This is now THE definitive Slizers video on Yotuube. So glad to see these brought to light more. I never personally had experience with them, but I've always found "proto-products" like these to be so interesting. And I just saw the shout-out while I was typing this! Much love to you slugger!

i dont leave the house without at least 1 slizer in my holster

I love how each throwbot has an element theme, and then they just gave up and added city as an element.

Slugger: "To me, the ocean just represents death" Nick on Planet Ripple: "I felt... a disturbance..."

Informative and hilarious. Loved this! I appreciate you always covering these outlier themes. I've had Turbo as long as I can remember but honestly never knew anything about the thing until now.

Granite was always my favorite as a kid. He was the only Throwbot that I carried over to my Bionicle adventures. I treated him like a “beast of burden” that pulled carts and stuff like that for the Matorans.

The line is the perfect bridge between Technic Competition (turquoise vs purple, with Technic figures) and Bionicle. You can see how the idea of sport teams or champions each with their own elemental area morphed into the heroes of Mata Nui. The early years of Bionicle were still heavily influenced by the idea of extreme sports with diving, climbing, surfing, ski etc And throwing discs of course.

This theme (and Aqua Raiders), while not our first exposure to LEGO, was easily the first set to really "catch fire" with my brother and I. We have some fond memories of collecting the original 8 Throwbots across 1999-2000, poring over magazines and catalogs in anticipation of being able to make the impressive(ly janky) combined sets. While we were eager for Granite and Jet, ultimately it was Scuba and Amazon who won us over. It all primed us for Bionicle to come, which felt like a very natural successor.

I like to think that their names are a combination of the two, having the throwbot name be their true name and the slizer name be the title of any given Slizer, for example Turbo: the City Slizer

7:16 is so smooth that it doesn't even look animated. its like an invisible hand moving it. this is serious dedication to the stop motion bits you have and just know it isn't going unappreciated.

Gotta say, always loved the goofy look of half-transformed transformers. Also, do hope that's a teaser for a Part 2, because the second wave of Throwbots are a lot cooler imo

The gladiatorial combat at the end was truly something that exists.

I recently got Ski, Scuba and Jet at a garage sale. The figures themselves are complete with their canisters, all that’s missing is their throwing disks (I got some BIONICLE disks to substitute). Having finally gotten to hold them after only seeing pictures all my life was quite the experience. These things just ooze so much raw personality that I kinda wish I’d not been a literal baby when they came out.

It’s really clear that throwbots/slizers was the base of bionicle or even would be considered the beta bionicle. It’s weird with the time gap between the two themes as well

I built Robotops like 20 years ago and i was in awe of how the leg joints worked so well. Technic stuff like that was always inspirational to me as a kid.

I love how colourful the Slizers are, they always stand out on a shelf! Those small knubby limbs, the small feet that do nothing, the enormous disk flinging arms. And those detailed face plates! Amazing pieces of art. Slizers came out when I was six or so, and I absolutely loved them. It reallt represents the strongest step towards constraction, from Technic Competition, to Roboriders to Bionicle, its like looking at evolution for some kind of creature. Even those early Bionicle 2001 sets feature the whole fighting monsters gimmick from Competition and the discs, my god, they lasted a bit!

So long as we have balls and sockets, Slizers will live on, and I see them being used constantly, even after the constraction line was absorbed back into brick sets. Also when it comes to the names, I prefer the Slizer name for the entire theme, while using Throwbot set names as those are a bit more creative.

I haven't made many LEGO videos on my channel, but had to do one on the Throwbots a few years ago- so glad you finally got to the topic as well!

I was always intrigued by these in the catalogs as a kid, but I only had the Roborider ones. I remember it being hard for me to make MOCs with their parts. Great to see this complete and thorough video about these old Throwbots! RIP their planet though, rofl

That feel when the lone throwbot you got as a kid is the one slugger thinks is the worst amongst it's peers 😢 I joke of course! I'm not huge into collecting lego anymore. But I kinda wanna get granite 'cause its so darn cute looking ❤

Slizers confounded me as a kid. I owned Bionicles and a couple slizers, and I had figured that the slizers were some sort of Bionicle “rip-off” when in reality it was the opposite if anything lol. But I enjoyed playing with both of them!

