2012 Year-Ender - Project: Foldabots: Complete Works

What is Foldabots Toy Book?

This is a compilation of various Foldabots 2-in-1 Toy Patterns consisting of new exclusive releases and old characters given a new improved pattern.

In my point of view, the Foldabots Toy Book series is a good idea to bring back old favorites like Buhawi, Elementron, and Pasada.

Foldabots Toy Book Volume 1

The first volume consists of nothing but revisions of old favorites, some of them came from the Metallized Zone Series which include Patrol, Astig, Kislap, Liyab, and Karera. When you collect all five characters, you are bound to build the sixth Foldabot in the set--Metrotren. Also in the set are the Elementrobots, where your goal is to collect the four sets to make Elementron. The only difference in the book was the characters in the Metallized Zone Series are not metallic anymore. The Elementrobots had suffered some changes in the design, Siklab's T-connector is now on the bottom than behind his head, Tutubi's middle piece in his helicopter blades is missing, and Alon and Agos now look identical and their connectors are replaced with the old-fashioned connection method from the original version, unless you notice the double right arms of Agos, plus the top part was missing due to the limit of pattern sheets in the book. The only additions of the set was Buhawi, Bangis, and Lu-Sho. In addition to the book, you also have a set of 14 game cards and a die for this purpose.

Foldabots Toy Book Volume 2

This is the second installment of the book series where a new set of reissues were included. To start the set, we have the Mitochrons where they had the biggest improvements in design. Tikbalang's horse head is now placed on the back rather than in front of his face, Nuno is now as tall as Tikbalang and he turns into a blue Honda Jazz/Fit, P.U.N.S.O. suffered a lot by downgrading from a complex piece to a flat card-like panel and he doesn't combine with the rest of the set unless you insert it inside Kapre, Manananggal seems to be the tallest of all the members but the most complex of the set, and Kapre also had the most improvements in the set where his tank form is the most detailed. As Higantechron, the overall design is almost like the original version and the addition of the detachable tank turret is a work if a genius. The Aquabots also had some minor improvements like Alona's dolphin head is not flat anymore. Lupet now has another pet named Sipit (Originally named Sipitron) makes a good addition along with Uwak. This also includes four characters that were metallic printed, the first two were Pasada where he got the biggest upgrade, and Kidlat the last Foldabot originally issued before the modern designs were used. There were also two new evil characters, Sigwa and Delubyo are known to be Lutabots (formerly known as Mechanoid Lutants.) This volume only had 13 sheets rather than 14 and there were only 11 cards still due to the sheet limit, and Kapre, Butandrone, and their respective combiner cards were not in the set.

Foldabots Toy Book Volume 3

Having Gubatron reissued again for the this volume is a good sign, but the bad sign is the whole combiner group didn't have a 'Major Upgrade' like the cover said, the truth is the connector on Kagat is now on Kuwago, probably to balance the concept of Gubatron. There are four new characters in this volume including Sundo the Mitsubishi L300 FB school service vehicle, Xi-Takk the taxi (His design was based off Patrol,) Kongkretron the cement mixer truck, and Pison the steamroller. This set is the smallest and there were 6 cards due to the limit. The addition of this book was they reissued Foldabots: Dark Ages, the strategy board game which has a Dungeons and Dragons kind of theme. I'll explain more about Dark Ages in another blog.
Dark Ages covers 5 out of the 14 pattern sheets in this volume.

Foldabots Toy Book Volume 4

This was released last year, and this is personally my favorite. The Mikrobots in this volume not only they get a 'Real Major Upgrade', but also they're battle ravaged. This also includes the three 'original' Aura-San Foldabots and a fully 3D Blup figurine. The exclusive characters in this one is Landas, the Foldabot Triple-Changer who turns into a Hyundai Tucson, and the other is Buhatron, the giant Lutabot carrier truck. The bonuses in this volume are the Ultimate Agimat Force Weapons for the Mikrobots, and the 11-inch Astig papercraft figure. I have nothing to say about this one, but this is perhaps the best volume so far.

Foldabots Toy Book Volume 5

Just this November, the latest volume of the Foldabots Toy Book features a double-cover special with Saurotron and Yelotron on either sides. This also featured the Foldabot Diadrones and Sagip. But the biggest enigma was since it had 16 patterns in it, the only Foldabot that was never featured in the covers was Kalasag, who also had a big upgrade. Badly for those who expect the prehistoric rivals, the patterns of both the Saurobots and the Yelobots were unchanged and never had not even a single improvement. Sagip does have some improvements including his new accessories, and Kalasag as well had some add-ons. But the main headline of the book was the Diadrones, these come in pairs and also combine in pairs. For me, although this had a lot of errors in the pages, but the patterns are the best, especially for the Diads.

