Here's 10 Ways Gobots Were Better Than Transformers

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Yes, we're going there. #Gobots was more than just the poor man's #Transformers, it had a lot going for it.
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[@zerocooler7]

An interesting difference in the stories of Gobots and Transformers is that the Gobot characters are not robots - they are cyborgs. They were once organic beings in the past, and in time made their new transforming bodies. This differs of course from Transformers, who are sentient robots. Since Hasbro owns both now, I think it would be interesting to try to work Gobots into a Transformers story in some way.

[@dyslectische]

One reason that Transformers own go-bots. To kill Them so nobody can make new shows OR toys.

[@lancer737]

They already do, Rescue bots have Leader 1 in it, also Gobots crossovered into the Transformer universe in a cool story, they had to pretend to be both automotive and Decepticons.

[@Vuldovyol4912]

IDW Comics had a storyline where organics ascended into becoming Cybertronians or something like that

[@justinwang3294]

@@Vuldovyol4912 I believe that IDW Comics actually had the Go-Bots start out entirely mechanical while mimicking human behavior to a certain degree. Also, the comic deviates significantly from established canon, having a perspective like a child's imagination viewed from an adult's mind.

[@justinwang3294]

Of course, the Machine Robo comic in Europe held a precedent for that concept in the series.

[@joshuachristian5443]

There were numerous miniature cities/play sets intended for Hotwheels and Matchbox toys that Gobot toys were compatible with scale wise. So Gobots could interact with actual mini biuldings n roads that Transformers missed out on.

[@charlieparks2015]

Bumblebee fit with the mini cars

[@Cyril29a]

I discovered recently that the decepticon jets are in perfect scale with the GIJoe Aircraft carrier.

[@joshuachristian5443]

@@Cyril29a why have I not seen pics of this before? I haven't even considered the idea nor has anyone else I guess. You may be the first. That's pretty cool.

[@Cyril29a]

@@joshuachristian5443 I just did the math.

[@joshuachristian5443]

@@Cyril29a now we know...

[@chibang492]

And one more thing, if u watch the Gobot Show closely, you will notice that the toys transform almost identically as they do in the show. The Transformers toys did not transform the same way they did in there show and at times didnt even look like the show, hence the Gobots were more show accurate.

[@k.ottophillips4303]

And they were drawn more closely resembling their toy counterparts, with things like Turbo's face being on the bottom of the car, behind the front bumper, or Leader One's four landing gear.

[@raypezzoli2517]

All True....today, they make TFs that look exactly like the cartoon.....of course I'm guessing technology has improved but don't forget many g1 tfs were recolorings of other toys..... As I said, there are many good things in each line and a few lousy things in each line....the Super Gobots, the deluxe ones, were really nice...die cast, well made, well packaged.....and some of the standard ones were nice as well.....they came out with the ZODs as well, so that was a cool dynamic....and......the Gobot headquarters ( the gray ship ) was much better than the cardboard TF play center....is what it is..... The cartoon was actually dark in some episodes as well....I remember one where the Renegade leader stated he will destroy one billion people or something like that....pretty fucked up for a kids cartoon.... In the end, each delivered great things in their own way

[@keithhastings6392]

Quite true

[@Jayce_Alexander]

I don't know if making the animation look worse because the toy engineering wasn't quite there yet should be considered an advantage. If anything it was one of many things that made the cartoon just seem silly and low-rent to me, which in turn made me uninterested in the toys.

[@rsrsteve]

What the he'll is the point of this video. It's time to face it. Transformers just won the battle.

[@wsc0tt]

The uniform scale of Go-Bots allowed them to do the Power Suits, which turned any existing Go-bot into a combiner limb. I always thought that was an underrated gimmick.

[@deancoronado4898]

I wanted to use Grungy limbs try to fit my Puzzler combiner arms and legs in them. Nothing like Overkill (except Slugfest.)

[@Crasher1982]

Nice to see more people being nice to gobots. :)

[@russellharrell2747]

I think it really came down to the media representation. Gobots had Americanized Hanna Barbara redesigns of their toys in a cartoon that was quickly deemed kiddy, while the Transformers had the benefit of anime influence and Marvel animation that had a more cinematic quality. The stories are practically the same, two warring factions of transforming robots hail from a metallic planet and go to earth to do battle for control of energy resources. In the story the good guys form friendships with a small group of humans. The transformers just seemed like the sleeker, more mature franchise, especially when the movie took the bold step to kill off the first two years worth of characters.

[@rikajougasaki3296]

That's when Machine Robo's anime series comes in. That - that's a classic. It's not as popular or immortal as Transformers, but it lives on as a certified oldhead cult favourite and toys of it are still being made today.

[@bitwize]

GoBots toys were also smaller and simpler. Maybe that is why they had more variety, and not just more sports cars/jets.

[@DataCab1e]

I was saying years ago that the reason Go-Bots had so many female characters was the toy packaging didn't have bios with male pronouns, so characterization was left entirely up to the cartoon. Of course, the other main difference in that respect was that Go-Bots weren't sentient robots, but cyborgs, so the presence of both male and female characters made more sense.

[@BainesMkII]

I think Transformers were helped by the (#8) multiple lines. While it did hurt badly for (#7) scale, it gave them both visual and price point variety that Gobots lacked. Transformers had super cheap simple figures alongside expensive deluxe complex figures, while Gobots was pretty much a line of cheap simple figures.

[@Astronopolis]

Honestly what 5 year old cares about scale? Besides, the scale of the GoBots vehicles are all off anyway, what forklift is the same size as a submarine or jet as a scooter?

[@cheeseburger12]

@@Astronopolis I think the robot modes being in scale is more important then the vehicles being in scale.

