South Claw [Gobots/Monster Gobots]

Usually when I talk about a Transformers Combiner, I make a point to talk about the concessions made for the combiner mode. With Gobots... that's not really the case. South Claw forms the left arm of Monsterous, but aside from the connector peg, you'd probably never know. South Claw is also known as Weird Wing in Machine Men and Death Claw/Number Three in Machine Robo. It's also worth noting that Monsterous is also known as Puzzler Fiends in Machine Men and Devil Satan 6 in Machine Robo. Also worth noting, I love the names in Gobots/Machine Men/Machine Robo. He's pretty much the same toy in each line, I think the only notable change is the wings are a lighter grey in Gobots.

South Claw is a Monster Gobot member of the Renegades who turns into a pretty gnarly flying kaiju monster. One fun thing about Monster Gobots is just how far out their designs are. South Claw is this weird cycloptic freak who looks like something Samus Aran would battle. Like most Gobots, he's reasonably articulated for a toy of his time... actually, maybe a little bit more. His forearms have a nice swivel and his wings can be posed in robot mode to give him an extra devilish look. Transformation is pretty easy as he mostly folds in half with parts re-arranged. I really like the purple/pink he's cast in.

I got this South Claw (it's a play on south paw) at ToyLanta 2024 from a hipster couple who regularly run a pretty decent booth. They sold him for a really low price because, as you can probably tell, he's got a chewed up foot/claw. Either someone's dog or feral cousin got a hold of it. Outside of that, the toy is in decent shape. A little paint wear and dings here and there. It's to be expected when paying a few bucks for an almost 40 year old toy. Maybe I'll find a junker to swap out parts with... or just have a South Claw with a fucked up foot. Sometimes these little dings give older toys extra charm. South Claw is a pretty good Gobot on his own and part of a pretty cool combiner team. His weird looks give him extra character and those colors make him look out of this world.

Bios: Vamp

From the depths of the Antares Star System, Vamp emerges to join forces with the Renegades. Black-hearted and evil, this monster fits right in! She drains her opponents' power, then shoots energy blasts at these helpless victims. With her sinister red eyes, Vamp is ready to destroy the Guardians!

Transform Squadron 49- Devil Invaders Crush

 

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It's the spookiest time of the year! McBoo Buckets, Transformers EarthSpark Expedition, and an a look at the Monster Gobots are on the menu for this year's Halloween edition of Transform Squadron!

Weekly Halloween~ Let's Get Creepy

Spooky robots make for wonderful pre-Halloween game, but it also let's me tell you about this summer I got. For you, that is. Thinking about that variety I speak so highly of, I thought it'd be a good time to make a return of the Spooky Summer posts as a source of mid-week thrills. With Beast Summer starting next week, it seems like a good time to give Weekly Halloween a little break before the Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem goes into full sensory annihilation in August. So while we're enjoying the Beast Summer with bomb pop ice cream, fireworks, and watermelon (summer pumpkin), let's not forget.

Summer is a Spooky Season.

When the Vamp's Outside

 

Vamp is one of the Monster Gobots that automatically springs to mind whenever you think about the group. Like the other Monster Gobots, Vamp's original mold is a Devil Invader toy from Machine Robo. Called Casmodon, where he varies quite a bit from Vamp. Casmodon is more of a swamp and ocean specialist, which owes to his Gilman like appearance. As Vamp, she has the power to drain power from other GoBots. I'm assuming this was inspired by the collar formed from alt mode kibble in robot form. 

Thinking about it, Vamp does kinda look like Nosferatu in some ways. Regardless, she's clearly the most 'monstery' of the Monster Bots. An excellent toy as well. I wish I knew where mine currently was. There's also a larger Super Gobots version and Ripclaw from Beast Hunters is intended to be a homage to Vamp. I've always really liked the alt mode. Like the other Monster Gobots it's a weird vehicle of sorts that sorta looks like the Batmobile. Pretty fitting for a vampire robot.

