A box set of two miniatures, the Probots are support robots carrying baggage.

Pose & Styling

Sharing the same basic body as the tarantula-like Rebots, the Probots are altogether less threatening in looks. Being the age and nationality that I am, the Seventies animated series Chorlton and the Wheelies immediately comes to mind (Google it) but on reflection it's an unfair comparison - The Probots are much sleeker and the wheel arrangement is reversed. Plus I suspect Chorlton and the Wheelies is unknown in Spain.

Anyway, the Probots have baggage packs at the rear and three legs ending in hubless wheels. Joking aside, these are 'proper' multi-directional wheels on legs that would allow the robot a good degree of movement. The models are larger than they look in the official photo, being on 40mm round bases.

The three variants of the Probot can be made using the parts in the box, with the possiblity of using magnets for extra flexibility.

EVO Repeater - this is an electronic warfare bot and uses the large antenna/claw arm.

Total Reaction - this is a point defence bot and uses the belt-fed gun arm.

Minesweeper - the cheap option with no weapons, this variant leaves off the left arm.

Parts & Fit

Like all the Remotes (the Infinity term for most robots), this box set contains a good number of pieces.

Each Probot is formed from six basic pieces: body, baggage packs, back legs, front leg/right arm and front wheel (plus an optional arm).

The review model was not quite up to the usual high casting quality expected from Corvus Belli - the smaller pieces are generally very clean of flash and mould lines but the baggage packs have some badly-placed feeders that cross an indented channel, unfortunately this is on the top surface rather than the underside. However, the detail in that area is all flat planes so filing the feeder stubs off is pretty easy. You'll also need to pay attention when cleaning up the gun arm as there is a fin on the back of the gun barrel that is about the same size and shape as one of the feeder stubs on the front of the ammo store.

The baggage pack attaches to a flat surface on the end of the body's tail area. There is a nub on the bottom of the pack and a corresponding hole in the tail, but the hole needs drilling out as it's not deep enough for the nub.

The back legs attach with narrow pins into holes at the base of the tail - making a small contact area given the length of the legs. As a lot of weight will be resting on this joint, I plan to make the holes in the body much deeper, maybe even making them wide enough that the tops of the legs end up touching the sides of the tail.

The front leg/right arm is a two-piece assembly with a concave area on the forelimb attaching to the cylindrical axle on the upper limb. The axle has a small rectangular nub but the corresponding holes in the forelimbs have filled in and would need drilling out or even pinning. The shoulder nub/indentation joint is substantially larger than on the back legs and when positioned carefully has some extra contact area around the actual nub.

The equipment arms on the left side use the same large nub and indentation as the right arm/front leg shoulder joint.

The shoulder joint would take 2 mm magnets within the diameter of the existing indentation but you'd probably want to use 3 mm magnets to make the equipment arms stay in place rather than droop. With careful positioning this still wouldn't be visible on the assembled model.

Care will be needing when positioning the three wheeled limbs to stop the model looking as if it's leaning too much, but the advantage of the tripod design is that all three wheels will always reach the ground. ;-)

Pros

• Unusual and very SF-looking design.
• Good interchangeability of variants with a single piece to magnetise on each.

Cons

• Fiddly leg joints.
• More cleaning needed than usual for CB casts.
• Death Tricycle!

In summary, a very unusual love-it-or-hate-it design.

Ian