[@bigdaddygru]

@@Astronopolis I cared about it when I was a kid. It was frustrating that the stunticons were so much smaller than the Autobots. In the cartoon they had Motor Master as Primes rival and he was freaking half his size as a toy. And when you formed Menasor he was almost the same size as Optimus.

[@picallo1]

@@bigdaddygru It was a bit frustrating but as OP said all the gobots were little cheap things. Some of the major transformers, Optimus, side swipe, Starscream etc were nice toys. Gobots were, as stated little cheap figures. Yes the scaling as an issue but that old school die cast Optimus prime was leaps and bounds above any Gobot.

[@INDY_LF]

110% agree. I still remember Gobots fondly, but as toys after you had a few they got repetitive. I remember I could convince my Grandma (RIP) to let me get a Gobot most shopping trips. I couldn't ever get her to spring for a Transformer. But as my Gobot numbers grew they began to feel like the same robot. The combined lines that TF absorbed made each fig feel like something exciting & new. A kid wouldn't buy Datsun after Datsun. You'd get a Datsun then choose a tape or a dino, etc. Tht range was brilliant in keeping our fleeting attention. The G1 cartoon really hit a home run by tying all these various, absorbed lines together so seamlessly. Even though ur kid brain wondered about scale or questioned some of the likenesses you never got the feeling soundwave & prime were originally different lines. It was cohesive thanks to the presentation. To put how huge of an advantage that was for TF's into perspective imagine if the only TF's available were 80's mini-bots. Imagine that glorious Prime playset being a carded fig the size of Bumblebee. It's a no-brainer which line was going to win looking back. Gobots figured this out too late. They made Super Gobots & began slapping the Gobots logo on toys/merch that was less than qualified in panic to diversify.

[@XMattingly]

You made some excellent points here, and I agree with every one of them. I _loved_ that Gobots had a forklift, submarine, etc. And I remember specifically that I could afford a Gobot pretty much every time we took a trip to the store with my allowance/savings and had just as much fun with them, whereas Transformers were pretty much an investment.

[@bigdaddygru]

He said an investment!!!! So true!!!😂

[@picallo1]

To each their own. I certainly had to wait longer for the transformers but to me the Transformers were better toys. I knew maybe 2 or 3 kid with gobots. EVERYBODY had transformers.

[@mk_wizard]

I think the rivalry is not only silly, but I think it is high time Go-Bots got its own reboot and a proper one for all the reasons you say.

[@ShinGallon]

Agreed. Even as a kid I had and loved both lines, and they all hung out together. In my head Leader-1 and Optimus were friends and Cy-Kill was constantly helping Starscream scheme against Megatron. And I'd kill for a modern re-invented Zod toy.

[@mk_wizard]

@@ShinGallon Heh. My own head-universe was not quite like that. Leader-1 and Optimus did not get along and would bicker often in a comical way, but ultimately manage to always work well together in the end while Megatron and Cy-Kill were old friends who go as far back as being slave miners and then gladiators together before parting ways once Cy-Kill was sent to fight in an arena off world.

[@katsomeday1]

This was fun! As an 80's kid, I have to say that while the branding for Transformers was better, I really though both were cool. I watched both cartoons. There were a LOT of transforming toy lines in the 80's, and like Toy Galaxy said, coming in 2nd isn't that bad.

[@kallethen9389]

Way back then, my brother and I were big into both Go-Bots and Transformers. Gotta say I agree with a lot of what you put on this list. The only reason I'd consider myself a bigger Transformers fan is cuz Go-Bots ended.

[@Euwijk]

Transformers had: - Better writing - Better animation - Better sound. - more iconic characters (Starscream, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Dinobots) - Animal Transformers - More details in the design - More character develepment - More action and better action scènes - Great voicework - More drama Gobots where good. Just to basic to hold on to the lead position.

[@TheSharkKing45]

Imagine if a Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes GoBot Puzzler was a thing. I'm sure that would be a Decent seller.

[@sevensblack]

Puzzler is still my favorite combiner!

[@HypercatZ]

@@sevensblack But the cartoon didn't give it the justice it deserved. First: It laste only one episode Second: The components didn't have personalities. They were just drones. Third: The cartoon made it on the bad guys side, when looking at the toy it clearly looked like a good guy, while the other Puzzler was the bad guy, and never had an animated counterpart, double shame. I'll never forgive the cartoon for that. I can forgive the cartoon for a lot of sins (like unnecesary detailed eyes on the close ups, that still haunts me), but not for that.

[@argylecowboy]

I had many more gobots than I did transformers for most of my collection. I used them somewhat interchangeably when playing. It all came down to what I wanted to do. The minibots from TF were right along the side. Once I got power master prime, my focused shifted more directly and I started getting many more transformers. Like you said, it came down to what you got for the money. Granted, my gobots all had loose joints and could barely stand on their own, but that was really where it started for me

[@phayroent9742]

I used to created shared universes with all of my toys. Lego men would get eaten by dinosaur toys. GI Joe vs Voltron. Happy Meal toys were like RTS battles among my friends.

[@markmierau5189]

Oh man gobots were horrible for loose joints.

[@adamdrach5394]

@@markmierau5189 so we’re transformers.

[@adamdrach5394]

@EMERALD HEART STUDIOS pretty much.

[@CIVICMINDED]

I'm a lifelong Transformers fan and have always preferred them over Gobots, but this was honestly a very compelling video. Very well done! 👍

[@chibang492]

Did i mention that the toyline were almost unbreakable, considering most of the parts were made of diecast metal, hence they were made by the Tonka toy company which specialized in diecast metal toys. Tramsformers were plastic and broke more easily, and also as u mentioned in your video, the TF's had many small parts that easily got lost making the toy incomplete.

[@TheAncardia]

Also if they did break, a lot of the go-bots could be easily repaired.

[@RedRanger2001]

Um, all those early Transformers (carried over from Diaclone and Microchange) have diecast.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

The GoBots were not "almost unbreakable". CyKill's engine had little tabs that connected it to the main robot that would snap off easily.

