The only Go-Bots --- in my opinion --- that should be TFs:

1) Crasher
2) Turbo

And, oh yes, Zod might make a good pet for Megatron.

 

We already have Crasher.
And there are so many red sportscars in Transformers, I doubt Hasbro would bother much with Turbo when they can just make another Swerve.

 

I really need to keep up-to-date on all the TF toys that are out there.  

Oh yes... seeing I'm really big on Jeeps, and to me, there's never enough TFs that turn into Jeeps... we could also use Jeeper-Creeper (did I spell his name right?) as a Decepticon.

 

You might have missed Crasher, because she's actually called Fracture now; she's the store exclusive (Wal-Mart, is it?) movie-line redeco of Mirage.
Turbo, I think would work nicely as a mod from the Sideswipe mould. Though frankly I'd probably make him more orange just to distinguish him a bit.

I gould also accept Zod as a Grimlock redeco, although it'd probably be quite a bit like SG Grimlock anyway.

 

Look, Turbo doesn't have to be red, alright? He could be any color... it's just going to be a figure with the name "Turbo" attached to it, it doesn't have to be anything like the original Go-Bot figure... 'kay?

 

While I agree that any Gobots figs don't have to be spot-on designs (and I've already said that I'd personally change the colour), they still could do with more than the name to call it an homage.

A redone Bad Boy, by the way, should be a redeco of the Energon Sky Shadow/Terradive mould, IMO. Much better connection to the Gobot version than Powerglide, even sharing the fact that the engines become the arms.

 

Turbo most certainly _does_ have to be both red and a sports car.

See, it's this little concept called characterization. We didn't have it between Beast Machines and Animated, so I understand if it sounds somewhat foreign. You might want, say, Optimus Prime as a rapping green speedboat but some people like him the way he's been for most of the last 25 years. What always most infuriating about these "I want GoBots in TransFormers" threads is the realization that you don't actually want GoBots, but a carbon copy of whatever's "in" with TransFormers this week with different names attached.

Frankly, I'd rather see Bandai market Machine Robo again than have to suffer through any one of the lackluster interpretations TransFans or Hasbro would be likely to dump into this country's toy stores.

 

one of the rock lords

 

Skywarp-2, is that you?

And yes I would like that Cy-Kill.

 

Well, I was only talking about subtle changes (like making him a little more orange to differentiate him - he always seemed to have more of an orange tinge in the 'toon anyway) personally. And for the record, he came in black and blue, as well.

I didn't spend a lot of time on it, but here's a quick idea of how I'd handle Turbo were I to design it (without actually going to the trouble of designing a whole new mould)...



I think it keeps enough of the aesthetic of the original character without being a carbon copy of it.

 

I like it, but I just don't see Hasbro bothering to retool the head just for a Gobot...

I wouldn't mind seeing Turbo colored up in his Brazilian "Knight Rider wannabe" colors if red isn't an option.

 

Heh. No, that's a bit of wishful thinking on my part - although frankly, I think either 'Swipe or 'Streaker heads could work almost as well. They may be able to use the 'Swipe head and got for more 'toon-style paintjob, with the raccoon mask...

 

But a color-scheme isn't characterization. Its a color scheme, and, at least in the Transformers universe, its the equal of a suit jacket. You may have a lot of similar ones, but you can trade out any time. Now, if the intent is to, say, represent a new toy of the form Turbo had in 1984, then yeah, he'd probably need to be a red tech-sports car. If the intent is to represent Turbo after he's gotten a body upgrade, then he might get new deco elements (like, say, classics Bumblebee's stripes), a new alt-mode (like dozens of TF characters), a new color scheme (like Powerglide) or a combination of all three (like Classics Astrotrain).

A degree of visual continuity helps, but the real crux of it is characterization. Is the character represented, in terms of personality, as the original personality. Crasher's changed her alt mode, she's taken an alias, but she's still a manically laughing, earthquake-stomping madwoman.

And in terms of "like the old character", most of the characters had at least two incarnations at the time. If they were to make an homage to turbo, would they homage the toy or the show character? Both in varying combinations, maybe? The designs have major differences, especially in the face. Most of the GoBots have the same sort of situation, and many of them: Leader-1, Cy-Kil, Creepy, Blaster, have multiple color schemes. Blaster even used both of them on-screen.

In my experience, the opinion is more that they want what was done for the G1 TF cast done to the Gobots cast: Updates, reinterpretations and an opportunity to move forward.

Plus, the "G1 Gobots" E-Hobby backstory grabbed the imagination of a lot of fans (myself included). There's a lot of potential to the idea that the highly adaptable Gobots would have to invade a neighboring universe to save themselves. Given the in-cartoon Modifier, which could give gobots disguise modes to blend in as other species of robot, the whole concept provides a ton of possibility.

I don't see that you'd have to suffer through anything. Like anything else in the capitalist system, you can take or leave.

