He's a Pinball Wizard... er... I Mean, Robot!

Another one of the toys that came last week in Jboy's care package of playthings was this fascinating little robot that I fell in love with immediately. There was just something about his little red, bulging eyes, R2-D2 like body and all-around '80s-ness that made me pick him up out the box and let out a long, drawn out "Cooooooooool!" from my inner 9-year-old.

When I turned the little blue robot around, I noticed that he had what inexplicably appeared to be the top playing filed area of a pinball machine. Then it hit me; this robot is a transformer!

 I sent Jboy an email back to thank him for the care package, I asked him about the little guy and he informed me that this was a toy from a likne called Convertors, from their Spies series and that his name was Tilt.

Just look at the gorgeous graphics on the pinball board...

Hmmm... "Space Wars", eh? Some of those ships look awfully familiar.

I did my best to convert the robot correctly into his Pinball machine form and this was the best I could do. I may be missing a step or two. Not sure.

Another nice touch to this toy was the fact that it's entirely playable! There's a little pull-back lever to launch the little silver ball and buttons on the sides that actually work the flippers. Why could I not have found this toy when I was a kid?!

Huh... Looks like player two is kicking butt...

I did a little research on the Convertors toys and found that they were basically  Transofrmers/Gobots knock-offs that usually sold in the cheaper toy sections of the world, such as in drug stores and whatnot. Which, considering how expensive Transformers were back in the day, meant they were precisely the kind of toy I would have ended up with if we had ever found them.

Still, I love the hell out of this toy and am seriously tempted to find more. In the meantime, Tilt will fit in nicely in my current action figure arcade.

Oh! Boba Fett is going for a high score!

Batman Bootlegs & Knockoffs Grand Finale!

To wrap up my impromptu Bootlegs and Knockoffs Week, with special thanks to Fabio for sending me such killer Bat toys from below the equator, I thought we'd wrap it all up nicely with a look at the slew of Batman toys that came along with our previously posted Removable Mask Iron Man and Not Darth Vader Space Defender.

Fabio knows how much I love Batman and really hooked me up this time, with a great collection of Bat-oddities.

The first one is a true marvel of Knockoff ingenuity and craftsmanship...

One of the odder aspects of this Bat-figure is the fact that he is barefoot, or rather, he's wearing boots with toes molded on them, not sure which. This is the first sign that the makers took the body of whatever mold they already had, cast it in black, swapped the head and added a cape. BAM! Instant Batman!

In fact, if you look closely at the chest, there appears to be what looks surprisingly similar to the Thundercats symbol, making me wonder, what with the exposed toes, that this figure mold was originally used for some knockoff Lion-O. Hmmmm...

Next up we have one of those small, spring-armed figures from the the marketing blitz surrounding the release of Batman Begins. This one is the Scarecrow. I already have a Batman one of these (which I cherish) but have no idea where they come from. Were they some sort of fast food premium outside of the US? And next to him we see a classic Animated Series Batman figure that definitely did not roll off the assembly line at Mattel.

You can see by the sloppy paint applications of the Bat-symbol and the oddly pouting bottom lip on his face that the bootleggers did their best to copy the original figure, but missed the mark by a mile, which is great for a bootleg lover like me!

And finally, we come to the most instantly beloved of this entire haul. Below are a series of Bat-figures, each about 2" tall, that Fabio explained were his as a kid, and he generously passed them on to me. It's rare when I come across a Batman figure I haven't seen at least a picture of before, so imagine my surprise when I pulled these diminutive treasures out of the box.

There's a certain old-school fly-by-night vibe about them that I just adore, with Robins red trunks and Batman's flesh-colored eye-holes and utter lack of Bat-symbol, earning them an instant place of honor on the Bat-shelf.

But the figures of the Dynamic Duo weren't enough! Fabio also sent along a dastardly trio of Gotham's nastiest ne'er-do-wells; the Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker!

Please Fabio, tell us more about these awesome little figures! Were they premiums? Were they in a set? I must know more!

So, that wraps up Bootlegs and Knockoffs Week are on the blog and we'll get back to our regularly schedules blogging on Monday. Once again, thanks to Fabio for sending such great toys! You all are far too kind to me. :)

Random Toy Pic #26

Knock Off Iron Man (with removable mask) from Fabio.

Video Blog #26

Random Toy Pic #25

"The Dixie Chargers" from Midgetoy. One of the more blatant Dukes of Hazzard knock-offs from the early '80s. The "General Lee" car has the number 89 on the side, you know, so folks didn't get confused.

Random Toy Pic #22