U.S. Name: DEFENSOR   Jap. Name: GUARDIAN

Cartoon First Appearance: Episode #65: B.O.T, Season 2, Sept. 1985

Toy Catalog Number: C-76

A quick comment:     Back to G-1: Review A-XIII      Teletran-1

After the disappointment with the Encore Bruticus reissue due to no die cast metal, poor quality, and tempographs, I went to Ebay and looked for the original Bruticus.  I got tired of waiting and still no decent original Bruticus, I ended up grabbing the original die cast metal Protectobots/ Defensor instead.  Back in the 80's, I used to have Streetwise and First Aid until I lost it.  It just vanished one day along with my other Transformers.   Now, I'm just excited by having the Protectobots/ Defensor again.  It cost me a fortune, $CCXXX, from Ebay and arrived to me on Aug. Xv, Mmix. 

R-0 Original Defensor's motto and tech specifications:  

Affiliate: autobots | Subgroup: protectobots | Function: super warrior | Alt. Mode: n/a |

| STR 10 | INTL 7 | SPD 2 | ENDN 9 | RNK 6 | CRG 10 | FRPW 8 | SKL 8 |

Original G1 Defensor's Motto:

"As long as one innocent being is threatened, none are truly free"

Original G1 Defensor's Bio:

Views humans as if they were his own children - will expend his last drop of fuel to protect them. Seeks human friendship, but humans fear his hulking, mechanical form. Can lift 300,000 pounds with one hand. Impervious to most artillery, can surround himself with force field for brief periods. Carries fireball cannon... shoots 2000 degree bursts of blue fire 1.5 miles.

NOTE-1: This review page is meant to give you some ideas about the figure and for nostalgic or sentimental purposes.  I hold no responsibility for your action.  These images were mostly photographed and scanned by me.  If there's a section or image that owned by you and I didn't give you credit, please Email Me and I'll make the correction.  Have fun.

- Click on the Thumbnails to view them at a Larger Scale -

[Thumbnail Size = 100xHeight]

R-1 Defensor in its Original condition:

R-2 Pre-Applied Decals/ Stickers: 

There are 15 Pre-Applied stickers that had been applied onto Defensor.  Groove has 1, Blades has 4, Hotspot has 4, First Aid has 4, and Streetwise has 2.

Sticker Sheets:

Here are all the five Protectobots individual sticker sheets.  

R-3 Defensor/ Protectobots Accessories Closed Up:

Of the G1 gestalts, I have always thought Predacons/ Predaking got the most accessories with 19 until I owned the Protectobots/ Defensor which tops that with 21 accessories.  The weapons for each Autobot is: Groove 3, Blades 3, First Aid 2, Streetwise 2, and Hot Spot contains 4 for himself plus 7 more for the Defensor parts.  The images on the left are to help you in hunting down for your Protectobots/ Defensor  accessories as well as identification should you mix them up.

NOTE-3: For clarity purpose, the images on R-3 are not in scale with one another.

R-4 Defensor's component - the Protectobots:

Defensor is composed of five Autobot members whose subgroup goes by the name Protectobots.  The 5 members are Groove (motorcycle/ right foot), Blade (helicopter/ right arm), Hotspot (fire truck/ leader/ body and head),  First Aid (ambulance/ left arm), and  Streetwise (police car/ left foot).  Together they form the mighty Defensor whose function is Super Warrior.  Of the five, Hot Spot is the only one who seems to be out of the place due to his large cyan color while the rest are white with black or red.  Every time I see a real fire truck, police car, ambulance, and their squads tag alone whenever there's fire on the call, I'm always thinking of the Transformers Protectobots.  The Protectobots are my 3rd favorite gestalt follows by Computron and Superion.  Maybe because they didn't have 1 episode dedicate to them or not enough background story to capture my interest in contrast to Computron and Superion.