I went ALL IN on Slizers back in the day, easily bought 200 of the kits over around 2 and a half years. Still have a lot of them and the MOCs I made boxed up in storage. Thanks so much for helping revive some core memories and the nostalgia of it all!

6:52 love that the throwbot with the nearly Rock Raider palette gets a 3-slug rating haha. Genuinely had some good laughs with this video! Here's hoping you cover their estranged cousins RoboRiders next!

I'm from and still live in Newfoundland and I see the ocean as terrifying when swimming in it. The dark colors of the north atlantic preventing you from seeing very far terrifies me of what is in there. Especially when you touch something that you didn't know was there, like kelp.

I wish you spent a bit more time talking about how the humanoid bots all different limb arrangements to give them different postures! Like how Scuba has stoppers in his hips to give him a wider stance with the joints facing backwards, but Amazon's joints face downward and his legs protrude forward from it, and Ski's face forward so he has this crouched posture. Anyway, Throwbots were my jam as a kid. I had almost all of them (I think I was missing Amazon and Electro), and they really embody that late 90s/early 00s Edgy Cool in their vibes lol. It's grunge and hightech, and extreme with a capital X. I also like how Granite and Electro were basically bugs, with Granite being a scorpion and Electro being a lightning bug. Really creative stuff! Looking forward to the MILLENIUM BOTS video! Edit: I took a look at the discs, and Jet/Judge has a curious exception to the disc art rules. Most discs feature as follows: The Zone at 2 pips, The Bot throwing a disc at 3, the Pod flying around at 4, the Bot braving a danger of their Zone at 5, facing down a huge monster at 6, and the element power up they need at 7. Jet/Judge however, changes this up for his later half discs: His 5 pip disc is him blasting another bot with his, well, judgment. 6 pips has him holding up a glowing golden disc instead of facing a monster. And he doesn't have a 7 pip disc, indeed he has the only 8 pip disc and instead of an elemental powerup it shows the Slizer World with a beam of light shining down upon the judgment arena on top (perhaps tying into the 6 pip disc). This disc also features a unique golden frame instead of a silver/gray one.

You know it’s gonna be a great time when he pulls out the Slug-O-Meter.

Slugometer, my beloved. How I have missedyour absolutely objective system of rating. I had that weird desert walker one and the green car one as a kid. Even as a child, even in the 90s, I was like "what is up with these dudes"

Man, Throwbots bring back memories. I remember finding some of these in a bin at my friend's house and thinking that they were knockoffs. Throwbots brings me hope that other weird newer themes will get positive praise in the future. Great video as always!

Its watching videos like these that reminds me why I love your style of videos so much Slugger, the humour, the editing, the colour!

For such a generally informative channel, you have a great sense of humor! It really adds a lot of personality. Great video

Gotta say Electro was my favorite. I loved the buglike appearance of it. Found it very charming.

The style of limbs which debuted with the Slizers are actually exclusive in Mata blue and Mata green to "Scuba" (8503) and "Amazon" (8505) respectively. The teal hand sockets are also exclusive to the latter of these. The Slizer feet in Mata green also appear in the Technic "Crane Truck" (8446) from August 1999, but nowhere else. Interestingly, Scuba is the last to have the harpoon in yellow, which debuted in the "Divers" subtheme of "Town" in 1997. Even though "Judge" (8504) is considered many people's least favorite of these, it does have the same wing function as the "Nui Rama" from the 2001 wave of Bionicle.

I REMEMBER THESE. I had them. I was 5 years old in 1999. It's wild that I remember these as well as I do. But at 5 years old your long term memory kicks in for the first time.

Fun video, but it was the "OH NOOOOO!" That got me.

No way! You actually did it! Man, this takes me back to 1999 when I got Fire, City and Judge for Christmas.

I always wondered how the Slizer planet can be so segmented as it was portrayed; wouldn't they have mixed together one way or another or do the Throwbots handle that? Also, who lives in the city? That was never explained... Turbo's wheels tended to come off the axles over time, but was fun to play with!

Love Throwbots, never owned one though (they were before my time), Turbo being my favorite because of the teal color scheme and being car-based. However, the real best part of this theme was the box art. LEGO had the coolest airbrushed backdrops on the Throwbots boxes, which was just totally rad and made the things look 10x cooler. I wanna know what artist they paid to make those, because I need more of that kind of art in my life. Best LEGO box art ever. If LEGO represents igniting your imagination with creativity, then that box art was more LEGO than the actual LEGO within, and that's not even dunking on the LEGO within.

