Bot
Shots Year 2 (2013) Review
For the second year of their
Bot Shots subline, Hasbro decided to introduce a bit more variety into
the line. In addition to a few new size classes (which we'll get to shortly),
three new kinds of Bot Shots were added to the line (the "classic" Year
1 style of Bot Shots were retroactively called "Blitz Shots"):
- Spin Shots:
When you push in on the front bumper of these Bots, they spring up and
twirl around several times at the waist before stopping. It's a pretty
cool gimmick, but that's all these kind of Bot Shots really have going
for them. For one, in robot mode their arms are permanently spread wide
out at the shoulders, and there's no way to get the waist to lock into
place to simply pose them. (Technically, you CAN rotate the arms down in
an awkward manner at the shoulders and elbows, but as soon as you let go
they spring back up again.) They also have ridiculously long, flat feet
in robot mode, and the top half of their alt mode hangs down behind their
butt in an unsightly manner. Oh, and to top THAT off, Spin Shots are the
kind of Bot Shots that are the least likely to "stay" in their vehicle
mode, as the tabs on their arms are often a bit too shallow-- so much as
looking at them the wrong way can cause them to partially transform. Definitely
my least favorite of the new kinds of Bot Shots.
- Jump Shots:
Push in on the front bumper of these guys and they'll pop vertically into
mid-air a respectable distance (assuming you roll them into something and
don't just push in the bumper with your finger-- doing it with your finger
often interferes with the jump spring enough where they only "hop" up and
back a little). The power of the jump is a bit surprising, though beyond
that it's not that great of a gimmick. Their alt modes also look out of
place when compared with the other Bot Shots, as due to the gimmick they're
a bit taller in vehicle mode than the others in the line. In robot mode
literally their entire alt mode is on their backs, with their robot mode
only popped out a little bit in front of said vehicle mode-- they don't
look all that great in that respect, though at least they have two little
spring-loaded hands that move forward with their bodies as well (though
the hands are NOT directly connected to the body, oddly). One hand technically
can move at the elbow, but it's spring-loaded; it'll move back into place
when you let it go.
- Flip Shots:
The Flip Shot alt modes have a telltale piece of plastic almost "cutting
them in half" diagonally down the center, which can look a little odd depending
on how the paint apps are distributed, but it's worth it-- the Flip Shots
have a great gimmick. By pushing in THEIR front bumpers, they will literally
do a somersault as they transform. They rarely actually land on their feet
at the end-- if they did, they would've surpassed even the Spin Shots in
the gimmick department-- but it's still pretty cool, and the force with
which they do so is surprising. Just like with Blitz Shots, the front half
of Spin Shots' alt modes go behind their upper backs, though Flip Shot's
feet don't flip forward in robot mode. (Their little flip-catch mechanism
hangs behind the lower back, but it's a thin, relatively small piece that
can be easily ignored.) What's hilarious about these guys are their little
chubby "baby arms", which you can move back and forth at the shoulders
(though they spring into their default position when you let them go).
It looks hilarious when you do so, and on top of that, Flip Shots will
rarely trigger without you meaning them to. These are my favorite kind
of Bot Shots, and the only kind of the "Year 2" Bot Shots to surpass the
originals/Blitz Shots.
In terms of general
line aesthetics, although a bit more emphasis was placed on the comical
expressions of Bot Shots, given how superdeformed they look (Brawl's headsculpt
is particularly hilarious), due to the "Beast Hunters" toys in the main
Transformers toyline for this year, some beast Bot Shots toys finally got
made as well! They have the same transformation schemes as the regular
Bot Shots, and their beast modes looking more like beasty cars (complete
with wheels-- think of some of the more bizarre Hot Wheels releases), but
I was waiting for beasts to enter the fray in this line.
The line was also expanded
into more assortment categories. In addition to the assortment price points
for the first year, $20 5-pack "teams" were added, which consisted entirely
of redecos of Year 1 Blitz Shot toys-- indeed, there were no new mold Blitz
Shot toys released in year 2 (though some cancelled toys further down the
line were going to put in other kinds of Bot Shots toys into the 5-packs,
and a new Blitz Shot mold-- a helicopter that would've pulled double duty
as Blades and Vortex-- was planned, but alas, they were never released).
