Bandai are bringing back the Gobots

[Wheeljack35]

The Gobots may be getting their own TV show or movie in the near future, but more importantly, Bandai and Action Toys have revealed they're making new, high-end toys based on the series - and they're way better than the terrible figures we got the first time round.

 

http://toybox.io9.com/holy-cow-bandai-are-making-new-non-crappy-gobots-figu-1684207073

[GuitarDevil]

Oh my gootness!!!! I've been waiting for this......I was a poor kid so Go-bots were kinda of bought for me at X-mases & Birthdays....

[Reminator]

I know, I'm getting Leader1, Turbo, Scooter, and Cykill when those figures are made available.

[SKYWARP]

I hope they bring out Fitor, that's the one I really want. Cykill too.

[GuitarDevil]

I dig your Optimism (pun for fun) Skywarp but at this point I think they gave up seeing how this was posted last year.....I see that BBTS has their 3rd party awesomely expensive Go-Bots....I would buy them all if they were 6" figs....but I think this is all were getting at this point.....Das alotta Dimp

[Devastator_2000]

This article is a year and a half old, are they still doing this?

[SKYWARP]

Yeah I think they just went straight to 3rd party haha

[JeffreyA]

I could be wrong but didn't Hasbro bought the rights to the Go-Bots if so how can Bandai use them?

[Doom Saber]

This article is a year and a half old, are they still doing this?

 

Yes, they are as they recently released the toysy. The images from the article are prototypes of the Action Toys version that are being sold at Big Bad Toy Store. The Kotaku article and even Wheeljack's initial post states that they are made by Bandai and Action Toys - I believe that Bandai just licensed the rights to Action Toys to make and release the figures.

 

I am certain most of the people here seen these already as they believe that these are third party figures, but for those who haven't, these are the final versions of the figures shown on the Kotaku site:

 

http://news.toyark.com/2016/04/29/new-machine-robo-photos-showcase-entire-wave-203082

 

I could be wrong but didn't Hasbro bought the rights to the Go-Bots if so how can Bandai use them?

 

You are correct. Hasbro owns the rights to Go-Bots, which prevents Bandai and Action Toys to release the figures to the US as "Gobots". I have read an article on Tformers a month ago of a rumor that Hasbro copyrighted the words "Machine Robo" to further prevent the figures getting a domestic release. Because the ones on BBTS are the Japanese version, the prices on them are high.

 

Yeah I think they just went straight to 3rd party haha

 

Not true as Action Toys is an official company that makes licensed figures. Nothing about them screams unofficial as their pr images have the proper copyright blub on them. I am thinking that you guys might be mistaking the Gobot toys listed as "Machine Robo" as Third Party because of the generic-sounding brand name, the character names, and the generic-sounding company name. That said, the rumor created in this very thread that these are third party figures are false. Much like Diaclones is to Transformers, Machine Robo is to Gobots. Back in the '80s, Tonka bought the license to bring Machine Robo into the US where they re-branded it as Gobots. For those not familiar with the Gobots origin, it even says that in the article.

 

Check out the youtube channel below for the Japanese Machine Robo series in English subtitle. It is very different from Gobots.

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx1zjxnsYo3WYN_3m364IIzn5j4049jCV

 

 

As for why Action Toys is making these figures, as mentioned above, it is most likely licensing much like how Super7 now has the license to make and distribute He-man figures. No one is calling Super7's He-man figures third party, are they? Here is the source that Kotaku used for their article:

 

"It looks like Bandai & Action Toys is serious about bringing back the Gobots / Machine Robos as a whole line of high-end collector releases, to compete with the Masterpiece Transformers."

http://news.tfw2005.com/2015/02/06/non-transformers-gokin-machine-robo-masterpiece-gobots-182019

 

The figures sold at BigBadToyStore are not unofficial third party figures, but licensed products.

 

Here are additional prototype images that were released last year:

 

[Doom Saber]

While browsing the Toynk site on Machine Robo, here are more pictures of upcoming toys. As such, the line wasn't cancelled as some on this thread had speculated:

 

 

Additional images can be found at the linked source below:

http://news.toyark.com/2016/06/15/machine-robo-update-new-figures-revealed-207565

[Devastator_2000]

If money was not a concern, I would buy these. However I dont have interest enough to divert money I would otherwise put on Transformers.

[SKYWARP]

Thanks for clearing that all up DS. Thanks for all those pics too. I like that SR71 Blackbird, I believe his name was Snoop. Fitor was my favorite though. He would be the one I would want for sure.

[Wheeljack35]

I wish they were sold here

[SKYWARP]

Me too, just to be able to see them in a store would be cool.

[Doom Saber]

I agree that it would be great, though it would be almost impossible since Hasbro owns copyright of "Gobots" and if the rumors are true of them getting the copyrighting the name "Machine Robo", we wouldn't see these here unless Hasbro does some kind of licensing deal with Bandai or make their own Gobots line - however, if they do make their own, they would look nothing like the Tonka ones because of copyright. As for the former, that might be an issue with Takara Tomy, as Bandai and Takara are rivals. Let's hope in the future, one of the Japanese companies buy and absorb the other since that would be when we will see Gobots with the "Machine Robo" inspired looks in the US stores again.

[Wheeljack35]

Well hey if thy own those rights why not make them themselves?

[Doom Saber]

Well hey if thy own those rights why not make them themselves?

I am not very familiar with copyright laws, but I am sure Hasbro can't make a Cy-Kill figure that just looks like Cy-kill as the design of the figure belongs to Bandai. They might be able to make a bike robot that looks similar in color scheme with Cy-Kill to the point people can identify the figure as the Gobots villain, but with a design not completely the same as Bike Robo, which would result in people not mistaking as the Machine Robo character. I think a great example to this is the non-Gi Joe Jetfire Transformers toys. The character is different enough to be sold without Harmony Gold going after Hasbro, yet people know that it is suppose to be Jetfire.

 

Here is an explanation from tfwiki.net regarding the Jetfire controversy in the G1 cartoon. It might explain why we didn't get Hasbro/Takara redesigned Gobot figures; maybe Takara Tomy doesn't want to redesign Gobot figures as they are based on designs from a competitor line:

 

• As a larger toy, it would follow that Hasbro would want to sell Jetfire by including him in the Transformers animated series. However, even though Hasbro had the rights to release Takatoku's Super Valkyrie in the US Transformerstoyline, Hasbro's chief collaborator on Transformers was still Takara. It may have been that Takara always had plans to air the Transformer animated series in their own market (as it featured a majority of their products), and objected to the inclusion of a competitor's product on the show. This may also be why no other Takatoku-designed toys appeared in the series, although their relatively smaller sizes as compared to Jetfire may have been a factor in Hasbro not including them.

[JoeRhyno]

Wow, an awesome read. I saw some of the recent(kinda) reviews and I really want to get some of these. I wish the Tank one(I forget the cheesy GoBots name) was darker, I remember my brother having that one and I swear it was a Dark blue. I had a couple growing up, but I'm not sure which ones as my cousin had a ton of them and I might be remembering his... I did have Scooter, so I hope they do him, lol.

[jedicrippler]

Yeah, you've got it right. Tank.