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If you have a blog, I guess you should post on it every two or three years whether you need to or not. Frankly, the 1/6th hobby has been pretty quiet these last few years, and I haven't been acquiring much that's new, nor doing a lot of 1/6th projects. And then there have been family health misadventures that have consumed a large part of 2012 and 2013, and that I shan't further bother you with.
But hey, the hobby seems to have turned around a bit, even though most 12" action figures worth mentioning, especially GI Joe, have remained absent from store shelves. One bright spot has been the revived Captain Action line from Round 2 Toys. And Hot Toys has been doing some spectacular high end figures based mostly on movie properties (including GI Joe), though at a price point a lot of us can't touch.
But I am seeing a LOT more action on the various on-line discussion groups recently. I don't know if it's a sign of a somewhat improved economy, or if the "figure fatigue" of the boom time has finally passed, but many of my old on-line buddies, and many new ones, are back posting and trading again. But as for new stuff at retail, there isn't much to report. So it's always exciting when an interesting 1/6th scale item shows up, even if it isn't SOLD as a 1/6th item. That's what we're here to talk about today.
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I'm not sure where I heard about these Wild Republic brand Galaxy Quest playsets. Probably some space-toy list or another, but something made me curious enough to check them out. They looked like fairly standard off-brand toys of the sort you often see in nature stores, educational toy stores, and museum gift shops: plastic astronaut figures paired with a variety off off-scale space shuttles, capsules and other accessories. But one set in particular, the "Lunar Robotic Mission" set caught my eye. That "rover" looked kind of familiar. In fact it looked like a real life robot I had seen before.
In fact it was an iRobot (the same people who make Roomba robot vacuums in addition to robots for the military)
Packbot 510, a model used for bomb disposal and emergency response by various militaries as well as police, fire, and rescue agencies. Moreover, it seemed that it COULD be in the ball-park to be 1/6th scale. iRobot makes several robot models in various sizes with this unique track configuration, so I hoped it would be close enough to one of them to be passable. In any case, I figured that, even if the size were wrong, it would make a passable bomb-disposal robot for use with one of my police or fire figures.
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Of course, I hadn't actually seen the thing, and the store pictures (I bought mine on
Amazon, but I also checked listings on eBay for additional info) gave little solid information on the size. I guessed the astronaut to be about 3-4" tall and again, drew the conclusion that it would be close to what I wanted in size. But, I was already making an order to Amazon, and it was only $10, so I decided to take a chance.
Well, I'm happy to say that it paid off. The set arrived today, and not only is this thing a fairly accurate 1/6th Packbot 510, it's better quality than I could have hoped for, and there were several other useful bonus items in the set as well.
First of all, let's talk to scale. The real-life Packbot 510 measures about 27" long in the stowed position (meaning those outrigger tracks sticking out the front are swung back next to the main tracks, and the arm on top is folded). The toy version scales to 24", meaning it's darned close. The Packbot is literally designed so that a soldier (or emergency responder) can strap it (and the control unit) to their back and take it into a combat situation. It's a light, small, robot. But thanks to its very long triple folding arm and those articulated tracks on the front that help it climb stairs and over obstacles. Of course, this set DOESN'T include a backpack frame, and I have no idea if they use something custom, or a standard military backpack frame that might be already available in 1/6th somewhere. Still, I doubt it would be that difficult to kitbash something. There's also no remote control unit, but in some of the photos I've seen, that seems to look pretty much like a generic laptop, and there have been plenty of those made in 1/6th scale. There's also a larger briefcase sized controller with a video screen in the lid, buttons and controls on the inside bottom, and wi-fi type antennas on top. Other control accessories include a fairly standard video game controller (!) pad with a joypad on the left and four buttons on the right, and a helmet-mounted eyepiece that allows a moving soldier to watch through the robot's cameras without limiting their own mobility.
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While the overall shape and configuration of the toy robot are very close to the real thing, if you'll look closely, you'll see a lot of details don't line up. Hard to tell if that's to avoid a copyright or trademark suit, if the sculptors who designed it just got sloppy, or if it's simply modeled after an earlier prototype or version of the robot, which comes in a lot of different configurations, and has evolved since the program was announced. For instance, the bodies on the forward tracks have curved spokes, not straight ones as on the toy, and the side details are different. The cameras on the arm seem different than most production models, but from what I can, there are a LOT of different camera configurations, so this probably matches some version or prototype.
As for the functioning of the toy, I was rather surprised that the tracks
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are molded separately and made of flexible plastic. They actually turn (though the track is stiff enough to frustrate any kid playing with it). The forward tracks are molded in one piece, but like those on the real unit, the arms rotate 360 degrees, back to stow, forward up or down to assist with going up or down stairs or over obstacles. Some photos even show the real robot "standing" with the tips of the arms down, to give the arm more reach to peer in a window for example. The toy can replicate all that.
