#Go-bots

[askvectorprime]

Have you heard of the infamous "Truck-kun"?

Dear Elementary Explorer,

Oh dear oh dear. I hoped I'd never have to reveal his terrible deeds.

Truck-kun was a Destron Jr. Thanks to the malignant influences of his elders, he was always trying to steal the energon lunches of the Cybertron Jrs. Fortunately, he was unable to catch Jet-kun's plane mode, Racer-kun was too fast for him, and Dump-kun was just too tough to bully. This just made him meaner, and he would often leave insulting messages on their desks, calling them names.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before such a villainous individual became infamous amongst humanity.

[elfdragon12]

Daily female Transformers

Crash Test! She's cocky and willing to do what she has to!

She was actually part of the Go-Bots toyline, though the canceled G2 line. She has popped up in Of Masters and Mayhem and the Renegade Rhetoric tales.

I love her colors!

[cybertron-smash-or-pass]

Go-bots Cy-kill

[plasticsparkphotos]

I still need Warpath for my mini bots, so this is my first time experiencing this figure. It's pretty cool, but that transformation is a bit of a dog. Woof!

📸 Transformers: Legacy United - Go-Bots Guardian Treds

[simeonscott]

Some photos from the Retro Toy Con 2024 dealer room on Saturday.

[tronmike82]

This is how he flirts.

[igwanasuchus]

TUMBLR EXCLUSIVE DOODLE CANVAS

obscurity.sai2

[cultmoodymovies]

Transformers/Go-Bot fusion by GuidoGuidi

[mortifiedandawesome]

I want to see this now

[pocoslip]

Which New Bumblebee Figures should be Repainted/Rettooled into Bug Bite??

(I still think they should retool WFC SS Bumblebee in Bug Bite because of their Similar Headsculpts)

[siphersaysstuff]

New for G2!

Know what I haven't done in a hot minute? A Patreon-backed @tfwiki pic thread about toys from before the turn of the century! Ha haa god I'm old.

Anyway, let's look at some of the new toys made for GENERATION 2, easily one of my all-time favorite eras of TF. I was the exact target demographic for the original TF line, but it was just one of many toylines I liked. I never had a lot. But G2 came when I started having disposable income, and at the dawning of internet fandom, and the innovations it made turned me into a TF FAN and long-time collector.

And before we start, everyone give thanks to Takara designer Takio Ejima (江島 多規男). He designed SO MANY TFs from this era to today, and is responsible for creating the light-piping and balljoint articulation that first appeared in these years.

The "Autobot Cars" became instant favorites (especially Rapido). The European releases were called AXELERATORS (a far cooler name) and had gorgeous hot-pink translucent parts instead of the US versions' smoky black. (Skram, Windbreaker, Rapido (old pic), Turbofire (old pic))

Of course, the "Decepticon Jet" counterparts, aka SKYSCORCHERS, were also adored. Weapons stored in vehicle mode were still rare, and thankfully the US versions kept that lovely bright-green translucent plastic. (Windrazor, Terradive, Afterburner (old pic), Eagle Eye (old pic))

The LASER RODS didn't just have light-up parts, they were the first super-articulated TFs! They used the G.I.Joe O-ring and steel hips construction, which was very awkward and made standing them tricky. (Electro, Volt, Sizzle, Jolt)

Following up are the LASER CYCLES, which use the Cyberjet ball-joint tech for much more stable advanced articulation. Road Pig and Road Rocket (old pic) also keep their lights permanently plugged into their weapons, where the Rods had you move the light from engine to hand.

On the other end of the articulation are the GO-BOTS, small and simple toys designed to work with Matchbox/Hot Wheels-scale playsets. Gearhead here was first released with clear parts, then again in the second wave with opaques… the first of many, MANY redecoes for this lot.

(No really, the six Go-Bots were released in like TEN different decos each all told over the course of eight years. It's amazing the steel molds weren't cheese by the end of it.)

The last toys released in G2 (in the US at least), the AUTO-ROLLERS (Dirtbag & Roadblock) are absolute units. Their back/lower halves have involved gearing that, when you flip a switch, makes them auto-transform to robot when rolled forward, or to vehicle when rolled back.

There's loads more delightful toys in this line, but I've already done pics of most of them, like the water-shooters (sadly my US versions are pretty rough), Rotor Force, Heroes, and the Australia/New Zealand exclusive Power Masters. Try 'em, you'll like 'em.

