit tricky. LOL
I’m totally down with Roboto! The shoulders don’t bother me. I got lucky and avoided any cracked chest or paint issues! He’s a great figure!
…and why doesn’t Trap Jaw have a hand…
I’m glad to have skipped a cracked chest, but I’ve been wondering abour durability thinking back to the Goddess.
And, yes! TJ needs a hand.
Solid review. I wanted to like Robioto more myself. Great pics as always.
Thanks!
This is the first I’ve heard of the melted hand. That’s awful! You should definitely call for a replacement. I did (I had the same paint issues, a hairline crack in the neck, and horribly warped weapons) and I got my replacement two days later. While I haven’t opened my replacement yet, I checked him out in the package and he looks better off than the first one they sent me. These are pricey figures, and I expect quality for what I pay. I understand I won’t get a “perfect” figure where Roboto is concerned, it simply does not exist, but I can demand the best they’ve got if I have to pay over $30 for it!
The annoying thing is we have two melty hands! I’m still iffy on the replacement. I kinda want to try it just for the experience, but I can take my good one and customize this one. I’m just not sure.
I use the regular hand as well. I think I put his gun attachment on one time just to make sure it functions properly, and then his regular hand went back on and hasn’t left yet.
I don’t know what it is, but the hand is just cool.
I have a very bizarre observation.
There’s something in the way you shot Roboto that instantly makes me think of the guy they shot film of to rotoscope for Filmation’s He-Man. I expect Roboto to start walking to stage right, pause, turn his head…ya know?
And is that Shuki Levi’s music I’m hearing? 🙂
(come on, everybody! “DA DA DA DADA! ba bumbum ba bumbum DADADADADA ba bumbum ba bum bum”)