Switch-A-Robots are a candy box disguised as a partsformer robot toy
In 1986 TOPPS joined the robots what turn into stuff craze with a late yet fun offering in the form of Switch-A-Robots.
While today most would think of TOPPS as a trading card company, they started out and for much of their early years as a chewing gum manufacturer. A manufacturer that worked out if you include some cards with your gum, you sell more gum.
Over time TOPPS expanded their scope and released products that included candy instead of gum and part of that change saw the candy packed in novelty containers.
Switch-A-Robots are a four part toy (head, body and two sets of wheels) where the body section is mostly a box with a flap that holds the candy. The candy is fairly basic compressed sugar with a coloured outer coating and a very strong taste; orange, lemon, etc. Each robot had one flavour candy inside. Due to the varying shapes of the robot toys, the candy boxes also varied. This resulted in the NET candy weight in BAT-BOT being 0.05 oz (1.4 g) while BLAST-BOT and SCREW-BOT contained 0.2 oz (5.0 g).
For what they are, with their quick paint application and often wonky casting, they're a fun bit of 80's transforming robot history.