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Editor's note: this is not my fault :-) Blame it all on Particle-Man for delving into this section...oh, and Rework, too... |
The first series of 'kid-friendly' transformers. Made back in the day, when *I* was a kid. :-) Some people don't count these as a 'true' TF...well, they're made by Playskool, who is owned by...Hasbro! :-) And they're stamped Takara. And they transform. So...there. These toys were actually released twice in the United States, in 1986 and 1993 and there are a number of variants between the toys. The trademark stampings have been altered between the two versions (Japan in 1986 and China in 1993). The paintapps and sticker colors are slightly different between the two versions. It's also fun to note that these weren't *just* released in the US; they saw foreign release too. :-) Have a look below to see the changes in the two versions.
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As Lewis has all the 1-2-3 Transformers and Go-Bots (though I refuse to ask why) I'm going to turn this section over to him...
Thanks, Fred. There have been two toys in recent years aimed towards younger children. First was Tonka's 1-2-3 Transformers came in 2001 followed in 2002 by Playskool's Go-Bots. Let's take themchronologicallyy, shall we? |
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Containing just five toys (three unique molds) this line didn't last long. The main toy was Rescue Roy, a fire truck with working lights and sounds, his robot mode included wings. While he doesn't look anything like Optimus Prime, with Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime being a Fire Truck coming out that same year, I can only assume they were trying to create an "Optimus Prime" for younger kids, without actually doing that. His four compatriots were Charlie Chopper and Policeman Pete who were later recolored as Airlift Andy and Fire Marshal Mike. Back then, I had a heck of a time finding the two repaints, and the two of each I finally found were the only ones I ever saw in a store. I've never looked for them, so i don't know if they're that rare or if I just had bad luck. None of these toys were that great, though for kids, I think Rescue Roy probably had pretty decent play value. These guys also had a Japanese release.
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Now, here's where it gets fun! I LOVE Go-Bots. I wish they'd made more of them, and they are absolutely full of variants. These toys can be divide up into four classes, loosely comparable to the Beast Wars Classes, Basic, Deluxe, Mega, and Ultra. A few notes before we start. The first several waves of toys sported Slightly modified G1 logo. The later waves have their own Go-Bots logo.
There were severalgimmickc series of toys (thinkTarget Masterss, but nowhere near as good). Glow-Bots had light up features in the form of a siren or engine added onto an existing mold. The Gobrillium series was a Toys R Us exclusive and featured chrome versions of Speed-Bot and Aero-Bot.Invisibilityy Force toys were molded in translucent plastic. There were two series of Invisibilityy Force figures. The second one was the last wave of basics released, and were reportedly only available through discount stores. There were a number of different packaging types. The original series was called "Big Adventures: Transformers". The next several series were called "Transformers: Go-Bots". After that, while always called either "Transformers: Go-Bots" or "Go-Bots" they were divided into sub series that included Invisibility Force, Glow-Bots, and Gobriillium, but also ones that did not include toy gimmicks, "Botropolis", "Mission: Earth", and "Secret Shield". There was a Japanese version of this series (Rescue Hero Go-Bots) with color differences (and one mold difference). See GobotsArePureLove.com for more information, though I have info on the mold change below. Several characters had multiple toys, and were given different names early in the series. Hence, you'll find, Aerobot, Aero-Bot, and Aero-Bot II, Beast-Bot and Beast-Bot II, Gorillabot, and Gorilla-Bot, Silverbolt, Silver-Bot, and Silverbolt II*, and finally, Speedbot, Speed-Bot, and Speed-Bot II. (* - The name Silverbolt II only appeared on his Tech Spec and was corrected later.) Here is a complete list:
A number of beast toys are homages to Beast Wars characters including Waspinator (Buzzer-Bot), Optimus Primal (Gorilla-Bot), Cheetor, Tigatron, and Dinobot. The Tigatron and Dinobot homages are called Tigertron and Dino-Bot and neither resemble their namesakes.
