Challenge of the GoBots

Challenge of the GoBots (also known as simply Gobots) is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, based on the GoBots toy line released by Tonka. Most of the toys were imported from the Japanese Machine Robo toy line.

The GoBots originally debuted in animated form as a five-part miniseries, which aired in syndication from 29 October to 2 November 1984. A regular series followed the next year, premiering 16 September 1985. The series was later rerun on the USA Cartoon Express.

Summary[]

Thousands of years ago on the planet GoBotron, there lived a race of human-like beings known as Gobots. Civil war erupted on the planet when the power-hungry terrorist group known as the Renegades arose, led by a madman dubbed the "Master Renegade", who waged war against the peaceful Guardians. When a Renegade sabotage operation inadvertently resulted in a gigantic asteroid colliding with GoBotron, the natural disasters that resulted from the asteroid's impact pushed the GoBings to the verge of extinction. However, the genius who became known as the "Last Engineer" saved his people, taking his experiments to replace parts of his own body with mechanical substitutes to the ultimate extent and transferring the GoBings brains into large robot bodies known as "GoBots". The GoBot forms possessed an additional ability; after being run through the device named the Modifier, the GoBots' bodies were able to transform into other vehicles. His work done, the Last Engineer intended to retreat to a pre-prepared workshop elsewhere in the galaxy, but the Master Renegade stole his ship and escaped in his stead. The Last Engineer placed himself into suspended animation beneath the surface of GoBotron, while above, the war continued to rage between the Guardians and the Renegades, now all encased in GoBot shells.

In the last quarter of the 20th Century, the planet Earth became involved in the conflict between Leader-1's Guardians and Cy-Kill's Renegades. During one of these battles, one of Leader-1's lieutenants, Turbo, became severely damaged. Unwilling to let his friend and teammate die, Leader-1 began his quest to find the legendary Last Engineer. Leader-1 found the person he believed to be the Last Engineer, but Leader-1 had unwittingly released the Master Renegade (though he did repair Turbo to gain the Guardians' trust). The Guardians later found the true Last Engineer, who was instrumental in frustrating the alliance between Cy-Kill's Renegades and the Master Renegade.

The Master Renegade later escaped the custody of the Renegades, and plagued both factions, notably attacking the UniCom colony of New Earth.

Trivia[]

• Clips from the show were used in Errol Morris' Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.

Characters[]

Guardians[]

• Leader-1
• Turbo
• Scooter
• Small Foot
• Van Guard
• Blaster
• Rest-Q
• Path Finder
• Sparky
• Heat Seeker
• Road Ranger
• Night Ranger
• Hans-Cuff
• Bolt
• Ace
• Mr. Moto
• Dive-Dive
• Flip Top
• Zeemon
• Treds
• Dozer

Renegades[]

• Cy-Kill
• Crasher
• Cop-Tur
• Loco
• Fitor
• Tank
• Screw Head
• Destroyer
• Tux (Stretch)
• Fly Trap
• Vamp
• Scorp
• Pincher
• Bugsy
• Hornet
• Creepy
• Dr. Go
• Scales
• Zod
• Stallion
• Stinger
• Buggyman
• Geeper-Creeper
• Snoop
• Slicks
• Zero
• Bug Bite

Humans[]

• Matt Hunter
• Nick Burns
• Allison Janmoria "A.J." Foster
• Anya
• General Newcastle
• The Last Engineer
• Master Renegade
• Dr. Zebadiah (Thadius) Braxis

Episodes[]

1. Battle For Gobotron
2. Target Earth
3. Conquest Of Earth
4. Earth Bound
5. The Final Conflict
6. Time Wars
7. It's The Thought That Counts
8. Trident's Triple Threat
9. Renegade Alliance
10. Cy-Kill's Cataclysmic Trap
11. Speed Is Of The Essence
12. Genius And Son
13. Dawn World
14. Nova Beam
15. Forced Alliance
16. Invasion From The 21st Level (Part 1)
17. Invasion From The 21st Level (Part 2)
18. Lost On Gobotron
19. Cy-Kill's Shrinking Ray
20. Doppelganger
21. The Quest For The Roguestar
22. Renegade Rampage (Part 1)
23. Renegade Rampage (Part 2)
24. Ultra Zod
25. Sentinel
26. Cold Spell
27. Crime Wave
28. Auto Madic
29. Scooter Enhanced
30. Tarnished Image
31. In Search of Ancient Gobonauts
32. Gameworld
33. Wolf In The Fold
34. Depth Charge
35. Transfer Point
36. Steamer's Defection
37. The GoBot Who Cried Renegade
38. The Seer
39. Whiz Kid
40. Ring Of Fire
41. Pacific Overtures
42. Cy-Kill's Escape (Part 1 of 5)
43. Quest For The Creator (Part 2 of 5)
44. The Fall Of Gobotron (Part 3 of 5)
45. Flight To Earth (Part 4 of 5)
46. Return To Gobotron (Part 5 of 5)
47. Destroy All Guardians
48. Escape From Elba
49. Fitor To The Finish
50. Clutch Of Doom
51. The Third Column
52. A New Suit For Leader-1
53. Renegade Carnival
54. The Gift
55. Terror In Atlantis
56. The Last Magic Man
57. Braxis Gone Bonkers
58. Inside Job
59. Element Of Danger
60. Mission Gobotron
61. Et Tu, Cy-Kill?
62. The GoBots That Time Forgot
63. The Secret Of Halley's Comet
64. Guardian Academy
65. Quest For New Earth