R-5 As Defensor:

When all 5 Protectobots are ready with their merging transformation along with the extra parts such as hands, feet, and body chest/ head accessories, the result is Defensor.  Without being bias, Defensor is one of the most exquisite of the G1 gestalts.  He is definitely in the #1 group if there's such rating.  Defensor is very sturdy, stable, and very balance from all side.  Overall he looks very much like his cartoon counterpart.  His eyes are red not blue like the cartoon.  This is very typical for the G1 transformers action figures as majority of the figures eyes do not match with their cartoon counter part and this includes high profile figures like Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, etc.  Otherwise, he's one perfect gestalt.  One area which you need to test it out before buying Defensor is the white ladder.  If not, ask the seller.  Make sure the connection is stiff, secure, and not loose.  Otherwise, the ladder parts will drop down and that would make Defensor looks awkward.  Defensor is the only gestalt from the G1 Transformers season 1 to season 4 to have articulated head.  Another unique about him is that the head of Defensor is parted of Hot Spot.  What this means, excluding Devastator, the head of Defensor does not follow the typical combiner head transformation where the leader heads are being covered by the gestalt head like a helmet e.g. Superion head is put on top of Silverbolt head.  In Defensor case, Hot Spot head is sprung down toward his chest cavity and Defensor head is pull over to Hot Spot original head location - not a helmet style like the other G1 gestalts.  In term of Defensor body parts connection, putting on or taking off the hip shield (black pelvis) is a little bit tricky so just take your time.  The rest such as inserting the hands and feet are piece of cake.

Now for the general comments about the gestalts.  The major advantage for the typical 5 members combiner such as Defensor, Superion, Computron, Menasor, Bruticus, and Abominus is that any of the smaller bots can either be formed as the leg or arm, there is no restriction see R-7 under Scrambler City.   On the cons side, the first one is an unequal size between the body bots and the limp bots.  All the team leaders who form the body/ head have a larger action figures while the limp bots are much, much smaller or half the size as seen in R-4.  In this case, Silverbolt is the bigger figure since he forms the body and head.  The second downfall is all the limp bots use their heads to connect to the body bots.  Over times, it could cause a deterioration or even break the limp heads whenever you disengaged them due to over plays or reckless act.  Gestalts such as Predaking and Devastator do not have this issue since they use peg and not head as a connection and all of its members are in the same scale with one another.

NOTE-4: Defensor black feet posts are not center, so if you were to loose one of the feet, make sure you purchase the correct one.  On top of each foot there is a lettering marked with "L" or "R", that's how you know what to buy, left foot or right foot.  Also, you can't swap the hands as well.

R-6 Defensor in Attack Mode:

Defensor uses Hot Spot 2 fire ball cannon as his only weapon to defense himself.  One gun is for the left hand and the other is for the right hand.  He does not come with any other weapon like sword such as Predaking or Menasor.  On the bright side, he's still better than Superion who only comes with one lonely gun.

R-7 Defensor in Scramble City Mode & Scramble City Episode Summary:

Before I go into detail, let me describe the image real quick.  The far left image is Defensor based on the G1 Cartoon.  Defensor in the middle image is based on Scramble City Mode or the  interchangeable limps concept even though Defensor himself didn't do any of that from that episode (3rd paragraph for detail).  Notice, the leg limbs now become the arm and vice versa in contrast to cartoon style.  The last image is also another Scramble City mode but what's unique about this Defensor is that he's based on the the G1 Defensor boxart with First Aid forms the left leg and Streetwise forms the left arm.

G1 Transformers Season 2 gestalts like Superions, Defensor, Menasor, and Bruticus are sometimes known as the "Scramble City" combiners.  What this means for these Scramble City gestalts is that all of their limps are interchangeable.  In other words, each limb can be used as a foot or arm depending on personal preference.  There is no restriction like Devastator or Predaking, in which you cannot swap the leg bots to become the arm bots or vice versa.  So what's the real purpose of this limbs interchangeable you ask?  According to the Scramble City episode, the interchangeable limbs make the gestalt more powerful by focusing on their Scramble Power.  The term Scramble City itself really refers to Metroplex.  

