It might surprise some people to realise that the Rescue Bots toyline started in 2011, and is now five years old (and is now the longest running
Transformers cartoon, ever)... so to commemorate the fifth anniversary, here is a photo review of their toyline.
Share your thoughts, even if you don't collect them or watch the cartoon.
First up, some basics you need to know about Rescue Bots...
- the cartoon is supposed to be set in the TFPrime/RID universe.
- there are no Decepticons in Rescue Bots.
- the cartoon is based around a core team of just four Autobots (Chase the policecar, Heatwave the firetruck, Boulder the bulldozer, Blades the
helicopter), and has two regular guests (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee), plus some added guests in the 3rd & 4th seasons of the cartoon (High Tide,
Blurr, Salvage, Servo, Quickshadow and RID Sideswipe).
- the main humans in the cartoon are the Burns family, who are all members of an existing rescue team before the Autobots had arrived.
They are Kade, Cody, Dani, Graham, the father Charlie, and his brother Woodrow.
- the cartoon is set in the (small, yet busy for disasters) island town of Griffin Rock, and the Autobots are known by the residents as being alien
robots, by the start of the fourth season.
- some notable voice actors for the cartoon include, Levar Burton (from Star Trek), Mark Hamill (from Star Wars), Alex Kingston (from Dr Who), Michael Bell (from the 1980s Transformers cartoon), Maurice Lamarche (from the 1980s Transformers cartoon), Tim Curry (veteran movie star), Bill
Mumy (from the original Lost in Space tv show), and Jim Cummings (from the 1980s Transformers cartoon).
Chase.
Here is a group shot of the first five years of the Chase toys (except the Beam Box Chase figurine, which was not released due to a
technical flaw in the game).
Note that in the first year, before the cartoon started, Chase was actually black... but would have been changed to blue to match the cartoon, which
must have been done to look more kid-friendly on the TV.
The first form for Chase was a police car, but later he would take on a Stegasaurus mode and an SUV mode.
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Boulder.
This is one of the four main characters, but got the smallest number of toys over the five years, even less than Optimus and Bumblebee who
showed up in less than 10% of the episodes. We did get a new transforming bulldozer toy this year for the newer smaller size class, but it looks to be the only new Boulder toy for 2016.
The nine toys/figurines in the photos, are the first two large transforming bulldozers, the recent small transforming bulldozer, last year's dumptruck,
the Epic figure, the tiny dino, a regular figurine, a gimmick figurine, and the beambox figure.
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Blades.
Blades got the second-least amount of toys of the four main Bots with just one more than Boulder... including just one last year and no new ones so
far planned for this year.
So here we have the two versions of the first Blades (helicopter) transforming toy, the latest smaller transforming (helicopter) toy from
2015, the transforming mini dinosaur toy, the transforming jet toy from 2014, two figurines of his helicopter form (one has slightly different paint
apps), one figurine of his jet form, the beambox figurine, and the 12-inch epic figure.
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Heatwave.
The fourth of the original Rescue Bots team, Heatwave currently has the most toys of all of the Rescue Bots characters at 16.
Heatwave started out as a firetruck, and was the first to take on a new alt-mode, as a boat. He also had a dinosaur mode, and an ambulance as
an Amazon exclusive toy last year.
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Now that the main four members of the cartoon cast are done, here is a group photo of the toys for the four original team members - Heatwave, Boulder, Blades, Chase.
Continuing the commemoration of the 5th anniversary of Rescue Bots, we now delve into the other characters of the cartoon and toyline that didn't
make up the original team of four Rescue Bots.
Bumblebee.
This character only showed up in just five episodes so far, but has more toys than the main characters of Chase, Boulder and Blades. I guess he's
the face of the entire Transformers Brand at the moment, so more parents are likely to buy a toy of a character that THEY recognise, over one that
their young kids are watching every episode. (after all, if the sales prove this to be true, why fill the shelves with the main characters which don't
sell as fast)
(The new Epic Bumblebee toy arrived after this photo, and has been included in the final photo of this posting.)
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Optimus Prime.
Another rare cameo character is the Autobot leader who would occasionally drop in on the Rescue Bots team. But just like with
Bumblebee, this character only showed up in a handful of the 104 episodes of the cartoon, but has more toys than most of the regular cast robots,
and also has the biggest toy from the toyline. It is also one of the biggest Transformers toys ever made from Hasbro.
(The new reissue Optimus with Trailer toy arrived after this photo, and has been included in the final photo of this posting.)
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The new recruits.
Next up are the toys of the new recruits from the Transformers Rescue Bots cartoon.
Salvage the garbage truck.
Blurr the race car.
High Tide the cargo ship & submarine.
Servo the dog.
Missing is Quickshadow the car, as the toy has only just been released in America in the last few weeks, so I haven't got it yet.
(at the time of this photo, Sideswipe had not yet appeared in the cartoon, so is included in a later group photo) .
The villains.
Even though the series doesn't have Decepticons, it still has some "naughty" people, and their creations, for the Autobots to deal with.
And fortunately, Hasbro has given us toys of some of them, including the most recent one - a transforming Morbot. Not the Morbots of the first
season (which we got a figurine of), but a new race-car Morbot that transforms just like Blurr.