[@collegerebel]

I like Screwhead because of Robot Chicken. We will remember screw🎶 Will you screwmember him🎶

[@benconforzi5696]

I think another advantage the Gobots had was the fact that they didn't come with any extra idems. Like guns and swords, which means that you didn't have to worry about losing accessories. I think it was a good move on the cartoon end to show the Gobots firing lasers from there fist. That way they didn't have to worry about adding extra weapons to the Gobots toys.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

That's true for the most part, but there were a handful of exceptions. E.g., Cy-Kill had a bunch of extra parts such as his wheels and his engine. The wheels stored on the robot mode, but the engine did not.

[@mini-conlongarm8021]

Close. Some of the early ones like Cy-Kill, Cop-Tur, Pumper, Dozer, Dumper, Tank, and a few later ones like Flip-Top, Twin-Spin, maybe others I may have missed, all came with a bunch of accessories.

[@johnosbourn4312]

There were even some Go-Bots that used warbird alt modes: One was an F4U Corsair, another was a P-38 Lightning, and one more was an A6M Zeke.

[@minimalbstolerance8113]

I remember owning the A6M Gobot

[@michaelpapp5518]

In fairness, the Bay films were a radical departure. In aesthetics, at least. Still mostly giant robots turning into relatively familiar things. I would love a Rock Lord with modern engineering. I loved them as a kid. I always pretended Rock Lords flew like meteors. They could slam into enemies for a huge hit, or into the ground to make an explosion.

[@UrbanTheFox]

I really really want Hasbro to integrate Gobot characters into a TF toon. Crasher in particular as she's evil, loves it and isn't a feme fatal.

[@nucleonegro9762]

Me too

[@jasonparis5635]

@@TEENFORMER the classic mirage was repainted to be the character crasher but to trademark rights she had to be called fracture then the classic bumblebee was repainted into bugbite so some gobots made it in the transformers line.

[@jamesattack7420]

What about bug bite? He’s shown up a couple time

[@tonyjackson4078]

There was the exclusive Go Bots mini car set Gears-Smallfoot, Cosmos-Pathfinder, Powerglide-Badboy, Bumblebee-Bugbite, Warpath-Treds, Huffer- Road Ranger.

[@tonyjackson4078]

@@TEENFORMER I mean released after the 2000's with the bookcase rereleases. Leader-1 got a nod as Armada Megatron's minicon...fair in name only, he's a little gun truck. Then there's the preschool Go-Bots line which had no namesakes beyond branding. I think Hasbro is just gun-shy giving any Go-Bot a high profile as legitimately "in canon". If any deserved it it's Cy-Kill, Crasher, and I'd pass on Leader-1 since it's really hard to have a non Prime leader and at least give Turbo a TF upgrade.

[@HypercatZ]

I think you missed a point: The Gobots cartoon visualized the transformations with a 99% fidelity, where the Transformers cartoon did softened them a lot in order to make the characters more humanish and dynamic than their toys actually were. Even the great box arts of the transformers were more fidel than ther cartoon. It took so many years to make an Optimus Prime toy that actually resembled his cartoon counterpart. And we are not talking about Ratchet and Ironride.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

Ironhide. I rest my case. 😉

[@leolozano999]

@@Beedo_Sookcool Yes, and that is EXACTLY why the TF cartoons where better. What they didn't look the same, guess what? Who cares, i'm a kid, my imagination will take care of the rest. Also if you really want to compare it gobots vs tfs was like comparing superfriends with marvin vs justice league unlimited, the level of coolness the cartoon had was beyond anything that had been seen up to then

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

@@leolozano999 Nah, you're just looking at it the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. The G1 cartoon was cheap and shoddy and rushed; they couldn't even get Rumble & Frenzy's colours right.

[@Dorelaxen]

I watched both shows as a kid and had both types of toys. Ultimately, Transformers wins out because of the strong characterizations. Prime and Megatron were just absolutely BADASS. Prime was a surrogate dad to a lot of us kids during those days, too. The Transformers movie was also a huge bonus for them. EVERY kid cried at that. Whereas the GoBots movie was about transforming rocks. Also, the different TF lines made them cooler, I thought. I can have a car, a jet, a truck...OR I can have freakin' dinosaurs and insects! I like them both just fine now, but my heart will always be with The Transformers. Scooter can get bent, though. Fuck that guy.

[@tigerbread78]

The video criticises Transformers for not taking chances on different alt-modes outside of cars and jets, but conveniently forgets about Insecticons, Dinobots, and frickin' Predacons! He also neglects to mention that truly futuristic cars and jets were on the menu by 1986. Meanwhile at the same time, Gobots had transforming rocks...

[@Halbared]

@@tigerbread78 It comes across as a pretty desperate list.

[@Oturan20]

@EMERALD HEART STUDIOS I googled that and all I got was fanart of Doc Hudson from Cars(the movie) as a Transformer.

[@Oturan20]

@EMERALD HEART STUDIOS I figured that, I just wanted to see if I could find any. I'm surprised there wasn't even a Bayverse transformer, as part of the movie toy line that wouldn't appear in the movies for obvious reasons.

[@TheStriderSyd]

Correction....it was Patherfinder not Spay-C.

