
Non-Transformers, but this will excite all of you who have been fans of transforming robots in the 1980s. Via Taghobby / Cybergundam on Facebook, we have a look at a whole line of Gokin (high-end release) versions of several Machine Robos, who many of you may remember from the 1980s as the GoBots! The selection of characters in the line definitely seems to have been inspired by GoBots as well as Machine Robo, the original Japanese version of the series. The lineup shown thus far includes:
- Cy-Kill
- Jet Robo / Fitor
- Drill Robo / Screwhead
- Turbo
- Leader-1
- Tank Robo / Tank
- Shuttle Robo / Spay-C
Plus there are one or two others.
It looks like Bandai & Action Toys is serious about bringing back the Gobots / Machine Robos as a whole line of high-end collector releases, to compete with the Masterpiece Transformers.
Discuss this revelation in the discussion thread linked below, and for more non-Transformers toy news, be sure to visit our sister site, The Toyark!
IceConvoy
I could have sworn that the Rocklords movie referenced the Gobots having once been organic beings.
80sforged
But I also enjoy the irony of a civilization of robots having a mystical element, and a religion (though one that has more concrete evidence of its truth).
RKillian
Except there's nothing that outright contradicts the matrix. You just don't see it is all. That's not the case here. There are dozens of things that stop working if you put priority on a single 21st minute solution.
Besides, I always felt the matrix diminished Optimus Prime as a character and the religiosity that sprung from it was even worse.
Zeke1
Over two seasons of a cartoon Optimus Prime's chest showed no signs of anything extraordinary then in 1986 he suddenly had a Matrix of Leadership tucked away in there. So yeah a single story can rewrite canon.
Coldiron
All the power machines were great toys. Loved that stuff when I was a kid.
IczerRyuga
Holy shit!! I forgot they were the guys who gave us the Game genie for the NES! XD
I never thought Rom's personal steed and that giant tread tank would be made by the Game genies.
Viper2
Also, did you know Galoob used two Machine Robo molds (with slight remolding) in their Power Machines line?
The Machine Robo version is blue and comes in a nice Japanese box…
Here there are less color differences.
IczerRyuga
Speaking of french Machine Robos,remember that Bleu,Child of the Earth french cartoon with the Rock Lords and the Green Lion Voltron that was turned blue?
Well,there's a UK Eng dubbed opening,proving there was an Eng Dub of this rare cartoon: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xiw9c
Rock Lords: Bleu, l'Enfant de la Terre (Blue, Child of the Earth) This whole thing has quite a history to it and if anybody can find this cartoon,it will be appreciated.
I'll be working on both OCs of Machine Robo Battlehackers and posting a God Bless version of Revoltech Dancouga down on the line.
IczerRyuga
Ok,to answer the Constructicons creation,there is RodimusPrimal on Youtube who made a great video on that:
That'll put the debate of the Constructicons thing to rest,Rodimus the Tsundere. XD
And yes,Optimus Prime…this is gonna get a little juicy. Just grab some popcorn.
Man,all of this is quite the spectacle to figure out. If you've been seeing the stuff I posted back on page 192 – 193 of a Machine Robo anime universe I was theorizing if Bandai were smart to market their first-time ever of Machine Robo back in 1982,it would have been like Jim Terry's Force Five or Voltron Trilogy if Bandai re-branded Albegas and Bismark into the series but dubbed the lines differently until it culminates into Machine Robo Revenge of Cronos since that's where the fun part begins.
Viper2
Any real one should have a Bandai copyright. IIRC, made in Japan for MR and US Gobots versions, made in Macau or Singapore for Euro version (both white/blue and orange/brown), made in China for Euro 1993 version (white/blue-purple).
Some toys have a Popy copyright instead, because the first MR were released by Popy (= Bandai).
Black-grilled does not exist, AFAIK. The grill plastic is black, with chrome on top. The chrome can oxidise or wear off.
Has black rear. Australia got color variants as part of their "Machine Men" releases (including a black Battle Base), so maybe it came from there?
Viper2
…and there were quite a lot of errors on his site.
Which is orange and just the European version. Singapore and Macau have a long colonial past and were the places where the European toys were manufactured.
Optimus Prime23
Well, business just picked up.
Rodimus Prime
I'm not inferring anything. The show says this. It sucks, and I don't like it, but I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
I don't really care, but if I had to choose, Shockwave using a hijacked Creation Matrix.
RKillian
So every bit of the rest of the show, to say nothing of work direct from Tonka, doesn't count because you _infer_ differently from a single lazily written episode. Tell me, what should I look for in my copy of the series bible that would convince you?
Also, how do you deal with the Constructicons? They have 2, arguably 3, explicit and conflicting origins.
Rodimus Prime
Because the creators sucked far worse at canon/logic than even Sunbow? Seriously, if you want to have fan-canon that they're not cyborgs, more power to you. However, unless you have an official source arguing that they aren't cyborgs, it means nothing. The fact that they have brains to begin with means that part of them is organic, which is what a cyborg is.
RKillian
Sentinel. Exactly what I thought.
I'll ask you the same question I asked Club Walky.
If the GoBots are descended from humanoids of approximately human size and composition (see also Last Engineer), why are their "brains" many times the size of a human skull? And wildly different shapes? And undetected until Sentinel is given a magic frequency by the GoBot with a holographic projector?
There are a hundred other points but I'll keep to tearing apart a throwaway episode plot device for starters.
Rodimus Prime
The cartoon?
Crasher (Gobots) – Wikipedia
GoBots
GoBot – Transformers Wiki
8 Things You Didn't Know About GoBots (and Probably Didn't Care) | Topless Robot
Challenge of the GoBots
RKillian
Says who? Sentinel?
Rodimus Prime
…what would you call them? They're humanoid brains in robot bodies. In every other media, that's called a cyborg*.
*Except 40K, then they call it heresy and murder you.
IczerRyuga
Yeah,the animation was….questionable but I've watched a few episodes which were recommended to me like 'Et Tu Cykill','Steamer's Defection' and 'Third Column' and those were some of the best episodes Gobots had to offer and the writing really shows what they can do. Though the personalities of these robots differ from one another other than the main 3 Renegades and the 3 Guardians,they're no different from their Revenge of Cronos and Battlehacker selves.
Yeah,I really do feel there were some things which were behind the times but I'm gonna be with RKillian here:
And funny enough,Cy-Kill…despite being a villain had NO beef with humans,just the enemies he set out to kill in the first place which is unheard of but then again,I don't think the bios of these cyborgs were ever present on their boxes to begin with if they had any.
Edit: Whoops,they're still robots! MY BAD! >_<