GoBots was an American media franchise that was a line of transforming robot toys produced by Tonka from 1983 to 1987, similar to Hasbro's Transformers.
Although initially a separate and competing line of toys, Tonka's Gobots became the intellectual property of Hasbro after their buyout of Tonka in 1991. Subsequently, the universe depicted in the animated series Challenge of the GoBots and follow-up film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords was established as an alternate universe within the Transformers multiverse. While Hasbro now owns the fictional side of the property (character names, bios, storyline), the actual toys and their likenesses were only licensed from Bandai in the 1980s, were not covered by the Tonka acquisition, and are not available for Hasbro use.
History The GoBot toy line was based on figures produced by Popy of Japan (the now-defunct character division of Bandai), named Machine Robo. In another similarity to Transformers, Tonka decided to make the figures sentient robots, rather than human-piloted mecha as they had been in Japan, and divided them into two factions – the good Guardians and evil Renegades (although early figures were simply described as ‘Friendly’ or ‘Enemy’ on the packaging). The figures were all given individual names, in contrast to the simple designations they received in Japan.
Introduced in 1983 by Tonka Inc., the GoBots toys were part of the robot "sensation" that swept the nation for a short time.Billboard - Oct 5, 1985
The line sold well initially, but was overtaken by Transformers. 1987 was the final year in which new Gobots were released. In 1991, Hasbro acquired the rights to the names to the entire Gobot franchise, but not to their likenesses, from Tonka Inc.; the GoBots therefore cannot be re-released.Going, Going, GoBots by Matt Carara, Toyfare Magazine #123, November 2007, page 80-82
Releases Tonka released the first batch of figures to stores in 1983, one year prior to the Transformers. The bulk of the Gobot line was taken from the Machine Robo "600 Series" line of figures, which were around high on average. The robot figures transformed into a mixture of generic and specific contemporary machines, plus a handful of Second World War fighter aircraft, and a number of futuristic designs. This unnamed assortment, usually referred to as "Regular" Gobots, was used throughout the four years Gobots were produced and was later supplemented by figures from the Machine Robo Devil Invaders sub-line, plus some aborted Machine Robo figures and some commissioned from Bandai by Tonka.
Larger figures, averaging around tall in robot mode, were released as Super Gobots. Some of these were drawn from the Machine Robo Scale Robo DX line, some from the MR Big Machine Robo line (these included larger versions of Leader-1, the Guardian leader, and Cy-Kill, the Renegade leader) and some designs not released in Japan. The line also included two gestalt-style figures, the car-based Puzzler and monster-based Monsterous.
Several other ranges were drawn from existing Bandai figures (such as the Secret Riders ).
Tonka did design some toys for the line, including the Guardian Command Center and Renegade Thruster playsets, and the motorized Renegade Zod. In addition to these, two versions of the Power Warrior were made for both the Guardians and the Renegades, using molds from the Machine Robo line and recolored. The Nemesis Power Warrior used a tank for the center body and was released only in Japan. A large playset called the Gobotron Fortress was also shown to have existed in various articles and catalogues, but it has never been released.
A spin-off line, Rock Lords, crossed over with the Gobots in the feature film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords, and was issued as a separate toy line by Tonka in 1986.