[@RobCamp-rmc_0]

Spay-C was also female, voiced by Laurel Page I did not know this until now and thought the same you did, as Pathfinder is indeed also female _[edit]_ never mind, Spay-C was female in the cartoon, but not in the comics or the toy catalog, so who the hell even knows

[@tenacejenkins7053]

" chariot things " 😂

[@dylancrossman8502]

The other thing I like about Gobots, and it’s at least partially related to the variety of alt modes, is that they weren’t locked into any kind of cars vs jets dynamic. They just more or less threw darts at a design board to decide alignment

[@vcdaniels]

Guardian Spoon chased by Renegades - Renegade: We lost him in an industrial district. CyKill: Damn! We'll waste too much time trying to find him. Return to base. (Meanwhile) Autobot Sideswipe chased by Deceptions - Decepticon: We lost him going onto the freeway. Megatron: I'll send the seekers. He'd be the only Lamborghini Countach on all of I-94.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

Lamborghini Countachs are more prevalent in the Transformers cartoon than in real life. There's one episode where Ironhide mistakes a Fire Chief's car for Red Alert (who is a repaint of Sideswipe). "Sorry, I thought it was a friend of mine." I would be very upset if I was a taxpayer in that town and the fire department was blowing money on fancy cars.

[@YeldellGW]

I recall that one of the G1 Autobot Pretenders inner robot turned into a submarine. Granted it wasn’t an earth designed sub, but Hasbro had moved away from earth based alt modes by then. Also Defensor’s head was built into Protectobot leader Hot Spot’s toy for the G1 combiner. Quite possibly the first time that I was done for the Transformers brand.

[@DaBudaa1]

I remember watching Gobots when I was child growing up in the 90s. I liked the story more than compared to Transformers. The last Gobot episode that I remember watching was when Leader 1 was severely damage, unable to transform, and was being chased in a junkyard by that behemoth/motorcycle enemy; eventually Leader 1 was able to lure his enemy into a compressor that crushed it's head.

[@maguffle]

I TOTALLY agree about Crasher! Since Hasbro owns the rights to the GoBots, I wish they would bring her into official continuity, make her a part of upcoming media and release a toy of her. She was my favorite part of the GoBots show!

[@ShinGallon]

Crasher and Zod were amazing. Plus the Guardians had a flying AT-AT. How can people not love that?

[@AustynSN]

@@ShinGallon I had Zod. Sadly, mom threw him away when the batteries in it started leaking. (Before starting to understan trademark/copyright laws, I always assumed there must be some connection between him and the Superman villain of the same name.)

[@mrx-od3ji]

@@ShinGallon gobots are worse they suck transformers is a million times better and look cooler its no wonder gobots failed and did not last long.

[@ShinGallon]

@@mrx-od3ji OK

[@rav_productions2136]

@@mrx-od3ji I have to disagree with you there, alot of the G1 bots designs sucked ass

[@thedesucomplex4365]

Hey, i'd count Action Masters as a vehicle play pattern. That predates Beast Machines by a decade

[@grahf4215]

Micromasters as well.

[@TheMagicRobot]

I think the Japanese Beast Wars had some playsets as well.

[@NXTwoThou]

Headmaster commercial had the headmaster sit in the cockpit

[@phantom1592]

The problem with Action Masters, is that they sacrificed the transformation play pattern to get there. I know as a kid the idea of Transformers that couldn't transform were garbage to me. Having robots that turn into vehicles... AND ride in OTHER vehicles is still a step up.

[@davidlosse9416]

Action Masters let me get a Megatron figure.

[@Hektols]

The vehicle thing is quite ironic because the original toys from Takara were precisely vehicles that came with figures that could ride them. I also have to point that the vehicle issue was remedied from Head Masters and onwards with partners who could ride the Transformers.

[@Vancegeoffmen2]

Funny, I almost pitched an idea to Matt from Monstrosities of me challenging you to a friendly parliamentary debate of gobots vs transformers. You basically covered every point I would have made in favor of the gobots. They are simply wonderful and have a better play factor outside of them being a puzzle. Transformers took a while for them to get that puzzle AND action figure factor that gobots did from the start. Great minds.

[@Catterjee]

This was a really good list. I'll echo the sentiment that any Mirage needs a Crasher repaint. As a kid I thought Cy-Kill was a great villain, and I loved that Cop-Tur would use his helicopter blades as an improvised buzzsaw. Also, shoutout to Sparky, my favorite of the female Go-Bots.

[@monsterhobbiesonlinestore]

LOL! Affordability! In the 1980's, the local convenience store had knock-off Go-Bots that they were selling for $2.00 each. One summer I was going to a Drama course and the location was somewhere that I needed a bus to go to. My Mom gave me bus fare, but I discovered that if I left early for the Drama course, I could walk there, and on the way back, go to the convenience store and buy a knock-off Go-Bot with the bus fare money. I did a lot of walking that summer, but also got a lot of Go-Bots that I still own. I think I got every one of the knock-offs in the bin!

[@marcomcdowell8861]

I had all of the Go-Bots because they were cheaper than Transformers. I could afford them after chores and cutting grass. Transformers were gifts for Christmas and birthdays, but Go-Bots I could buy myself whenever I had money.

[@slimcastillo8786]

One honourable mention about the Gobots cartoon, the weapon are already built within the character, all Gobots no longer have to hold or fire a gun. Instead all they have to do is to aim their fist at the target and fire away. Nice video, I wish I still have My Gobots hahaha

[@butterflyhink]

Oh man I LOVE Crasher and always have. I long for the day when Hasbro actually gives her a new figure all her own, but while watching your video it occured to me that the new Legacy Dragstrip could actually make a really good Crasher in both modes.

[@Crasher1982]

Crasher is my pride and joy and my holy grail. :) I LOVE her as well, sooooo much!

[@LeeONardo]

Well you probably already know but she's apparently getting a Mirage repaint. Maybe possibly for second Velocitron line. To be honest I'd probably get her for Gobots representation since Bugbite and Road Ranger are not accurate to Gobots design since they were based on that odd Takara box set from years ago.

[@timkozdra5647]

@@LeeONardoAlso They are actually trademarking name as Decepticon Crasher.

