Challenge of the GoBots
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Challenge of the GoBots | |
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File:Gobots.jpg | |
Directed by | Ray Patterson (Supervising) Arthur Davis Oscar Dufau Volus Jones Don Lusk Rudy Zamora Alan Zaslove |
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 |
Release | |
Original network | First-run syndication |
Original release | October 29, 1984 (miniseries) September 16, 1985 (regular series) |
Challenge of the GoBots (or GoBots: Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles), is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, based on the Gobots toy-line released from Tonka.[1] The show originally debuted in animated form as a five-part miniseries, which aired in syndication from October 29 to November 2, 1984.
Then a regular series followed the next year, premiering on September 16, 1985 as part of the weekday and weekend morning programming block The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. It was later rerun on the USA Cartoon Express.
Contents
Summary
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.[2]
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.
Plot
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 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".
The GoBot forms possessed an additional ability; after being run through the device named the Modifier, the GoBots' bodies were able to transform into other vehicles. His work done, the Last Engineer intended to retreat to a pre-prepared workshop elsewhere in the galaxy, but the Master Renegade stole his ship and escaped in his stead. The Last Engineer placed himself into suspended animation beneath the surface of Gobotron, while above, the war continued to rage between the Guardians and the Renegades, now all encased in GoBot shells.
In the last quarter of the 20th Century, the planet Earth became involved in the conflict between Leader-1's Guardians and Cy-Kill's Renegades. During one of these battles, one of Leader-1's lieutenants, Turbo, became severely damaged. Unwilling to let his friend and teammate die, Leader-1 began his quest to find the legendary Last Engineer. Leader-1 found the person he believed to be the Last Engineer, but Leader-1 had unwittingly released the Master Renegade (though he did repair Turbo to gain the Guardians' trust).
The Guardians later found the true Last Engineer, who was instrumental in frustrating the alliance between Cy-Kill's Renegades and the Master Renegade. The Master Renegade later escaped the custody of the Renegades, and plagued both factions, notably attacking the UniCom colony of New Earth.
Characters
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Episodes
- Battle for Gobotron
- Target Earth
- Conquest of Earth
- Earth Bound
- The Final Conflict
- It's the Thought That Counts
- Renegade Alliance
- Time Wars
- Terror in Atlantis
- Trident's Triple Threat
- Lost on Gobotron
- Cy-Kill's Shrinking Ray
- The Quest for Roguestar
- Ultra Zod
- Sentinel
- Cy-Kill's Cataclysmic Trap
- Speed is of the Essence
- Genius and Son
- Dawn World
- Pacific Overtures
- Forced Alliance
- Invasion from the 21st Level Pt. 1
- Invasion from the 21st Level Pt. 2
- Doppelganger
- Scooter Enhanced
- Tarnished Image
- Cold Spell
- Crime Wave
- Auto-madic
- Renegade Rampage Pt. 1
- Renegade Rampage Pt. 2
- Search for the Ancient Gobonauts
- Gameworld
- Wolf in the Fold
- Depth Charge
- Transfer Point
- Steamer's Defection
- The GoBot Who Cried Renegade
- The Seer
- Whiz Kid
- Ring of Fire
- Cy-Kills Escape
- Quest for the Creator
- The Fall of Gobotron
- Flight to Earth
- Return to Gobotron
- Destroy All Guardians
- Escape from Elba
- Fitor to the Finish
- Clutch of Doom
- The Third Column
- A New Suit for Leader-1
- Renegade Carnival
- The Gift
- Nova Beam
- The Last Magic Man
- Braxis Gone Bonkers
- Inside Job
- Element of Danger
- Mission: Gobotron
- Et Tu Cy-Kill?
