I PASSED THE CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS!!!

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
Cliffjumper
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I PASSED THE CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS!!!

Post by Cliffjumper »

Jesus, I never want to have to do that again. Still, I believe that's the first in-depth episode guide of the series ever done, and I await some sort of Nobel Prize for cultural contribution is surely due for that.
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Sades
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Post by Sades »

Here you go.

But for serious- that's impressive; more than I would do. I'm gonna go see.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Are you sure Gobots was never on ITV? We used to set the video the night before as the cartoons we were interested in tended to be on a bit early (6ish?) and I'm fairly sure we tapped Gobots a fair few times. I remember it well as I was always disappointed it wasn't Transformers. Or am I mad?
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Post by martyboy70 »

I seem to remember seeing it too.
It would need to be ITV as the BEEB had a policy of not showing cartoons based on a toyline.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I've got a feeling it was in with Timmy Mallet at some point.

This vague reminiscing is citation enough isn't it?

EDIT: My parents couldn't actually tell the difference between giant robot toy based cartoons so of the disappointment was from them telling us it was Transformers on the next mourning...
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DrSpengler
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Post by DrSpengler »

I .
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Yeh, "Et Tu, Cy-Kill" is one of my favourites. It's on THE TUBE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dMS0m6crM8 There are about a dozen or so episodes I'd rate as interesting or good enough to hold the attention, but a lot are terrible. Not your "Carnage in C-Minor" so-lame-it's-funny terrible, just boring and unimaginative.

And you're right on most counts. The best episodes are generally the ones set on Gobotron, with minimal human involvement, but the whole thing is hamstrung by the style being so deadful, both in terms of animation, and just the general storytelling style, where anything good happens in spite of the rest of it. The show's just so ****ed on a base level - the cops and robbers format, the way the six regulars are largely unlikable and don't develop despite being in sixty-odd episodes each (Crasher's real funny if you slap on Battle of the Rock Lords every now and then - watch her doing the same thing for 63 episodes, and it wears a bit thin), the recycled plots...

I'd say Wiki-ing it could be tortuous due to the way most of the episodes completely fail to connect - I'm moderately sure the whole backstory contradicts itself a couple of times ("In Search of Ancient Gobonauts", for example, drops that they've been going to Earth for years and years out of nowhere, and while I don't think it's flatly contradicted, it certainly goes against the gist of the first episode) and doesn't quite hang together, and the open-ended standard web format means I don't have to poke the scaffolding too much.

The curious thing about the animation is there are considerably fewer errors than in Transformers - palette swaps and the like are next to non-existent. But when they do happen, they're a massive problem like a character turning up with an unignorable speaking part in a time or place they can't possibly be with no real way to fudge out of things. Some of the character profiles were murder - a lot of these guys have no personality however far you reach, with no bio cards from toys or whatever to help either, and a lot of entries would be "This Renegade hung around while Cy-Kill did this; This Renegade hung around while Cy-Kill did that; This Renegade hung around while Cy-Kill did something else".

About the only thing that really kept me going is that I'm a fan of the toyline, so appearances by someone like Snoop or Von Joy whose toys I love sort of makes an episode worthwhile.

Re: ITV, I'll get that put in later :) Find out solid information about what was actually shown in some of those Saturday morning blocks is tricky stuff.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Though be warned, my main memory of "The Other Gobots Movie [The One Without Rocklords]" is that the bit with Cy-Kill escaping prison through a load of dead bodies was, like, the whole show and was awesome. Based on your guide this takes up about five minuets of the whole five part story. :(
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Post by Denyer »

Cliffjumper wrote: I PASSED THE CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS!!!
Nobody's made a "so you're to blame for this shit" joke yet?
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Post by Auntie Slag »

inflatable dalek wrote:I've got a feeling it was in with Timmy Mallet at some point.

This vague reminiscing is citation enough isn't it?
Yeah it was Timmy Mallet. He used to interchange between Transformers and Go-bots. Just before the five minute episode he would proclaim "Go-bots gooo botty!"

I remember it well because it sounded so lame.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Auntie Slag wrote:Yeah it was Timmy Mallet. He used to interchange between Transformers and Go-bots. Just before the five minute episode he would proclaim "Go-bots gooo botty!"

I remember it well because it sounded so lame.
Oh come on, that's the most awesomey thing ever. I hope when he's doing the student clubs he livens up the odd game of Mallet's Mallet by shouting it out. Did he have a catchphrase for Transformers as well?

Pat Sharp apparently does the student circuit as well, but without the twins what's the point?

EDIT: Actually, perhaps with Battle For Gobotron I'm remembering the WAKADAY showing and as such that five minuets was the whole show?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

inflatable dalek wrote:Though be warned, my main memory of "The Other Gobots Movie [The One Without Rocklords]" is that the bit with Cy-Kill escaping prison through a load of dead bodies was, like, the whole show and was awesome. Based on your guide this takes up about five minuets of the whole five part story. :(
More like two, and they're not even dead... Plus Cy-Kill breaks free by pulling his wheels from his shoulders and throwing them at the guards (this is about 4% cool as what you're thinking now - they don't double as ninja death stars or anything, they're just wheels).
Denyer wrote:Nobody's made a "so you're to blame for this shit" joke yet?
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Post by Halfshell »

Well done, sir. You are a credit to humanity. By undertaking this task, you have ensured that nobody else ever has to.

Good for you.

... no, I couldn't find a way that wasn't massively condescending and/or patronising. :)
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Post by Hound »

I'm totally going to watch all of Gobots and make my own episode guide just so you're not the only one to have done it. :p

Actually no, no I'm not.

Now that I think of it, I've gone to great lengths to locate and purchase or download a great many of the cartoons that I watched and loved in my youth and I do remember watching and enjoying Gobots but I've never had any desire to rewatch the cartoon now that I'm an adult. I wonder why that is...
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Post by Sades »

You guys are all effin' crazy. I loved the Gobots.
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Post by Shrapnel Clone »

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The Germans were right.

My mom used to get one of the Gobots tapes from our video rental once in a while. I'm going to use the guide to figure out what was on it. Cheers Cliff!

EDIT: At appears to have been the pilot. I watched a bit of it on youtube, and wish I had not. Some memories are best left as just that, memories.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

No worries :) Thanks for the kind words from everyone.

Someone in the Allspark threead wanted an upload of "The Gobots That Time Forgotten", one of the better (i.e. slightly above average) episodes. If you too want to download this televisual feast, click on this here link: -

http://counter-x.blogspot.com/2010/05/c ... -time.html
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I've followed your Counter-X site for a while now, and I've always loved your Gobots reviews. It did lead me to tracking down a load of the toys (which I had to sell, sadly, as I had no space), but I could not bring myself to watch the cartoon. I found the 'Challenge Of The Gobots' VHS tape (like 'Arrival From Cybertron', its the first few episodes stitched together in an overlong 'movie' format) in my late teens, and it was rubbish.

You surely do desrve an award for watching an entire run of such senseless mediocrity.

P.S. Thanks also for the Robo Machine Wedge recommendation. I've held onto that and its an awesome, awesome book :swirly:
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Post by skywarp408 »

Love to see this whole series in dvd quality. I think ive seen all episodes up to 13 and the movie. Heres a poster I got last year.

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Post by Halfshell »

GoBOTRON?
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