G1 Technobots

Robot Modes: In robot mode the Technobots resemble most combiner teams of that time, consisting of one large leader robot (Scattershot) and four smaller robots. In this case it's taken to the extreme, though, as Scattershot in robot mode is much taller than his teammates (and only slightly smaller than the combined robot Computron, seeing as most of his legs aren't used in the gestalt mode). This makes for one impressive looking bot in Scattershot, who stands tall and powerful, and is remarkably posable for a toy from that time. Yet the four team members are rather unimpressive and are dwarfed by their leader.

Alternate Modes: The Technobots all transform into different vehicles. Scattershot, the leader, becomes a huge spacecruiser and looks impressive as hell doing it. He also has an alternate mode where he becomes a sort of cannon, which can be manned by one of the team members. Nosecone becomes a drill tank, Lightspeed becomes a red sportscar, Strafe becomes a fighter jet, and Afterburner becomes a futuristic cycle. The vehicles all look good, but again the vast size difference between Scattershot and the rest comes into play.

Combiners Mode: The Technobots combine to form Computron (or Computicon in Japan), who looks impressive and wholesome thanks to the unified colour scheme and general stockiness of the robots making up his form. Look-wise I'd call him one of the best combiners of that time. The only drawback here is that Computron is barely any bigger than Scattershot, since Scattershot's lower legs are folded back and not used. It might have been better to incorporate more of Scattershot's vast size into the combiner mode or to make him a smaller robot instead.

Missing Parts: I'm missing quite a few of the individual weapons. One of Lightspeed's car cannons, Nosecone's drill cannons, one of Scattershot's auxiliary guns, and all but one handgun.

Remarks: The Technobots are the third and last team of Autobot combiners and I got them mainly to round out my collection of gestalt robots. Among the five robots the only toy with much play value is Scattershot, who would have made a good Transformer even by his lonesome (I'd have given him a B). The gestalt mode suffers a bit from not using all of Scattershot's size to its advantage, but is still quite impressive. As a whole the Technobots are not as good as other combiner teams, but still a worthwhile addition to my collection.

Rating: C+