As much as I hate to admit it in a way, GoBots were my actual first love over Transformers. Before everyone starts wondering what planet I am from, let me explain.
It goes like this, as most kids from the '80s can tell, back then, most of us didn't just get toys and money handed to them at their whim. Most of us had to work and do chores and so on to get an allowance. And it was a meager allowance at that. If I worked hard and did all my chores, and was good at both home and school, and had good grades and so on, I would usually get an allowance, that if I remember right, was usually a dollar a week, though I think it went up to 2 dollars if special occasions or circumstances occurred. I don't know if most people remember, but at the times of GoBots and Transformers, Gobots ranged about 2 to 3 dollars apiece, and Transformers were closer to $10 or more apiece. If you do the math, you can see, it was much easier to build a new Gobot collection, and do more with them, if you could afford that. I would have to wait and work much harder and longer to get a cool Transformer. That doesn't mean I didn't like them, but it was more realistic and feasible for me to get GoBots. They both had cartoons I liked, so it just made sense for me to go that route. You can argue that the Transformers had the smaller ones at about the same price, but the collection was much smaller, and also, I rationalized as a kid the GoBots were better because they had more metal pieces to them. This is actually pretty smart as a kid, because if you look at the Transformer minibots, they were all plastic pretty much, with the exception of the screws.
One final note, that early in the run of both toys, before there had been any type of boat robot, I came up with the idea that they should have a boat that was something like a coast guard boat or something of that nature, and that it should have the name "Emerge N Sea" or something like that. As a little 7 or 8 year old kid, I was really proud of myself and my idea, and if I remember correctly, I drew a picture of what I thought it would be like, and wrote a letter explaining it, and sent it to Tonka. As I am sure you can guess, they didn't use my idea. They were very kind though, and wrote me back thanking me for it, but they told me regrettably they couldn't use it. They were really nice and complimentary about it in the letter, and they also sent me a big cool full color catalog showing all of their GoBot line at the time. It was really cool, and I remember it meant a lot to me, and definitely kept my brand loyalty.
Obviously, later on, I started finding a way to acquire more money, and all my friends were more into Transformers, so I took the plunge and got into both. With the GoBot line failing after a relatively short life span, and also with things like the Transformers comics and continuing toy line, I got pulled more into it, and the rest is history.
My Excel Checklist.
I decided a while back to put pictures up of my old Gobots back when I started this page. It is far from finished, but here is my first group (The ones on the yellow lid of the storage case). I have gotten a lot of others from various sources, mostly eBay, and I used the listing pictures in those cases until I have the time to take my own better quality pictures. I have others, including Zod, the Command Center, Renegade base Thruster, and others including some Super Gobots put away and hard to get to currently, from my move from Texas and Ohio. I will try to get more up including ones put away when I get a chance.
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This is a cool GoBots Licensing Packet I got off of eBay.
At some point, I will try to take the time to scan each image individually
and put them up for view. In the meantime, here is an image of the
set, as well as the sellers description from my purchase:
Scarce, Original, Vintage 1984
GoBots partial Licensing Packet. |
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Another eBay find... This is a cool animator's
model sheets packet I got off of eBay.
At some point, I will try to take the time to scan each image individually
and put them up for view. In the meantime, here is an image of the
set, as well as the sellers description from my purchase:
This a set of animator's model sheets from Hanna-Barbera's classic series,
"The Challenge of the GoBots."
Gobots was a line of transforming robot
toys produced by Tonka from 1983 to 1986, similar to Transformers.
The series even spawned a featured film, also produced by Hanna-Barbera,
called "GoBots: The Battle of the Rock Lords." (Model Sheets are the
reference guides that animators used to keep the look of the characters
consistent. They contain various views and/or expressions to help the
animators draw the characters. ) Here's what you get: A separate sheet of character art for most of the characters that appeared in the series! There are over 70 separate pages featuring instructions on drawing the characters, pose suggestions, attitude drawings, transformation drawings, and more, for the following characters: Leader-1, Scooter, Turbo, Cy-Kill, Cop-Tur, Crasher, Braxis, Matt, Nick, AJ, Anya, General Newcastle, General Lindley, Command Center, Zod, Smallfoot, Geeper-Creeper, Fitor, Buggy Man, Renegade Ship, Rest-Q, Hans-Cuff, Zee-Mon, Pathfinder, Pumper, Staks, as well as THREE Size comparison sheets (8-1/2" X 14"!!) and more!! And, as a BONUS, you will receive TWO 8 X 10 photos featuring the series' characters. The model sheets measure 8-1/2" X 11" !! The printing of this model pack was a little askew, causing some art to be clipped in corners, but in no way does it detract from the awesome art created for this series!! The photos are printed directly from the Studio's transparencies through traditional photographic process. They are NOT computer printouts. Items such as these are extremely rare and were NEVER available in stores. |
Below are some cool YouTube videos from the TV series.
Below are some cool YouTube videos featuring TV commercials from the toy line.
While doing some research, and web surfing, I came across the site below. One of the best sites I have ever seen on the subject..
http://www.toyarchive.com/Gobots/Go-Bots.html
