Machine Robo Series 06 Blackbird Robo Snoop Gobot Review

Blackbird Robo AKA the Renegade Swoop

Welcome to a review of Machine Robo Series 06 Blackbird Robo - AKA the Gobot Swoop - from Action Toys.

To the uninitiated, Machine Robo was a series of transformable toys released like Matchboxes in 1982 (34 years ago) by Popy, a division of Bandai. Some of the simply designated Machine Robos were actually even Mecha.

American Toy Maker Tonka loved the idea, licensed it from Bandai, but made them all sentient robots, gave them better names rather than just simple designations, and divided them into "Good-guy" and "Bad-guy" categories - or Guardians and Renegades. The Challenge of the Gobots would rise to give the Transformers a run for their money when the cartoon aired 65 episodes starting in 1984.

Machine Robo meanwhile would have its own 47 episode cartoon released on Tokyo TV from 1986 to 1987 called Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos (Released as Revenge of the Gobots in the US).

Hasbro eventually won the war though and purchased Tonka and the rights to the Gobots. Unfortunately, as Tonka has only leased the rights to the images of Machine Robo to Tonka, Hasbro owns an empty concept.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

We actually owned Blackbird Robo when we were kids - but we traded it for a Transformer. We thought of it as a GoBot, and we remember it was popular because it was in the form of an SR-71 Blackbird, and well super-sonic stealth spy-plane in gun-metal black beats everything. Looking back we remember the catalogue contained these hideous crab looking villains - the Devil Satan 6 - so he was definitely a Machine Robo and not a GoBot.

So it's definitely a thrill to be able to review an upgraded one three decades later.


Although personally we'll always think of her - yes HER - as the GoBot Renegade spy Snoop, rather than the Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos Jet Clan extra who really wasn't much of a hero - or anything.

In the cartoons Snoop was successfully able to infiltrate the Guardians and attain their records which led to a series of Guardian doppelgangers wreaking havoc over the city.

Snoop comes with a pair of clip-on Ionoid Sonic Wave rifles and a base that can be configured to serve as an aerial stand or as a display bracket.

The Renegade Snoop

WHAT'S TO LIKE ABOUT THE MACHINE ROBO SERIES 06 BLACKBIRD OR SNOOP GOBOT?

FIRST: She is sexy and she knows it! In jet mode, the SR-71 Blackbird is one of the sexiest planes ever to take to our skies - it's one of the reasons so many people love the X-Men, the Quinjet simply has no class.. Action Toys was able to take that sleek, powerful sensuality and create a robot worthy of the spy-plane she transforms into.

Snoop is a wonderful mix of gun-metal black, silver and crimson that screams "I am deadly!"

And we love her.

The two snap on arm rifles just add to how sexy she is - because something this hot has to come armed with a pair of deadly weapons - one simply just isn't enough.
Here's how sexy she looks in SR-71 Blackbird mode:

To me my X-Men!!!!

Seriously we spent quite a while just making him go swoooossssshh in this mode. And here she is in Robot mode. We really love the crimson, silver and black color scheme of Snoop.

We're also quite fond of that Cylon looking head:

SECOND: Thanks to her ball joints and 19 points of articulation, Blackbird Robo's articulation is excellent!!!

Then add her rifles:

THIRD: She's quite hefty thanks to the die-cast metal parts mixed in with the plastic. So Machine Robo Series 06 Blackbird Robo feels like a toy that will endure quite a lot of playtime.

Machine Robo Series 06 Blackbird Robo 

WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THE MACHINE ROBO SERIES 06 BLACKBIRD OR SNOOP GOBOT?

FIRST: That stand. We just mentioned that Blackbird Robo feels hefty, solid and capable of wear and tear. The Stand does not. In fact it feels like a cheap piece of plastic that was just thrown in from a cheap black market. We were half expecting it to be destroyed by the end of the shoot - happily it's still there.

SECOND: The back of her legs are hollow. It's fine we suppose - the price you have to pay for the ability to transform and for the high articulation, so this is a bit of a nit-pick.

Other than that the Action Toys Machine Robo Series 06 Blackbird Robo Snoop Gobot is perfect and a happy trip down memory lane for us.

This particular Machine Robo Series 06 Blackbird Robo Snoop Gobot was borrowed from a private collection. As of this writing it is not available on Amazon and is sold out on BigBadToystore where it sold for US$ 45.99 (Roughly PhP 2,300 plus shipping).

Happy memories.