+ Standard figures. Note: The figures were not always released in numerical order. # Name Vehicle mode MR number 01 Cy-Kill Motorcycle MR-01 02 Tank Tank MR-02 03 Fitor Jet MR-03 04 Cop-Tur Helicopter MR-04 05 Loco JNR Class D51 MR-05 06 Spay-C Space Shuttle MR-14 07 Turbo Supercar MR-07 08 BuggyMan Meyers Manx MR-08 09 Dumper Dump truck MR-09 10 Pumper Fire engine MR-10 11 Dozer Komatsu D155A MR-11 12 Hans-Cuff Toyota Crown S110 MR-13 13 Fly Trap Garbage truck MR-26 14 Small Foot Toyota Hilux SR5 MR-35 15 Dive-Dive Los Angeles-class submarine MR-33 16 Slicks Renault RE20 MR-32 17 Block Head Nissan Cement Mixer Truck MR-34 18 Road Ranger Hino HE Flatbed Trailer Truck MR-18 19 Royal-T Harrier GR5 MR-19 20 Spoiler Countach LP500S MR-21 21 Crasher Porsche 956 MR-20 22 Screw Head Drilling vehicle MR-17 23 Blaster Missile tank MR-23 24 Crain Brain UNIC K-200B MR-24 # Name Vehicle mode MR number 25 Leader-1 F-15 Eagle MR-25 26 Rest-Q Nissan Caravan Ambulance MR-15 27 Scooter Scooter (motorcycle) MR-16 28 Geeper-Creeper Mitsubishi Jeep CJ-3B MR-28 29 Path Finder Flying Saucer MR-29 30 Night Ranger Harley-Davidson FLHC MR-37 31 Spoons Komatsu Forklift MR-34 32 Water Walk Seaplane MR-31 33 Flip-Top SH-2 Seasprite MR-40 34 Good Knight Excalibur Series III MR-44 35 Blaster Missile tank MR-23 36 Street Heat Chevrolet Camaro Z28 MR-43 37 Wrong Way AH-64 Apache MR-41 38 Scratch GMC S-15 Jimmy MRT-41 39 BuggyMan (V2) Meyers Manx MR-08 40 Zero A6M Zero MR-39 41 Tux Rolls-Royce Phantom VI MR-46 42 Twin Spin CH-46 Sea Knight MR-50 43 Snoop SR-71 Blackbird MR-45 44 Leader-1 (V2) F-15 Eagle MR-25 45 Cy-Kill (V2) Motorcycle MR-01 46 Vamp Spaceship MRD-101 47 Scorp Robotic scorpion MRD-102 48 Pincher Spaceship MRD-103 # Name Vehicle mode MR number 49 Stallion Ford Mustang MRT-45 50 Sparky Pontiac Fiero MRT-43 51 Van Guard Dodge Caravan MRT-42* 52 Heat Seeker F-16 Falcon MR-49 53 Stinger Chevrolet Corvette MRT-44 54 Major Mo Nissan 300ZX Z31 MR-48 55 Bad Boy A-10 Thunderbolt II MR-47 56 Creepy Robotic crab MRD-104 57 Tail Pipe Nissan Skyline RS MR-42 58 Bugsie Monster n/a 59 Bladez Monster MRD-105 60 Klaws Spaceship n/a 61 Hornet Jet n/a 62 Treds M1 Abrams n/a 63 Bullseye B-1 Lancer n/a 64 Mr. Moto Honda 200X n/a 65 Mach-3 F-4 PhantomMR-51 66 Man-O-War Iowa-class battleship MR-54 67 Ace P-51 Mustang n/a 68 Bolt P-38 Lightning n/a 69 Dart Honda VF1000R n/a 70 Sky Jack F-14 Tomcat MR-52 71 Gunnyr MiG-21 n/a 72 Bentwing F4U Corsair n/a
† = release cancelled.