I'm pinching your head

 

Pincher/Falgos is one of those Gobots that can be harder to get now. He has just enough breakable parts that finding one in decent condition can be a challenge. I got him and Scorp randomly one day in the 2nd grade. I say randomly as my mom just had them waiting for me after school one day. Neither lasted very long unfortunately. Just like the Leader-1, whom I found one day with a broken arm, I suspect a certain jealous cousin got his grubby hands on them. Same kid who every year tripped over his bed sheet ghost costume while we tricked or treated and threw a temper tantrum at least twice every year. Though watching him spike his McBoo Pail on the ground in anger was pretty great.

Back to Pincher. He's a weird bot that really fills out the role of Devil Invader. With wings, pinchers, and overall look. Pincher could fit in with the gang in a Ghouls n' Ghosts game. In alt mode, he's a easily one of the coolest vehicle modes ever. A weird demon/dinosaur/bird/jet hybrid that's pretty far out. I managed to replace Scorp, but haven't yet found a decent Pincher for a good price. Hopefully that'll change soon. He's too cool not to own again.

Weekly Halloween: Robot Monster Week is not for the Weak

 

Somebody at Tonka was convinced that the Gobots are from a nightmarish hellscape and I think they were onto something. The Monster Gobots don't keep it a secret. They're walking robotic terrors straight from every horror movie cliche and proud of it! It's a good thing too because this week is Robot Monster week here on Planet Zone. All week we're going to be enjoying some of the more ooky spooky machinery out there. 

That dude is Creepy

If I'm going to talk about creepy robots this week, then obviously there's one very specific Gobot to cover. Creepy is a Monster Gobot (or Gildis as a Devil Invader) who is a special toy. The normal retail version was black and purple (Gildis was black and red), however Tonka offered a special green and purple version via mail in promotion. Complete with spooky commercial!

Basically if we're having a spooky week, there's no bot more perfect than Creepy. IT'S EVEN IN HIS NAME! Creepy is mostly die-cast metal with some plastic parts. Like all Gobots, the plastic can be brittle, so finding one with broken legs is pretty common. You can see in the picture that the tip of a leg on mine is broken. Those legs can actually be bent back in robot mode and I always forget to do so. Creepy transforms into a radical scorpion like monster machine...thing.

One day I need to get the purple version, but it's hard not to be happy with this one. The bright green and purple are beautifully eye searing. It looks as if he just crawled out of a vat of mutant slime. Evil mutant slime to be exact, because he's a bad guy. Creepy is a solid figure, one again decently articulated for a toy of it's time. That's mostly due to the weird monster mode. The creative transformation provides moving parts. You may not be able to tell from the pictures, but the chest rotates taking arms and head with it. Creepy is an awesome Gobot and thanks to the two different versions not super hard to come by. The perfect spooky robot to spend Halloween with, but he might still your candy.

Zarios in the desert, a Scorp in the streets

I originally got Scorp not long after he was first released. The one in the picture isn't my original one. The one pictured is a new one I bought at ToyLanta earlier this year. He's in pretty good shape, other than his legs sag a little. Normally he stands just a bit taller, but aside from that his joints are tight and his paint isn't badly chipped. Scorp is a member of the Monster Gobots, a group of Renegades I tend to favor. You could probably guess why. In Machine Robo his name is Zarios and he's a member of the Devil Invaders. Scorp is perfectly monstery for this weeks spooky shenanigans.

As the name would imply, Scorp turns into a freaky scorpion/tank hybrid. Construction wise, he's almost entirely die cast metal with just a few plastic parts. Those plastic parts can be brittle, so finding one in this good condition (let alone for $8) isn't easy. For a toy of it's age, Zarios has some decent articulation His legs can move at his hips and knees. This is due to transformation, which also means you can pose his ankles. Arms move at the shoulders and elbow. The elbows movement is slight so you can pose them naturally as the scorpion tanks pincers. In either Machine Robo or Gobots the toy has the exact same colors. The red on black looks menacing balanced well with the crome and evil green eyes. 

