Gobots were beating transformers? I'm not surprised at all.

So Hasbro deliberately gave us a slow movie to wipe them out. How typical.

 

Great read.

I had heard that a big reason for Nimoy doing the movie was he wanted to be in a film with Orson Welles. Who wouldnt in fairness....

 

Excellent perspective. I was 8 then the movie came out. Series 3 (Hot Rod, etc.) were fine TF series IMHO. It was the "rebirth" that killed TF's in the US. We should have just had an edited Headmasters/ Masterforce, etc.

 

Really, that surprises me quite a bit. At least in my area, very few people had any Gobots or even watched the show. Heck, when TFs first came out they were almost impossible to find, I never had any issues finding Gobots.

 

Couldn't finish watching it.
I know they mean well but it's clear they've forgotten a lot of things and are making up stuff to fill the gaps. (like Bell saying Prowl is his fave because of the personality he just made up).  

 

Thanks for this! I never knew Optimus Prime's death was nudged along by Frank Miller, and in turn the TF Movie then helped nudge along 300.

 

Oooh, how? I'm intrigued!

 

Opposite here. Even the TV stations favored GoBots. Caught G1 maybe twice and didn't know TFTM happened until the 1990s. I knew all of one kid whose brother had TFs. Only really got into TFs when GoBots ended. Of course neither mattered to anybody else once TMNT hit.

 

Basically, they were thinking of doing Optimus' death like Davy Crockett at the Alamo, and Frank Miller suggests something similar, the 300 at the Battle of Thermopylae.

From the news post:

 

Transformers was already effectively dead before the rebirth; otherwise, more, if not all, of Season 4 would have been produced (including running "Rebirth" as five parts instead of shortening it to three). They probably wouldn't have bothered at all if they didn't have the 1987 line to promote.

You mean like the Unicron Trilogy?  

 

In their first seasons the only reason Gobots did better was that it was on 5 days a week, when Transformers was only airing once a week. Around here it was on Sundays at 9:30 am. There were also two other shows in compition.... Voltron and Mighty Orbots.

 

Sorry, I should have been more specific: how did the TF movie nudge 300?

 

Mighty Orbots only lasted like 13 episodes tho...

Also I'm not really surprised by Gobots beating Transformers, the toys were sold at a much lower price point too.

 

Go Bots were popular in my area for about 2 weeks. Then Transformers hit the market and no one around here ever thought of Go Bots again. Transformers were so popular here in 1984 you could go to several Toy Stores and they would have ZERO stock left on the shelves. They were as popular as toys could get in 1984.

 

That was a pretty cool interview.

It's interesting how there were different approaches for Optimus Prime's death, and it does explain a lot that Hasbro didn't interfere much in the writing process.

Oh Michael Bell.....In short No. But they seriously should give him a role of some kind, it doesn't even have to be a major character just someone.

 

Well when you think about it, the Gobots cartoon was more mature compared to Transformers : Crasher having a crush on Leader 1, alternate universe where the Guardians are evil, Fitor and his insane loyalty to Cy-Kill (like BW Inferno crazy), Older Gobots tutoring the younger Gobots, everyone looks normal in the sense that no side looks particularly good/evil; like good guys are builders and bad guys are military machines, etc etc

toy-wise, probably not impressive, I've only got a hand-me-down Spaceboy toy

 

I was a G.I. Joe, He-Man and Robotech kid. I didn't become a Transformers fan until I saw the '86 movie. Then I became a Transformers fan big time!

That was until TMNT came out. Then everything else took a backseat. 

I still think the '86 movie is the coolest looking sci-fi/space/robot movie ever made.

 

I would never imagined Gobots being more popular the tf shoot everything about Gobots seemed like lesser quality from the cartoon to the toys I'd only watch Gobots just because there was nothing else on it wasn't that cartoon you looked forward to get home to watch like tf or gi joe