Subject:
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Throwbots: An Introduction
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic
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Date:
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Tue, 8 Aug 2000 01:32:20 GMT
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Viewed:
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981 times
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In a nutshell, the Throwbots seemed to be targeted at the age 7-12 crowd. They
combine elements of other popular toys: Transformers, BattleTech, Lego (duh),
POGs (collectible caps), and even a smidge of Pokemon thrown in (although not
marketed as such).
Although I've not bothered investigating the Throwbots site, there seems to be
a modest backstory developed for the line that involves a planet (Slizer) with
eight distinct environments: city, arctic, ocean, volcano, jungle, mountain,
plasma (?), and a central control "hub". The Throwbots inhabit these various
environments on Slizer and battle for "Ultimate Control".
Lego has placed them (and their RoboRider cousins) in the Technic line,
probably because most of their parts come from the newer Technic sets. No
traditional Lego bricks or plates are contained in the sets, rather, the kits
are heavy on several of the newer, less technical Technic parts, such as
ball-joint arms, sockets, and fan-wheel arms. I'll explain these parts later.
All Throwbot kits also feature at least two discs that can be launched with the
robot's special throwing arm.
The first set of Throwbots weas introduced in 1999. They all retail for US$6.99
and come in their own carrying case:
8500 Torch (volcano) red, black
8501 Ski (arctic) blue, light blue, white
8502 Turbo (city) teal, black, yellow
8503 Scuba (ocean) blue, light blue, yellow
8504 Jet (city?) yellow, black
8505 Amazon (jungle) teal, green
8506 Granite (mountain) tan, dark grey
8507 Electro (plasma) purple, black
The second set was introduced in 2000. They offer two new US$6.99 retail kits,
one at US$14.99, and the final one at US$19.99:
8520 Millenium (central hub) red, black, dark grey, gold (US$19.99)
8521 Flare (edge of volcano?) orange, black (US$6.99)
8522 Spark (plasma or edge of volcano) purple, black (US$6.99)
8523 Blaster (city?) yellow, black, dark grey (US$14.99)
At first glance, Flare and Spark almost look like replacements for Jet and
Electro (respectively), but this is not the case as Jet and Electro are still
shipping in the same quantities as before.
Lego's marketing is also strange. The 1999 catalog shows all seven environments
of Slizer (without naming them), but the 2000 catalog shows the four new
Throwbots "exploding" from the top of Slizer, apparently leaving plasma,
mountain, and jungle environments destroyed. Also, missing from the 2000 boxes
are Amazon, Electro, Jet, and Granite. Were they destroyed with the upper half
of Slizer? Who knows what's supposed to be going on?
As for kit components, all Throwbots, including Blaster and Millenium, use the
flat "foot" type element for the head of the robot. This head can accept a
visor element. Granite and Ski both use the smaller visors (used on the larger
figures). Electro and Turbo have long, plain black visors with no printing on
them. All the rest have the long visors with their faces screened on them: all
are black, except for Scuba's visor, which is blue, and Jet's visor, which is
yellow.
All kits feature the special throwing arm. The arm is designed with a recoil
spring in the middle so that the included discs can be "thrown," presumably at
another Throwbot, or, as illustrated in the manual, into the included
containers. Also featured in each kit is at least two ball-joint style limbs.
These pieces are nice for creating posable arms and legs, but don't have much
use in practical Technic models. The ball-joint pieces come in two flavors: the
smaller freestyle joint that allows about 270 degrees of longitude motion with
about 45 degrees of latitude motion (used extensively as ankle joints); or the
three-position, lockable joint, used more for shoulders, expecially with the
throwing arm. The bodies are either a large gear with a worm box attached, or a
rack box with a two-sided rack gear, terminating in a ball-joint. Another
common element is the leg/arm element that is rounded on one end (with a
fan-type element) and tapered on the other end.
The additional elements (pick axes, fire flames, propellers, ski poles, wheels)
are all fun, but not of much use otherwise. Additionally, the kits can be
combined into several meta-models. Unfortunately, the resulting Mega-Throwbots
are an ugly mishmosh of uncoordinated colors, with what seem like way too many
ball-joints: a lot of fluff and not much substance.
So what is there to like about the Throwbots line, and why should Technic fans
go out and buy all twelve of them? Variety and simplicity. As with the
Roboriders, Lego has really opened the kimono on use of these new colors and
parts. Although constructing the base models is not at all challenging for most
Technic fans, the replay value on combined kits is surprisingly high.
Personally, I like to fiddle with stuff at work while I'm waiting for my
programs to complete. I took the pieces from all twelve kits and put them in a
large glass candy container. I'll shake the whole thing up, grab out a handful
of random parts and try to make something wonderful. Sometimes I'll even dump
the whole mess out and try to make a better Mega-Throwbot than the ones
designed by Lego.
So, while they're not nearly as useful to the average Technic user out there,
they do give Legomaniacs a pleasant diversion. My long-standing rule of thumb
certainly applies with the Throwbots...
BUY TWO OF THE SAME KIT WHEN YOU CAN, BECAUSE IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE AT LEAST
TWO OF THE SAME COOL PART.
I'm sure you'll grow to love these kits as much as I have. With them going for
as little as US$2.99 in some stores, it's a sin not to.
- Sean
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Throwbots: An Introduction
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| First off, here's my RULE: Buy two so that you have enough pieces to make another arm and you can throw out the throwing arms. My favourite complete Throwbot would have to be Electro, or whatever the purple bug's name is. As i stated before, i buy (...) (24 years ago, 8-Aug-00, to lugnet.technic)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Throwbots: First Impressions
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| I've just started collecting the Throwbots line, and I have all but Torch (red) and Granite (tan), and I haven't gotten Millenium or Blaster (the two higher-priced ones) yet. My only complaints so far (as with the RoboRiders) is that not much (...) (24 years ago, 6-Aug-00, to lugnet.technic)
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