Foldabot Habol and Vivid Robo Reviews

I never made so much new designs before I printed them for testing, which resulted in just 4 out of the supposed to be 12 pattern cards. But out of the 4, was perhaps the most perfected designs I've made since Foldabots Mini, and on this edition, I'll be reviewing them.

Foldabot Habol

Pattern can be found here: http://ejsotto.blogspot.com/2016/05/foldabots10-folda-fan-spotlight-charles.html

He was designed to be like Sagip, with practically almost the same parts, save for the unique parts like the bumper, and the visor. The print was a little flawed with the fonts wrong but at least he still ended up as good as it's supposed to be.

Seizure Warning!

Habol in Foldabot mode; One of the most stable designs.

Stability wise, he's practically very stable unlike some other designs, and the proportion is way much better than of Sagip. I think above all, he goes great with Electricus once we get Tagas ourselves next month after coming to the event.

Vivid Robo

This is practically a quadruple crossover since the gestalt is based on a relatively obscure anime back in 2012. The other references were practically Voltron, due to the fact the resulting combiner has colored limbs corresponding to the Legendary Defender. I might do the girl with the black scarf (No, not Hoodie since he's a guy) as a stand-alone combiner set where she forms the torso of her super mode, and her weapons become the limbs, and from there, the Voltron reference will become more true. Another is Kamen Rider Wizard, also from 2012, which has four basic styles and dragon styles that came after. No wonder I found a picture of Vivid Red All Dragon Style somewhere in DA which does make sense why both Kamen Rider Wizard and VividRed Operation are almost one and the same if let alone the four colors in common. The combined form of Vivid Robo has a visor reminiscent of Wizard's Infinity Style, by the way. And the last thing is it's basically a Foldabots X-over, which you might have forgotten now is a mix of various movie or TV series and top it off the Foldabots System.

The individual units from pattern cards 1 and 2 are virtually the same patterns on all four of them, albeit with different designs that represent the main characters of the anime. The third card however is their weapons, which is of course almost the same as the show's, except it forms the main torso of the gestalt, which is the crowning feature of this set. Also, Make sure you fine tune the connections by cutting the tabs a bit save the nose parts, so that they can fit inside the sleeves perfectly. Don't cut them too much otherwise it will not be useful especially when combining to Vivid Robo.

The following pictures are the patterns, if you want to try them yourself. After these are the snapshots of the actual toys, and note these also have print defects.

Their individual vehicle modes are of course the same and the numbers on top of them correspond to the characters they're based from.

Identical Quadruplets

They also have a gimmick of combining into a train-like vehicle by inserting the nose parts onto the sleeves.

Parallel Docking!

In robot mode, the character designs may look vaguely to the characters themselves, but at least they have visors that also refers to Wizard's four styles.

HI-SUI-FUU-DO!

Next, we move on to their weapons, which is of course based on the show as well. On its own they can be used as weapons to the robots, or you can combine them to form a jet.

Well, almost show-accurate, but it has a hidden purpose.

Part 1: Red and Blue

Part 2: Green and Yellow

Here's how you'll do it: Open Blue Weapon's tab and insert Yellow Weapon with tab facing out, in order to place Red Weapon forming the nose part. Then open Green Weapon's tab insert it on Blue Weapon's rear sleeve, while the Wings are attached on the front sleeve.

You'll end up with something that looks like this...

Support Jet Vivid Armory

Another thing about the weapons is that they can combine with their respective units, as seen below.

Battle Modes Part 1

Battle Modes Part 2

Battle Modes Part 3

And now, combining the whole thing...

First things first, we should change these units to their limb forms and in this case, VM-01 and VM-03 are the arms, and VM-02 and VM-04 are the legs. It's up to you where you can place these girls, after all, they also have the Scramble System included. In fact, there are 24 possible configurations you can do with this gestalt.

Repeat, none of them forms the torso. Just the limbs.