We all know and love those core elements like fire, ice and city

I have collected many of these weird parts from bulk buys. Thanks to R. R. Slizer, I finally understand how to piece them together. It might be time for me to use them in a MOC. 🙂

Ah, yes, Slizers/Throwbots I remember those things before Bionicle. That's how old I am.

Been trying to piece this memory back together for like 20 years. Thank you !

13:40 “Powerful” is the last word I think of, damselfly comes to mind. Gosh I love this theme.

that final “oh nooo” could totally be a meme 😂 great video as always

Throwbots! I love these goofy little weirdos! They were a bit before my time, but I got a few of them second-hand as a kid, and I've always liked them. I've got Scuba and Torch, and the purple one and the big yellow one from wave 2. Ski and Turbo are the ones I most want to add to my collection. I definitely agree with your take that Scuba is the best, but personally I'd rate Torch (the Pohatu of Throwbots) a bit higher, just because I find his weird build amusing. I do find it amusing that LEGO not only did the whole "elemental factions engage in resource wars, the planet blows up, and also there's gladiatorial combat" plotline for three consecutive themes, but they managed to trick us into thinking that the third one wasn't just a rehash of that same concept for _eight whole years._ (Also, speaking as a die-hard Bionicle fangirl: yeah, the Toa Metru were pretty garbage sets)

Wow, so happy to see the Throwbots again! When I was a kid, I actually preferred the vague open-ended themes that Lego had before Bionicle took off...the indirect worldbuilding through adverts and things like the art on the Throwbot discs gave off a really mysterious aura to me, which really helped draw me in. I still loved Bionicle like any good '90s/'00s kid, but in retrospect I feel like something was lost in the transition to the direct storytelling that Lego uses now. Great vid as ever Slugger, hoping we'll get to see a Pt. 2 sometime soon!

From what I know most Lego sets in the 80s and 90s had two totally different english names in Europe and North America, but it seems people don't really know or care and just accept the American name as default (leading to stuff like people being confused when the Blacktron GWP remake used its European name). I'm not sure why Throwzerbots is the exception where both regions' names are always listed for the sets, maybe because the theme itself also had different overall names so it's harder to ignore.

Awesome. Rock Slizer was always my favourite, I really liked the pick axes. I never got into bionicle, but Slizers came right in the middle of my childhood, so I've got a lot of nostalgia for them!

2:03 The font used for the name "City" on that promo looks eerily similar to the modern Lego City theme's logo from 2005 to present

As a kid I thought these were so cool... I forgot how simple the models were, haha. I only had two of them but would've loved to have the whole collection. It was a real wave of nostalgia to see those old product photos again.

I had all of these as a kid except Jet. My kid got into them last year and we ordered Jet to complete the collection, definitely was disappointed by it. Still fun for my 5 year old though, he loves them all! Ski was always my favorite.

I absolutely love all of them, had five during the childhood, now I have all. Pretty unique in their times, playable and cool, just a beatiful begining for the LEGO construction figures ❤

Wow that unlocked memories from old Lego catalogues from my childhood. Also, give the ocean a shot! It's not too bad, just bring a harpoon, full body wetsuit, water shoes, emergency oxygen tank, door (to float on), water proof solar powered satellite phone, emergency rations, flare gun, snorkel and shark repellent and you'll be fine!

babe wake up, new slugger vid just dropped

Yes! Finally I have a collection that is bigger than Slugger's! Sure, I have all our technic fellas, but I also collected every single disk, thus filling the void in their capsules and in my heart. For me the disks are a work of art. THE collectible. Every one is not a simple recolor, but an unique depiction of Slizer's lore. Even without catalog, one can see how the world functions with only 5 Judge's disks. And the rest tells us about riches of this world, monsters and hazards, and most importantly about our characters (and about the world's end in the next wave). Something neither roboraiders nor bionicle were able to achieve with their plastic parts. I also adore the sets to this day for gifting me real gears back in my childhood. My parents gifted me Torch and Ski. My collection was made of small affordable sets. I had few technic ones but they were tiny too. Now with this 2 slizers I suddenly had 4 small gears, 2 worm gears and 2 huge 40-tooth gears! I agree, swinging hands in bionicle are better play feature. But does it give a better build opportunity? no. PS - Torch slizer holds a surprise in him and can literally flip the slug-o-meter with a flip! just turn his head 180 degrees, swap hands and legs and viola!