Errors

Speaking of errors, I noticed a lot of hoaxes and errors recently in all the volumes. One is Alon and Agos misses their glowing Agimat crests and left out with black crests on them. Kalmot's speed is although printed out max but if you look closely it only had two divisions. Kalasag is suppose to have an Agimat crest in his art, but the pattern has it. Liyab's glow is off-centered, Lupet's friendship with Astig was not mentioned in his description, and at the back of the Toy Book 3 cover, you'll see there are two Toy Book 2 covers in it, probably from rushing that caused the problem. If you see the back of Toy Book 4, there were also typographical errors like "...Landas the first Foldabots Triple-Changer..." Sounds weird? They forgot to remove the s from Foldabots, that was also an annoying part. Kalmot in the fifth volume, had a lot of errors in his bio. One of it is the Speed gauge is so wrong but right, although the meter is full but there were only two divisions which is still meaningful to us. The next one is his descriptions for his Lutabot and Ground Sloth modes were swapped. Now the next error was in Karga's bio where at his alternate form reads 'Forklift' but he's not a forklift like Tinidrone. The better description for him is a 'Open Van Truck.'

The reason I made this blog, is to correct what is wrong and revise the whole Foldabots Toy Book series all over again. This is the vision of Foldabots Toy Book: Complete Works Edition.

What Differs Complete Works From The Original?

It's simple, there are several design fixes in this version where all of the errors are gone. For those who are gonna expect all the cards from the whole series, this one has it all, especially for the ones that were missed, like Kapre, Butandrone, Tamarax, Higantechron, Aquatikron, Gubatron, Konkretron, Pison, the Mikrobots with Mikrokosmos, the Aura-Sans(There is also an option for this to be excluded for the card game), Landas, and all combiners from volume 5. What also makes this good is it has two versions of the book, the regular version, and the metallic print version.

Foldabots Toy Book: Complete Works 1

Since there were only 10 out of the 13 characters in Vol.1, they get a metallic print and all the Metallized Zone parts included in Complete Works M1. This now uses the original and unedited
artworks that were first seen in K-Zone Philippines.

Foldabots Toy Book: Complete Works 2

In Complete Works 2, The bios are updated and now uses unedited and original artworks, and the numbering of all the characters follow after the first one (i.e.: Tikbalang is now #14) and the combiners Higantechron and Aquatikron will be renumbered as CS-2 and CS-3 which follows Elementron from CW1. Aside from that, this is the first time you are going to build Pasada, Kidlat, and the first two Lutabots in either their plain version or again in their metallic print on Complete Works M2. CW2 now has 14 sheets rather than 13 due to the addition of the four new cards released exclusively on the Complete Works Edition.

Foldabots Toy Book: Complete Works 3

Complete Works 3 has the same numbering scheme as the previous two and it is followed after #26 Delubyo. Which means, Ramo is numbered #27. It also has the addition of all the four unused Agimat Game Cards. The biggest problem is how are we going to fit them? Simple, add the two sheets with the extra cards in it to make it 16 sheets. In Complete Works M3 in the other hand, you may build Sundo and the three Lutabots in metallic print.

Foldabots Toy Book: Complete Works 4

Now, Complete Works 4 has 10 characters plus the numbering starting with #36 for Sapotron, the removal of Masterpiece Astig and the addition of all 6 cards for the Mikrobots, all 4 for Bakunawa Dragon, and Landas. That's 11 new exclusive cards! Take note that the 3 Aura-San cards are going to be placed with their respective pattern sheets. The 8 remaining will be on the four sheets replacing MP Astig. In Complete Works M4, Landas, Buhatron, and the Aura-Sans will have a metallic print.

Foldabots Toy Book: Complete Works EX

For those who are looking for that Masterpiece Figure, it will be placed on Complete Works EX, where you may get to build your Dark Ages game board in cardboard and more new game props are added like trees, mountains, Nipa huts, and more! CWEX has 4 sheets for MP Astig, 6 for Dark Ages Expansion, and 5 more for the cards for CW5 (Saurotron, Yelotron, Sagip, Kalasag, and all four Diadrones including their combined forms.) The one last card is for Sporticus and Buhawi's Ultimate Agimat Force Sabre. In short, Complete Works EX has all the extra stuff to add in your collection.