The other villain toys here are Dr Morocco (both releases), Morbot figurine (both releases), Scrapmaster, a generic robber (from one of the playsets),
and Trex... who later became a loyal pet for the Rescue Bots.
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Humans.
At the back of this photo are the various non-cartoon figurines that came with the toys in the first year. Not only did they all have names, but each
time one was re-released with a different robot or playset, it had something altered on its colour scheme.
Unfortunately, most of the first year packaging didn't have the names of the humans printed on it, so many would come from official toy listings or the Hasbro website.
Two of the humans had names that would end up in the cartoon - Chief Charlie Burns (blue) and Cody Burns (the four red guys), while the other
four first year guys had names that I don't think ever showed up in the cartoon - Axel Frazier (yellow), Walker Cleveland (green), Sawyer Storm
(orange), and Jack Tracker (black), Each colour matched the six main bots in the first year of toys - Optimus, Bumblebee, Heatwave, Chase (who was
black in year one), Boulder and Blades.
The humans at the front of the photo were figurines released in years 2-5, to match the characters on the cartoon, including the main Burns family
members and Doc Green. (plus we got Doctor Morocco, with was in the previous photo with the villains)
Non-cartoon robot toys.
Most of the human toys haven't been in the cartoon (above), but here are the robot toys that haven't appeared in the cartoon (as of when this
photo was taken - since then, Sideswipe actually has appeared in an episode).
We have Medix the ambulance (first and fifth year toys), Sideswipe the red racecar (from this year), and Hoist the towtruck (first year toy - I don't
yet have the fifth year toy that was just released this month).
Plus the robo-pets - Drake the red dragon/water cannon, Growl the blue dog/bike, and Fireplug the white dog/water cannon. Valor the blue lion has
just been released this month as well, but I don't have it yet.
Playsets and vehicle accessories.
The first Series had the huge firehouse playset that could "transform" into the face of Optimus, while the yellow garage playset could "transform" into the face of Bumblebee.
Series 1.5 (technically year 2, but there was only half a dozen toys during 2012) had the bank/prison playset, and the firetruck playset (appearing in
just one episode I think). Plus, the single packed figurines during this time each had a convertible accessory, which are on the second shelf from the top.
Series 2 (Energize) had the unreleased 3D pop-up playset, which ended up being released two years later in South Korea, plus the Optimus with Trailer.
Series 3 saw the Beam Box, which was actually a computer game for the TV, but interacted with certain figurines, and had a cameo on the cartoon.
Series 4 (last year) gave us a couple of vehicles (a drill & shark sub), and HighTide as a playset (which was in the HighTide photo).
Then this year, we have a return to proper playsets like in the first year, with two small playsets (garage & police station), plus a giant sized
Headquarters that replicates much of the one on the cartoon... including the new spacebridge introduced to this year's episodes.
And rounding out this big fifth year, we have four more trailers - one each for Heatwave and Chase, plus a racing trailer for Optimus, and a re-release
of the Energize Optimus trailer that didn't come with any stickers this time.
Speaking of which, the second photo actually shows the three releases of that particular Optimus toy - the Energize version with blue Energize paint
details and stickers, the Megabot version from this year (without a trailer) in the middle, and the re-release of the Energize version without the blue Energize paint details.
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2016 toys yet to be obtained or released.
These are the toys from this year that didn't make it in this commemoration of the first five years, either because they haven't been
released yet, or were just released in the last few weeks and I haven't been able to get them yet.
Epic HighTide, Valor, Hoist, Quickshadow, (redeco) Megabot Night Rescue Heatwave, and the Mr Potato Heads of Heatwave, Boulder, High Tide,
Optimus (proposed re-release, but rebadged as Rescue Bots) and Bumblebee (proposed re-release, but rebadged as Rescue Bots). Plus,
there might also be a new transforming Hightide submarine and Salvage garbage truck as well, but they might come out right at the end of the year.
Well that's it.
That's everything from the first five years of Rescue Bots.
And just to see what it all looks like together in one photo, here you go...
(with two easter eggs, of two Rescue Bots characters that were released in other toylines - Angry Birds and Timelines)
Feel free to post comments about the toyline and cartoon in its first five years if you collect them, or even if you don't.
Last edited by griffin; 2nd October 2016 at 09:46 PM.
My son Orion LOVES the Rescuebots! Funnily enough I made him some TF shelves of his own on the weekend and they are all on it.
He has:
*Bumblee Rescue Garage (with Axel & Bumblebee)
*Fire Station playset (with Kade)
*Optimus Prime (the big trailer one)
*Chase
*Boulder
*Blades
*Heatwave
*Servo
*Drake
*High Tide
*The Ghost of Griffin Rock Book
*Rescue Bots DVD
and he is getting Medix and Hoist for Xmas
(I must admit, I have all of these toys myself except for the Fire Station, Servo & Drake and I have a Blurr & a couple of tiny Dino-RB figures )
Last edited by BigTransformerTrev; 3rd October 2016 at 06:01 PM.
Rescue Bots review - five years and counting
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