Bot Shots (toyline)
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Bot Shots is an action-figure-based game premiering in 2012 that involves small super-deformed auto-transforming figures with combat rules similar to "Rock, Paper, Scissors". Its cast is a mix of Generation 1, Cybertron, movie-series and Prime characters, mostly rendered in a "cute" Generation 1 style.
As a tie-in to the toyline, Hasbro also released the Bot Shots Battle Game! as the toyline's official website.
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Overview
The gameplay involves a three-sided rotating tumbler inside each figure's chest, each displaying a different symbol and point value. Players pick their symbol without letting the other player see, transform their Bot Shots figure into vehicle mode, then send the two bots ramming into each other, either by hand or via spring-loaded launcher. The collision (hopefully) triggers the toys' transformation into robot mode.
The winner is first determined by "one bot standing" rules: if one figure does not transform, or does transform but falls over, that figure loses the bout. But if both bots transform and stand, the tumbler's exposed sticker/value determine the victor, first by a rather unintuitive chain of "X beats Y" rules:
- Blaster beats Fist
- Fist beats Sword
- Sword beats Blaster
In the event both players picked the same symbol, the figure's individual power ranking determines the winner.
Aside from the regular Bot Shots, there are also the "Super Bots". These robots are cast in translucent plastic, have more lopsided power stats, and are numbered as their own "Series". For the single-packs, one bot in each wave (packed one per case) is designated as the Super Bot, with unique packaging deco calling out their "Super Bot" status, and their identities being blacked out on the back of the packaging of the other figures in the wave. Most of the three-packs have one designated Super Bot as well.
Series 2 introduced new auto-transformation formats-slash-attacks: Jump Shots (crash to jump-attack), Spin Shots (crash to activate a spinning-torso attack), and Flip Shots (crash to flip-attack). Figures recycled from Series 1 were given the name "Blitz Shots".
Like the concurrent Construct-Bots side-line, Bot Shots was a tepid seller that petered out within a year, with several products seeing release only through closeout/discount outlets, and quietly ending with numerous products revealed but ultimately unreleased.
Toys
Hasbro Bot Shots line
Singles assortment
| Series 1 Wave 1 | Series 1 Wave 2 | Series 1 Wave 3 | Series 1 Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Series 1 Wave 5 | Series 2 Wave 1 | Series 2 Wave 2 | Series 2 Wave 3 | |||||
| Canceled |
Launcher assortment
| Series 1 Wave 1 | Series 1 Wave 2 | Series 2 Wave 1 | Series 2 Wave 2 |  | ||||
| Series 2 Wave 3 (Canceled) | Series 2 Wave 4 (Canceled) |
3-Pack assortment
| Series 1 Wave 1 | Series 1 Wave 2 | Series 2 Wave 1 | Series 2 Wave 2 |  | ||||
| Series 2 Wave 3 |
Ultimate Battle Set / 5-Pack assortment
Series 1 Wave 1
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Series 2 Wave 1
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Series 2 Wave 2
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Series 2 Wave 3 (Canceled)
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Track sets
- Dragon Track (2013)
- The Dragon Track set includes a spinning "dragon pit" with a dragon's head and tail molded into it. On either side of the pit, the included lengths of straight track and launchers can be attached, giving two Bot Shots a battle arena to be launched into at speed. Also included are two Bot Shots to fight with—a Generation 1 style Optimus Prime whose vehicle mode sports a trailer with a rocket vent at the back, and a Megatron who turns into a jet.
TakaraTomy BeCool line
BeCool (ビークール Bīkūru, a double pun on ビークル "vehicle" and ビックリ "bikkuri", or "surprise") is TakaraTomy's version of Bot Shots. The line first surfaced in mid-September 2012, when six Bot Shots toys were found in a single store in Japan under the BeCool name without any advertising or other promotion. The sales display featured a sign welcoming customers to "Bikkuri Town". Each figure was sold in two different packaging styles that called out their surprise transformation gimmick. No changes from the Hasbro versions are known so far. This is assumed to be a test market release, and BeCool was made widely available in December that year in a single type of packaging.
