American TV series or program
Challenge of the GoBots (or GoBots for short) is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, based on the GoBots toyline released from Tonka.[1] The show was first broadcast in syndication on September 8, 1984,[2] then the show joined the weekday/weekend programming block The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera on September 15, 1985. It was later rerun on the USA Cartoon Express.
Summary
GoBots dealt with two opposing forces of transforming robots from the planet GoBotron: the heroic Guardians and the evil Renegades. The Guardians were led by Leader-1 while the Renegades were led by Cy-Kill. The characters rarely had guns, instead shooting energy blasts out of their fists. The female robots on the series, such as Crasher, were built like the males, but with some distinguishing female features. The GoBots' origin as GoBeings accounted for the presence of genders among the robots.[3]
The series generally focused on a small number of robots from each faction (Leader-1, Turbo and Scooter vs. Cy-Kill, Cop-Tur and Crasher) who were virtually ever-present with other characters seeming to rotate in "guest-star" roles. GoBots had no clear division between the two factions. The characters had no identifying insignias or markings to indicate their allegiance, although it was indicated on the toy packaging. Likewise, there was no commonality of design within each faction. The only "theme" to a side was that anything that turned into a "monstrous-looking" robot or vehicle was a Renegade.
Plot
In the series’ backstory, thousands of years ago on Techno Planet GoBotron in the Proxima System, there lived a race of human-like organic beings called GoBeings. Civil war erupted on the planet when the power-hungry terrorist group known as the Renegades arose, led by a madman dubbed "Stron-Domez the Master Renegade", who waged war against the peaceful Guardians.[4]
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 GoBeings to the verge of extinction. However, the genius referred to as Ex-El the Last Engineer saved his people and took his experiments to replace parts of his own body with mechanical substitutes to the ultimate extent and transferring the essences of the GoBeings into large cyborgs known as GoRobotic Machine Men, or simply GoBotic Machines or GoBots.
The GoBots 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.
Home media
Various episodes of the show had been released on VHS and Betamax by Vestron Video under its Children's Video Library label in the 1980s.
On May 17, 2011, Warner Archive released Challenge of the GoBots: The Original Miniseries on DVD in Region 1 as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection.[5][6] This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.[7] On May 6, 2014, Warner Archive released Challenge of the GoBots: The Series, Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1.[8] The three-disc set features the first 30 episodes of the series. The final volume Challenge of the GoBots: The Series, Volume 2, which contains the last remaining 30 episodes of the show, was released on March 10, 2015.[9] The 1984 Ruby-Spears television film, Robo Force: The Revenge of Nazgar, is included as a special feature.[citation needed]
Adaptations
The show spawned an animated, feature-length film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords which opened in theaters on March 21, 1986, a little over four months before The Transformers: The Movie (August 8). Clips from the show were also used in Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.[10] Additional GoBots storyline was later released on the Transformers Facebook pages "Ask Vector Prime" and "Renegade Rhetoric", with GoBots characters also appearing in storyline from Fun Publications. Where Renegade Rehetoric serveres as a second season to the show in form of text stories told from Cy-Kill's perspective.
