List of GoBots commercials
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Just having a cartoon to sell GoBots to kids wasn't enough for Tonka, and GoBots Commercials were also used to keep kids informed about the latest toys available.
The first commercials predated Challenge of the GoBots, and integration was never the brand's strongpoint anyway, so the commercials used a different theme tune with the fondly remembered tagline "Mighty Vehicles, Mighty Robots", and brief animation featuring a large GoBots logo in a canyon. Aside from that, they largely simply featured kids playing with the toys, though later on footage and voices from the cartoons were used.
Unlike the commercials for Transformers and some other lines of the period the various GoBots adverts have never been released commercially. This might be another facet of the line's complicated legal history but is more likely due to a simple lack of demand, and whether any master recordings even survived the line's death and Tonka's buyout is unknown. As such knowledge of them only comes from off-air recordings, many of which have been digitised and uploaded to the internet; as such many also bear the logos of the individuals who encoded them. As such any titles are unknown and GBWiki uses vague descriptions to refer to them, while the order is similarly compiled from common sense assumption rather than any firm knowledge.
This also means it is not known if this list is exhaustive, and is likely to expanded if and when additional commercials are unearthed.
Tonka Commercials[edit | edit source]
GoBots[edit | edit source]
Possibly the earliest, this advert mixed a snippet of kids excitedly playing with the toys and stop-motion footage from the first Machine Robo commercial, narrated by a guy who gives shout-outs to Fitor, Cop-Tur, "Tur-Bo" and Cy-Kill, while warning "the GoBot invasion has begun". Considering how much of it is culled from the Japanese advert and that all the toys featured are from the first 1983 assortment of figures, this could well be the earliest of the adverts. It does already feature the "Mighty Vehicles, Mighty Robots" and animated 'canyon' logo. In common with several of the commercials for the line, the actual GoBots logo shown at the end seems to have been drawn by someone in a hurry, compared to the crisp version featured on toy packaging and other merchandise.
GoBots and Super GoBots[edit | edit source]
This advert saw a pleased, turtleneck-clad actor[1] transforming selected Series 1 GoBots for the camera, including Turbo, Cy-Kill and Fitor, with Leader-1 and Destroyer getting a call-out too, while some shots featured what appears to be the entire range up to that point.
Leader-1, Turbo and Cy-Kill[edit | edit source]
Features an extended version of the animated logo, complete with purpose-done animation of Leader-1, Turbo and Cy-Kill transforming; this again seems to predate Challenge of the GoBots, using different and bluntly - even through the haze of multi-generation VHS distortion - better character models before switching to a father and his two bowl-cut Midwich Cuckoo children playing with the figures in the most unconvincing front garden set imaginable.
Command Center[edit | edit source]
Two boys play with the Command Center "outside" in a shooting lot somewhere. Cop-Tur attempts to infiltrate the seemingly unguarded Command Center, only to find Leader-1 in the rotating hidden section and get a sock to the jaw.
Eight New GoBots[edit | edit source]
A group of kids walk into a toystore with an appealing Guardian/Renegade grid counter where the same turtleneck-clad fellow from the above demonstrates Small Foot, Night Ranger, Dive-Dive, Block Head, Water Walk, Fly Trap, Slicks and Spoons, who were the first "new" figures after the initial first series of toys. One of the kids then opines that it's "going to be awesome", little knowing the wear that will set in on Slicks' front wheels in the years to come.
Super GoBots[edit | edit source]
The first two series' worth of Super GoBots beam into an unfortunate child's bedroom with excessive back-lighting in what even the narration admits is home invasion. Due to the bright white light involved extant copies of this one are sadly virtually unwatchable.
Super GoBots Series 2 - Staks, Cy-Kill and Leader-1[edit | edit source]
A trio of kids play with the Super GoBots versions of Cy-Kill, Staks and Leader-1 on a rock outdoors. Notable for Staks talking smack and calling out Cy-Kill for a smackdown onto to have Leader-1 step out from behind a rock and sucker-punch the Renegade leader. Again, the word "Super" at the end seems to have been written by one of the aforementioned kids.
Power Warrior[edit | edit source]
Four children put Courageous through its' paces, intercut with some animation from Studio Pierrot's Battle Armor 5 promotional video.