Comparisons to Transformers[]

The franchises of GoBots and Hasbro's Transformers have often been compared due to the obvious similarities between the products. Although GoBots were technically first to reach the market, Transformers became the clear leader in both the marketplace and in popular culture.

Examples of the similarities between the brands' backstory include:

• Both are opposing forces of robots engaged in civil war which transform between robot and vehicle-based forms which represent good and evil respectively.
• GoBots hail from Gobotron where Transformers hail from Cybertron
• Both franchises introduced female robot characters. However, GoBots featured these characters in the premiere and maintained the character(s) as regular players. Transformers did not introduce female robots until the second season and used them only sparingly before the movie.

• Both TV series featured veteran voice-actors Frank Welker and Peter Cullen,the leaders of the Decepticons and Autobots respectively.
• While most likely coincidental, the Last Engineer is similar in concept to the Transformer 'god', Primus, whose consciousness also dwelled deep within their homeworld.

DVD Release[]

Warner Archive has released the entire Challenge of the GoBots TV series on DVD. There are no DVD plans for the movie, GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords.

Cast[]

• Lou Richards - Leader-1
• Arthur Burghardt - Turbo
• Frank Welker - Scooter, Blaster, Rest-Q, Slicks, Screw Head, Throttle, Wrong-Way, Zeemon
• Bernard Erhard - Cy-Kill
• Marilyn Lightstone - Crasher, Path Finder
• Bob Holt - Cop-Tur, Tork
• Morgan Paull - Matt Hunter
• Sparky Marcus - Nick Burns
• Leslie Speights - A.J. Foster
• René Auberjonois - Dr. Zebediah Braxis
• Candy Ann Brown - A.J. Foster (eps 1-5)
• Ken Hudson Campbell - Van Guard
• Philip Lewis Clarke - Dr. Go
• Peter Cullen - Blockhead, Pincher, Scratch, Spoiler, Stallion, Stinger, Tank
• Richard Gautier - Sky Jack
• Phil Hartman - Professor Von Joy, Dozer, Hans-Cuff, Staks
• Darryl Hickman - Hornet
• Gail Matthius - Dr. Anya Turganova
• Tress MacNeille - Spay-C
• Brock Peters - General Newcastle
• Peter Renaday - Master Renegade, Psycho, Water Walk
• Robert Ridgely - Flytrap, Buggyman
• B. J. Ward - Small Foot
• Kelly Ward - Fitor
• Kirby Ward - Heat Seeker

Additional Voices[]

Adrienne Alexander, Jack Angel, Lewis Arquette, Bever-Leigh Banfield, Jered Barclay, Eddie Barth, Billy Barty, Steve Bulen, Howard Caine, Bill Callaway, Selette Cole, Henry Corden, Regis Cordic, Jennifer Darling, Jerry Dexter, George DiCenzo, Richard Dysart, Paul Frees, Dan Gilvezan, Jonathan Harris, Erv Immeman, David Jolliffe, Zale Kessler, Peter Leeds, Norma MacMillan, Sparky Marcus, Ken Mars, Bill Martin, Walter Matthews, Amanda McBroom, Joe Medalis, Allan Melvin, Scott Menville, Sidney Miller, Noelle North, Soon-Teck Oh, Alan Oppenheimer, Laurel Page, Rob Paulsen, Josh Rodine, Shavar Ross, Marilyn Schreffler, Michael Sheehan, Andre Stojka, Steve Susskind, Mark Taylor, Brian Tochi, Les Tremayne, Manu Tupou, Jimmy Weldon, Eric Williams, Keone Young, Ted Zeigler

Production Credits[]

See Also[]

• GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986)

References[]

External Links[]

• New Gobotron discussion board
• Challenge of the Gobots Screenshots at Counter-X.net
• Challenge of the GoBots fan page
• Overlord CyKill's Renegade Headquarters