I loved these toys and often thought about why no one is picking this line up to mildly compete with Transformers and ride the coattails of success that huge franchise has. I stumbled across this info on Wikipedia and it seems that no one can really make them (sucks!): I wish someone would give them up so we could actually get some more modern GoBot figures. Preferably someone else besides Hasbro so we could have a different take on transforming figures. I love TFs, but it would be nice to have another line like we did in the 80's.
They're here and there. In Japan they made a toy line back by an anime called Machine Robo Resue with a lot of designs based on old Machine Robo/Gobots designs. This was followed up by Machine Robo Mugenbine... which had nothing to do withe Machine Robo but rather are kinda construction toys where you build robots, animals and vehicles. They still made Mugenbines until alast year iirc (where they renamed the line as Machine Robo NEXT).
Well, Hasbro is making a new Jetfire that actually looks a lot more like the original toy, aren't they? I don't see why they couldn't make cartoon accurate Go-Bots as long as they use original engineering.
Since they have the rights to the characters but not the toys, they can easily release them in the Classics line, like they did with Crasher/Fracture. Take a look at Classics Kup, he looks nothing like the G1 toy but matches the fiction (cartoon and comics) really well.
I'd buy even high quality knockoffs of them like what's been done with G1 toys that never were reissued.
Gobots have been making their way into the Transformers universe in subtle ways for a while now. Some times comics (Megatron battling Cy-Kill), sometimes animation (Animated hinting at Rock Lords), most often in toy form (E-Hobby minibots, modern toys for Crasher, Spoons, Night Ranger, Bug Bite, Cop-Tur, possibly Bolt, etc.). Third Party companies have been stepping up to fill the gap a little, and through that grey market we've gotten Pathfinder, Vanguard and Bad Boy, with versions of Cy-Kill, Road Ranger, Turbo, and another Crasher on the way. Whether it is through official Hasbro channels or via 3rd parties, I would love if Gobots were more fully embraced and folded into the TF universe; despite their bad rap and bad cartoon, the actual Gobot toys were excellent. Someone just give me a modern Tux, Psycho, and Waterwalk, dang it!
Oh come now, the cartoon wasn't THAT bad. I mean hell, of all the 80's cartoons I've watched so far, it was easily one of the better ones!
Well, perhaps, but... that's not exactly a high bar.... Nah, actually, I probably should be so quick to call the cartoon bad. I haven't actually ever tried watching it as an adult. Conventional wisdom says that a weak cartoon was part of what led to the Gobots losing the transforming-robot-toy war of the early '80's, but to be fair I have little memory of it. The toys made much more of an impression than the cartoon did, for me.
Transformers also had the backing of Marvel comics which helped solidify it's success. I personally enjoyed the GoBot cartoons but they were a little more dumbed down when compared with Transformers. Scooter didn't help.
Despite Scooter's annoying portrayal in the cartoon, I always though he was one of the best gobot toys. Very cool transformation and some poseability.
I think the only major issue with Scooter was his voice. Other than that, he filled the role of the obligatory kid-friendly character well enough. True, but it's a long decade. Transformers was still better. I also tend to forget about the Disney TV cartoons like Ducktales that also came out in the 80's, mostly because I seem to think I didn't watch TV before 1990... But I'd still rather watch Go-Bots again than something like MASK or Thundercats.
Why GoBots are dead in the water? Because they're Gobots. Seriously, though, I do sometimes wonder why Hasbro won't made a new "Cy-Kill" or "Turbo" under the Transformers brand name. The closest we got was an homage to Crasher in the 2007 movie line (Classics Mirage repaint).
Wreck-Gar/Junkheap repainted into Cy-Kill with new head and chest would be pretty awesome! And: - Generations Blurr (RTS?) repainted into Turbo with new head. - Classics Ramjet repainted/retooled to be Fitor - Generations Springer rpainted into Cop-tur with new head. - PRID Arcee repainted/retooled to be Scooter Qute a bit of potential here.
I'm guessing you forgot Deadlift, then? The orange ROTF Forklift guy? He's unabashedly a Spoons homage, right down to the original toy's number "MR-34" being tampographed on the modern homage. There's also ROTF Reverb, who despite actually being meant as a Beast Wars Inferno homage happens to very closely resemble Gobot Dart.
I would love it if they took the MP-11 mold and retooled it into Leader-1. Just take away the null rays.
All I remember of the Go-Bots cartoon was that they shot lasers from their fists rather than have guns since the toys couldn't hold any due to having fists.
Go Bots failed due to -Transformers where more popular after their debut -their show was done by Hanna Barbara, with lower budget than Toei (the animation models where just like the toy with no modifications like in Transformers or Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos).......if it was the other way around, Machine Robo would be in their Nostalgia Kick -the line was simpler and cheaper, kids did get them at first, until Transformers came out.