[@RetroRobotRadio]

I take issue with the idea that GoBots was a single toy aesthetic. Robots have Machine Robo, and Big Machine Robo from Bandai. They had RoGub toys from Arco, the Bubblemen, Watches, and even a laser pistol designed by the people who made Shockwave. Plus all the vehicles and big guys like Zod and Scales and GoBots were designed by Tonka.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

I wouldn't count the Bubble men as separate actual GoBots. They're just bubble blowers in the shape of Buggyman.

[@Transfixed]

Always nice to see some Gobots love! Watching the cartoon you really notice how many female characters it had, plus the humans were actually effective and rarely annoying.

[@RomLoneWolf23]

#11: Gobots were, on average, just easier to transform, having fewer moving parts. Which made them very fun for kids who often needed instructions to transform most transformer toys.

[@DerivitivFilms]

one thing I always liked about gobots, was the matchbox car form factor, all of the vehicles were completely compatible with any Matchbox playset.

[@enfieldjohn101]

I was a Gobots kid. Liked them better because they were less expensive, better scaled for us to play with, really varied and had the cool playsets. Much easier for me to change between vehicle and robot modes. I Love the Gobot cap gun! My nephews play with it now and love it. Good video!

[@derekberry6122]

I know that this might get a little heat but in an episode of gobots the story of the two main adversaries, cy-kill and Leader-1 were friends. Both of them were working with the guardians the good guys trying to stop the renegades but psychill turned to the renegades because he wanted more power. I feel like the adapted that mindset for Megatron. In G1 he just appeared out of nowhere and Optimus was Orion packs and working at a warehouse. I think that after Hasbro bought Tonka, they took some of the storyline from go box and adapted it into transformers a bit.

[@CyberBishop]

Hasbro had not purchased the Gobots until 91, the Orion Pax episode was war dawn which aired in season two originally released Dec 25th 1985. They actually brought Gobot characters like Bug Bite and others to the Transformers universe eventually.

[@CircusFox666]

Great video! Real eye opener. I'm a huge transformer fan but respect independent thinking. I respect when people who see the common group think and go "Now hold on wait a minute, let's give credit where credit is due." And speak up. Amazing video!

[@dangeroustheannoying3618]

As someone who knows nothing about the gobots besides, "they were the rival of the Transformers." I found this video very informative, keep up the great work!

[@seanholmes7482]

Hi! Great job with this video! I'm a Transformers fan, but I think you made "three great" Transformer and Gobot comparison-to-contrast points. First, was about ships, second was about sizes, and third was about suits. I remember Gobots having unique color schemes for their ships while Transformers were less complex. Do you know whether or not toys were developed for ships that carried Transformers through space during the G1 cartoon period? When I was a kid, I often wished my Transformers were built to fit in it my cousin's Ken and Barbie toys to stop our arguments about combining toys. Hell, my Transformers couldn't fit my G. I. Joe character sets even after they were reduced in size to cut cost by toy industries! Unlike Gobots, do you think Transformers had a "tighter buget" resulting in awkward toy scales or sizes? Personally, I think concepts like "mass-shifting" resulted in scaling issues. Lastly, do you think Transformers Action Force comes close in quality to the Power Suits developed for Gobot's Toy-line, and would you prefer those stories were further developed?

[@minimalbstolerance8113]

I think a certain book on 80's pop culture put it best when it said: "Aesthetically speaking, there was little to choose between the two lines. However, the Transformers were marketed far more aggressively and quickly established themselves as the more 'hip' of the two lines, to the extent that by 1986, the kid who owned the entire Gobots line was regarded as something of a laughing stock. As was his dad who still insisted on recording his favourite TV series on Betamax."

[@otaking3582]

Forget about G1 Ironhide being short, G1 Ironhide didn't even have a head!

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

I've seen many Cy-Kill toys from many companies that are quite good on their own. So I am hoping that they would also do the other Gobot characters.

[@amitypredator9385]

I just wish TakHas would do it. Wreck-gar is pretty cool, but Cy-kill would be outstanding if done that way.

[@WhitzWolf92]

In all think this was a very fair list, but 7 and 8 felt a little like double-dipping since they draw from the same root cause...but they are two distinct benefits so at least they were back-to-back.

[@maryautumn7922]

this video is kinda funny as when you got into how Hasbro never branched in G1 I'd argue that was wrong. Cosmos from the get go was a UFO, the Horrorcons and Terrorcons are both factions of monsters, Headmasters and Pretenders both had monsters like Snapdragon and Iguanas, the Fossilisers are modern. don't forget beast wars was an entire experiment with gimmicks like water guns

[@moubear32]

First and foremost what sticks out in my mind is that the toys always looked like the cartoon, generic, drug store looking. That by no means is an insult. You got what you saw on the cartoon. When you bought a g1 transformers toy it was hit or miss, a lot. Shockwave, still great today, omega Supreme still amazing. There was no excuse however for giving us toys like ironhide or ratchet. I think the gobots really won the battle in that aspect of things.

[@maskedriderweaver4122]

While I agree with a lot of what you are saying, some of it I cannot. While I agree that Crasher as a female character was strong and possibly ahead of her time, unless you watched the show, you had no clue what gender she or any other GoBot was. While the GoBots had a better line unity and variety of vehicles, the Transformers had much better developed characters. The larger cast made it harder to grant spotlight episodes, meaning lesser characters often disappeared in the background. Puzzler might have been ahead in its engineering to have no kibble, but I have heard that the toy was even more fragile than the original Devastator so harder to assemble and use. Not only that, but weren't some of Devastator's kibble bits supposedly weapons or add ons for the Constructicons' vehicle modes?

[@ShinGallon]

I count the fact that the female GoBots weren't all pastel-colored with hourglass-figure human-proportions as a plus, not a minus. It meant that the toys for them weren't "action figure with alt-mode shell folded up into a giant backpack", oh and also their toys actually existed in the 80s.

[@alvinpeterson1039]

Crasher was and still is my favorite character then Cy-Kill. I'm glad you gave her. Her due!

