Go Bots: Battle of the Rock Lords turns 25 years old
(Via rastheater)
The first and only GoBots movie, GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords, turns 25 years old today. It opened on March 21, 1986.
The movie featured voice talent such as Roddy McDowell (Nuggit), Telly Savalas (Magmar) and Margot Kidder (Solitaire). The movie also featured popular voice over talent like Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Michael Bell and Arthur Burghardt. The rest of the voice cast was populated by the actors who voiced the regular TV show, Challenge of the GoBots.
The GoBots movie reached theaters two months before Transformers: The Movie (Aug 8). However Transformers had been in production for the previous two years.
The GoBots, like Transformers, were first released in Japan. They were imported by Tonka into America after the popularity of Transformers skyrocketed.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
March 21, 2011 at 8:27 am
How do I not remember these guys?! This looks like so much cheesy fun (though I think I prefer the real deal Transformers)! 🙂
March 23, 2011 at 8:56 am
Thanks for linking to the trailer. I don’t know why I didn’t do that. I did it over on Held Over but not here.
March 21, 2011 at 9:34 am
IIRC, gobots were smaller cheaper and less complicated. Can’t say I saw the movie, though. I think I was too old.
March 23, 2011 at 3:00 am
Actually, I believe GoBots beat Transformers onto toy shelves, but the latter proved to be more popular.
March 23, 2011 at 8:56 am
LBD – Yeah I thought so too but I couldn’t find any info supporting that. What it looks like to me after searching several sites is that Go-Bots hit first in Japan, but Transformers came over to America first. But again, I couldn’t find any solid source either way.
March 24, 2011 at 1:57 am
Check this out, I find these guys to be reputable. 🙂
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/GoBots_%28franchise%29