Transformers Rescue Bots - ELITA-1!

Transformers: Rescue Bots - Classic Heroes Team - Elita-1 - Hasbro 2025

Several years ago the popular Transformers: Rescue Bots preschool toyline had a spinoff line featuring additional classic characters like Starscream and Mirage. This line was called the Classic Heroes Team and had packaging graphics that occasionally featured Arcee (you can spy her on the back of this figure, too). Ever since first seeing this illustration, I was obsessed with getting a classic Transformers fembot in this blocky preschool format. Well, it took three years but we finally got one. Of course, it's Elita-1 and not Arcee, and it's just a simple repaint of Bumblebee, but I still think she's really fun. It's easily the most feminine of the modern Rescue Bot sculpts, and her bold pink paintjob certainly adds a lot of bright color to the existing female lineup of Quickshadow and Whirl. I hope we'll eventually get the teased Arcee and maybe some others, but realistically they'd probably just be repaints of this same figure. Let's check out the Classic Heroes Team Elita-1 in detail below!

Rescue Bots - WHIRL!

Playskool Heroes - Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy - Whirl - Hasbro 2019

I've been really obsessed with robot toys lately. I literally just re-did a huge portion of my toy display with the sole intention of dedicating a lot more space to my burgeoning Transformers collection. I think one of the main reasons I feel so consumed by them is that I honestly never thought female robots would be something I could find in the action figure aisles. For a few decades it was quite a boys club. But now they are coming out with increasing regularity. This Whirl figure was a complete surprise to me when I found her in Target. She is from the new show Rescue Bots Academy show that premiered last month on Discovery Family. I haven't seen the show, but I love the design of this character and I'm excited to watch it when it's streaming somewhere (I imagine her to be energetic and spunky). I also expect to see more of Whirl in the toy aisle. My hopes are for one of the smaller scale figures eventually, and maybe even a blind bag or two. Time will tell. Let's check Whirl out in detail below!

Rescue Bots 12" QUICKSHADOW!

Transformers Rescue Bots - 12" Quickshadow - Playskool Heroes/Hasbro 2017

I was really shocked recently when I saw a post on TFORMERS about how Walmart was getting a special Rescue Bots display featuring a 12" Quickshadow figure. When this character first appeared in the Transformers: Rescue Bots cartoon last year, I was really excited. She had a cool name, a cool color scheme, and she transformed into a racecar (which seems like a trait typically reserved for the alpha males of the robot world). But my hopes never got that high, because I was well aware of what the action figures for this line looked like. They are blocky little monstrosities with minimal moving parts. It is a preschool series after all. And sure enough, when the first Quickshadow figure was released last Fall, she was just another androgynous brick. Now this new 12" figure isn't a super great representation of the character either, but it is definitely a huge leap in the right direction. Compared to the other 12" Rescue Bots toys, she looks like a bona fied Jessica Rabbit. Let's check out Quickshadow below!

Rescue Bots - QUICKSHADOW!

Transformers Rescue Bots - Quickshadow - Playskool/Hasbro 2016

There's been a big push in recent years to start including female characters in previously male-centric properties. This has been especially present in preschool lines like Imaginext, Galactic Heroes, and Marvel Superhero Adventures. With this trend touching almost every brand in the toy aisles, I'm surprised it took so long to introduce a female Rescue Bot.  Whatever the delay was, the wait was worth it because Quicksilver seems like an awesome character. Her design is fantastic and her character seems quirky and spunky with a very suiting vehicle mode of a speedy sports car. I haven't watched any full episodes, but there are some cool clips online. The only unfortunate thing about this character is that she's unlikely to get a cool toy. These Playskool robots are clunky and undetailed by design and this kid-friendly style does a terrible injustice to such a great-looking character. Still, when I saw her in the store I felt compelled to add her to my collection. She's a first. Let's check out Quickshadow below!

Transformers Rescue Bots - DANI BURNS!

Transformers Rescue Bots - Blades & Dani Burns - Playskool/Hasbro 2014

Something is going on this Summer with all the popular preschool toy lines.  For years we've seen more and more toy aisle real estate being taken over by Preschool-age action figures.  Imaginext, Marvel Super Hero Adventures, Star Wars Jedi Force, and of course Transformers Rescue Bots, are all the rage, but the lines have been notoriously void of female characters since their inception.  Yet this Summer we suddenly have Black Widow as the first Marvel lady, Wendy Waters as the first non-DCU female Imaginext, and now suddenly we get Dani Burns as the first Rescue Bots figure.  I don't know what is prompting this long-overdue diversity, but I welcome it with open arms.  Rescue Bots is a cartoon and toy line about a group of four (non-canon) Transformers (Chase the Police Car, Blade the Helicopter, Heatwave the Firetruck, and Boulder the Bulldozer) and the Burns family who team up/pilot the Bots for various rescue missions.  Considering the small cast, it's surprising we haven't seen Dani until now.