As for hoping that Bandai markets Machine Robo again... well, stranger things have happened. But a lot of US have little connection to MR. My likes are entirely based upon the overdramatic interpretations of the villains and the bizarrely kitchtastic backstory. Any Bandai reinterpretation isn't going to have Turbo or Cy-Kill or Crasher or Vamp, it will have their (in my opinion) vastly more dull Japanese counterparts.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't want a new Cy-Kill because his original toy was neat. I want a new Cy-Kill because he's a fun villain who just can't keep his yellow robot teeth from chewing the scenery.

-Trent

 

Well said, Trent.

And on the colour thing, in addition, how many TFs have recied major upgrades over the years and changed their colourscheme at least?

Ironhide's been a red minivan, a silver pickup truck, and a tan Hummer, even before you get into AU counterparts.
Sideswipe's always been a Lambo, but he's so far been through red, black and blue paintjobs (that spring to mind).

Don't get yourself too hung up on colourscheme. It helps toward the visual representation, but it's not the be-all-and-end-all.

 

Nonsense. Though I am surprised the words "true fan" didn't accidentally slip out somewhere in there.

By the way, what HAS Optimus been for the past 25 years? A red Freightliner? A gorilla? A firetruck? A futuristic semi? Seems to me Optimus has changed looks, but not the same basic character traits.

Of course, by your logic, if you suddenly cut your hair into a different style, then you would cease to be yourself and become a wholly different person, which you know is ridiculous.

Don't be such a geewunner, ya stick in the mud!   And while you're out altering your "characterization" by cutting your hair or changing to different color clothing (gasp! you had on red yesterday and now it's blue, egads, I don't know who you are anymore!) why not drop by the library and look up the definition of "characterization."

 

Velcrohead, are you being purposely dense?  

Because anyone who knew anything about TransFormers would know that Optimus Prime has been a noble Autobot commander with a red and blue truck** mode for 25 years and Optimus PRIMAL was the skysurfing gorilla with a religious complex. Otherwise, how do I know you really _aren't_ confused when people around you get a haircut or change their clothes?  

You know, it occurs to me that most people don't remember, much less understand, the actual charactization of the GoBots. They hide behind some ridiculous holier-than-thou derision of Hanna Barbera and an echo chamber of "true fans" whose rationalization today is all but indistinguishable from that of their 5-year-old selves.

If you can't see the virtues, including characterization (and I _do_ know what it means, beyond writer X in reboot Y), that make the two lines different, I don't know what I can do for you. So I stand by what I said earlier. You want TransFormers Animated* with Guardians and Renegades. That's fine, but please stop pretending you want anything that actually resembles the GoBots I'd like to see return.

*I love Animated, for the record, and see alot of both G1 and GoBots in it that inexplicably seems to escape just about everyone else.

**I don't agree when arbitrary changes happen in TransFormers either. It's stupid for robots in the middle of a war to drastically change their bodies as often as if they were outfits going out of style. Why can't they at least keep the same head and what sense does it pointlessly break some characters who're tightly linked to their alternate mode?

 

Admittedly using Prime as an example was a bad idea, though - as you've said, he's pretty much been a red truck the whole time - except in Armada and Energon, but that was a different continuity anyway.
But if you look up at my post, I've indicated two other significant characters, Ironhide and Sideswipe, who have changed significantly over the years, and changed back, and it hasn't hurt them at all. There are plenty of other examples, but I can't be bothered to list them all right now.

Using a bad example, however, doesn't necessarily invalidate his actual point, which was right on the button.
You want visual cues, to be sure. You want your characters to be recognisable. But the way you're talking sounds like you want everything to be exactly as you remember it or not at all.


Completely apart from the TROO FAN argument,   a pondering: Back in the Gobots/Rock Lords movie, Leader-1 and Boulder discussed how they'd actually evolved somehow from organic (humanoid) forms. Is that being touched on with the new Transformers version Gobots? Should it be, or should it be ignored for convenience?

 

Uh....
not...
exactly....

 

Except, this is actually a realistic but small compromise. A black and white race car to, get this, a black and white race car (oriented the same way even!). I think they could've done a better job with her characterization (which amounts to a single paragraph on a card back), but it's about what I'd expect a techspec to read like.

Yeah, no red or blue anywhere on those first two...are they even trucks?  

Those and a repainted Gobot at the end of G2 totally negate G1, Classic Heroes, G2, Masterpiece/20th, Armada, Energon, RobotMasters, Pepsi Prime/Convoy, Hybrid Prime, PowerMaster, ActionMaster, 15th/Commemorative/TFC/Encore/25th, iPod Convoy, Classics (good), Classics (bad), Henkei, RiD Gobot, WSTF, Bay Movie (times how many?), Binaltech (OK, that's a stretch)...

 

My Crasher's white, and looks nothing like Mirage.

For the record.