Go-Bots

The original Go-bots were Transformers main competitors back in the 1980s. The show tended to be more cartoony and kiddy, the toys were generally smaller and simpler (but also more affordable).

Post-1980s Hasbro aquired the name Go-Bots and the character names but not the toys themselves which are owned by the Japanese company Bandai. Since Hasbro has used some of it officially in Transformers.

The first Go-Bots was a G2 transformer with water-squirting weapons.

Then the name Go-Bots became attached to a line of transforming cars in the style of Matchbox/Hot Wheel cars. These were later reused in Robots in Disguise as Spychangers.

Megatron(UT)'s minicon Leader-1 borrows the name of the Guardian Go-bot's leader.

Hasbro flirted with naming Unicron's moon Gobotron after the Go-bot's homeworld, but passed.

Takara released an E-Hobby exclusive set of recolored Autobot Minibots renamed as Go-bots characters. The intention was to have them BE those characters infiltrating the TF universe. Takara got skitish at using characters based on toys from other companies and left out the backstory at the last moment.

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