NOTE-5: Both Computron and Abominus also have their limbs interchangeable but are not known as Scramble City combiners because they were not part of the Scramble City episode and they were introduced in Transformers Season 3.

Scramble City Episode Summary:  How come I never heard of Scramble City or its episode?  When the G1 Transformers The Movie (TFTM) was released in 1986 within the U.S., the people in Japan did not get their TFTM released until 1989!  As a result, Scramble City episode was introduced and aired only in Japan in April 1986 to fill the void of TFTM.  It also explained the Scramble Power concept to Japanese viewers as to why the gestalt actions can do the interchangeable limbs while the U.S. viewers are clueless with the figures.  Scramble City episode was meant to be a bridge or take place between the G1 Transformers Season 2 and Season 3.  

As far as the story goes, a new character by the name of Ultra Magnus was put in charged of constructing a powerful Scramble City Metroplex beneath the ground of a mountain.  When the Decepticons learned of this thanks to Soundwave and his spy cassettes (Ratbat, Ravage, and Lazerbeak), Megatron ordered Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and the Constructicons to destroy it.  Prime, Ironhide, Jazz, Tracks, Smokescreen, and Warpath tried to intervene but was out powered by the strength of Devastator.  In another location at the secret ground, Ultra Magnus watched from his monitor saw Prime and Autobots are at the losing ground and decided to deploy the Aerialbots.  The Aerialbots got there and forced the Decepticons into their retreat.   Unsatisfied with the result, Megatron ordered the Stuncticons to clean up the mess.  The two teams met and fought with one another.  The Aerialbots merged into Superion and so was the Stuncticons into Menasor.  In the fighting process, Superion interchanged or switched limbs to increase the Scramble Power but only to counter by the same technique from Menasor.  

Superion tried a second round of Scramble Power but Menasor got smart this time by firing at Fireflight limb while in mid-air trying to connect into Superion thigh.  Menasor quickly fired out his right arm which simultaneously converted into a leg and inserted into Superion thigh.  Now Superion was severely in pain and Fireflight who was separated from the crews started to blame himself.  In the meantime, Prime radioed Ultra Magnus whether Scramble City was ready or not.  Ultra Magnus said no.  With no as a response, Prime with Fireflght by his side, moved close to Superion and began to fire at the Stuncticons limb that was attaching onto Superion thigh.  Once that was disengaged, Fireflight quickly merged with Superion and continued fighting with Menasor.  While Superion was beating up Menasor, the Combaticons joined the party and started to shoot at Superion and the Autobots.  The Combaticons then formed into Bruticus, lent his hand to Mensor who was on the ground, and the two began to do a tag team onto Superion.  Now it seemed the Autobots were finished with all hopes were behind to their back.  But to their despair, Scramble City finished just in time and Ultra Magnus ordered a move out along with the Protectobots.  Defensor arrived into the scene first yet take no action because what got Menasor and Bruticus attention first was the smoke and the trembling of the earth which was caused by the movement of Metroplex battle station mode coming closer to the battle scene.  Quickly, Metroplex transformed into his robot mode and blasted both Menasor and Bruticus to end the conflict.  The Autobots rejoiced as Prime congratulated Ultra Magnus by shaking his hand for saving them just in time.  Just as the Autobots were celebrating, Trypticon emerged out from the water and caught everyone by surprise.  Megatron informed Prime of their new Trypticon.  Both Metroplex and Trypticon looked upon each other from a distance as the episode fade black to an end.  Scramble City part 2 was never made.  We never got to see the result between these two until G1 Transformers Season 3.  To see Scramble City on Youtube [Clip 1 and Clip 2]

R-8 Die Cast Metal or Plastic Version?

Hot Spot, First Aid, and Blades were released as the metal version and the all plastic version.  Groove only changed his die cast metal color from gold to silver.  Streetwise still retained his die cast metal and color but his fine print changed from Japan to Macau.  Otherwise, both Groove and Streetwise always have die cast metal regardless made in Japan or Macau.