Foldabots Toy Book: Complete Works 5

Finally, Complete Works 5 has the rest of the cards found in CWEX including the individual Saurobots and the Yelobots, due to the extra space. Some of the designs on both combiner teams were fixed and the blue folding lines on all the Saurobots are finally replaced with black or white broken lines. Sisid's unwanted cutting lines were removed, and the bios were fixed. The numbering will start with #46, and just like the other combiners it will be numbered separately again like in the previous four. The Foldabot Diadrones are numbered as DX1.



Now that 2012 is about to end, let's not turn back to our dark pasts and move into the bright future together. For me, I'll be doing another novel, or maybe test some of my new prototypes. Perhaps I'm going to focus on posting more blogs this 2013. We'll also look forward to Foldabots Toy Book Volume 6 at the end of the year.

Well, this ends my blog and hope you like it! See you in 2013!

Another Original Combiner: CELTRON

Have you ever notice most of the Foldabot combiners around, usually composes of mostly male units? Sometimes, there's only one female unit in that team. Manananggal from the Mitochrons, Alona from the Aquabots, Alita from the Mikrobots, Aura-San 3, Tusok from the Saurobots, Sisid from the Yelobots, Amihan(ator) from the Supremobots, Mothara from the Pestebots, and recently Violeta of the Sporticons, are the only examples of female units in any combiner.

Obviously, Foldabots is morely for boys and not for girls. But if you would imagine if you would see a girl doing this, then it would be this girl from my fanfic, "Foldabots MegaMix."

Cynthia Tetico (pronounced as SYNTH-ee-ah TEDDY-ko,) a teenage girl who has interests not only in singing, but also in the terms of collecting robot cut-outs from a magazine and build them... You already know what that is, guys...

Now, back to topic, the other reason for us not to have more than one female Bot in the pack is the designers don't usually make girl Foldabot or Lutabot designs. I, in the other hand, I made a few ladies like Lully, Pipit, Kindat, and Erotika. In my other original combiner, Bahaghari, there are two female units rather than one. But the biggest impact is I actually made a Foldabot combiner team that is made up of nothing but girls! That's right, girls. I also thought of "why not make a combiner out of different kinds of mobile phones?" And that's where I fused the two ideas together to make this one.

My concept arts for the "Celbots" and the one on the upper left is "Celtron"

The CELBOTS were named after the word cellphone--the group's alt forms. Each of the Celbots are capable of disguising as cellphones of any shape or size.

There are five Celbots forming CELTRON. And first on the list are BUKA, the flip-top cellphone, and DULAS, the slide-up cellphone.

The first two Celbots: Buka and Dulas. Notice Dulas' other parts are missing.

Both Buka and Dulas forms the legs of Celtron, Buka for the right leg, and Dulas for the left leg.

Next up, we got PINDOT, the cellphone with a keypad of a computer or in short, a "QWERTY" kind of phone.

Pindot is on the left side of the pattern sheet and I added Dulas' top part and Celtron's head piece in this one.

Pindot has a design similar to the ones from Komyutatron and Kontrolion. She forms both arms of Celtron.

Lastly, we have TURO, the iPhone, and Anli the bar-type phone that can use two SIM cards at the same time. Anli's name was based from the common term for unlimited text messaging known as 'unlitext.'

Turo and Anli are made almost the same way, except for the length variation.

Just like Bangga and Bunggo of the Komyutabots, they both form the torso of Celtron, the difference is Turo would form the lower part, while Anli forms the upper part.

If you want to build Celtron for your self, here's the instruction guide below.

HAVE FUN, FOLDA-FANS!!!

Pre-Birthday Special BONUS: Re:Siklo

Recently, I saw this picture of Kalasag (the one from Sept. '06 K-Zone issue) and Siklo (from Nov. '07,) and looked carefully on the design of Siklo and his sidecar looks really weak. Now, before I even saw what's really inside Foldabots Toy Book Vol.5, I drew some concept designs if these two and Tambak were reissued then. If you want to see these pictures, go see this blog.

I also noticed that when the pattern of reissued Siklo (My first design idea,) is published, there are so many sleeve parts and it would take you a long time to complete the figure itself. Now, after I checked on the old Siklo (the original one,) I decided to draw another concept art for him.

Siklo's Reissue Concept #2, shot by my old cellphone and was drawn on a scratch pad.

The new design is more simplified than the first drawing, but it now has 2 sleeves than 3, the sidecar's windshield is now re-attached at the base, just like the old version. The added part is the roof for the motorcycle which doubles as an optional add-on for the alt form of the sidecar. Just like the first design I made, the bike and the sidecar's wheel remains as it is.

And since I posted this one, 3 days before my birthday, I would like to thank you all for making this Foldabots Blog a success for me.

If you want to add me on Facebook, here's my account: Erwin Imagin Fourze