[@chriss1757]

It’s hard to underestimate your number 2. As a kid, I had less than 10 large Transformers (I don’t count the mini autobots because they were the same price as GoBots) I had an army of GoBots, and once the knock offs hit the market, it was game over.

[@RocketPunchHero1]

I enjoy both toy lines but I have to agree, GoBots had way more interesting designs and I loved their scale because you could carry them around in your pockets. Also, their price points were much easier on the wallet.

[@feralstorm]

This video does kind of drive home the differences in approach between GoBots and Transformers. GoBots was the more affordable 'action figure' line with a wider variety of alt forms, while Transformers focused on a greater range of robot toy sizes, complexities, and price points.

[@KevinWei24]

I know the majority of fans love the Transformers more than the Gobots. But screw it. I loved the Gobots then in 1983 and still love them now (more than Transformers).

[@KRBrickBot]

Imagine if Gobots had staying power and remained unbought to this day, we could have seen Cy-Kill in -Smash- Multiversus.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

Gobots would have likely have suffered because machine robo was too different, and then became mugenbine.

[@michaelsheal7025]

What Killed Robots was Bandai really did not have any new figures for Tonka to use since Tonka only design a few new figures for the Machine Robo Revenge of Cronos toy line it was mostly releases of the previous years of the toy line

[@michaelsheal7025]

Gobots stupid autocorrect

[@straker454]

Crasher does NOT deserve a remold from Mirage, she deserves to be her own new figure. It's a DAMN shame that Hasbro bought the Go-Bots license and never tapped the characters from that series. They could easily repaint and reissue many Minicon and Micromaster figures as Go-Bots and they could have nearly the entire main cast and then some in those figures. There's so many Minicons that already have more than a passing resemblance to the Go-Bots it's not funny. Additionally, yes, the female characters. Man, Small Foot is my absolute favorite gal from Go-Bots. When I was little, I never even realized that difference between Transformers and Go-Bots. I had all the female figures and loved their characters on the show. It's a shame that Hanah-Barbara was the animation studio Tonka used. Sure there were some stellar episodes but the show was often too cheesy. I'll never not defend the characters though. I want a Go-Bots renaissance.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

I think they could EASILY make a Crasher as a slight remould from Power of the Primes Jazz.

[@straker454]

@@Beedo_Sookcool I kinda could see that, but it's such a jank mold, lol. It's too bad that Hasbro can't use the original transformation designs of the Go-Bot's but those belong to Bandai as part of the Machine Robo line.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

@@straker454 Well, I'd heard that it wasn't much good, but I didn't buy that POTP Jazz, m'self, because I was wating for something that looked more like his original toy. (Happily, Studio Series '86 Jazz came along soon after.) Heck, if they ever go on clearance, I might get the POTP Ricochet re-colour to kitbash into a Crasher . . . . And, yeah, at this point, I wish HasTak would just make a deal with Bandai; it's not like Bandai's actually DONE much with the Machine Robo stuff in the last 40 years or so . . . . 😉

[@straker454]

@@Beedo_Sookcool Honestly, it was proportionally decent and had some neat ideas so the arm mode looked mostly like a car, but there was odd engineering choices that made the thing unstable in arm mode and wobbly in robot mode. Some of how the figure transformed made it so some things got in its own way like on the legs due to hinge placement on the shins. It's a shame because it DOES look really nice on the Combiner Wars Optimus in arm mode, but as a stand alone figure it's really not good. Yeah but really, all modern Go-Bots need to do is have a passing resemblance to either the vehicle mode or robot mode and be colored like the original animation models and Hasbro could skirt the copyright to the toy and give us a new figure. I remember some guy on Deviant Art did some digital recolors of Minicons as Go-Bots and they were really awesome.

[@visionaryventures12]

I’ve wanted to have a set to scale where the jets are titans to the trucks.

[@RealRoknRollr3108]

Best thing about Gobots was one was called Screw Head. Transformers never had that.

[@syafiqjabar]

Gobot toys had more die cast metal too, for those who care about it.

[@Crasher1982]

Made with real diecast metal, real screws, real nails. I love they were made using those things. Makes them more like awesome figures, not like a 'toy' not plastic kiddy crap.

[@bitwize]

I've always liked how the Crasher toy had a nondescript face. And the TV show producers were like "That one should be female." Drew her face a little different, hired a voice actress, and boom. GoBots instantly had its Baroness.

[@CarlosLopez-oc9nh]

I remember with warm the cartoon, even ended up buying the DVD set. Some episodes were very well put like "In search of ancient gobonauts", "Quest for the creator" and the fall of gobotron" I think some of the reasons people were not so involved with Go Bots was because the animation was a bit different as it was Hanna Barbera, and hat they were easy to transform so there was a feeling transformers were more technic. Thank you for this video :)

[@Crasher1982]

Yeah some of the episodes were great, others less so. I still enjoy them all, though.

[@stevencisneros9306]

I actually agree with ya, Go-Bots came BEFORE Transformers, plus I would’ve wish that Go-Bots had a franchise revival/reboot, plus it would have nice with not just *Transformers* (obviously), but those like He-Man, BraveStarr, Ghostbusters, and many more!!!

[@Leaglestalon]

Back when i was young one thing no one may have noticed was that..the Gobots homeworld looked so much like a "Cybertron" being built. so to me Gobots almost felt like the descendants of what thousands of years later would be Transformers. I know they're completely separate shows,toys, even species but back then wasn't a bad idea. So I never thought "one was a ripoff of the other" but "they were simply descendants"

[@TheMagicRobot]

Another thing I think Gobots have over transformers is their human characters are less annoying/useless.

[@abcmaya]

# 2 affordability. That's the biggest reason why I was stuck with a bunch of Gobots back in the 80s. And the only Transformer I had was Ravage.

