Thorn

I found this guy on clearance at Tuesday Morning, a discount chain near me. I had never seen it before, and I sort of liked the Zoids-like design, so I bought it without really knowing anything about it.

The tube packaging is really nice, and presents itself as a high-quality item, despite being form a manufacturer I have never heard of (Cepia?). Apparently they made the once popular Zhu Zhu pets. I have no idea.

The toy comes from a line called Armadons, which consists of robots that attach to your arms.

ARMadons. Get it? ARM-adons?

As such, they are designed for kid arms. Meaning they sort of cut off the circulation on my hairy adult arms.

Rather than being wind-up, it requires two watch batteries, which are included.

Squeeze your fat man-child arm between the claws, and then press the trigger on the back (with the battery in the on position). In theory, Thorn should jump off, onto a flat surface, and then drive away.

Of course, this worked maybe 30% of the time.

In this mode it’s a “Stealth Fighter Tiger”, which rolls around when the switch is on.

Toy toy is actually rather robust, but the locking mechanisms for when it is on your wrist are a bit finicky. It does have a case of premature springing into action. The main problem with this toy is that it was too late to market. This thing came out after Bakugan had peaked, and when it did arrive it went straight to discount houses.