Teambot

I’ve had this piece for a while, and I’m just hopped up enough on caffiene to review it. I literally had to blow dust off this box, but don’t let that fool you, this piece is great.

This is the Teambot, a bootleg of the DX Dairugger XV, made by a company from Taiwan called D&Y Toys.

Lets start with the glorious box. It’s about the same size as the original toy, but with insane beautiful artwork.

I’m particularly impressed with the lack of understanding of perspective.

Seriously though, clearly a lot of work went into painting this, probably by some artist in Taiwan that just had the toy thrust in front of him. It’s very bright and attractive, it just is in an awkward pose. I love the goofy insanity of it all.

And yes, it has a handle.

When you lift off the box you see that the toy has a different name. It’s probably one of many names that the toy goes under. Now it’s got the much cooler name “Transfortron Super Team” or “Transfortron 18 Warrior”. It depends where you look on the box I guess.

GIANT ROBOT WITH POWERFUL ACTION

How to assemble MILKY TEAM

How to assemble STARTEAM

How to assemble EARTHEAM

I like how it says 18 in 1 even though its only comprised of 15 vehicles. Are they counting weapons?

Are comfortable? Because I am going to go over each vehicle. All 18 er.. 15 of them.

MILKY TEAM 1

All of the vehicles are in some way modified from the original Dairugger molds, so I will try to point out the differences in each one. In the case of the head ship, the fins have been removed and the body has been remolded to be in one color, with only a sticker where the window should be. The wheels retain their friction motors, and the doors open to reveal the face, which we will show later on during transformation.

MILKY TEAM 2

The chest ship has also undergone some alterations. Gone are the two movable red parts, and the windows, along with pretty much all surface detailing. Here again the toy retains the friction motors.

MILKY TEAM 3 & 4

The arm helicopters have what appears to be the same mold as the originals, but no paint, and added stickers. Also note the added rings to the props for the copters.

MILKY TEAM 5

The chest ship removes the side parts to the wings and adds some extra fins. The friction motor is left intact.

FORM MILKY TEAM

If you were to look quickly, this could almost be confused for the real thing. It holds together well in ship mode, and all the combination gimmicks work.

STAR TEAM 6

The small submarine has been recast in yellow, but surprisingly includes its antenna (something the Matchbox version omitted).

STAR TEAM 7 & 8

These have essentially the same bodies, but the tips have been altered from the original.

STAR TEAM 9 & 10

Here again they are mostly unchanged aside from the color. Once again, these are based off of the Japanese originals and not the Matchbox re-molds. Note the holes where the antenna go. Friction motors are intact, and one antenna is included.

FORM STAR TEAM

It sort of looks like McDonalds sponsored the space team. It holds together well though.

EARTH TEAM (Or EARTHEAM, whichever you happen to be reading at the time.)

EARTH TEAM 11

Again, very similar to the original, but the windows are now gone and replaced with a sticker.

EARTH TEAM 12 & 13

They retain the distinct molds of right and left, and aside from paint, are similar to the original popy release.

EARTH TEAM 14 & 15

Here the feet cars have been remolded entirely. Originally the windows were separate pieces of plastic, here they are molded in. Friction motors and kickstands remain.

FORM EARTH TEAM

Pretty much exactly the same as the original, only in clown colors.

FORM TEAMBOT

While the individual teams themselves are pretty sturdy, the combined mode is a bit of a floppy mess. The chest ship does not like to stay on, and the entire thing is top heavy. It’s ugly as sin, but that’s the charm for me.

With the doors open, you can see that there is an entirely different face behind it. This face is angular and chrome, and completely original.

He comes with two weapons. The sword is a copy of the Dairugger XV sword. The shield, called the “Buckler” appears to be original.

Another new addition is the shoulder mounted missile launchers. These mount into holes on the shoulder and actually shoot with a good amount of force.

So yeah, it’s ugly as sin but it’s actually pretty nicely done, with a lot of effort put into the presentation. It’s not the weirdest bootleg i’ve seen of this toy though, that one will have to wait for another time…