A photo of a Revell Robotech Robolinks Force 30 set in mecha mode.

Robolinks was Revell’s repackaging of Takara’s Blockman line. It was a cleverly-designed building block system in which each individual block was a robot action figure. How cool was that?

But wait, it gets better.

The interchangeability and connectivity was based on 5mm pegs and ports which meant Blockman/Robolinks figures and accessories were compatible with over three decades’ worth of Takara-designed action figures — everything from vintage Henshin Cyborg to today’s Transformers Classics.

For whatever reason — lack of marketing, lack of interest or just bad timing — Blockman never took off and Takara never saw fit to reissue the old figures or revisit the concept.