Gobots: We'll Pick You Up

What do the Renegades do when they need stuff moved from one end of the building to another? They call in Spoons, of course!

Spoons is the evil Renegade Gobot that turns into a forklift.

The forklift even 'lifts!'

Not too shabby for such a maligned toyline!

I owned Spoons as a kid but this is not my original. I found this guy at a local flea market recently in a box of random kids stuff. He was a bit dirty and his joints are super tight; he probably hadn't been transformed in decades.

What I loved most about Gobots, and Spoons here is no different, is that they were simple, sturdy, well designed, had a lot of die-cast parts (unlike their mini Transformer contemporaries) and fit right in with Hotwheels and Matchbox vehicles, making the 'robot in disguise' angle of much greater value during playtime.

Spoon is simple but not a bad toy in either form, and it's a real shame that Bandai has never re-released their original 'Machine Robo' castings (since Hasbro now owns the Gobots in name only.)

Spoons was originally released in Japan as MR-34 as part of Bandai's Machine Robo series, and was later released in the US by Tonka as a Gobot.