A transforming robot is a robot that can change to take on the appearance or form of another object. This type of robot was a very popular toy concept in the 1980s; such toy robots could typically morph from a humanoid form to that of a vehicle, animal, or commonplace object.

Toylines that used this concept include:

  • Transformers (Hasbro and Takara Tomy), a very popular franchise with two robot factions that fought against each other. The robots could transform into a wide range of things, from insects to airplanes
  • Gobots and Machine Robo (Tonka, Bandai), mostly die-cast toy robots that could transform into machines like cars, boats and airplanes
  • Rock Lords (Tonka, Bandai), robots that could transform into rocks
  • NEO Shifters (Mattel, Mega Brands), robots that could transform into flying spheres
  • Changeables (McDonald's), could transform into food products such as french fries or hamburgers.
  • Escaflowne figures were incredibly popular in Japan in 2005. They changed from a humanoid into a dragon.
  • Switch & Go Dinos (VTech), vehicles which transform into dinosaurs.
  • Diarobo (ダイヤロボ) (Agatsuma Ltd), road vehicles changed into humans, animals and dinosaurs.
  • The VF-1 Valkyrie or variable fighter from the popular Macross/Robotech franchise.
  • Convertors (Select) featured the conflict between heroic and evil factions, in this case the heroic Defenders (and their Avarian allies) and the evil Maladroids (and their Insectors allies).