Slizers

Slizers, also known as Throwbots in the US, were a line of LEGO Technic toys, sold between 1999 and 2000. Despite how short-lived it was, the line proved to be surprisingly influential, since its new building system, consisting of ball joints and sockets, would be reused famously in its successor, Bionicle, and on a grander scale in Hero Factory. Also, it gathered something of a fan following, because of how cool the whole theme was.

While not nearly as complex as that of Bionicle, or even Hero Factory, it did have a story, told through different media such as set catalogs and promotional comics, though it was often contradictory and infamously unfinished due to Cancellation. What more, Europe and the US detailed two completely different stories and settings, a patchwork planet setting and several single biome planets respectively. Nevertheless, the former version seems to be the more "official" one.

What little story material we have tells us that on the planet Slizer, divided into seven regions and an arena, lived a group (full species?) of colorful Mechanical Lifeforms, the Slizers.

They fought weird-looking wildlife and each other with energy discs and Elemental Powers, then competed in an arena located at the planet's North Pole. Initially, there were eight (breeds of?) Slizers, all of them ruling over their own portion of the planet. Some think four were good guys and the other four evil, but LEGO never really explained this. They were:


 * Jet/Judge - yellow flyer, possible leader, resided in the arena
 * Torch/Fire - red user of fire
 * Scuba/Sub - blue diver
 * Ski/Ice - white skier
 * Electro/Energy - purple electric "bug"
 * Granite/Rock - tan colored hiker
 * Amazon/Jungle - green jungle warrior
 * Turbo/City - teal "car"

Then, on December 31, a meteorite struck the planet, destroying half of its mass in an Earthshattering Kaboom. Only half of the Slizers survived (Torch, Ski, Scuba and Turbo), but the meteor also gave rise to several new, "mutant" Slizers:


 * Blaster - a huge robot, possibly the fusion of Jet and Amazon
 * Flare - a flock of orange colored bird-like Slizers
 * Spark - purple colored warrior

However, just before the meteorite struck, a mysterious, ancient warrior called Millenia/Millenium appeared out of nowhere. He challenged Blaster to a fight that would be called "Battle of the Big Bots", the ultimate clash that would decide over the fate of the planet...

Then, the line ended. A similar theme, Robo Riders followed, although it didn't turn out to be quite successful, and never received the recognition its predecessor got.

LEGO's finishing lines still echo inside the minds of its followers: ''Yes, the Slizers/Throwbots had gone. We have seen the last of them. But one day, when the LEGO world is in great danger, the sound of throwing discs will be heard once again as the Slizers/Throwbots awaken and battle the enemy.'' Well, the disk piece did get to be re-used later in Bionicle...

Tropes used:

 * Aerith and Bob: There's a fan-created but official character named Mike.
 * All There in the Manual
 * An Ice Person: Ski
 * Apocalypse How: A less severe case of Class X, in that half of the planet stays intact.
 * Badass Automaton: Blaster and Millenia in his giant robot form, as well as the combiners.
 * Built With Lego: But not with the classic Bricks.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Although some, like the yellow Blaster or the red/black/gold Millenia didn't fit into any pre-established elemental group.
 * Combining Mecha: Four-four regular Slizers and the three mutants could combine into even larger robots.
 * Jet, Amazon, Granite and Electro into a dinosaur-looking beast, called Ultrarex.
 * Torch, Ski, Scuba and Turbo could merge to form a humanoid mecha, Robotops.
 * Blaster, Spark and Flare formed Dynamo
 * Contest Winner Cameo: "Hiker Mike", a model built from Ski, Turbo, Granite and Electro. He is a canon entity that never had the chance to appear in the story.
 * Continuity Snarl: For the US market. First, there were eight single planets, but when the meteorite struck, there suddenly was only one. Then, there are smaller-scale snarls: Blaster's mask pattern has half the face of Amazon and half of the Jet. So it's reasonable to assume he is a being that formed when they merged. But one of the disks his set comes with has a picture on it, showing several Blasters. Another disk shows Blaster, Spark and Flare, as single entities, coming to life (we guess...), but then yet another one has a picture of multiple Flare Slizers flying in a flock!
 * Cool Car: Turbo
 * Cool Mask: Many characters have masks or helmets covering the top portion of their face, with neat decals that make it seem as if they had a second face on top of their head!
 * Covers Always Lie: The back-of-the-box promo images of the second wave of sets depict Blaster and Flare both wearing a strange mask that isn't the one they actually come with -- it's really the mask of a later Robo Riders figure. How it got there, no one knows, as RR sets didn't get to be released 'till the Slizer line was done with.
 * Earthshattering Kaboom
 * Elemental Embodiment: Various monsters formed from the elements of whatever region you're in. In the city, these are evil semi trucks.
 * Elemental Nation: Ocean, lava field, jungle, rocky desert, icy mountains, perpetual electric storm, polluted city, with the arena at the top of the planet.
 * Green Thumb: Amazon
 * Everything Trying to Kill You: The poor Slizers have to put up with all kinds of nasty beasts that pop up literally everywhere.
 * Fusion Dance: Jet and Amazon merged into Blaster, according to his Two-Faced mask pattern.
 * Hungry Jungle: Trees have mouths in the jungle region
 * I Have Many Names: Each of the initial sets and Millenia/Mullenium have one US and one European name.
 * Insectoid Aliens: Electro
 * MacGuffin: All the Slizers seem to be after whatever artifact has been painted onto their most powerful disk.
 * Making a Splash: Scuba
 * Meaningful Name
 * Merchandise-Driven
 * Multiple Head Case: Dynamo
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Some more than others.
 * Only Six Faces: Or, to be precise, only one head-mold was released. The characters either wore helmets or visors.
 * Playing with Fire: Torch and Flare
 * Rage Helm: Each single one of the Slizers, both with the head-mold and the helmet.
 * Refuge in Cool: Who needs a solid story when the sets and concept sell themselves?
 * Robot War
 * Rock Steady: Granite
 * Schizo-Tech: At least in most areas. Robots don't look too out of place in the city region or in the arena.
 * Shock and Awe: Electro
 * Single Biome Planet: In the American storyline. Yet for the second wave of sets, it went with the European version anyway.
 * Transforming Mecha: The smaller Slizers had "compact modes", so that kids could store them in their containers. Millenia could transform from a giant robot to a smaller Slizer riding a motorbike (the actual model had to be re-built). Jet's bio also mentions he could turn into a car, but he could not!
 * Two-Faced: Blaster