Puzzler Set[edit | edit source]
A pair of children with fringes cut with some sort of precision industrial equipment play with and combine the Puzzlers, instantly making them seem a lot more impressive than "Auto Madic" did.
GoBots Series 2[edit | edit source]
A selection of new Series 2 figures, played with by kids outdoors. Zero and Tux lay a trap for the recoloured version of Leader-1, but are undone when Flip Top drops a log on them, knocking them into a pool of water. If your Tux has rusty screws this is why. Sadly, Flip Top was not packaged with a log. The commercial also mixed in a few brief clips from the opening titles of Challenge of the GoBots.
Thruster[edit | edit source]
Two kids play with Thruster outside; Scooter spies on the ship but is spotted and caught by the recoloured version of Cy-Kill and promptly imprisoned. In addition to the live action brief clips of Thruster flying through space from Challenge of the GoBots are also used.
Boomer Vehicles[edit | edit source]
Two kids gamely try and make the Boomers look enthralling by showing off the toys' social media-prefiguring to send incomprehensible abuse to others through scrawled messages like "This boom spells your doom". Though unlike the social media used by boomers today all involved can use "Your" correctly.
3D Stickers[edit | edit source]
Plugging the arrival of the 3-D GoBots Stickers on GoBots figures, intercutting a brief shot of Scooter saying "Really?", Crasher saying "Beautiful!", Cy-Kill saying "Ingenious!" and Braxis saying "I want them all!" (which doesn't sound like René Auberjonois and thus has likely been redubbed) from Challenge of the GoBots with footage of the stickers, kids buying an optimistic quantity of GoBots and said stickers being stuck on things.
Monster GoBots[edit | edit source]
Cy-Kill greets the Earthlings and tells them not to adjust their sets before introducing the new Monster GoBots Bugsie, Klaws and Bladez. The trio of newbies appear in stop-motion of the toys transforming and roaming an apocalyptic landscape while the Cy-Kill scenes involve animation, likely repurposed and re-edited, and a bespoke voice-over recorded by Bernard Erhard.
New Renegades and New Guardians[edit | edit source]
Cy-Kill orders the new Guardians crushed by Gunnyr and Hornet but Leader-1 sends Mr. Moto and Treds to meet them. The narrator makes an attempt to out-melodrama Cy-Kill who promptly orders him to shut up. The new toys are shown in stop-motion while the leaders appear in Challenge of the GoBots-style animation, while both Bernard Erhard and Lou Richards seem to reprise their roles.
Creepy[edit | edit source]
A commercial almost totally dedicated to the mail-order version of the Monster GoBot Creepy, explaining how if the viewer bought four GoBots they could get the terrifying Creepy for free. While mainly stop-motion of the toy causing mild destruction in a Hellish landscape, the commercial does include a very brief fragments of animation taken from Challenge of the GoBots - Crasher saying "Ha ha, I like him!", Cy-Kill saying "Excellent!" in response to the terms of the promotion, and Doctor Braxis saying "Without delay!", which all seems to be archival.
Space Hawk[edit | edit source]
Likely one of the last GoBots commercials, this features kids playing with Space Hawks in front of a starry background, and emphasises that to do justice to the cross-faction nature of the craft you really should buy at least two. Please.
Promotions[edit | edit source]
Nestle Quik[edit | edit source]
Two kids play out a scenario whereby the Super GoBots version of Leader-1 attempts to get to the chocolate Quik in a kitchen cupboard, only to have the Super GoBot Cy-Kill try to stop him. Between a rundown of the competition prizes Leader-1 eventually chases Cy-Kill into a river (due to budget limitations this was portrayed by a sink), probably doing his stickers no good at all, before Leader-1 was able to get to the Quik. The commercial does not feature the famous Quik Bunny, who was presumably busy covering for exploitation of African people elsewhere at the time.
Wendy's[edit | edit source]
Advertising the six exclusive figures available from the Wendy's chain. It mainly consists of still pictures of the toys and a few animated logos, but there is some footage taken from the Challenge of the GoBots episode "Battle for GoBotron" and a very quick shot taken from the first stop-motion Machine Robo commercial.
Footnotes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Some internet research tentatively identifies him as John Boyle.
