Gobots Blue & Red robot watch

There have been many different types of robot watch made. I've blogged a Gobots watch before, but this is a different style robot than before.

The Gobots watches were sold by the Tonka toy company starting in 1984. The toys were made by Impulse Ltd in Hong Kong, and were in competition with the Takara robot watches from the same era. The Gobots toys were licensed from Bandai, and after Hasbro bought Tonka, they got the toys back again. The Gobots line were present in the US market until it was phased out in 1991.

This robot design is a lot more flexible than the standard square robot watch. The arms have extra hinges, and the legs are both hinged and rotating. As with the other watches in the series, this had a magnetic connector to the strap along with a rotate to lock connection. The design makes it a muck thicker model when folded, and the LCD display is set deep into the body, with the buttons positioned below.

The watch has the standard 4 digit LCD display design, with two button operation. One button sets the time, while the other switches between the day, date, and seconds displays.

Roboroid 0002 by Bandai

Today is another boxed robot watch, but one that was part of a robot series rather than a watch series.

This is the Roboroid 0002 and was one of a series of 5 robots released in 1984 by Bandai. Only 0002 was a robot watch, with the others being a radio (AM only), a calculator, and two robots. The watch, radio and calculators were all transformers, changing from this function into a robot.

As a transforming robot watch, it is quite a simple one with small arms, legs, and a head popping out from the large yellow body. All of the fittings are rotated out of the body, more like the Kronoform watches than the Bandai Tokimas.

The watch part is a 4 digit LCD display, which is openly shown ln the front of the watch. As far as I can tell, the watch is a simple one with the basic time, date, and seconds. As the watch is still packaged, I can't test anything, but I don't want to break the seal...

Tank Watch

About a month ago, I posted a Transformers Megatron Tank Watch, and today is an almost identical one, but without the branding.

The watch is simply called Tank Watch, and was made for/by or sold by a fashion accessories company called Bijoux Terner. The company started in 1974 in Miami Florida and has the aim to help fashionistas look great for less. In 1997 they moved to airport kiosks for a very low price and has been targeting the retail travel industry since.

This design was made in China, but has a registered design in the UK (No. 2011552). Apart from this, the watch is identical to the Megatron watch. It has a pop out 4 digit LCD module with time, date, and seconds, and there is light and sound with an LED in the gun barrel. When I said identical, it is truly that, and has been made from the same mould. Although it is a different colour, even the camouflage pattern is identical.

TransFormers Megatron Tank Watch

It's another Sunday boxed watch today, and another Transformers watch, but one which doesn't transform very much.

The watch is the Megatron Tank Watch, and is a promotional item for Transformers. This is a genuine Transformers item and has the statement Transformers Robots in Disguise on the packaging.

It is a watch for the character Megatron who is the leader of the Decepticons, and has had various different looks over the years. The original design was a pistol, but this was not allowed to be re-released for safety reasons, so in the Generation 2, Megatron had become a large green M1A1 Abrams battle tank. This places the watch in the 90s as generation 2 came out in 1992.

This particular watch features the Megatron tank form, and appears to have light and sound with an LED on the end of the barrel. The watch display pops out of the front of the tank and is a basic 4 digit LCD with time, date, and seconds.

It was a special model released for the shop chain Woolworths in the UK. It was issued as a free item, exclusive to Woolworths as a promotional item for Hasbro, and may have come with a video or magazine. Looking at eBay, these seem to sell for around £30/$50 at the moment.

Ro Bot Time Machine - Dairy Queen model

Sometimes I find watches that look like others but are not by the normal manufacturers.

Today's watch is a transforming robot watch that looks like the GoBot watch i blogged in June. But this one was not made by Impulse Ltd, but by CMI Corporation and is called a Ro Bot.

The watch was a promotional item released for American company Dairy Queen. The first Dairy Queen store opened in 1940, and the company sells soft serve ice cream and other fast food. The Dairy Queen logo is shown on the robots chest.

Sweda watches seem to have made various different watches for different brands, and seem to have been the American based CMI Corporation watch sales brand. The brand does still seem to be going and is listed as clock retail.

As with the GoBot, the watch has a magnetic back, but connects to the strap with a 90 degree twist. It is a square robot where the legs fold around the outside covering the arms.

As with most of these robots, it uses a basic 4 digit LCD display with time, date, and seconds, and two buttons on the front.

Gobots Robot Watch - red

It seems that this weekend is turning into a robot watch weekend, so here's another one!

This watch is part of the Gobots range of watches made by Impulse Ltd of Hong Kong in 1984.

The Gobots were a range of transforming robots made by the Tonka toy company in the mid 80s. The toys were actually licensed from Bandai and reverted to their ownership when Hasbro bought Tonka. The original toys were developed by Bandai division Popy of Japan, the same as the Tokima watches, and were Tonka's competition to the Takara toys entry into the American market (-the American versions of yesterday's watch). The line was eventually phased out in 1991.

The watch is a square model (like the Kronoform watches) with arms on the side and legs that fold up and cover the arms. The most unusual part of the watch is the connection to the strap which is magnetic (same as the Voltron watch from last July which was also by Impulse). Unfortunately, I'm missing the strap for this one, so I'm using it as a fridge magnet.