And if you enjoy these looks back on TF toy history and want to see even more pics per month, please consider joining my Patreon. Every little bit helps out. You can find it at

www dot patreon dot com slash gregstfwikipics

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, are there any Cybertronians out there that take the form of road servicing equipment as their alt-mode? Stuff like asphalt pavers or road rollers. I imagine somebody has to take care of all the roads on planets like Cybertron or Velocitron.

Dear Pothole Paver,

There are indeed! While all the Constructicons maintained the streets of Crystal City, in some realities they counted Heavyweight among their number, a reserve member of the team who transformed into a road roller. Roll, as his name suggests, also transformed into a ground leveling machine, though he rarely performed road work; instead, he would flatten the ground after Rack demolished buildings with his pneumatic hammer, and Ruin removed the rubble with his bulldozer blade. Other 'bots with similar alt-modes include Randy of the Go-Bots, always eager to use his steamroller form to clear the way for a passer-by, and the Scavenger of my home reality, who adopted a bulldozer alternate mode with an integrated roller when he arrived on Earth.

As for pavers, they are somewhat rarer—in some universes, Cybertron's streets are reactive, transforming structures that construct themselves as needed—but there are a few. The Decepticon Tarpit would use his alternate mode to lay traps for the Autobots, while the Velocitronian Slipform was responsible for overseeing road construction for the most prestigious of races. My brother Alchemist has also adopted the form of a paving machine on occasion—in fact, I believe that's where he took the inspiration for the name "Maccadam".

[maddyaddy]

Her: Babe, please stop saying dumbass things, you're not even making sense! Me: ROCK LORDS ROCKS THAT COME ALIVE ROCK LORDS FIGHTING TO SURVIVE LIVING ROCKS WITH STRENGTH AND MIGHT RISING UP TO CRUSH AND FIGHT! ROCK LORDS! POWERFUL LIVING ROCKS!

[collecticon-lou]

'Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles!' - Generations Selects Legacy: United Go-Bot Guardians 3-Pack

What better way to inaugurate this blog than by sharing my very first Transformers I ever bought. Yep, this was my first set, and from a GameStop at that. Wrapping up the Legacy line with the last Generations Selects bundle, we have Go-Bot Pathfinder, Go-Bot Smallfoot, and Go-Bot Treds!

In case you don't know what the Go-Bots are, they were a line of rival transforming robot toys, originally developed by Bandai in Japan as "Machine Robo" and localized in America by Tonka. There was even a cartoon just like The Transformers, known as Challenge of the Go-Bots, animated by Hanna-Barbera. Leader-1, alongside his Guardian allies and human companies, fought back against the villainous Cy-Kill and his Renegades, as they fought on both Earth and the Go-Bots homeworld of Gobotron.

As we all know, Transformers won out, and Go-Bots kinda faded into obscurity. And wouldn't ya know it, when Hasbro bought out Tonka in 1991, Hasbro ended up with the rights to the Go-Bots!...kinda. See, Tonka owned the names, profiles, and assorted lore that was created for the franchise, which now meant Hasbro owned them. However, the toys themselves—and thus, the designs of the ENTIRE cast—were still owned outright by Bandai. And since Bandai was a rival to Hasbro's Japanese collaborators TakaraTomy, they couldn't exactly license these designs back.

So, Hasbro & Takara have character names and profiles attached to designs they can't legally use. What do they do with them? Why, slap them on the G1 Transformers figure that most closely resembled them!

Thus, the "G1 Go-Bots" set was released exclusively in Japan through e-Hobby in 2004. Now, for all intents and purposes, these figures WERE supposed to be their respective Go-Bot counterparts infiltrating the Transformers universe, but Takara got a lil skittish at how Bandai would react to a move like this, so while references to Go-Bots lore are still present with the pack, the names of the characters were not included. Of course, seeing as the names were created BY Tonka, and Bandai only had rights to the designs, there was likely very little ground for any infringement to be proven, should Bandai even care in the first place.

