008 Zobo

Zobo is the TDD clown.

"Zobo" is "Bozo" with the syllables switched.  This play on words is known as a spoonerism. 

Bozo the Clown was one of the most famous clowns in the world.  He was created in 1946 to be featured on a series of children's storytelling albums made by Capitol Records.  The name (and likeness) was later franchised out to local TV stations. This allowed many places around the world to have their very own Bozo Show.   Although his popularity peeked in the 1960s, Bozo persisted as a TV personality until 2001.

Zobo was one of the first TDD, coming out in Crew 1 in the year 2000.

There are three versions of his G1 figure.  The one with blue hair is the rarest. 

He returned in G3 with several variants.  One variant is yellow -- reminiscent of Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons.  Most G3 figures of Zobo come with a mallet accessory.

This most common G3 version also has a zood named Zeppelin.  He is a balloon animal, sort of resembling a dog.  A zeppelin is a rigid airship; which is sort of similar to a blimp (a non-rigid airship); which is sort of similar to a hot-air balloon; which is sort of similar to a balloon animal.  (I suppose.)

This particular G3 Zobo sculpt also has a G4 version in a comic-themed series of figures.  This variant seems to be a nod toward an obscure comic called Dead Clown, which was a Malibu Comics title that came out in 1993.

Finally, there was a second G3 Zobo sculpt which was part of the Special Ops series. I mention every time how much I hate this series because of its convoluted magnetic accessories and the weird hats and helmets.  That said, Zobo is probably the least awful among these horrible figures.  He does come with a cool "rubber chicken" after all.