Go-Bots doesn't get enough credit for being one of Hanna Barbera's best cartoons of the 80s. Once you get beyond the stigma that it's a "Transformers Ripoff" (which it was never intended to be, both shows were developed independently based on different pre-existing toylines) the animation is fluid, the art direction is fantastic, the writing is entertaining and exciting, and the voicework is superb.
I like the fact that Cy-kill gives a damn about his underlings. That already makes him better than Megatron in my opinion.
>>152143142For some reason, console warring Transformer fags really REALLY seethe at the thought of this series existing. Never really got why. But they have spent the last 25 years trying to push the narrative that everyone everywhere hated this show and it made any viewer fly into a blind rage before they got through the intro credits. When it was just another one of many many many many toy shows of the 80s that came and went. Some were pretty good but only remained on tv for a few months. While the toys were still on shelves for a few more months. It's not even the only copy type show we got in the 80s too. There were 2 Ghostbusters cartoons, 2 talking animals in a pet store shows, 2 cowboy cops in space cartoons, even Gummi Bears and Ewoks were incredibly similar. Half the time studios made multiple copies of their own ideas like Smurfs and Snorks, all the Scooby clones, Thundercats and Silverhawks.
>>152143142Interestingly The Go-Bots planet in this series turned out to be the exact same thing as Coruscant in Star Wars 20 years later. A completely paved over planet with hundreds of layers of construction. And the surface people do not think there is anything alive in the bottom 10 or so levels any longer.
>>152143235He also sometimes wins small victories or backs off to avoid being beaten. Makes him seem brilliant compared to the average cartoon villian.
>>152143142I had a weird attraction to Crasher, and I have to admit I liked GoBots more than Transformers when I was a kid. The tone of the series was just different, and the kid sidekicks were at least not annoying brats like they had in Transformers.
>>152143371Transformers didn't really get annoying kid sidekicks until Armada. Spike never had that many focus episodes, and the ones he did have were pretty decent.
>>152143391When we cancel the GoBoys for this?
>>152143454>Spike never had that many focus episodes, and the ones he did have were pretty decent.True, but the majority of the series was just kind of cheapy or boring. Its either one or the other and never both. At least when it's cheap looking it's funny.
>>152143476The animation is the worst part of G1, but the characters, stories and voice acting make up for it.
At most you could argue that Machine Robo was a ripoff of Diaclone but even that's a stretch given how every other Japanese toy company had their own line of shape-changing robots by the late 70s and early 80s.
What Hasbro did to the transforming robot market through aggressive marketing is depressing. Japan could sustain countless transforming robot lines, but Hasbro strongarmed everything else out of the market.The Machine Robo toys bought over to make up most of Go-bots are legitimately great little toys, designed by Bandai as mostly pocket toys with solid engineering. Not big ambitious toys, but still well designed. Hasbro managed to make Transformers seem like the only legitimate toyline and marketed around looking for signs of "authentic" Transformers, not just to protect their brand from KOs but to basically mark their transforming robots as the only legitimate one. Go-bots became associated with shittier toys and toys for poor kids even though the price and size of most of them was the same as smaller TFs anyway. Even in the 2000's, Hasbro bought the name "Machine Robo Rescue" because all the 2000's MR line had tampos with that name, making it impossible to release those toys in the US without alterations, which would've been an expense to Bandai. It's a very American approach where only one of a thing can exist. You still see 80's kids call Power Rangers a "rip off" of Voltron when GoLion was just inspired by Sentai as is.
>>152143391kek, crasher looking kinda cute there
>>152143635Sauce please? You piqued my attention.
>>152144461the IDW Go-bots comic
>>152144542Yeah, I just found it. It's weird, like reading a british comic that came with a toy.But it's a good reading so far.
>anons complaining about Go-Bots being pushed out by Transformers>meanwhile Go-Bots was the reason Orbots was cancelled, which was better than both shows
>>152144833Just because it had loli pantsu in one episode doesn't mean it was the better show.
>>152143142>It's an contrarian opinion episode!
>>152143142Having watched both shows back in the 80's, I'd say that GoBots had some cool moments despite its competition.>Despite having several supporting characters with limited appearances, its the core cast being smaller than Transformers core cast has its advantages.>Crasher and her sadistic nature and cackling made for a cool villainess.>The two-part and five-part episodes were among my favorite episodes because they were a nice change of pace from the one-off episodes (a few of those episodes were cool, though). They also wet my appetite for ongoing storylines in animated shows. It's also crazy that Turbo nearly died in BOTH five-parters and Leader-1 was disassembled in the second one.>The Power Suits were cool, but it kinda sucks that Puzzler only appeared in one episode and was a much bigger letdown and jobber compared to Devastator, Menasor, Bruticus, Predaking, and Trypticon.>It was fun seeing Cy-Kill put up with his Starscream equivalent named Zero. Funny enough, despite only appearing in two episodes, Zero mogged Cy-Kill twice AND formed his own short-lived faction.>While I didn't mind some of the simplified or futuristic vehicle forms, it was cool seeing some GoBots' vehicle forms being based off actual vehichles like Bad Boy (Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt), Geeper-Creeper (Mitsubishi Jeep CJ-3B), Loco (JNR Class D51), and Snoop (Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird). It's a bummer there wasn't much variety in non-vehicle forms aside from Pincher, Scorp, Vamp, and Creepy (all four had vehicle/creature hybrid forms).>Some could even argue that GoBots was a little bit more progressive than Transformers were at that point with some of its characters (A.J. Foster, General Newcastle, Anya Turgenova, some one-off human characters, and several female GoBots such as Crasher, Vamp, Small Foot, Path Finder, Sparky, Snoop, and Spay-C).
