A Tinpet (ティンペット), written as Tin-Pet in the English manga, is the basic frame and one of the core components needed to form a Medabot; without it, a Medabot cannot be assembled, as the Medal and Parts are set on this metallic skeleton. The main component from Tinpets are their Muscle Cables (マッスルケーブル), a material that expands, contracts and deforms with electrical signals. Muscle Cables have excellent flexibility and durability, and even if Parts are destroyed in a Robattle, the cables are hardly damaged. They enable Medabots to have flexible movements and give support for parts with complex shapes.[1]
Gender
There are two Tinpet models; male and female. Originally, parts were exclusive for a specific gender, but Medarot DS introduced neutral parts that can be used by both genders. It is important to recognise this difference for the Medafighter, or else the parts will just not assemble.
As the appearance from parts vary, not every Medabot will necessarely look like its gender at first glance, or even appear to have a gender due to having a more mechanical appearance. Examples of this include Blakbeetle and Black-Stag, which are female counterparts of the similar Saikachi and Roks.
In the games
As the Tinpet is necessary for a Medabot to work, the player will always obtain at least one Tinpet early in the game. Additional Tinpets from different genders can be found in different areas, increasing the player's party.
In Medarot and Medarot 2, the Tinpets were the Medabot component named by the player, but as the Medals are the essence from a Medabot, from Medarot 3 onward the Medals became the component that can be named by the player.
In Robattles, a Medabot cannot attack when the arm parts are destroyed, but can still walk when the leg parts are destroyed, albeit slower. Tinpets are never show functional without a head part equipped, with the Medabot ceasing to function when the head part is destroyed and ejecting their Medal as a sign of their surrender. There are exceptions, such as Medabots AX and Medarot G, where Medabots can use weak punches with the Tinpet's arms to continue fighting, which would not be possible if the Medabot's head part runs out of uses and its Medaforce is not an attack. On their appearance in the Digimon games, Tinpets are Rookie Digivolution forms able to fight on their own.
From Medarot DS to Medarot 9, the Tinpets have a simpler, thinner design. It returned to its original design in Medarot S: Unlimited Nova.
In the manga
Tinpets can be seen in various chapters from the Medarot manga series.
In the Medabots (Medarot 2) manga, one of the plans from the Rubberobo Gang was to steal female Tinpets so they could have more female Medabots on their group.
In the anime
In the Medabots anime and Medabots Spirit, there are a few times when a Medabot from one has worn parts from the other gender in the anime, suggesting that Medabots can wear any part in the anime, regardless of the gender. For example, in Delivery Boy, Metabee used LadyBooster's leg parts and Peppercat used Cyandog's right arm. Samantha also had her Peppercat installed with different male parts in other episodes, such as Kuraba's "Decoy Crab" and Robo-Emperor's "Death Beam" parts in For Better, For Worse - Part I, both of which were male parts. However, she wasn't able to use those properly due to their weight.
The assembly line from the Medabot Corporation can produce over two thousand Tinpets per day. Male Tinpets can be seen in multiple episodes, while female Tinpets only appeared in the original opening and when Peppercat was shocked in Fighting Temptation. In A Night in the Medabot Junkyard, Fossilkat controlled several old Tinpets and used them as minions that acted like zombies.
Gallery
See also
- Chinpet