#G2 GOBOT CHECKLIST PLUS#
Transformers wasn't even the first shape-changing robot toy to US shelves, having been beat to the punch by then-competitor Tonka, who brought over Bandai's Machine Robo toys as GoBots six months prior, plus Takara's own prior attempts to market their toys in the US as Diakron and Kronoform. Mattel was still an action-figure heavyweight thanks to Masters of the Universe, which led the boom of cartoon-advertised toy lines (more on that in a bit) throwing out weird concepts in the hope of creating the next big thing. On top of that, there were far more toy companies scrabbling for shelf space. No, you had to get out there and shop - or use a big printed mail-order catalog like the old Sears "Wish Book". Even grocery stores and drug stores devoted a significant amount of space to toys year-round, and not just the cheap stuff! The idea that you could buy anything via computer, much less toys, was a novelty at best. There were multiple large-scale toys-only chains, not just Toys"R"Us (now RIP in the US). Sears and Kmart were the biggest retailers in the United States Walmart and Target were just regional players poised to go nationwide. There were a lot more retailers out there, both national and regional, muscling for market share, and virtually all had a sizable toy department. The original Transformers came out in a very different toy environment than what exists today, and at a time when the market was venturing out from the slow-paced 1970s into undiscovered country.įirst of all, the market itself was simply broader. A book hundreds of pages thick, which could devote an entire page or two to a single toy line. Page from the 1984 JC Penney annual catalog. but there's still plenty to talk about in the big picture. Thus, the more descriptive bits will be tackled year-by-year. Having run for seven years, the line changed dramatically over its lifetime, going from pre-made items to all-new designs and greater focus on gimmicks beyond simply transforming.
Part of the Autobots' rear guard, he goes through the toughest, most hellacious battlefield conditions simply to make sure there's not a single Decepticon left standing to bring potential ruin to an Autobot victory.īut sadly, he is not "cool" enough to be an actual Go-bot. He's not satisfied with anything less than 100%. Gobots is a tough fighter who doesn't believe in leaving a job half-done, or even nine-tenths done.
Gobots is an Autobot from the Generation 2 series. For a list of other meanings, see GoBots (disambiguation).
The name or term GoBots refers to more than one character or idea.