Next is the Blue and Yellow Weapons, which where the interlocking magic comes in, followed by the Green Weapon and the two legs. This is perhaps tricky because of how to attach them by inserting the arms to the notched tabs. Surprisingly enough, the assembly feels very reinforced and solid like most official Foldabot combiners. Next, we connect the two parts together and frankly it's tricky again because we need a bit of clearance, just enough to insert the waist piece properly. Then we lock the assembly into place by inserting the small green tabs onto the slits, so it becomes more sturdy. Finally, the easy parts--Connecting the arms, wings and the Red Weapon forming the head. The next picture is my rough attempt in a stop motion animation, which I thank my new tripod (first used in my Aninotron review) and a white backdrop from an A3 sized card paper.

Grand Docking! Complete, Vivid Robo! Vivid Formation Finish!

Combined, it easily comes to conclusion that this is a bit like the Dynamo from the Original Powerpuff Girls (not the new one which is terrible) in terms of the head and its overall look--a homogenized character. And like I said, this has some Voltron vibe to it, but only subtle since I haven't started working on the extra unit based on Kuroki Rei which becomes its own gestalt and yet can swap parts with this one to make a more Voltron-ish gestalt.

Conclusion

Before I finish this blog, here's a stop motion I put together for Habol's transformation process. Recalling I've already done two, this one's my third attempt.

FOLD OUT!!!

With a lot of us disappointed after K-Zone abruptly cancelled Foldabots, news of moving to new publishers is still undetermined. I myself haven't got the schedule for the completion event in favor of doing the Electricus review myself. However, on the bright side, the spirit of Foldabots hasn't died in some of us, even though I myself is busy working on an animation project on the other fandom.

One of my new sights was the attempt of making Liokaiser from Transformers Victory (I do have Landcross, but not Landcross-y, but I promise I'll work on a pattern set for it.) by starting with Leozack. I'm seeing a potential that he'll add Jaruguar, Killbison, Hellbat, Gaihawk, and Drillhorn later on, to complete the gestalt. Well, it's complicated at this point, but expect some reviews of older Foldabots which was first debuted in 2006, and revised on Toy Books 1 and 5. And until then, we'll be catching you guys again next time on The Foldabots Archives.

Welcome to the New Era

With Foldabots already dead thanks largely to the new editors of K-Zone PH, the toy line is now hoping for a new home (Though the replacement K-Zone Paper Pops, was just plain sucks unless you're rather interested in the new toy line). And as for the comics, there could be hopes that the series will continue online. As for me, I've re-branded The Foldabots Blog as The Foldabots Archives, assuming you've been paying attention to my announcements of a name change.

Regarding the Topic of Foldabots' Cancellation

Recalling the cancellation of Pugad Baboy by Pol Medina Jr. (i.e.: PMJR), this gave Inquirer readers, most likely PB fans, were disappointed of the notion that the 25-year old comic at that time ended. On the good side, Pugad Baboy continued online, on Facebook. Syndicated releases of the comics are still published by themselves rather than hiring some other publications even after PDI ditched them.

Foldabots from the very start have been published by Summit Media via K-Zone Philippines, and now that the series is dead, where will they continue? Where will they start over again? Are they moving to Precious Pages? The one who published Jomike's adult coloring book Sanctuaries? Other rumors include Viva, but that will be a possibly terrible decision for Tejido, and yet no news about the big move at this point, maybe after I interview Sir Jomike on the Electricus Completion Event, which will be in October... If I'll make it there. There are other publishers which he is on, but only in the cases of children's books. I don't think that will work if he bring his toy line there.