[@TheSharkKing45]

Wasn't Energon Sharkticon technically a submarine?

[@TJOmega]

Kinda but it has elements of a battleship as well, it's hard to define. By proper submarine I'm referring to a standard Earth-style one.

[@TheSharkKing45]

@@TJOmega completely understandable

[@RadtoyzGalaxy]

pretty sure the transformers had a six changer with a sub mode

[@Crasher1982]

Actually, Crasher was the first fembot to be in an animated tv show ever. And that is a pretty huge deal.

[@Krosis_The_Dragon_Priest]

Woah, what a achievement for her

[@Crasher1982]

@@Krosis_The_Dragon_Priest Indeed. :)

[@Crasher1982]

@@Krosis_The_Dragon_Priest I bet Marilyn Lightstone is pretty proud to have been part of the making of history.

[@NerdRahtio]

Do you just meant transforming ? The robo maid from the Jetsons beat her by a good while

[@Crasher1982]

@@NerdRahtio The first female transforming; the first female treated equally to men; the first who didn't have to especially LOOK like a female in order to be considered a female; etc

[@sparkles122]

You forgot that the cartoon was quite serious and gave the gobots a back story explaining that they used to be humanoid but upgraded themselves and also cykill kidnapped a mad scientist and made him a slave

[@gonkdroid5851]

You know what would be cool? More gobots repaints of modern transformers even retools.

[@pewpew305]

Ya know, you've really changed my perspective on the Gobots. I'm gonna start putting respect on that name 😩🙏 This was a great vid, thanks!

[@speeddemon5339]

Don’t forget the sheer amount of Go Bots that transformed into guns that didn’t look like real guns.

[@streetcreature74]

You make some fair points, but as a child of the 80s I never asked for or bought a GoBot. I watched two episodes of the GoBots and was so disappointed that I gave up on the idea of liking the GoBots. Transformers the cartoon, and how they promoted and marketed their toys was way more interesting to me.

[@mazinz2]

I had both lines back then. I absolutely hated the scale difference in Transformers and that many of them were really delicate. A slight knock off the shelf could break a G1 Prowls arm. Gobots were more or less designed like action figures and they were a hell of a lot sturdier being mostly metal parts. What I hated about Gobots was a lack of a booklet, so you had no idea how many were actually out there. I remember seeing some on super gobot packages wondering who they were and how it took a few years to find some of them (I never did see the original white Crasher on the toy shelves but I knew it existed). The overly kiddie Hanna Barbara cartoon helped kill that line. Im convinced of it. Had the Gobots had a similar Marvel/Sunbow backup, I think things would have been a lot different for them. Likewise the cartoon is what propelled the Transformers to the dominating force it became

[@andychen4810]

Transformers did have vehicles/playsets with their Micromasters line. I quite enjoy the Micromasters line of Transformers but I can see your point that Gobots did it better in terms of the scale for play.

[@jake_0788]

That's why I appreciate and really like Alternators. The whole thing of Transformers is "Robots in disguise", and sports cars with bright colors aren't exactly the best way to do that. Alternators may have been colors, but I enjoyed their transformations and their nature.

[@stevengerou7914]

You are corect on everything. As for the how each hit the American market. Yes Go Bots were on the shelves in stores first, as the first Transformers weren't even named at first, being marketed as "form changing robots" sold at first in comic books as mail order. They were still being sold this way even after they finaly hit the store shelves.

[@ARCWuLF]

The first transforming robot toy I ever saw was the Go-Bot "Buggyman" that my cousin got. I was entranced. Later that year I picked up the Diakron DK-1 (the American version of Diaclone, later recolored and rereleased as the Autobot Sunstreaker), and it was only after that that Go-Bots started hitting the shelves in my hometown.

[@RialVestro]

I will disagree with one thing... Transformers had a pretty similar aesthetic across the board till 2007. I mean there were a few oddies that didn't fit, mainly Beast Machines which is a major factor in why that series was hated so much but for the most part Transformers all look fairly similar despite being made up of very different toy lines. You only really notice the differences when you realize where the toys originally came from and start to see the similar gimmicks across the line that other Transformers don't share. Go-Bots, even though it's all one toy line they don't feel like a single toy line, ironically enough. There are some characters who have similar robot heads to Transformers, other characters who look like they're wearing hats rather than helmets. Like they're a limbo wearing a top hat and their cop car is wearing a police officer hat. And then there are characters who even in the cartoon didn't have heads at all. I had one of those Go-Bots and I kept thinking I must be transforming it wrong or it was missing a head but no the roof of the vehicle actually is suppose to serve as the robot head. Of course Ironhide and Ratchet did this too but they weren't actually depicted in the cartoon as being totally headless. If a Go-Bot didn't have an actual head the Cartoon just animated a face over their windshield and called it their head. Then there's also a huge difference in some characters having actual hands while other characters just had claws or pinchers. Transformers had some characters with no hands as well but this was usually because vehicle kibble ended up where there hands should be while Go-Bots was just choosing not to give random characters hands for no reason. And when you get to the Rock Lords the aesthetics are wildly different between characters with Nugget being the only character who even looks like a robot, other Rock Lords tended to have more organic looking robot modes and the villains designs were all over the place. That said... I liked Go-Bots as a kid and actually for the longest time thought it was a spin off in the same universe as Transformers. I didn't even realize they were owned by different toy companies and the stories were so similar I just assumed they were connected some how. I do like the variety in alt modes especially in things Hasbro has still never done or rarely done. And some things I'd like to add to Go-Bots did it better... Cy-Kill is a better villain than Megatron. At least the version of Megatron we had back in the 80's. He's a freaking gun that has to constantly be held by someone that wants to over throw him as leader. It makes him seem both weak and stupid. Compare that to Cy-Kill who actually has a self functioning alt mode and who's second in command isn't constantly trying to undermine him. The Go-Bots also had a functional ship that wasn't stuck in a Volcano for the entire series... the design is more simple and not as iconic but it's still better that it could actually fly.