Groove

Blades

Hot Spot

First Aid

Streetwise

R-9 Additional Parts Review:

To read the additional review on the individual Protectobots components, click on the link below.  Otherwise, continue to R-10 on Defensor topic.

|  Part 1 - Groove  |  Part 2 - Blades  |  Part 3 - Hotspot  |  Part 4 - First Aid  | Part 5 - Streetwise  |

R-10 G1 Defensor Knockoff - Also On the Market!

The internet pictures on the left is a G1 Defensor gift set Knockoff.  Depending who you purchase from, sometime the sealed box is shown without the stickers apply onto the figures.  This includes both the pre-applied and the regular stickers.  And sometime with the stickers on within the sealed box.  Since I don't have this knockoff, I can't give the full specification of the figures.  

For collectors and those that want to purchase genuine G1 Defensor gift set, just know that there is a Knockoff version of G1 Defensor gift set that is currently sold at many websites and sometime on Ebay.  I'm not talking about the Official Reissue Transformers released by Takara, Takara/Tomy, or Hasbro since those are authentic.  Unlike ordinary knockoffs where you can easily tell just by looking due to the differences in coloring, box, or material from the original, these latest knockoffs are an exact replica of the original from the box, to colors, to the toy itself.  What's scary is that someone could get fool by paying big buck and thinking it's the real deal when it's not.  Before you purchase or bid, just remember, if any G1 Transformers  mint in sealed box cost less than $100 and it's too good to be true it's usually not authentic.  And always ask the sellers before bid on Ebay.  On the other side of the coin, for knockoff fans and those that don't want to pay big buck for the real deal, then this is your best treat. 

Here are the lists of the G1 Transformers Reissue Knockoff that looks exactly like the original/ authentic one from the box, accessories, paper works, designs, to toy:

Autobots: Optimus Prime (3 versions: regular, clear/ transparency, and black), Sunsteaker, Wheeljack, Mirage (3 versions: regular, red, clear), Grimlock, Slag, Slug, Swoop, Snarl, Prowl, Red Alert, Sideswipe, Springer, Cosmo, Brawn, Powerglide,  Seaspray, Hubcap, Warpath, Bumblebee, Beachcomber, Cliffjumper (red, yellow).

Decepticons: Shockwave, Kickback, Bombsheell, Shrapnel, Cyclonus, Scourge, Gnaw, Octane, Reflector, Ravage/ Rumble (red), Frenzy (blue)/Laserbeak, Ratbat/Frenzy (blue).

Combiners/ Citybots: Devastator (3versions: regular,  orange, yellow gift set), Constructicons (set on card), Menasor (gift set), Superion (gift set), Defensor  (gift set), Metroplex, Metrotitan.

R-11 FYI - G1 Transformers Giftset:

Before the internet existed, people were speculating and debating which G1 combiners were made as a giftset, which were not, or which country made them.  This debate affected the consumers as the price was charged base on rarity, popularity, condition, among others.   The G1 Transformers giftsets are like a holy grail to transfans collectors because of good investment, bragging right, rare, and people don't have to hunt down for the individual set.  So without further interruption, here are the lists of the gestalts and where it were released:

NOTE-6: This list is still incomplete.  I'll update them once I have more information.

R-12 Rémy's Defensor action figure review:

Manufacturer - Hasbro/ Takara.

Line, Series/ Wave: Generation 1 Line, Series 3.

Year Issue: [1986]  

Made: [Japan]  

Scale: [N/A]

Box or Card Dimension In Inches: [LxWxD]  - Unknown for the giftset box since I purchased them as the individual components.