- The GoBots That Time Forgot
- The Secret of Halley's Comet
- Guardian Academy
- Quest for New Earth
- Element Of Doom
Cast
- Arthur Burghardt - Turbo
- Frank Welker - Scooter, Blaster, Rest-Q, Screw Head, Zeemon
- Bernard Erhard - Cy-Kill
- Marilyn Lightstone - Crasher, Path Finder
- Bob Holt - Cop-Tur
- Morgan Paull - Matt Hunter
- Sparky Marcus - Nick Burns
- Leslie Speights - A.J. Foster
- René Auberjonois - Dr. Braxis
- Ken Campbell - Van Guard
- Philip L. Clarke - Dr. Go, Tork
- Peter Cullen - Pincher, Spoiler, Tank
- Paul Eiding - Scorp
- Phil Hartman - Baron Von Joy
- Richard Gautier - Bugsie
- Brock Peters - General Newcastle
- Peter Renaday - Master Renegade
- Lou Richards, Jr. - Leader-1
- B.J. Ward - Small Foot
- Kelly Ward - Fitor
- Kirby Ward - Heat Seeker
Production credits
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- Executive Producers: Joseph Barbera and William Hanna
- Co-Executive Producer: Joe Taritero
- Producer: Kay Wright
- Associate Producer: Lew Saw
- Creative Supervisor and Story Editor: Jeff Segal
- Associate Story Editor: Kelly Ward
- Supervising Director: Ray Patterson
- Directors: Art Davis, Oscar Dufau, Volus Jones, Don Lusk, Rudy Zamora, Alan Zaslove
- Assistant Directors: Robert Goe, Bill Hutton, Rick Leon, Tony Love, Don Patterson, Tim Walker
- For the Tonka Corporation
- Executive Producer: Patrick S. Feely
- Producer: Lois Hanrahan
- Co-Producer: Ray McDonald
- Story Direction: Robert Taylor, Kent Butterworth, Roy Wilson, Rhoydon Shishido, Michael Swainigan, Peter Von Sholly, Rich Chidlaw, Larry Latham, Marijah Dial, Dale Barnhart, Tom Sito, George Scribner, Bill Kroyer
- Recording Director: Gordon Hunt
- Assistant Casting Director: Andrea Romano
- Voices: Adrienne Alexander, Lewis Arquette, Rene Auberjonois, Bever-Leigh Banfield, Jared Barclay, Eddie Barth, Steve Bulen, Arthur Burghardt, Howard Caine, Bill Callaway, Ken Campbell, Philip Lewis Clarke, Selette Cole, Henry Corden, Regis Cordic, Peter Cullen, Jennifer Darling, Jerry Dexter, George DiCenzo, Richard Dysart, Paul Eiding, Richard Gautier, Phillip Hartmann, Darryl Hickman, Bob Holt, Erv Immeman, David Jolliffe, Zale Kessler, Peter Leeds, Marilyn Lightstone, Norma MacMillan, Tress MacNeille, Sparky Marcus, Ken Mars, Gail Matthius, Bill Martin, Walter Matthews, Amanda McBroom, Joe Medalis, Allan Melvin, Scott Menville, Sidney Miller, Noelle North, Soon-Teck Oh, Alan Oppenheimer, Laurel Page, Morgan Paull, Rob Paulsen, Brock Peters, Peter Renaday, Lou Richards, Bob Ridgely, Josh Rodine, Shavar Ross, Marilyn Schreffler, Michael Sheehan, Leslie Speights, Andre Stojka, Steve Susskind, Mark Taylor, Brian Tochi, Les Tremayne, Manu Tupou, B.J. Ward, Kelly Ward, Kirby Ward, Jimmy Weldon, Frank Welker, Eric Williams, Keone Young, Ted Zeigler
- Title: Bill Perez
- Graphics: Iraj Peran, Tom Wogatzke
- Music Arranged and Conducted By: Hoyt Curtin
- Music Supervisor: Paul DeKorte
- Design Supervisor: Davis Doi
- Character Design: Michael McHugh & Tony Sgroi
- Background Color Key: Eric Heschrong
- Background Supervisor: Al Gmuer
- Background Artists: Eric Heschrong, Mike Humphries, James Hegdus
- Produced and Associated with Cuckoos Nest, Wang Film Productions Co., LTD
- Production Supervisor: Lynn Hoag
- Technical Advisor: Bob Marples
- Animation Supervisors: Richard Bowman, Gary Hurst, William Kitchen, Mark Simon
- Sound Directors: Alvy Dorman, Phil Flad
- Supervising Film Editor: Larry C. Cowman
- Dubbing Supervisor: Pat Foley
- Supervising Music Editor: Joe Sandusky
- Supervising Effects Editors: Michael Bradley, Kerry Williams
- Music and Effects: Vitello and Associates
- Show Editor: Gil Iverson
- Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
- Post-Production Supervisor: Joed Eaton
- Executives in Charge of Production: Jayne Barbera and Jean MacCurdy
- A Hanna-Barbera Production
- This Picture Made Under the Jurisdiction of IATSE-IA Affiliated with A.F.L.-C.I.O.
- © Copyright 1985 Hanna Barbera Productions, Inc. All rights reserved
- Go-Bots names, characters and properity ® and © Copyright 1985 Tonka Corporation All rights reserved
Home Media releases
On May 17, 2011, Warner Archive released Challenge of the GoBots - The Original Mini-Series on DVD in Region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection.[3][4] This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.[5] On May 6, 2014, Warner Archive released Challenge of the GoBots- The Series, Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1.[6] The three-disc set features the first 30 episodes of the series. The final volume Challenge of the GoBots- The Series, Volume 2, which contains the last remaining 30 episodes of the show, was released on March 10, 2015.[7] The 1984 Ruby-Spears television film, Robo Force: The Revenge of Nazgar, is included as a special feature.[citation needed]
Adaptations
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. A theatrical film version of the show Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords was released in 1986, one month before The Transformers: The Movie.[original research?] Clips from the show were also used in Errol Morris's Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.[8]
See also
References
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External links
- Challenge of The Gobots: The Original Miniseries at WBshop.com
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Challenge of the GoBots at IMDb
- Challenge of the GoBots at TV.comLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015
- Articles that may contain original research from August 2015
- 1984 American television series debuts
- 1985 American television series endings
- 1980s American animated television series
- American science fiction television series
- Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Television series by Hasbro Studios
- Television series by Warner Bros. Television
- Hanna-Barbera series and characters
- The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera
- First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
- Gobots
- Robots in television
- Animated space adventure television series
- Transformers animation
- USA Cartoon Express
- Works based on Hasbro toys