Challenge of the GoBots

Challenge of the GoBots
Directed by	Ray Patterson (Supervising) Arthur Davis (season 2) Oscar Dufau Volus Jones (season 2) Don Lusk (season 2) Carl Urbano (season 1) Rudy Zamora (season 2) Alan Zaslove (season 2)
Starring	Lou Richards Arthur Burghardt Frank Welker Bernard Erhard Bob Holt Marilyn Lightstone Sparky Marcus Leslie Speights Morgan Paull Phil Hartman B.J. Ward Brock Peters Peter Cullen
Composer(s)	Hoyt Curtin
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	65
Production
Executive producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera Joe Taritero Patrick S. Feely
Producer(s)	Kay Wright Lois Hanrahan
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions Tonka Corporation Wang Film Productions (aka Cuckoo's Nest Studios)
Distributor	Worldvision Enterprises (1986–1989) Great American Broadcasting (1989–1991) Turner Program Services (1991–1996) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1996–present)
Release
Original network	First-run syndication
Original release	September 8, 1984 – December 13, 1985

Challenge of the GoBots (or simply GoBots) is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, based on the Gobots toy-line released from Tonka.^[1] The show was first broadcast in syndication on September 8, 1984,^[2] then the show join 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 GoBings 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, Small Foot, Sparky and Scooter vs. Cy-Kill, Fitor, Geeper-Creeper, Cop-Tur, Crasher and Tank) 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 the planet Gobotron, there lived a race of human-like organic beings referred to as “GoBings.” 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 brains of the GoBings into large robots known as “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.

Characters

Episodes

1. Battle for Gobotron Part 1 Battle for Gobotron
2. Battle for Gobotron Part 2 Target Earth
3. Battle for Gobotron Part 3 Conquest of Earth
4. Battle For Gobotron Part 4 Earth Bound
5. Battle For Gobotron Part 5 The Final Conflict
6. It’s the Thought That Counts
7. Renegade Alliance
8. Time Wars
9. Terror in Atlantis
10. Trident’s Triple Threat
11. Lost on Gobotron
12. Cy-Kill’s Shrinking Ray
13. The Quest for Roguestar
14. Ultra Zod
15. Sentinel
16. Cy-Kill’s Cataclysmic Trap
17. Speed Is of the Essence
18. Genius and Son
19. Dawn World
20. Pacific Overtures
21. Forced Alliance
22. Invasion from the 21st Level Part 1
23. Invasion from the 21st Level Part 2
24. Doppelganger
25. Scooter Enhanced
26. Tarnished Image
27. Cold Spell
28. Crime Wave
29. Auto Madic
30. Renegade Rampage Part 1
31. Renegade Rampage Part 2
32. In Search of Ancient Gobonauts
33. Gameworld
34. Wolf in the Fold
35. Depth Charge
36. Transfer Point
37. Steamer’s Defection
38. The GoBot Who Cried Renegade
39. The Seer
40. Whiz Kid
41. Ring of Fire
42. The Gobotron Saga Part 1 Cy-Kill’s Escape
43. The Gobotron Saga Part 2 Quest for the Creator
44. The Gobotron Saga Part 3 The Fall of Gobotron
45. The Gobotron Saga Part 4 Flight to Earth
46. The Gobotron Saga Part 5 Return to Gobotron
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. Nova Beam
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

Cast

• Arthur Burghardt—Turbo
• Frank Welker—Scooter, Blaster, Rest-Q, Screw Head, Zeemon
• Bernard Erhard—Cy-Kill
• Marilyn Lightstone—Crasher, Path Finder
• Bob Holt—Cop-Tur
• Morgan Paull—Matt Hunter
• Sparky Marcus—Nick Burns
• Leslie Speights—A.J. Foster
• René Auberjonois—Dr. Braxis
• Ken Campbell—Van Guard
• Jimmy Weldon—Additional voices
• Philip L. Clarke—Dr. Go, Tork
• Peter Cullen—Pincher, Spoiler, Tank
• Paul Eiding—Scorp
• Phil Hartman—Baron Von Joy
• Richard Gautier—Bugsie
• Brock Peters—General Newcastle
• Peter Renaday—Master Renegade
• Lou Richards, Jr.—Leader-1
• B.J. Ward—Small Foot
• Kelly Ward—Fitor
• Kirby Ward—Heat Seeker

Home media releases

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 Mini-Series on DVD in Region 1 as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection.^[4][5] This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner’s online store and Amazon.com.^[6] On May 6, 2014, Warner Archive released Challenge of the GoBots—The Series, Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1.^[7] 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.^[8] The 1984 Ruby-Spears television film, Robo Force: The Revenge of Nazgar, is included as a special feature.

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.^[9] 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.

See also

• GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986)
• The Transformers (TV series)

References

External links

• Challenge of The Gobots: The Original Miniseries at WBshop.com
• Challenge of the GoBots on IMDb
• Challenge of the GoBots at TV.com