We all know Hasbro bought out gobots in I think the 90s. They've had characters named after gobots (Leader-1 in Armada) and they've had an homage or two, but how come they haven't made any real gobots? I'd love a chug deluxe Leader 1 or Cy-Kill. let them be either a new group or just call them autobots and decepticons

 

I thought I heard that the designs are not in their hands, only the names so they can't make updated versions of them ala MP & CHUG which would explain why we only get homages like 07 Fracture.

 

A gray cw slingshot and uw groove would probably work for cykill and leader one

 

So they bought them to rub out competition lol

 

no it wouldn't....... total size difference they need to be the same size so they can fight! I want new molds for gobots! there are 6 main gobots, that's all I want

 

Aren't both of those molds the same size class (deluxe)?

 

Just get these : http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/toyark/1033470-gokin-machine-robo-gobots.html

 

Maybe there isn't enough popularity. Why make something that no one wants?

 

Hasbro brought Tonka in the 1990s, not to eliminate competition (Gobots had not been a thing for many years at that point) but to get some of Tonka's other brands, namely the Tonka trucks that were popular among children.

The Gobots line, much like the 1984-85 series Transformers, were licensed from a Japanese toyline, namely Bandai's Machine Robo. Tonka effectively only had the rights to the names and some of the story details they created - the toys were all licensed from Bandai.

Hasbro therefore cannot reference the toys with direct homages. They'd be infringing on Bandai's property.

Hasbro's rights to Gobots gets even more tenuous when you realise that most of the fiction for that line is also set out in the show, which they also do not have the rights to. Basically Hasbro has a few names they can use and precious little else.

 

oh I thought he meant CW for both. my bad

 

I think DocSeth got UW Groove and CW Groove confused.

Edit: Didn't see Doc's comment.

 

And there you have it.

I actually came here to post the same info but ah well saves me a little typing.  

 

LAst year Hasbro put up an image of Cy-kill on facebook but hanna-barbera own the rights to the designs so It was taken down within an hour

 

I'm happy with bit homages like the Fracture/Crasher or those E-Hooby Gobots stuff like that.

I wouldn't mind more of that. Hell I'll take new original character based on them like Aileron.

 

There is aslo the fact that Bandai still has the Machine Robo character in Japan, and if Hasbro make toys that were essentially promoting their likenesses (even with new molds Hasbro totally owned!), Takara Tomy might be pissed they were promoting characters owned by their competition.

If Hasbro make a new mold Cy-Kill, even a remold of Groove, Takara would be like "Hey! Why are you promoting Bike Robo, someone from our competition!?!" Takara certainly would NOT ever release their own version of a GoBot. Notice that guys like Armada Leader-1 were NOT called that in Japan. He was called Barrel.

 

Takara actually did release their own version of some of the Gobots as an E-Hobby exclusive set of recolored G1 Minibots.

Dimension Exploration Researchers Archives - Transformers Toys - TFW2005

 

ehobby released those, they removed the GoBot names in the final release, and none of them looked like their Bandai toy models, or were even the right colors for their homages.

Nobody would think that this robot:



Would promote Bandai MR-35 Offroad Robo.



So yeah, Hasbro could release a weird color motorcycle who looks nothing like Cy-Kill, and not call him Cy-Kill, and no one would know he was Cy-Kill.