I didn't have anywhere near as many Throwbots as Bionicle sets, but I definitely would have collected them all given the chance! I had Ski, and I'm pretty sure my brother had Scuba. I might order a few discs that are cheap, but wow, those discs at $50 plus? I don't think I'd even order a disc at $5, even if it completed a collection. I just don't need a collection of discs, complete or otherwise, that badly. The gear functions on these were definitely way slower than Bionicle (at least the early sets I'm familiar with) but I imagine they were intended to lock in a pose rather than be a form of action. The way worm gears can turn but not be turned implies an intent to lock positions so the throwing arm could be aimed, too. Kind of a silly consideration given how easily the leg poses could alter that, though. Great video, fantastic ending!

Yeah! Slizer! I love these little guys

God I loved my throwbots as a kid. They were probably the last Lego theme I collected religiously before the dark times...before high school

You can’t sneak that Spider-Man 1 reference @14:55 past me. “What’s your name, kid? Jet? That’s it? That’s the best you got?”

I absolutely adored the one with the giant tires as feet, that you could rebuild into a small slizer with a motorcycle when I was a kid. One of my favorite toys haha

Huge nostalgia for this line, I had a number of these sets from back in the day. I know it’s looked fondly on as just a hollow bionicle proof of concept but I still loved em. Thanks always for the great retrospectives.

I was nine and SLizers were the biggest thing. Every boy had one and we made disc throwing competitions. I really wish Lego would bring back these. Even in same form. They were cheap, fun and had tons of potential.

Awww thank you for this episode! It's the most nostalgic Lego series for me. I remember asking you of Slizers at your stream and you did mention you had some of them :D But tbh I wasn't aware of that crazy disc prices lol

This is one of your best videos yet IMHO. I laughed out loud multiple times. As an owner of all the sets and disks, this was also super relatable. I had the exact same reaction!

Omg... This brought out a CORE memory!!! 😮😮😮 I remember these when I was a VERY young lad!!

I remember my scuba Slizer that i get from my Grandma back in 90s. Good memories ;)

A fantastic overview of Slizers wave 1! While I acquired the full wave several years back, I grew up only playing with Scuba, Turbo and Ski. I still have photographic memory of seeing Ski in box on a shelf in ToysRUs next to a screen playing the Orient Expedition video commercial. I agree on pretty much all of the rankings from my firsthand experience, but I never constructed the combiner models. I have the posters around and the Lunchables comic with them interacting with the LEGO Maniac. And a friend of mine has actually worn some of the canisters as belt loops at LEGO conventions! It's pleasant to see this theme given a little more attention almost 25 years after their launch. And thanks for sharing some of the story as well!

"Judge is the worst Throwbot" Whoof, another stunning Slugger hot take 😆

Great video, the Throwbots (or Slizers) are one of my favourite Lego themes and does not get the love it deserves.

You just can't handle the Judge T-posing.

The slightly more acerbic tone in this video really helps the comedy land, definitely a fan of the more sarcastic slugger

A pleasure as always Slugger!

Oh my god I love the Nausicäa reference

I loved these guys

Throwbots are absolute soul. I only had 4 as a kid but have recently bought all of them to complete the original 8. I didn't really much care for the later wave of Throwbots. I remember having a Lego magazine that came out around 1999 and it had a poster depicting all the discs you could collect. All the discs had various scenes of the Throwbots, like ones would have them fighting an elemental monster or just exploring their sector etc. Pure imagination fuel. These things were based I also vaguely remember a Throwbots browser game on the Lego website where you would pick a Throwbot and have to battle the rest and it was a kind of a platformer where you would have to time where the disc was thrown and then you would be moved to where it landed. I've tried to collect more discs but they're really expensive now and mostly seem to be sold by sellers in Europe for whatever reason. To help fill out the Throwbots scratch I have I bought the visor pieces that came with some of the Roboriders sets and made some custom Throwbots recently

Slizers! What a _throw_ back!

