Machine Robo (マシンロボ, Mashin Robo) is a Japanese transforming robot toyline first released in 1982 by Popy, a division of Bandai, then later by Bandai proper. The franchise was marketed as Robo Machine in Europe and Machine Men in Australia. A large portion of these toys were exported to North America as part of Tonka's Gobots series, which began in 1983.[1][2][3][4]
The initial assortment of Machine Robos consisted of small toy robots which transformed into vehicles, aircraft, etc., comparable in size to Matchbox cars. These early MR toys have become known as the "600 series" (being priced at ¥600 each), and were developed through ideas submitted by children, similar to the children's submissions in the Kinnikuman anime series. Larger-scale deluxe ("DX") toys were soon released, along with other non-transforming vehicles and figures.
The first era of Machine Robo began in 1983 with the release of the 600 series by Popy. Catalogs packaged with the toys contained stories depicting the Machine Robos as beings from the Romulus system. Romulus was collapsing in on itself, and those beings who reached Earth became Machine Robo, while some became trapped in the Casmozone and mutated into monstrous Devil Invaders. This premise would later be abandoned in favor of a new storyline originating with Revenge of Cronos. Both in Japan and in the West, Machine Robo's main competition was The Transformers, whose animated series debuted in Japan in 1985. To match this, the first Machine Robo anime, Revenge of Cronos, debuted a year later in 1986. It was soon followed with a second series Machine Robo: Battle Hackers in 1987 which introduced new toys to the series itself.
Bandai later introduced the CG Robo (シージーロボ, Shījī Robo) line in 1993. The "CG" is short for "Change & Glow", pointing to the fact that this line of 14 figures not only transformed, but also had working lights and sounds. CG-01 to CG-05 were released in Europe with minor changes as part of the Robo Machines toyline.
After the release of the CG Robo, the franchise became fully dormant for 11 years until the release of the anime series Machine Robo Rescue in 2003, which marked the franchise's 20th anniversary. The new line of toys for the series focus on combination, with each sub robot (which serves its limbs) can be swapped out to another toy for several combinations. This customization gimmick was later expanded with the release of Machine Robo Mugenbine in the same year, which its core gimmick is that it uses numerous interlocking pegs and sockets to attach and remove components and relocate them in order to form different modes.
Mugenbine ran up to 2009 as the core toyline is been discontinued and the Candy Toy version of it ran up to 2019. In 2012, Bandai launched the Machine Robo NEXT candy toy line in commemoration to the franchise's 30th anniversary. In 2015, Hong Kong-based toy company Action Toys to do a revival of the original Machine Robo Toyline, in which the designs were based on their appearance in Revenge of Cronos. The first of the series was released in the same year with the second line released in 2016. A DX version of Bike Robo was released in December 2017. 2019 also saw the release of Machine Robo Duel line as part of the Minipla subline of toys, alongside the Baikanfu getting a release under the Super Minipla / Shokugan Modelling Project line.
In 2022, Bandai released the latest generation of the franchise: UNITROBORN: Machine Robo Universe on July 2022.[5] The main gimmick of the new line revolves around organic / inorganic combinations with both everyday items are combined to create a new Machine Robo. In the same year, Megahouse announced that a new line of transformable Machine Robo figures under the Machine Builder line.[6] The first figure is released on December 2022.[7]
The first Machine Robo animated series was Challenge of the Gobots, which aired in the United States from 1984 to 1985. The second series was Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos, which aired in Japan from 1986 to 1987. There were some further straight-to-video adventures released from 1988 to 1990 that featured some characters from this anime. The third series was Machine Robo: Battle Hackers, which aired in 1987. The fourth and latest animated series was Machine Robo Rescue, which aired from 2003 to 2004.