639 replies to this topic

[SHIELD Agent 47]

As the Tonka GoBots, and by extension Machine Robo, pop up on this forum on a fairly recurring basis, here is a catch-all thread for discussion of them, not limited to just the latest "Masterpiece Machine Robo" or GBWiki discussion.

 

 

 

GoBots: Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles!

[Shrug]

I like Gobots.  They're neat.

[ZacWilliam1]

They are made of turtle meat.

-ZacWilliam, wait...

[Telly]

i had a lot more gobots as a kid than i did tfs thanks to them being much cheaper. i even still have a few. theyve held together better than some tfs from the same era

Edited by Telly, 13 November 2017 - 06:21 PM.

[Shrug]

I had Man-O-War for years before I knew he was a Gobot.  He was just some random toy my Grandma gave me.  I want to say it was because she knew 6 year old me was into Beast Wars, but odds are it was just because she thought I'd like a warship.

Had Brimstone for even longer before learning Rock Lords were an actual thing.

 

[Sabrblade]

I'm of the opinion that the five-part pilot to the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon had a superior story to that of the three-part pilot to G1 Transformers cartoon.

[Jim S]

Stakes are certainly higher. Origin isn't nearly as inventive and fewer characters get effectively introduced.

[Chip]

Super Gobots packaging, with the full painting that wrapped around and the front flap, always seemed super fancy to me. And the toys inside were great.

[Thylacine 2000]

Unlike in Transformers where everybody would shoot everybody else in every episode, at least the first 10 or so episodes of GoBots was clear that being shot by Cy-Kill's eye beams was a death-level emergency that left other characters horrified just by seeing it.

[Blot]

Stakes are certainly higher. Origin isn't nearly as inventive and fewer characters get effectively introduced.

I feel the 5 parts wind up making the Go-Bots "movie" drag on more often than More than Meets the Eye.

[Copper Bezel]

I just can't get over the similarity in the premises of the two series, given there was no chance of them influencing each other. It really does just feel like a TF AU. Makes you wonder how much of the core mythos of Transformers - the steps taken from robots that turn into cars to living, alien machines from a machine planet come to Earth to disguise themselves as vehicles - were simply the natural product of 1980s genre expectations.

 

Then there's Revenge of Cronos, which feels like what Transformers might have looked like if the cartoon was itself conceived in a wacky, parallel Earth. 

[Jim S]

"Wacky, parallel Earth."

Well, I've heard Japan described less charitably.

[Copper Bezel]

There's like, a feudal village of peasant robot farmers ... farming ordinary crops ... to feed their families ... but they're robots who turn into cars it's so weird X /

Edited by Copper Bezel, 14 November 2017 - 08:11 AM.

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I still miss the blue Leader-1 I had as a kid.

Also, I've long found this analysis of their respective toy bases to be interesting.

Speaking of bases, one thing I always admired about Thruster and the Command Center is that there was room for the GoBots to stand around and actually do stuff inside.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Edited by LBD "Nytetrayn", 14 November 2017 - 08:32 AM.

[SHIELD Agent 47]

I still miss the blue Leader-1 I had as a kid.

https://www.facebook...959112720811889

I love how Renegade Rhetoric had a story featuring every alternate GoBots toy deco.

[D Buster Prime]

At Hascon, I finally found the one and only figure I have ever really wanted, but never found as a kid back in the 80s.

 

BEHOLD!

 

 

[Sabrblade]

You found a Bandai-owned toy mold at a Hasbro-centric convention? Wow.

[Copper Bezel]

There were like three vendors, were there not?

[D.M]

[SHIELD Agent 47]

You found a Bandai-owned toy mold at a Hasbro-centric convention? Wow.

There were like three vendors, were there not?

I would say I'm surprised, but then again, it's not as though Hasbro made any serious effort to block third party TFs from BotCon.