In terms of who was intended to be who:

Cosmos was recolored blue as Guardian Path Finder

Gears was recolored red and orange as Guardian Small Foot

Huffer was recolored orange and black as Guardian Road Ranger

Bumblebee was recolored white as Renegade Bug Bite

Warpath was recolored green as Guardian-disguised-as-Decepticon Treds

And Powerglide was recolored gray and blue as Renegade Bad Boy

Outside of a few pieces of fiction (and Cy-Kill getting killed a few hundred times), these were basically the six Go-Bots that ever got proper Transformers toys—excluding cases like the in-name only Leader-1 from Armada. Of the six, Bug Bite got the most attention (big surprise from the Bumblebee redeco), having a figure both in Timelines and even as a Generations Selects for War for Cybertron: Earthrise. Road Ranger also appeared surprisingly in the Golden Disc Collection in War for Cybertron: Kingdom, fittingly as a redeco/retool of Kingdom Huffer, in a two pack alongside Puffer, a fusion between Pipes and Huffer. But it wouldn't be until three years later that we would get this:

A full on, 3-pack of Go-Bot characters WITH the original Go-Bots logo on it. Honestly, all of the Generations Selects boxes have a nice style, but this one is just so cool especially.

Now how about those figures, eh?

As said before, this set includes Pathfinder, Smallfoot, and Treds. They share the exact same molds with pre-existing characters as did their G1 Go-Bot counterparts:

Go-Bot Pathfinder is a blue redeco of Legacy Velocitron Speedia 500 Cosmos (who was later re-released in Legacy: United).

Go-Bot Smallfoot is a orange and red redeco and new head retool of Legacy: United G1 Universe Gears.

Go-Bot Treds is a green redeco of War for Cybertron: Kingdom Warpath.

Of the trio, Pathfinder is probably my favorite. Yes, I do admittedly have a bias towards Cosmos and his silly UFO alt mode, so it'd make sense it'd carry over to Pathfinder and her silly UFO alt mode. But also the shade of blue used on her is very pleasant, and I can't deny it's very cool to see the Go-Bot Guardian insignia on her flag. First time it's been used in nearly forty years, ya know! It's also very fun to flip between her robot and UFO modes, even if getting the arms in place can be finicky at times.

Smallfoot is also really great. A close second for my personal favorite, but probably the best of the pack. The Gears mold is honestly SO good, and I've been very tempted to get the G1 style Gears that's been available at Walmart for a while now because of it. It poses great, transforms great, and is just a solid little car all things considered.

Treds was probably my least favorite, at least initially. I really struggled to connect the front panels below the turret together for the longest time, and my copy also had a bit of the head panel tucked under the chest a bit too much. These days, though, I've gotten a whole lot better at it, and he's honestly a great figure. The engineering on his legs are spectacular, and the green is nice and dark. Still a struggle to transform, but I enjoy him.

I also very much like the detail of him having a Decepticon insignia. The original Treds Go-Bot figure was sold as a Guardian, yet bared the Renegade insignia. Thus, Treds was reinterpreted as a Guardian going undercover as a Decepticon, if only to keep an eye on Bug Bite and Bad Boy when they entered the Transformers universe. Honestly, I like it!

(Honestly, there's a LOT more information on the Go-Bots history and the story behind the G1 Go-Bots I didn't mention here. All my information comes from the TFWiki, so if ya wanna know more, I HIGHLY suggest you visit the site and check our their articles on them.)

Overall, a very cute and fun little set! Even if you already have the three figures here, I'd say this is very worth getting, if for nothing else than a piece of toy history. Hell, even after getting this, I still got the Cosmos reissue, and I still kinda want that Gears figure, and that's coming from someone who doesn't like the idea of buying what is essentially the same figure.

Go-Bot Pathfinder: 4/5

Go-Bot Smallfoot: 4/5

Go-Bot Treds: 3.5/5

The 3-Pack as a Whole: 4/5

I do hope a second Go-Bot pack comes out that finishes the set with Road Ranger, Bug Bite, and Bad Boy, though that feels unlikely. Seeing as Road Ranger and Bug Bite both got somewhat recent figures, and there hasn't been a Powerglide figure since Combiner Wars in 2015 (and it was the diminutive Legends class at that!), it seems a bit unlikely, especially since Bad Boy hasn't had a figure since the initial G1 Go-Bots release way back in 2004. One can hope though, yeah?

[kroganshepard2001]

DJ Smallfoot (and two randos).

[simeonscott]

Two different but equally valid ways to do the locomotion.