Challenge of the GoBots

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.

This cartoon was fun and so was the series that followed. It was one of those great 1980's cartoons.

There are obvious similarities with Transformers and I think that Transformers was a superior cartoon but this was fun too.

Both the good Gobots and bad Gobots were a lot more 'human' than the Transformers. Scooter was my favourite throughout the series. Also, in the interests of equality we had a few 'female' Gobots.

Like other 1980's cartoon heroes the good Gobots were truly moralistic whilst the bad Gobots were really wicked with no redeeming features at all.

Those who have watched Transformers might not enjoy this as much but it can be enjoyed if you're in the right mood.

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.

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.

The Challenge of the Gobots debuted before (Sept, 8th 1984) the Transformers series (Sept, 17th 1984). Transformers is great, but give credit where credit is due. The Gobots series was presented on American television first, plain and simple. Haters should check their facts before they claim copyright infringement and all the other petty charges that have been leveled at Hanna-Barbera for the Gobots series over the last 30 years.

Transformers was not even anything like the Gobots and vice versa. Who ever said you can't have two, or five, or eighty shows about transforming robots? The fact that people still argue over who did what first is so pointless. Things do not happen in a vacuum, ideas, innovations, and inventions happen spontaneously within the cultural zeitgeist, few if any are ever planned.

Besides, both American cartoon series were based on a mega-popular line of Japanese toys from the 1970's and several Japanese anime series from the early 1980's. Tonka and Hasbro were simply adapting Japanese toy design, animation, and stylizing to American audiences. Bottom line, one is not better than the other, however, in America Gobots came first and in large part paved the way for Transformers to take American children by storm.