GoBots Action Figures Identification Tool with Pictures

Tonka quickly got the GoBots off the ground and began shipping them to stores in 1983. While Popy originally designed the toys as pilot-driven machines, Tonka presented the GoBots as sentient machines. They then copied Hasbro’s format more by splitting the toy line amongst enemy lines. On one side were the Friendly Guardians and on the other side were the Enemy Renegades. The Guardians followed the lead of Leader-1 while the Renegades took commands from Cy-Kill.

Rather than simply importing the toys as-is from Japan, Tonka decided to engineer a few extra toys for the American releases. So, the GoBots received toys like wind-up walkers and the like. One of the most notable additions was the gigantic Guardian Command Center playset. Tonka was not the only company creating new toys for the GoBots toy line. Both Bandai and Tonka worked together to create some of the new additions, which were mostly prototypes that Bandai had initially rejected.

Most of the robots in the GoBots toy line were about 2-3” tall and transformed into various contemporary machines. These standard action figures were imported from Machine Robo’s 600 series. However, there were a few 5-6” scale action figures, known as Super GoBots. By the end of the run, Tonka had released 72 standard-size GoBots and 18 Super GoBots action figures.

Even though the GoBots entered the market a year earlier, the toy line could not compete against the popularity of Transformers. With their sales faltering and support from Bandai dawning, Tonka concluded their production of the GoBots action figures in 1987. Only four years later, Tonka folded under and became a part of their competition, Hasbro.

When Tonka introduced GoBots to the market, they made a strong push to dominate the market. So, they commissioned an animated series from one of the most beloved American animation studios, Hanna-Barbera. The Challenge of the GoBots began airing on syndicated television in 1984. By 1995, the cartoon series was added to The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera programming block. It ran for two seasons, finally concluding in December 1985 with a total of 65 episodes.

The Cartoon series introduced the GoBots as former humanoid organic beings that became cyborgs to escape extinction. They originated from the planet GoBotron in the Proxima System, but Civil War and an asteroid strike devastated their planet. Near the end of the 20^th Century, these alien cyborgs arrived on Earth and continued to wage their war for dominance.

While the cartoon series rotated in characters from the toy line, there were three core characters from each faction. For the Guardians, there were Leader-1, Scooter, and Turbo along with a small cast of human friends, like Matt Hunter. Meanwhile, the three main Renegades were Cy-Kill, Crasher, and Cop-Tur. While the characters were divided into two factions, none of the characters had any insignia to indicate their loyalty. This reflected the toy line’s aesthetics.

The animated series enjoyed enough success that Hanna-Barbera developed a GoBots movie. This film, GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords, was released in 1986. Tonka used this entry as a chance to introduce the new spin-off to the GoBots toy line, the Rock Lords.

While the GoBots had returned to their home world to rebuild, they encountered sentient robots that transformed into Rocks. The Guardians agreed to assist these robots save their planet, Quartex, from the cruel Magmar. However, they were ambushed by the Renegades and had to rescue Solitaire from them. The Guardians eventually both rescued Solitaire and thwarted Magmar’s plans.

The animated film’s theatrical release foretold the future failure of the Rock Lords toy line. It languished after it came out in March 1986, only generating $1.3 million at the box office.

As Tonka was preparing to discontinue the toy line, the GoBots received a video game adaptation in 1986. A publisher named Reaktor developed the Challenge of the GoBots video game for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum.

The GoBots toy line’s chances of success were not helped by Tonka’s choice to license the toy line.  For instance, a Hong Kong company, Arco, created low-quality action figures and other toys with the GoBots logo. Arco only released a few of these GoBots toys around 1984.

Even though Hasbro bought Tonka in 1991, they have never merged the GoBots with the Transformers toy line. They have also made no moves to revive the toy line. Notably, Hasbro owned everything about the toy line aside from the original molds from Popy. Takara also would not have had the rights to Bandai’s toys in Japan. This may explain why the legacy sat untouched for decades.

However, Machine Robo has had some revivals during this time. Action Toys Revenge of Kronos toy line in 2015. This toy line was based on the Machine Robo cartoon series from 1986.

The GoBots finally received a comic book series in 2019 with IDW at the helm. IDW published this five-issue mini-series from 2018 until 2019.