Challenge of the GoBots

Even though "Transformers" is my favorite cartoon ever, I remember liking "Challenge of the GoBots" almost as much, and watching both of them on weekday afternoons after school.

The characters and the animation may have been inferior to "Transformers," but the scripts were good, arguably more consistent than those of "Transformers." Both shows even shared a few of the same writers (Don Glut, Antoni Zalewski, Reed Robbins & Peter Salas.)

Now, of course, I haven't watched GoBots for years, as it's been hard to find. In the mid-90s, a local video rental store had tapes of them, but they closed a long time ago. If I were to see them again, I'm not sure if they would hold up as well as "Transformers," but I would definitely like to give it a try.

I remember this cartoon. I was more Transformers obessed. Though, I liked Scooter and Cop-Tur.

Not a bad Cartoon. Transformers would be a better choice for your robots.

I never loved the GoBots. I had the toys and I watched the show, but in a time when kids were obsessed with transforming robots, this cartoon never quite got it right. While the Transformers was never as dark as my all-time favorite cartoon, Voltron, it definitely had more edge than the GoBots. And while the Transformers looked like robots who transformed into vehicles, the GoBots never looked like robots at all but simply walking vehicles (as a child I didn't know how to express this, so I simply said that the GoBots "kept their stuff") and that was the main thing that always bugged me about the show.

That said, the GoBots will always have a place in my heart because I could afford the toys. Most GoBot toys sold for less than $5, while most Transformers went for about $8-$10 (big ones, like Optimus Prime, went for over $20!), and we didn't have that much money. So I had a lot more GoBots than Transformers. The cartoons, however, were free, and it is in that respect that the GoBots left me feeling shortchanged.

Yes, if they made a live action version of this cartoon all they would have to feature is Leader-1, Turbo, and Scooter on the good side and Cykill, Copter and that evil car that may have been a gal on the evil side. The toys numbered probably close to the hundred the amount of robots and week after week these six were the only ones really focused on. Which is one of the reasons I did not like this cartoon as much as Transformers or that Mighty Orbots show this inferior show got canceled. The robots just shot lasers from their hands, they had a stupid plot device of only so many gobots could transport to earth at a time hence why there was only the six old standbys (you know it was mainly cause it was easier to draw the same characters week after week), Scooter was lame and considering he could not shoot lasers you would think the bad guys would have a major advantage till you realized their leader was simply a motorcycle while the good leader is a fighter jet. Another thing that bugged me about the show, all the toys were relatively small and affordable. Yet they had certain ones called deluxe Gobots who were fairly expensive and bigger than the other normal sized ones, but for some reason in the cartoon they made these Gobots smaller than their counterparts. What the heck was up with that?

Think of Transformers with simpler stories & cartoony robot designs and you have good idea of what the GoBots are about. Hanna Barbera's influence is all over this show. I mean C'mon a robot named Scooter that transforms into a child's scooter. Only Hanna Barbera would think that this would be cool. OK it's a fine cartoon if you don't compare it to Transformers. I have to admit GoBots is probably one of Hanna Barbera's best TV shows. GoBots is a good juvenile cartoon that posed no threat to the Transformers.