It is fascinating to how see so many ideas and pieces from this line got repurposed and redesigned for Bionicle. The discs, arm and feet pieces evolved into the Mactoran, the head and torso pieces got streamlined into the toa foot and torso pieces respectively. I sincerely agree with your take on the third Wave of Bionicle. In fact, I wish they didn't streamline so many of the pieces that made up the Toa. Pohatu's upside down torso was basically the only one where they significantly altered the build, but even then, if the torso was made up of more pieces it would have allowed for so much more unique body designs. Looks like the unique "creature building" aspect was shouldered exclusively by the rahi, who unfortunately quickly got out-phased. A blend between the original Toa and the Slizers would be the perfect mix to please my nostalgic wishes.

Great review of this proto-bionicle series! can't wait to see your take on "robo-riders" in the next video!

Judge my beloved

Oh man the City and Rock Slizers were my first ever Lego kits. I adored them both, but sadly lost to time, and I never had any other Lego stuff as a kid. Peak Robot Wars/Battlebots energy.

Oh boy, the nostalgia hits hardest with this video for some reason. Those pods always reminded me of Star Trek's shuttlecraft, which was definitely a point in their favor back in the day. Each of us kids had our favorite/self assigned "element" with to get with Throwbots, Roboriders, and Bionicle, and mine was ice, so Ski was the one Throwbot I had. It always annoyed me that the design managed to utilize the one side of the pole that looked most like the bottom of a ski pole as a connector, hiding it completely from view. (!) A moment of silence please for all the Throwbot disks lost behind couches and down air vents...

I only recently managed to complete my Slizer collection (Flare and Spark were rather elusive, yet I have 5 Skis) and am quite glad to see some more love for this theme I grew up on!

What an unhinged video by R.R. Slizer. I love it!

amazing video

this is what got me and my brother into Bionicle

Can not wait for the follow up teased at the end there. :D

Loved this video! I barely ever heard of the Throwbots. Now I know where this weird disc came from in my collection.

Oh. _Oh._ _The discs were pogs all along._

Throwbots are always gonna be beta or alpha Bionicle to me, but I'm still very, VERY nostalgic for these things. My favorite is Turbo, and I think I used to own all of them. Those discs were carried over to the Matorans and their own play feature from the McDonald's variants, and so on. You can immediately see how these guys are just the precursor to Bionicle in everyway, and it even cycled all the way around, with Lewa the Toa of Air becoming a Toa of Jungle in the reboot, matching the Jungle Throwbot. It was a fun distraction, and I really enjoyed the bright colors matched with the black, like Electro and Turbo being a great example. Too bad their colors are practically unheard of in Bionicle outside of the Matoran toys. Great video!

This might actually be your funniest video yet. Pretty much every joke hit just right.

I had these around the edge of my work cubicle for a while

You are real af for calling the Metru wave overrated.

I thought these were so cool back in 1999 but sadly I never had any! I remember looking longingly at their ads in Lego magazines and playing the weird little game on Lego's website. I would have absolutely been the kid to attach all of the carrying pods to my clothes LOL Great insight into a now-forgotten line!

Such a good video! I love the Slizers as i grew up with them. I actually liked the yellow one the most as a kid, cause it was the first contact with the theme i had, so it had to be cool for me 😂 However, such a good flow this video has. Not going through everything linearly , but mixing it up a bit, but still following a very cohesive flow. And humor. 😂 i love the outro! I encourage you to make a part 2. 😉

The name Slizer apparently came from how their planet was 'sliced' up. But yeah, they really are Throwbots.

This was even more fun than the Xalax video and I never even owned a Throwbot! The ending really got me too - well done, Slug

KZfaq hasn’t recommended you to me for a while, but i still remember the fun streams and can’t wait to catch up :)

Oh hell yeah, I love throwbots! Admittedly it's mostly nostalgia, but I still think Granite and Electro are really cool looking. I absolutely wish they got printed faceplates!

As a big slizers fan this video is pure joy, I recomend you to see a user in a white and orange platform called tommy2000, he is doing some banger mocs and combo builds with the oficial sets

I have a few Throwbot parts scattered across my various bins and my church (which has a bin full of M*ga bricks) inexplicably has some Throwbo-bits.

I used to have all 8 of the Slizers back in the day. Judge was my favourite out of them.