 Let's start with Basic vehicles that don't have any variations. It won't take long, there are only four of them:
There were two versions of Racer-Bot BETA, one Invisibility Force, and one Glow-Bots. The only mold difference is the Glow-Bots light up feature:
There were many different toys of Strong-Bot. These two were the All Terrain Vehicle mold. One was in the Invisibility force series. No mold changes:
In addition to Buzzer-Bot's wasp and convertible modes, he was also a motorcycle that was recolored as Cop-Bot. No mold changes:
The line contained a lot of cars...A LOT. (You'll find out why I say that later.) This mold was just used twice:
This is one of my favorite molds from this line. The original mold for Strong-Bot was recolored into Scrap-Bot. However, in the Japanese version of the line (called Rescue Hero Go-Bots) he has been remolded into a steam roller. The only other differences to the Japanese line I am aware of are color changes (we'll get to that later). I have not yet been able to find a Japanese Scrap-Bot. :-(
Now, we've got some major mold changes. Flash-Bot was recolored and remolded as Glow-Bots Truck-Bot. He also had his face remolded again and became yet another Strong-Bot:
Now we get to repainting worthy of Transformers Universe. Here we have Speedbot. He shipped with Mototron, Gorillabot, and Cheetor in the first wave of Go-Bots:
Speedbot was repainted SIX times for a total of seven of this mold:
Of course, seven versions of this mold wasn't enough. The chest was remolded, the spotlights were moved from the hood to the roof, and the spoiler was reshaped. This version received five versions for a total of twelve versions of the original Speedbot mold and it's remold. Additionally, Prowl-Bot had a variant as well. He either came with one red and one blue eye, a gray chest, and no writing on the passenger door, or with two red eyes, a black chest, and writing on the passenger side door:
Now, on to the beasts. First off, we have Buzzer-Bot, our Waspinator homage. The original was remolded for the Glow-Bots series:
Now for a little monkeying around. :-) We have the Optimus Primal homage, repainted twice, but not remolded:
Cheetor also made an appearance in the line. There were three versions of the original mold, then it was remolded for Invisibility Force Preditron:
Dino-bot is the only dinosaur among the Go-Bots and was repainted four times. The website GobotsArePureLove.com says that after Dino-Bot and Reptron, the toy was "slightly remolded" for the three subsequent releases. I've examined them and can't find any remold, and the site doesn't say what the remolding is. TFU.info does not say anything about remolding, so I'm going to say there is no remold, but if you can find it, please let me know. There is also a variant on the original release of Dino-Bot where he has either yellow or green on the back of his hands:
And now Deluxes vehicles. There were a total of seven Deluxes released totaling three molds, which included electronic sounds. The second and third series of these were dubbed "Racers". However, the third series which included the third and final mold and last two repaints were only released in discount stores in the UK in 2005, the year after the line ended. I'm still looking for them...sigh. :-(
Each Deluxe toy included two additional items. Each had an unarticulated plastic "driver" figure (of which there appear to be a total of three molds). All accept Mirage-Bot included a robot fule pump. Mirage-Bot included an unarticulated dog figure instead. It is either a robot with a realistic dog's head or a real dog in a flight suit. Which is it? The world may never know... :-)
The Mega series contained just one mold with lights and sounds that was heavily remolded and repainted. The original Aerobot was remolded and repainted as Silverbolt. There were packaging variations for both. Aerobot comes in both "Big Adventures: Transformers" and "Transformers: Go-Bots" packaging, named Aerobot and Aero-Bot respectively. Silverbolt only came in "Transformers: Go-Bots" packaging, but did have his name listed as Silverbolt II on his tech specs which was later corrected. Following those initial releases, we got Aero-Bot and Silver-Bot (formerly Silvebolt) with chrome paint Jobs as Ultra Jets. They then had their arms remolded so that their fists were launchable (though tied on with string so they couldn't go very far) in the aptly named Flying Fists series. There is also a color variant on the initial release of Silverbolt with his plastic coming with pink or red details:
Okay, we're almost done. There are only two more toys that were released and neither had variants. There was one additional toy, the Aero-Bot Helicopter that was unfortunately never released and exists only as a prototype. Additional pictures of these toys can be found at GobotsArePureLove.com.
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