Scorp, like the other Monster Gobots doesn't get a lot of love. I'm not sure why, they're so cool! The newer updates for Gobots and Machine Robo characters focus on the vehicular bots. That's a shame. Mind you those are cool as well, but man these guys are neat. I'd love to see them with modern engineering. If you ever find yourself in the mood to buy yourself some of these cool freaky robots, Scorp is one to look out for. His colors are striking and design unique. He'll definable stand out among your other robot toys.

Creepy Invader From Space

Creepy's great when you need a little spooky shit in your life. As the standard retail release or the cool mail away version, he's just a great example of what makes a Monster Gobot so awesome. With the reveal of Kingdom Scorponok earlier I've been hoping for a new Creepy as a repaint. I can't help to associate the two thanks to Scorponok's Happy Meal toy. I'd imagine it'd be perfect for a Netflix Transformer at Walmart. Oh man, what if that came out at Halloween time?

Bios- Creepy

From the depths of the Antares Star System, on a scorched planet of soot and ash, a modified mutant emerges -- Creepy.

Though a weird intermingling of metallic and living parts, this fearsome creature arises -- easily able to change from monster-robot to monster-vehicle.

A welcome recruit to Cy-Kill's band of Renegades, Creepy can use his claws to snap GoBots in half, or send a lethal poison shooting out from his spider legs.

The worst of all monsters to creep into existence, Creepy thrills to the sport of his deadly games. Even Renegades must take care that Creepy's power doesn't threaten their existence. Guardians -- Beware! The final conflict may be near!

The Dark Pharaoh's Curse

I don't know if it's been noticeable, but I've got a really big toy back log. This isn't a problem, and if it is, it's a good problem to have. Because it gives me plenty of material to work with here. Speaking of here, today we're talking Machine Robo. You know, Gobots.

I have two boxes of Mugenbine I bought in 2019, Mugen Saga to be exact. Machine Robo Mugen Saga is a series of Mugenbine candy toys Bandai has been putting out the past few years. Dark Pharaoh here is the 'evil' version of Mugen Pharaoh and released with a new Arthur Paladin (I'll get to him later) in the same series. Mugenbine's gimmick is that every robot can combine with each other. The possible combinations are only limited to how many you have. It's pretty neat.

The specific team that makes up Dark Pharaoh is the Dark Five God Beasts. Individually: Dark Anubis, Dark Sphinx, Dark Ra, Dark Scorpion, and Dark Sobek. I'm pretty sure you've picked up on the that it's an Egyptian themed set. You may have also noticed it's dark. Dark Sphinx comes with a tiny pilot figure. The human pilot is a designation of a good guy as the robots without pilots were turned evil.

There's not much of a story to Mugenbine outside of a few blurbs of text and commercials (maybe a pack in manga). Mugen Pharaoh has a Buildroid so presumably he's a good guy... but this is Dark Pharaoh and dark versions are traditionally evil. Because of that and based on the teams individual forms, I've mentally classified the them as newer Devil Invader members. Because I like Monster GoBots and they pretty much fit the bill. Just look at how disapproving Lorraine Warren is towards Dark Pharaoh in the top picture. That's not just because I was watching spooky shit on Discovery+ either.

The set is pretty great and no matter how slick the combiner looks, the individual members still feel like old school GoBots. It's a nice balance between new and old. The combination isn't a simple affair, you literally have to completely dismantle the team and assemble it from all the parts. Not to mention, these are candy toys. Which are basically model kits that need to be individually assembled themselves. Opening up each members box, assembling, and then assembling Dark Pharaoh was almost an all night affair. It was a lot of fun and I've got three more teams waiting in their boxes. Good thing I've got Discovery+ and Doordash.

Maybe Dark Sphinx's pilot is a ghost. Ooh SpOoKy!

Scamble! Devil Invaders Attack!

Vamp Instructions