Mazes & Monsters was a movie in which Tom Hanks' character is LARPing with a group of friends and ends up taking the game too far in his head, ending in a mental institution. To me, that was less a problem with the game and more a psychological disorder on the part of Tom Hanks' character.

 

It's been awhile since I've had Directv, but they use to have a Sleuth channel that played Mazes and Monsters every once and awhile. I think it wasn't until 2009 that I first saw that movie. It's a stupid premise but damn if Tom Hanks doesn't make it worth watching.

 

I was going to object, but upon reflection, you're right. They totally dress like upscale fantasy hookers, with a dash of Suicide Girls burlesque.

The monster theme is sort of fun, but when it actually comes down to the fashion, it's pretty tawdry.

zmog

 

That cannot be real, surely? I refuse to believe a is genuine, I really do. Nope. No way is that a real thing.

(I'm talking of course about that hair and those teeth on that guy.)

 

Yes, what you are seeing is 100% real. The 80s were like that.

 

I know my parents must have seen that.

 

Cartoon with every 80s song in the world in it. They save lionel Richie in the first episode and the song beat it plays a big role in one episode! This is why it will never get a dvd release due to music rights. They used the real songs and you can't just remove them as they are part of the plot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVg1wvvxXsw


Also how did this go from gobots to D&D? This really got off topic!

 

Reminder everybody: this IS the Transformers General Discussion forum , not every 80's TV series out there... so let's get this thread back on topic i.e., TF series or we have a TV & Movies forum for discussing those. Thanks!

 

i think some of it has to do with the fact that while gobots actually stayed truer to its original source material (the toyline) concerning each individual characters animation model (vehicle robot mode wise) that played to its strength at the time .

while transformers had the comic based on its own toyline which then led to the cartoon as well and later te original animated movie

gobots only had its toyline to base the cartoon on characters cast wise (but no comic to support the cartoon and toyline and a movie (battle of the rocklords) that eventuelly came out what maybe all of 4 months before transformers the movie did

but yeah in terms of various scale and variety wise transformers had them beat toyline and comic wise(gobots was lucky to get a single comic by nestle quick back in the day if i remember correctly

gobots as a cartoon had the better storylines at time compared to transformers(especially when compared to transformers akom produced episodes for the time ) but what gobots had in storylien quality it lacked in memorable characters over time something that gave transformers a clear lead in terms of comic toyline and cartoon.





both toylines have their strengths and flaws toyline//cartoon wise folks

this is merley an atttept to berriiefly summarize the stregnths and weaknesses of each in comparison to the other

personally i always preferrered mighty orbots over gobots anyday cartoon wise. that was a classic for the 80's right up there with lion force voltron

 

Transformers "won" because Hanna Barbera cartoons are fucking garbage.

 

nope

to each their own

and by the way swat kats @#$%ING ROCKED HARD CORE FOR THE 90'S

 

I agree with him. Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s and 1980s produced just about the worst animation the United States has ever seen.

EVER.

Before that, they did some very strong stuff. And during the 1990s, they started to pick themselves up and dust themselves off, just in time for them to be acquired by WB. But during the time Gobots was produced... just awful. Worst of the worst. Even Filmation with their 80% recycled animation rate was producing much higher quality work.

 

You are absolutely right. I was basing my statement entirely on the 70s and 80s era HB toons without realizing it. I'll leave my original post as is for context, but yeah, Hanna Barbera of the 70s and 80s was gawdawful.
Swat kats was indeed pretty radical (I re-watched it fairly recently and it does hold up)

 

Yeah, the 1990s was a return to goodness in the process of becoming greatness. Real Adventures of Jonny Quest wasn't as good as the original 1960s series but still a HUGE step up from their 1980s output, and Dexter's Lab was legitimately great.

 

This one was good.

Back to gobots.

Gobots using toy looking heroes was also done for two other h-b shows.

 

Centurions wasn't Hanna-Barbera, it was Ruby Spears.

 

Damn, I am way to young to be around when Gobots and G1 Transformers were a thing.  

I remember finding a bunch of Gobots at a garage sale tho. Jeepers Creeper or something like that was one I owned.

Did Transformers have any minor competition in the 2000s?

I remember Hot Wheels had Robo Wheels. Those were as close to an "alternate" Transformers on the market at the time that I remember.

 

Burn him!

 

Mostly just those and Power Rangers, to a degree. And there were some die-cast metal Matchbox-sized transforming toys that were really bad, too. One came with a boombox accessory.

I'd go as far to say that boys toys were, overall, slipping into a coma around this time. Movie tie-in merch was mostly limited to Star Wars. It was only until Transformers and the Marvel movies started hitting their stride did boys toys really start taking off again. Even now, everything is somewhat movie related.

 

Yeah. Franchises in the early 2000s weren't as strong. Ya had G.I.Joe and the Unicron Trilogy plus Star Wars, and maybe Spider-Man stuff, but it was pretty dry overall.

Do you remember what those Matchbox ones were called?