There's Hope to Completionists

I've talked to Charles David Pereja (charlesdavid08 on DeviantArt) about the news shortly after I've posted my last blog, on the very time I've asked about Electricus being abruptly cancelled, he then replied this good news, since I've been planning to interview Jomike Tejido on that very event. And he quote follows with the message from Jomike himself:

tatlo lang yung electricus
ipapamigay daw niya yung isa 

As the abrupt end to the series won’t let us finish the Foldabot combiner, ELECTRICUS, I am giving away a FREE COMPLETION TOYCARD on October 2016 to my collectors in order to finish the ongoing team, ELECTROBOTS.
IMPORTANT:
THE REQUIREMENT for getting the TOYCARD is to bring at least 4 FOLDABOTS TOY BOOKS, cut or uncut 
This is a self-produced promo, so I’ll only have a limited number of copies as a Thank you to my loyal collectors.
Final DATE and LOCATION to be announced here in this page, Jomike Tejido's Foldabots soon.
Thank you to all my collectors from kids to teens who grew up with my series for the past decade.
Meantime, keep on creating and stay awesome!

-Kuya Jomike Tejido

Which means to those who are outside Facebook like me won't be informed real soon, unless Jomike posts this on his Google+ which ironically he seldom checks it, or Charles will inform me on DeviantArt, where we get to communicate on occasion.

My Hiatus...

I've been on hiatus at this point, due to the fact I'm working on something outside the defunct Foldabots fandom. But there are already patterns which I've already printed, but not tested. One of such is Habol, the rural jeepney-like mini-bus, while the rest is a crossover design. The one good thing about my other design, is the gimmick of Scramble System, where you can put any of the four units as any limb you desire, and the torso is made up of weapons and accessories which are useful in both robot and vehicle modes, unlike others you could name. And also the head is rather useful than being a combiner piece that does virtually nothing, which I've been sporting on some of my designs.

Shortly before I post this up, I've received an anonymous comment that he needs one of the Aninobots. I've posted some official patterns here, but it's rather risky, since it's also the titchy reason for Foldabots' death. I've also planned to add watermarks on my later scans just for protection against theft.

Every Other Fans' Disadvantage--Geography and Personal Lives

With only one month to spare before the event, a lot of fans who are itching for completion already has disadvantages thank largely to locations. While the past Toy Book and Chronicles launches were held in the Metro Manila area, most likely in Makati, fans living in the provinces especially those who live in North and some parts of South Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao seemed to have disadvantages, due to the fact Foldabots could and will always not have a nationwide event, just to reach out to every other fans. It also depends on each and every one of us whether we'll make it to the final event or not, that's partly because of other prior personal stuff that comes to mind, like say family get-togethers, outings, or just plain lazy. Yet another reason why not all of us could attend. In contrast, my only event I appeared to the few fans was back in 2013, when Toy Book 6 came out, while not having to appear on every other launches before partly because none of us knew the venue, and after partly because I'm already too old to be there. And that leads to the question...

Why Can't We Aim Foldabots To The Adult Demographic?

For start, Foldabots was published on a children's magazine. Not a good reason for the toy line to be pitched to grown-ups unless you're interested in the matter. For second, only a few Folda-Fans are already adults, so majority wins by default for being kid-oriented. For third, since 2012, Foldabots have been receiving arts from mostly under-10's. There was a time when they've held an art contest to fill in for the 2013 lineup after Magmatron, which led to 6 new Foldabots, with two each as winners in the different age limit categories. After that, we also got 4 more from the 2013 Summer Komikon, and a random lucky pick to fill in January of the following year. For fourth, it's story is light-hearted and not dark and violent which is good for the adults. And finally, very lame names if you're an adult like yours truly. No offense but I guess it's also depends on the tastes of every fan.

Conclusion

Since the blog is now called The Foldabots Archives, I'll be focusing on mostly older stuff which I have in my collection at this point, though I have five characters missing, which were the Magmabot Apoy, and the 2013 Foldabots Bughaw, Harurot, Machete, and Pag-Asa. And of course there is the new test patterns which include a crossover and Habol, the rural bus. And due to other prior stuff in line, I might not post at least twice monthly. And we'll be catching you guys again next time on The Foldabots Archives.