Issued towards the end of 1984, Kaman Robo had been refined from a prototype that originally featured more complex arms and a few other unused colour ideas. The figure was added to the Gobots range in early 1985, becoming Flip Top - like several US releases, this version featured considerably fewer stickers than either the Japanese of European releases, and all present were factory-applied.

Flip Top went on to make a few appearances in the Challenge of the Gobots cartoon, notably entering an almighty ruckus with Cop-Tur in "Crime Wave", and having an ongoing series of scuffles with Water Walk in "Depth Charge".

Along with several figures, it was reissued in Europe in 1993 under the Robo Machines banner - by Bandai instead of Tonka, who had by then been absorbed into Hasbro, taking the Gobot name and characters with it. Flip-Top, therefore, became catchily renamed 'Helicopter II' - Wrong Way had already been 'Helicopter'. A knock-off of the figure appeared in the Machinerobo Series line, this being a lighter shade of blue, having no painted windows and a different, moulded rotor design.

Flip Top is modelled on the Kaman SH2 Seasprite, which is fortunate, as it's one of the few military helicopters that isn't incredibly ugly.

The shape is nice, and looks knockout in darkish blue, while there are plenty of stickers. The silver windows and trim top off the look nicely. And for some reason I really like those torpedo racks, even if they're moulded solid.

The only real drawback is the split-line across the front (less noticeable on 1980s versions, it has to be said). That and the removable (and therefore easy to lose) rotor blade. The latter is a little mystifying - it stays in the same place in both modes, and doesn't need to be removed during transformation, so why not permanently fix it in place?

The transformation sequence is unique and interesting, varying nicely from other Gobot helicopters. The arms and legs probably do get a little loose over time, I'd guess. Articulation in the limbs is respectable, with good use of the diecast ball-joints in both the arms and the legs.

Thanks to the fairly stiff tail halves, the feet can be moved around a fair bit as well, and for a small Gobot (articulation was rarely much cop on the regular figures) he's rather dynamic. Even the flat forearms don't look too bad, and he can hold a small gun in his hands (again, no bloody handgun for a figure that could use one... in a pitched battle, did they all just pile on Geeper Creeper or Dozer, and first one to get the gun won? Yeh, I know, laser fists, I was joking....).

It's an excellent robot mode - a little unconventional, perhaps, but still downright stylish.