It uses a 4 digit basic LCD module. It has just time, date, and seconds modes, and is controlled/updated by the two buttons on the front.

Takara Watch-Q Colt Combat Custom

I've always had a soft spot for the transforming robot watches, mainly the Tokima brand, but I have a bit of a collection of the Takara watches too.

The Takara Co. Ltd are a Japanese toy company, founded in the 1950s with a moto of "playing is culture", and most famous for their transformer toys. They produced transformer watch toys under the Kronoform and Watch-Q names during the 1980s and this is one of those.

This watch is called the Watch-Q Colt Combat Custom, and is a transformer but not a robot which came out in 1984. It is a transforming toy gun watch with the watch head being the handle and barrel of the toy gun. It came with attachments of a scope, silencer, stand, and shoulder piece. The gun used a spring loaded system which fired small (3mm) plastic balls. The silencer also has a space for a LR1 battery (like a short AAA battery), and has a light in the end turning it into a torch.

The watch part is built into the handle of the gun and shows the time on a 2 line LCD display with 2 digits on each line (the display is just about 4 digits wide but they are offset so the minutes are 3/4 of a digit lower than the hours.

These models seem to be quite rare, and last month (May 2013), just the box and insert for this watch sold for just under $75 (-yes, just the box without the watch sold for that much!).

The number on the box is 203303-3-2800, and I think it would have sold for between 2,800 and 3,980 yen (based on the prices of other watches in the range).

500th Watch - Tokima Digirobo Blue

Today, my blog hits it's 500th watch (if I include a couple of pocket watches and a clock designed as a watch). For each of the hundreds, I've blogged a robot watch, and so today I'll keep up that tradition.

This watch is one of the original 1980s Tokima Digirobo models which first came out in 1983. They were released by Bandai after having been developed by the Popy Kikakushitsu company, and all of the details can be found on my Tokima Robot Watch Overview page (link).

The one I'm blogging today is perhaps the rarest version of any of the Tokima Digirobo watches. I have only seen this blue one once in the last 10 years, apart from in a 1985 catalogue. Unfortunately, this one had been stored in the sun and faded to green (but the original blue can be seen on the strap and the bottom of the box) - but it may mean I have the only green one out there ;-).

The watch has a basic 3.5 digit LCD module which has a time, date, and seconds display. The box gives much more detailed information, saying it is a "Field Electric Efficiency (FE) type nematic liquid crystal 3 1/2 digit display", and has a 32768Hz tuning fork type quartz movement.

As with all of these models, the watch head is released from the strap with two clips, and then pulling out the robots feet releases the arms too.

Bandai Alarm Tokima Silver

If I've been keeping track of my posts, today marks the 300th watch I've posted.

To mark this occasion, I'm blogging another Bandai Tokima watch. I had planned to wear the watch as well, but unfortunately the straps of these watches suffer from the brittle strap problem as the plastic ages, so it's too fragile to use (with the original strap).

The Tokima robot watches were originally released in 1983 by Bandai. After a year, Bandai released two new versions; the Aquaboy, and this one, the Alarm Tokima.

The Digirobo Alarm Tokima is slightly different in style than the other two with a head that pops out of the body rather than being the cover for the LCD display. To see the display, you press a small button on the bottom in front of the legs and the front panel flips open.

To turn the watch into a robot, you first take it from the strap by squeezing the buttons on either side. To make the transformation, you pull down the legs and the arms and head pop out. In order to return the robot back to the watch, you push in the feet first, and then the arms and head will latch in.

As the name suggests, this has a more complex module than the other Tokimas as it includes an alarm as well as the time, date, and seconds displays.

More can be found on the Tokima watch range in my overview page: link

Inside view of module

Takara Watch-Q Take Off Dash Car 300ZX

On this fine Sunday, I thought I'd share another of my transforming watches. But this time it's not a robot!
The watch is part of the Watch-Q line of watches by Takara. The Watch-Q range, also known as Kronoform in the west, was released by Takara in 1983/84 and sold their transforming watches. As part of the line, they had a couple of non-robots in the form of a gun, an aeroplane, a stereo, and two types of car.

This one is modelled on the Nissan Fairlady Z 300ZX which was a Nissan sports car released in 1983. It looks like a special version of the 300ZX Z31 which came out to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Nissan in 1984, and this also fits the 1984 release date of the watch. The watch came in 3 colours, blue, black, and red.

The head of the watch is a mount for the toy car which sits although it's about to drive up your wrist. Time is displayed on a small LCD screen inside the car's windscreen, with 4 digits staggered so the hour digits are in the top left, and minutes in the bottom right. To change the time, you need to use the pin accessory to access the buttons through two small holes in the underside of the car. One button is used to change the display mode between the time, date, and seconds (although it's a bit fiddly for everyday use). The other button sets the time and date (but you should cycle through the mode button after setting to make sure the time starts).

To get the car off the holder without damage, you should push it to the right (with the short end of the strap at the top), and then lift the left side first. When taken off, the car has a small pull-back and go engine. The car model is quite detailed,with the car name on the back bumper, and the rubber tyres even say 'Goodyear GT radial' on the side.

The watch originally cost 2,800 yen when it was released in 1984.