+ Super GoBots # Name Vehicle mode MR number 020 Warpath AH-64 ApacheBMR-04 021Cy-KillMotorcycleBMR-01 022Spay-CSpace ShuttleBMR-05 023StaksPeterbilt 352HBMR-03 024Leader-1F-15 EagleBMR-02 025Baron Von JoyPorsche 930 TurboMRDX-07 # Name Vehicle mode MR number 026 Zeemon Datsun Fairlady 280ZXMRDX-02 027 Herr FiendPorsche 928SMRDX-03 028 Bug BiteVolkswagen Beetle MRDX-05 029 DestroyerLeopard 1A4MRDX-04 030 PsychoPsychoroid MRDX-01 031DefendorSaladin Mk. IIMRDX-06 # Name Vehicle mode MR number 032 Throttle BMW K100 n/a 033 RaizorF-4 Phantom n/a 034 VampSpaceship n/a 035 Super Couper Ford Coupe n/a 036 Spy-Eye Tornado IDS n/a 037ClutchFord F-250 n/a 038 Night FrightMi-24 n/a
+ Power Warriors Name Courageous Grungy
+ Puzzler: Six smaller robots that combined into a single larger super-robot, sold both separately and as a giftset. Name Vehicle mode Crossword Porsche 930 Jig Saw Toyota Celica XX Pocket Lamborghini Countach Rube Mercedes-Benz 500 Tic Tac Chevrolet Corvette Zig Zag Nissan 300ZX
+ Monstrous: Six smaller robots that combined into a single larger super-robot, sold both separately and as a giftset. Name Vehicle mode Fangs Monster Fright Face Monster Gore Jaw Monster Heart AttackMonster South Claw Monster Weird Wing Monster
+ Boomers Name Vehicle mode Blast Buggy Rumble Buggy
+ Secret Riders Name Vehicle mode Tork Ford Ranger Tri-Trak Honda 200X Twister Helicopter
+ Dread Launchers Name Vehicle mode Chaos X-29 & transporter Re-Volt Hawk & launchpad Traitor Wasp & launchpad
+ Power Marchers Name Hitch Hiker Quick Step
+ Others Name Command Center GoBotron Fortress Scales Space Hawk Thruster Zod
Media
Hanna-Barbera produced a cartoon series called Challenge of the GoBots to promote the toy line, which ran for 65 22-minute episodes from 1984 to 1985. In 1986, soon after the end of the Challenge of the Gobots television series, the Gobots co-starred with the Rock Lords in an animated feature film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords, again produced by Hanna-Barbera.
In 1984, two Gobot children's books were published by Golden Books, an imprint of Western Publishing. The books, titled War of the Gobots and Gobots on Earth, were written by Robin Snyder and illustrated by Steve Ditko, and chronicled the origins of the Gobots. The Gobots were also featured in the 1986 book Collision Course Comet - Robo Machine Featuring The Challenge Of The Gobots and the 1985 book The Wagner Sirens-Robo Machine Featuring The Challenge Of The Gobots, both of which were published by Egmont Books.
The closest thing to a Gobot comic book was the Gobots Magazine, produced by Telepictures Publishing. This included a short comic strip, based on the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon continuity, as well as features on real-life robots, quiz pages and the like. It ran quarterly from winter 1986 to winter 1987, managing five issues. Unlike the Transformers comics, it was aimed at a very young readership.
In the UK, a Robo Machines comic strip was produced. The comic used many of the characters from the Gobot line, but following a different continuity than the cartoon. This was written by Tom Tully, and ran in the second volume of Eagle from November 1984 to July 1985. After Fleetway discontinued their licence agreement, the property was leased to World Distributors, who produced annuals following the cartoon continuity in 1986 and 1987.
A Gobots video game was released in 1986 by Ariolasoft for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum computer formats. Gobots software for other computers, home video game systems or coin-operated arcade game systems is unknown at this time.
It was announced that Hasbro has applied for a new Go-Bots trademark (this is not a renewal) under "distribution of motion pictures, ongoing television programs" and "Toys, games and playthings, namely, toy vehicles and accessories for use therewith.
In October 2018, IDW began publishing a Go-Bots mini series written and illustrated by Tom Scioli.
Worldwide
Unlike Transformers, Gobots was released in several guises around the world. In the UK, France and a number of other European countries, Bandai released the figures as Robo Machine, utilising most of the Tonka names. Later on, when the Challenge of the Gobots cartoon arrived, this was changed, or modified (often resulting in clumsy branding such as Robo Machines featuring Challenge of the Gobots or Challenge of the Gobots - A Robo Machine Production). In Australia, the line was released as Machine Men. The Machine Men name had been used also by Bandai in an item to market Machine Robo in America in early 1984, but after issuing six figures the line failed. However, Bandai's Australian release was successful enough to retain the Machine Men branding, which was even added to the cartoon when that began airing. In Brazil, the line was initially produced by Glasslite as Mutante. The license was later taken over by Mimo. It was also translated into Arabic and retitled Hikayat alamaliqa, or A Tale of Giants. In Japan, Bandai opted to keep with the Machine Robo line, rather than importing the Gobots due to licensing issues.
Transformers