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I didn't expect much of the arm, and had even considered the possibility that that it would be molded as one piece in the folded position, and might not move at all. What could you expect from a $10 playset after all?
But no, it's well articulated, with hinge type joints at the base and "elbow." The last segment of the arm is unusual that it is double-ended. One end has a box with a manipulator claw. The other end is a long extension pole with a camera on the end, useful for checking the way ahead and spying on bad-guys and potential hazards. The end arm rotates 360 degrees, and also has a twist joint that turns 360 as well, giving you some side-to-side reach.
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As I said, most versions of the robot I've seen pictures of have additional cameras and often LED lights, but these would be fairly easy to kitbash. For a real challenge, you could even add working lights!
The claw, unfortunately, does not open or close, but it is molded in an open position and has hooks on the end of the claws that allow it to hook and hold a variety of items. (One play-value aspect of the design that I noticed is that a child could take the camera end of the arm and use it as a handle to "remotely" operate the claw and pick up or move things. That may explain why they didn't add more and bulkier cameras to that end of the arm.)
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As for paint and markings, the body is a dull gray that wouldn't look out of place in a military or rescue situation. There are various spot trim colors of gold, silver, and a kind of orange primer color. These could easily be retouched with a brush. Mine has some nice, crisp markings that appear to be painted on. These are "USA" in white lettering on the top and front, and "United States" on the rear. Also on top is a full-color US flag. These are all generic enough that they wouldn't look stunningly out of place in either a military, space, or emergency response setting. The toy is also assembled with screws, so it should be easy enough to tear down if you want to do a full repaint, you should be able to easily tear it down for easier painting.
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Overall, this is a really nice piece that has a lot of potential applications in a 1/6th setting. For example, I've paired it up here with my kitbashed GI Joe Adventure Team demolitions and bomb disposal specialist. This would have been a great set if Hasbro had done it. But oh, well, now we can do it for ourselves.
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By the way, I don't want to finish without address the REST of the boxes contents. Sure, I'd have been happy to pay $10 for the robot alone, but there's more in there. The astronaut isn't much use in a 1/6th setting, but some of you may have a use for him, and you can always give him to the nearest small child of your choice. And as for his accessories, well, those may have some use after all.
The astronaut is both better and worse than I expected. First thing that jumped out at me was the face paint. It's just barely NOT white. Not white-guy white, but albino white. Put the helmet on and you won't notice.though. It actually has a clear, yellow tinted visor that hides the face paint pretty well. The helmet actually goes on with a "twist to lock" feature that keeps it from falling off and getting lost, and there's an operating (opaque) sun visor over the faceplate, and there's a removable backpack.
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He's about 4 1/4" tall with the helmet on, and has nine points of articulation (swivels at shoulders and hips, hinged knees, elbows, and to my surprise, ankles. And of course, the head turns. Not a ton of articulation, but you don't expect somebody in a space suit to be doing yoga poses.
The big surprise was that he came with a ton of small accessories. There's a plastic coil of "rope," a cell-phone/radio, a briefcase (which would make a good satchel-bomb for the robot to pick up, and hooks nicely on the claw), a movie camera (cut the handle off, glue it on, and use it as an upgrade camera for the robot), some oversized binoculars (they look Mego scale), a strange "box on a stick" instrument, and a double-ended wrench and pliers (they're a little small, but would look fine in a 1/6th toolbox or on a workbench. There are also a couple of long handled tools, a blunt ended stick that reminds me of a diver's shark-stick, and a trident-style pick-up claw. Both of these might be adapted for 1/6th use of some sort.
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The bad news for play value is that the astronaut's hands aren't molded to hold ANY of these accessories. You can't throw the coil of rope over his arm, but that's it. Several of them would work well with 3 3/4" GI Joes or other small action figures though.
The other coolest-thing in the set is a gold-colored, tripod mounted camera/weapon/scope/telescope thingie. It MAY well be a 1/6th laser target designator of some sort. It certainly looks similar to one, but I haven't found anything specifically like it in a quick Google image search. If any of you military-minded folk recognize it, leave me a comment.
Whatever the danged thing is, it looks cool, and the generic shape means it could pass as a surveillance camera, a video camera, a telescope, a remote sensor platform, an evil freeze ray, or any number of other things. The tripod does not seem to detach, and the legs do not fold. But the yoke that supports the "scope" turns, and the scope itself swivels up and down about 30 degrees. You can also carefully pry the yoke open enough to slip the "scope" and put it back in inverted for a slightly different look. Anyway, a cool little piece with a lot of potential.
So that's it. A nice lot of stuff for ten bucks. Highly recommended.
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