Europe

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Europe is a continent on Earth.

Among its' countries are France, Italy, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland and Sweden.

Fiction[edit | edit source]

Challenge of the GoBots cartoon[edit | edit source]

While the majority of the Renegades' plans revolved around the United States despite the large concentration of UNECOM bases there, the GoBots did occasionally interact with European countries. Cy-Kill led a raid on Stolbovoy Island to steal Doctor Anya Turgenova's Sorium Target Earth; London, Paris and Moscow were among the cities seen falling under the influence of Doctor Braxis' Pulsar Generator Conquest of Earth; a group of GoBots and humans were sent back to Ancient Rome by Professor Ling's Chronos Time Transporter Time Wars; Russia was the target of another Renegade raid when Cy-Kill attacked an industrial facility The Quest for Roguestar; Vienna was the site of peace talks between the Guardians and the Renegades Pacific Overtures while Doctor Aeolis undertook his research in Athens. Clutch of Doom

Toys[edit | edit source]

RoboMachine1983Catalogue.jpg

While Bandai sold the North American rights to Machine Robo to Tonka they retained them in much of the rest of the world, including Europe. There they had already began marketing the line as Robo Machine, which was largely a rejigged version of Machine Robo - with characters having descriptions instead of names (e.g. Dump Robo/Dumper became simply 'Truck'). Toys were switched to blister cards fit better with the lines already on sale in European stores, and also to save on packaging costs. Robo Machine seems to have become a modest success, with an initial batch of six figures followed up with a wider range.

The success of GoBots then led to Bandai deciding to include names on the figures, largely drawn from the North American line. This led to a comic strip being published in the British Eagle. While most of the early figures were not reissued catalogues and other material began referring to them by their GoBots names, with a promotional campaign claiming the vague designations were actually secret cover identities. Over the next couple of years Bandai began adding further GoBots branding to packaging, even pasting stickers on some older products, though Robo Machine was never really a direct match for GoBots, skipping some figures and adding others, some of which were exclusive to the European market to some degree, with Bandai often dumping unsold overstock from both America and Japan on the European market. Rock Lords also came out with Robo Machine and GoBots branding.

The primary markets for Robo Machine were Britain and France, and thus most packaging used bilingual English and French. However, at least some figures were released in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, while overstock was probably shipped all over the place in the second half of the 1980s as the robot toy trend faded.

Cartoons[edit | edit source]

Part of the reason for the change towards GoBots branding was the potential of the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, which was either broadcast or released on VHS in the UK, France (as Les Defi des GoBots), Germany, Spain (as El Desafio de los GoBots), Sweden, Finland (both as GoBots) and the Netherlands.