Unlike their Bot Shots counterparts, BeCool toys aren't used to play a game, as TakaraTomy uses their quick and easy transformation as the main draw instead. For this reason, their chest stickers don't display stats but images of their vehicle mode and/or something related to it, such as a lightbar for Prowl and a syringe for Ratchet. Some toys are also different colors from any of their Bot Shots releases, including a red Mirage, green Jazz and orange Megatron.
The BeCool line isn't widely marketed as a Transformers series: the toy packaging is void of the franchise's name and logo and the website isn't part of TakaraTomy's main Transformers portal. The toys did however get advertised on an episode of From the Cybertron Satellite, Transformers Division. The characters do still have their Transformers names, but these are relegated to being written in tiny parenthesis as their "robot name" while the toys' proper names are simply the name of their vehicle modes, like Optimus Prime being "Trailer" and Bumblebee being "Yellow Sports Car".
- B01 Patrol Car (Prowl)
- B02 Ambulance (Ratchet)
- B03 Trailer (Optimus Prime)
- B04 Yellow Sports Car (Bumblebee) (with battle mask)
- B05 Red Jet (Powerglide)
- B06 Tank (Decepticon Brawl) (blue version)
- B07 Firetruck (Sentinel Prime)
- B08 Red Sports Car (Mirage)
- B09 Blue Sports Car (Topspin)
- B10 Black Off Road Car (Ironhide)
- B11 White Jet (Jetfire)
- B12 Special Sports Car (Bumblebee Clear Color) (without battle mask, sold at a lower price as an incentive)
- B12 Garbage Truck (Clean Optimus) (replaced Special Sports Car after 3 months, sold at full price)
- B13 Highway Patrol Car (Patrol Ratchet)
- B14 Blue Jet (Thundercracker)
- B15 Green Sports Car (Autobot Jazz)
- B16 Battle Tank (Shockwave)
- B17 American Patrol Car (Decepticon Barricade)
- B18 Tank Lorry (Megatron)
- BS01 Trailer and Trailer Base (Optimus Prime) (launcher version)
- BS02 Rescue Car and Rescue Base (Rescue Ratchet) (with Ironhide's launcher)
- BS03 Yellow Jet and Air Base (Sunstorm) (with Starscream's launcher)
- BS04 Hyper Tank and Hyper Tank Base (Megatron) (launcher version)
Go!
A three-pack of Swordbot-themed recolors was released as part of the sixth wave of the Go! toyline. This set had an ID number to fit in with that line's numbering system and lacks one for the BeCool line, however the BeCool logo is still on the packaging.
- G24 Swordbot Samurai Team (Kenzan, Ganoh, Jinbu)
Notes
- Each figure's design is a mix of various incarnations of the characters, though usually settling somewhere between "Generation 1" and "movie".
- The power ranking numbers on the various releases of any character are different each time. Optimus Prime, for example, has different stats as a single, as a launcher, and as part of the Battle for the Matrix set, plus slightly different decos.
- The massive product listing leak that revealed Rom the Space Knight's identity also contained the following Bot Shots-related entries: "TRA BOT SHOTS RING OF FIRE BATTLE PACK A5112", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT AND SPEED BUMBLEBEE A1672", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT AND SPEED GALVATRON A1673", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT AND SPEED PACKS A1671", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT N SPEED DLX AST A1668", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT N SPEED METRO TITAN A1670", "TRA BOT SHOTS STUNT N SPEED METROPLEX A1669", and "TRA BS 3 PK DINOBOT A3032". Considering the line's wholesale clearance across major North American retailers and apparent quiet discontinuation in general, it's unlikely that any of these products will ever see the light of day.
- Although the Bot Shots toyline was discontinued in 2013, retools of the first-wave Bot Shots versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron with new launchers were released as part of the "Race Changers 2-Pack" for the Transformers One toyline in 2024. "2017" can be found on bottoms of these launchers, suggesting the set was made for an earlier toyline but went unreleased.
- The transformation scheme and engineering of the Blitz Shots-style Bot Shots would also see re-use in 2024 in Takara's Transforming Bullet Train Robot Shinkalion: Change the World toyline, although these releases are not branded as Bot Shots/BeCool and lack the rotating drum gimmick in their chest.