Packaging Method: Mint In Sealed Box.  The Defensor giftset contents were packed with the following procedure:

Rest down on the Styrofoam container: "1" motocycle, "1" helicopter, "1" fire truck, "1" ambulance, "1" police car, "2" twin vaporators, "4" photon pistols, "2" twin launchers, "1" Dual barrelled decrystallizer, "1" connector for the dual barrelled (already attached), "1" Dual barrelled decrystallizer, "1" connector for the dual barrelled (already attached), "2" Defensor feet, "2" Defensor hands, "2" Defensor chest blast shield (right and left chest piece), "1" Defensor hip shield, "2" fireball cannon (guns), "4" repair bay arms (or 2 pieces when combine), "1" instruction sheet, "1" sticker sheet, "1" red decoder sheet, "1" Joint the S.T.A.R.S catalog, and "1" 1985 toy catalog poster (Autobots side and Decepticons side).

Box Special Note: Front Box Appearance: Defensor art.  Back Box Appearance: 1986 battle scene with Groove, Blades, Hot Spot, First Aid, Streetwise, and Defensor Tech & Specs beneath that.

Box Point or Robot Point: [4]  - This number can be found on the back of Defensor giftset box next to the Tech & Spec. 

Approximately Toy Dimension In Inches: - Height Up To The Head: 8  Maximum Height: 8  Width from shoulder to shoulder: 5 3/4  Maximum Width: 7 1/4 (from First Aid ambulance hood to Blades helicopter hood).  Dept: 2 1/2.

Toy Stamp/ Fine Print: - ©HASBRO; 1986; ©TAKARA; CO.LTD; 1986 JAPAN

Toy Stamp/ Fine Print Location: - Groove: In the rear by the right side of the motorcycle.  Blades: underside of the rotor blade.  Hot Spot: inner feet side of the left foot.  First Aid: inner side of the ambulance hood.  Streetwise: Inner side of both arm.

Transformation Of Difficulty: [Easy]  

Material Durability: [A]

Toy Materials: Die Cast Metal: Groove, Blades, Hot Spot, First Aid, Streetwise - all die cast metal are on the chest.  Chrome Parts: Groove motorcycle engine.  Rubber: Hot Spot wheels are all rubber while all of the smaller Protectobots wheels are all plastic.  Plastic: Main material.  Clear Plastic Window: None.

Stability: [-A] - Robot mode can stand on any flat surface...very stable.

Fun Toy: [A] - It has components, it combines, many accessories, what more do you want!

Negative Drawback - None. 

Articulations:  Head: Can be rotated 45 degree to the left or right. Shoulder:  Can be swung at a 360 degree.  Arm/ Elbow: Cannot be bent.  Wrist/ Hand: Can be rotated at a 360 degree sideway.   Hip/ Waist: Cannot be rotated.  Leg: Cannot be bent.  Knee: Cannot be bent.  Ankle/Feet: Can be rotated at 45 degree to the left or right.

Rub Sign Logo: [Yes] - Groove: near the front wheel of the motorcycle.  Blades: on top of the helicopter near the rotor blade.  Hot Spot: on top of the fire truck near the center.  First Aid: on top of the ambulance behind the red siren.  Streetwise: in front of car hood.

Robot's Cartoon looks alike: [A]  - Look pretty much like the cartoon. 

Vehicle's Cartoon looks alike: [N/A]

Special Notes: Here are 4 special notes which I think you should know:

1 - Defensor black feet posts are not center, so if you were to loose one of the feet, make sure you purchase the correct one.  On top of each foot there is a lettering marked with "L" or "R", that's how you know what to buy, left foot or right foot.  Also, you can't swap the hands as well.

2 - Be very precautious when disengaging the limb bots from Defensor body/ Hot Spot especially the feet bots because reckless act can easily scratch the paint application or in worst case break the limb bot heads.

3 - If you are concern about purchasing a die cast metal version, be sure to ask on Hot Spot, First Aid, and Blades because these 3 were also released as a plastic version as well.  Groove and Streetwise were always released as die cast metal.

4 - Make sure the ladder connection is stiff, secure, and not loose.  Otherwise, the ladder parts will drop down and that would make Defensor looks awkward.  

Overall Grade: [A] - G1 Gestalts - nuffs said. 

Find an Error or want to Comment on this review page?  EMAIL ME.