>>152145551> Zod was also cool and made for some tense battles. It also made for cannon fodder, though.>The Roguestar was a cool mothership and the Renegades' stealth device made for some cool getaways. It's also crazy how the Guardians had their own AT-AT Walker that can also fly.>I liked how the Astrobeam tech allowed for reinforcements to be teleported from GoBotron. It made for an interesting plot device as its teleportation effects were short term.>While not necessarily a "lore show," I dug the little lore that popped up here and there.
>>152143689I was aware of GoBots and Transformers being based off different Japanese robot toy brands, but it's crazy how cutthroat Hasbro became and how easy it is for American companies to gobble up one another. In the 80's, there were several major toy companies (Mattel, Hasbro, Kenner, Tonka, Tyco, Playmates, FisherPrice) and board game companies (Milton Bradley, Hasbro, Pressman). Years later, Hasbro not only bought out Tonka (which had bought out Kenner earlier), but also two of the big board game companies as well as Wizards of the Coast (which acquired TSR beforehand).Off-topic, but Hasbro's buying spree reminds me of some similar crap that happened in other industries over the years. Some much for federal regulators, I guess.>Two Chicago potato chip brands (Jays and Vitner's) being bought out by two separate east coast snack companies (Snyder's-Lance and Utz).>Vince McMahon buying up many rival wrestling promotions including WCW and ECW years after his promotion went from regional to national.>Paramount buying up TMNT after Butt Ugly Martians flopped. It also bought out Winx Club, only to sell its shares in the latter back to Rainbow years later.>Disney buying up Marvel and Star Wars because it struggled to attract boys, only to recently admit its STILL struggling to attract boys years after those buyouts.>Microsoft buying up Bethesda and Activision Blizzard (both of which acquired other developers beforehand) while arguing it couldn't compete against Sony's console exclusivity deals.>All the recent Hollywood studio contractions and acquisitions (Disney gobbling up Fox, Amazon gobbling up MGM, Skydance gobbling up Paramount, and the Netflix/Skydance tug of war over Warner Bros.).
>>152145719That's Capitalism. Don't like it? Move to China.
>>152143142Not to Mention AJ Foster, an underappreciated black waifu.
I'd kill for Hasbro to make a new Cy-Kill figure. Give him a new name if they have to, but make him a motorcycle with the color scheme and I'm there. They've already made a few Crashers, under the name Fracture, so I don't see why they can't make a Cy-Kill.
Will never not be mad Transformers fucked Go-Bots and Mighty Orbots over. Both were superior to the originsl Transformers cartoon in my opinion.
>>152146050Cykill (or at least Bike Robo, his Machine Robo counterpart) is popular enough that he's gotten a few modern toys, with the most recent being a transforming model kit a few years ago. There was even a Masterpiece level toy several years ago (again, marketed as Bike Robo, but came with an optional Cykill head)
>>152146311Yeah, but those are hard to come by and expensive. Hasbro just needs to make a deluxe one
>>152143142Where can I watch this? Is it on YT? Does it need to be watched in sequence or just any random ep is fine?
>>152145551>>Some could even argue that GoBots was a little bit more progressive than Transformers
>>152143235I do like that Cy-kill is genuine friends with Fitor (he even went out of his way to rescue Fitor when he got captured in one episode). It's a dynamic that's rarely seen with cartoon villains who tend to treat their henchmen like shit.>>152145551Puzzler was kind of baffling to me. Here is this combiner toy you want to promote and he shows up in one episode to job and is basically a glorified drone. He doesn't even get a two parter. At least Transformers gave Devastator and the other combiners some spotlight episodes to promote them.
As a Transformers fan, watching it really was interesting. Like GoBots being successor beings to an organic race that rendered their homeworld uninhabitable and built outwards from the destruction. A few ways GoBots handled things ended up how later Transformers things would do it (the most obvious is that Cy-Kill and Leader-1 were once allies.) Some minor things like Modifier being what makes them have alternate modes and apparently it can screw up and give you a mangled form also unique, even if the justification for Earth-type vehicles is a much weaker way. Having civilians also made it feel more alive. Also Leader-1 comes off as an incompetent dick at times, but not consistently both to feel intentional. Since Transformers usual operations are the result of iteration in media, wonder how GoBots would have evolved.