[@mr.cookie7308]

If you were a kid in the 80's you watched and liked Go Bots and Transformers. There was no competition, we ate it all. The Go Bot toys were sturdier and didnt break into pieces that we lost.

[@AwesomeMooseSmile]

My only thing with crasher is that everyone like her because her gender doesn't define her, but then the fanbase treats the character like the gender defines her, like she's the character who matters the most in gobots because she was a female done right instead of just being a cool character. I think it's fine to appreciate that they handled crasher and females in general really well, but whenever people bring up the good things about gobots and especially crasher, that's pretty much the only thing I ever hear from the mainstream people, It's just kind of hypocritical. Sure I would like to see more crasher stuff, but I would also really love to see some more stuff like leader one, demolisher, or especially cy kill, but it seems that crasher is the only one who gets any attention nowadays because she is a female character who just happens to be female. It's kind of the same thing with strika, where despite her and obsidian being the same character and both great characters, people treat strika specially and ignore obsidian solely because she's a female character who was very unorthodox for a female.

[@Phoenix2312]

3:57 I am going to 100% AGREE with TJ Omega here... It was one of teh reasons why - Even though I was a Die Hard Transformers fanatic back in my youth, I still ADORED Go-Bots, or as they were here in teh UK for many years - ROBO MACHINES.... OK! Cy-Kill was not great, but GO-BOTS PERFECTED MOTORCYCLES before Hasbro even thought of them... Anyone remember the Harley Davidson they did? IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!! And Transformers had NOTHING LIKE IT FOR YEARS... Every Jet Fighter was a variation of teh same F-15 Body... Go-Bots had Mig's, A HARRIER JUMP JET and MORE!!! Yeah, Got to hand it to Go Bots, They were FAR MORE CREATIVE!

[@AS42100]

Although I wasn’t even alive in the 80’s, I actually started collecting gobots before I even ordered any g1 transformers. In fact, I specifically remember getting Staks, and the whole Puzzler combiner back in 2014. I didn’t get my first complete g1 transformer (Sunstreaker) until late 2018-early 2019.

[@Freddyfan1428]

Another non-fighter style jet, Silverbolt. Wouldn't really think of an SST when you're thinking "FLAMING DEATH RAINING DOWN FROM ABOVE!!!" lol! Female Gobots were impossible to tell when it came to the toys... they were pretty much all sexless figures until the cartoon where they were given a lot more story and personality.

[@ronaldpalado3160]

Seeing as bots came off of an assembly line or wheeljack’s lab, since reproduction was not supported anatomically, the idea of genders in either series was moot. The genesis of their species has to be humanoid at the very least since aesthetically have like anatomical features.

[@k.ottophillips4303]

Can't disagree with any of these points. I never had anything against the Go-Bots, except maybe their conversion from alt mode to robot. Most were, pull down the legs, pop out the arm, reveal the head. Transformers did have a bit more complexity to the their conversions, but it also meant Go-Bots could be marketed to a bigger fan base as younger children could easily change them back and forth, and really, Go-Bots did seem a bit more durable, with very few having losable parts, always a plus with the younger kids.

[@29thizzle]

As a fellow transformer/GoBot nerd, I think you did a damn good job of your pitch as to why Gobots was better. I won't lie, I'm still biased to transformers (yes, the marketing pitch got me), but I did like Scooter and other GoBots that could actually fit a G.I. Joe sized figure on them..

[@turboking9238]

I love both! Gobots is like another flavor of ice cream. You can't just eat one flavor forever, it's always nice to spice things up a bit with another.

[@roblesdavis6753]

I agree with you, they even came out with The Gobots movie long time ago. It took 3 plus decades to finally able to watch it, I had found KZbin have the movie, I don't remember what it's called I thought it's called the Gobots the movie, which I was wrong, I'll say it's an ok movie, they meet other robots transform into rocks which I can't remember they're called. I'm sure that you can Google it to find out the name of the movie.

[@theskullkidd3823]

Total nostalgia goodness. This brings back memories of my childhood thank you for doing this.

[@jwilfinger2838]

I just found you!!! The gobots we're awesome! Thanks for helping everyone else realize this

[@bobkatbry]

Reason 11. Gobots is MCU canon. Drax will get his revenge

[@Undrave]

Is this the video you mentionned on Twitter? :D I really want them to give us more Gobots hommages. We have the POTP Jazz, we have multiple Mirages... give us a Crasher! And Cosmos is always looking for a repaint, so why not Pathfinder?

[@johnwhitman9814]

Thanks for the video. I loved both Gobots and Transformers as a kid and had both. I have always wished that a new Gobots cartoon would be made. You did a great video here.

[@xcar0982]

Here in Mexico, The GoBots had a little revival I think during the later half of the 1990s, the cartoon was on the air, toy stores had shelves filled wth GoBots, but some months later, BEAST WARS TRANSFORMERS appeared on TV and GoBots were no more.

[@TommyandTheGuineaPigCollective]

Another thing worth mentioning since the partnership Hasbro pulled from Microchange and Diaclone. But the Diaclone they pulled designs from was new (Car Robo series) and Takara didn’t have many available. Bandai on the other hand went for more realistic alt modes from the jump with a few exceptions. This is of course why the Jumpstarters already in Diaclone weren’t released to much later. They didn’t fit at all with the car robo line which was the main focus. 🤘

[@isaacmm1407]

I remember growing up in 80's watching both cartoons with the same enthusiasm. But as a kind who depended on money from parents or thing I did back then to get some cash, price was a big game changer. For my entire life I've been a TF's fan with energon running through my veins, but Go-Bots were there and the deserve more respect.