There was also a $20 U.S. "Dragon Track" set released, with two launchers
(Optimus Prime and Megatron, naturally), along with two short sections
of track that connected at the middle with a spinning piece that has Beast
Hunters Predaking's head and limbs sticking out of the edges of it. It
doesn't spin by itself, and you have to manually use the launchers yourself--
with the speed that it launches these things, I don't see how one person
could both launch one AND move the dragon-spinner at the right time to
pull off any weird moves or anything like that. The set itself, unfortunately,
is fairly useless, though the Bot Shots that come with it (both are Flip
Shots) are pretty nice.
The $10 launcher sets
also underwent a change for the second year, and not for the better. Gone
are the individualized, transformable "trailers" for the Bot Shots they
come with; instead, each comes with one of only a few different molds of
launchers, each painted in that bot's colors. The launchers don't transform
or anything either, they're just big pieces of plastic (with the exception
of the launching device). They come with varied targets to knock down to
help take some of the sting out of it, but they don't help much-- particularly
since the target molds themselves are used in more than one release.
Other than the one-shot
"Dragon Track" set, below are the Bot Shots released in some capacity--
either via mass retail or Hasbrotoyshop.com-- in Year 2. Unfortunately,
due to lagging sales and the introduction of other Transformers sublines,
Bot Shots quietly went away in the summer of 2013, with a lot of shown
product not being released-- hence why the line looks a little truncated
for an entire year:
Individually-packed:
-Bumblebee (Flip)
-Cliffjumper (Jump;
Chase)
-Decepticon Brawl (Flip)
-Optimus Prime (Jump)
-Scourge (Spin)
-Shockwave (Jump)
-Sunstorm (Blitz; Chase)
Three packs:
-Autobot Jazz (chase
Blitz), Optimus Prime (Jump), & Cindersaur (Jump)
-Blitzwing (chase Blitz),
Scourge (Spin), & Sergeant Kup (Spin)
-Bumblebee (Jump), Shockwave
(Jump), & Skyquake (chase Blitz)
-Cliffjumper (Flip),
Decepticon Brawl (Flip), & Dirt Boss (chase Blitz)
Five packs:
-Autobot Air Force (Air
Raid, Fireflight, Quickslinger, Silverbolt, and Skydive-- all Blitz)
-Autobot Polar Assault
Team (Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jetfire, Mirage, and Optimus Prime [chase]--
all Blitz)
-Decepticon Fire Assault
Team (Barricade, Lockdown, Megatron, Shockwave, and Starscream-- all Blitz)
-Stunticons (Brake-Neck,
Breakdown, Dead End, Drag Strip, and Motorbreath [chase]-- all Blitz)
Launchers:
-Bumblebee (Jump; comes
w/ knock-down bricks)
-Cryoscourge (Flip;
comes w/ knock-down bricks)
-Optimus Prime (Spin;
comes w/ three bowling pins)
-Warpath (Flip; comes
w/ three-piece target)
As for the Bot Shots
online game, a "new way to play" was released, and to make things blunt,
it was incredibly annoying, particularly since the "old way to play" was
erased from the site. Although simplistic, the first year of the Bot Shots'
website game got several good hours of entertainment out of me over the
course of 2012, but I played with this new system for less than half an
hour TOTAL. Instead of matching to launch your various attacks against
your opponent, you had to rapidly move your Bot Shot back-and-forth over
blocks on the floor that each represented a different style of attack,
and the blocks would blink on and off quickly and randomly, practically
preventing any real strategization. You then pressed a button to launch
that attack. Combine this with the fact that it stuttered even with a high-speed
Internet connection like mine, and it was a sheer exercise in frustration.
What I had previously been very familiar with I now couldn't even use to
beat the easiest AI opponents. On the upside, there was a larger variety
of powerups to use in the second year, and oftentimes there would be free
virtual Bot Shots you could get if you happened to log in on the right
months. With Bot Shots' quiet cancellation, the site stopped working dependably
in August and quit working altogether in September/October, so unfortunately
I don't have any screen grabs of the game for this overview article.
Bot Shots Year 2 was a good
idea-- helping to diversify the line-- but the cool Flip Shots and the
addition of some beasts wasn't enough to overcome the less-than-stellar
Spin Shots, the stripped-down launchers, the creation of a bunch of new
molds for the same characters again (Bumblebee, Prime, Shockwave), the
over-use of old Blitz Shots molds without any remolding done, and the aggravating
"new" (and only) way to play on the updated website. Still, it was a shame
it ended so abruptly, as there was a ton of cool stuff that had been revealed
to be coming out (and that weren't simply re-hashes of older Blitz Shots
characters like the first couple of waves that were actually released),
and had those been released they would've upped my overall rating for the
year. As it is, however:
Overall Rating: 6/10
Above
Average
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