Challenge of the Gobots
| Challenge of the GoBots | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by |
Ray Patterson (Supervising) Arthur Davis (season 1) 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 |
| Distributor | Taft broadcasting (original) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current) |
| Release | |
| Original network | First-run syndication |
| Original release | September 8, 1984 |
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. The show was first broadcast in syndication on September 8, 1984, then the show join the weekday/weekend programming block "The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera" in September 15 of 1985. It was later rerun on the USA Cartoon Express.
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 organic beings accounted for the presence of genders among the robots.
The series generally focused on a small number of robots from each faction (Leader-1, Turbo, Small Foot and Scooter vs. Cy-Kill, Fitor, Cop-Tur and Crasher), who were virtually ever-present, with other characters seeming to rotate in "guest-star" roles. GoBots had no clear divide 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.
In the series' backstory, thousands of years ago on the planet Gobotron, there lived a race of human-like beings known 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 GoBings brains into large robot bodies known as "GoBots".
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