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Oddly it seems almost no one has heard of this film! It did it's short cinema run and then basically vanished. The director also co-wrote the screenplay for Krull, even though this is nothing like that in tone or execution. As a kid I just liked the robots and crazy going on and as an adult, wow, there's so much that went over my head : )

Oh it cost more than three bucks. But not much more : )

It's only of the many voices I do really, really badly hahaha

@@Avon-Fox You did fine imo. I used to watch that cartoon as a kid and imo you did ok. I recognized it as him.

Yes, this is my flesh and what my lung air sounds like. : ) Happily breaking the stereotype that all of Australia sounds the same.

@@Avon-Fox I've been told Australia has different accents, yes and that there's not just one Australian accent.

Granted we’ve only ever seen the one individually packaged, but it is likely the other two were also released on single cardback

They certainly did! And Dinosaurs as well as 'safari animals'.

Right?!?

Absolutely! It's one of those lines where I'd love to see the prototypes and deign sketches that didn't go to production. I'm sure there would have been some wild things that just weren't financially viable.

Couldn't agree more!

It's very much the feeling behind the tongue in cheek, 'screw the Transformers'. TFs are great, however often the 'big lines' don't get those one or two real gems of robots that came out of the need to innovate to grab attention.

Glad you found us and hope you enjoy!

To be honest, this was all Screwhead's idea. I was dragged screaming in front of the camera. Still, we're here now so let's make some nonsense! : )

Such a bad great movie!

Stay tuned for more withering! The next episode is almost in the can!

I know way too much about four star and the glory of transistor robots. I’ll try and talk avon into doing an episode on then one day 😁

They are the real American robot

It's when you ask for Zybots and Mum says, we have Zybots at home... don't go home. Just run.

Did you see part 1?

@@ScrewheadAFPodcast I did. I have been waiting for this one with bated breath. It's still not enough to satisfy me. 😂

Hahahaha

Maybe we can squeeze some more gold from the real American robots. Stay tuned!

@@ScrewheadAFPodcast DON'T PROMISE THAT! Uuugh! I guess we can find some more info nuggets!

Thanks!

Right?!?

Which thing? I’m kidding, the only amazing thing in that episode is the omega voltron 😁

Putting it on the list 😉

This will happen! If not separately, as part of some Machine Robo, Gobots (and related) multi-part episodes. They're going to need some actual thought to tackle : )

We’ll do a close up in one of our next episodes 😁

That was my thought too

Wait until part 2…. You’ll be all into getting more zybots 😁

I wish I'd had this sane thought 10 years ago!

@@ScrewheadAFPodcast CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Not sure how interesting it would be 😁, just a lot of googling and paperwork research, but I will put it on the list 😁👍🏻

Oh that's easy! No social life, OCD and a fetish for minutia ;)

Back the robot to school 😁

They were quite prolific for a couple years and then faded back

Soooo thanks TGP Robot! The hero we didn't know we needed.

Well even more granular, the Tonka approach didn't technically apply to Robo Machine and Machine Men. In part yes, however as they distributed direct by Bandai it was more so Bandai making coin on an international market they'd failed to get a foothold on in the US. Their marketing in the rest of the world, simple cards and character names (to start with) just didn't fly in the US. Bandai (possibly with some compensation to Tonka) rode the marketing campaign benefits of Challenge of the Gobots in non US regions. They knew they could end the lines any time they wanted and would definitely have had their finger on the pulse to see how it was going post them wanting to wind the line up in Japan. If Tonka kept doing the legwork for them marketing wise, even outside the US simply by Hanna Babera on-selling their cartoon outside the US then they'd be made not to keep it going while it still offset the cost of freight, manufacture and overall continued investment risk.

"while Transformers worked on a longer term approach" - This proved true with the gobots movie imo it was rushed and they could have waited and made a good story about rocklords but they didn't.

@@Crasher1982The movies show how their different strategies affected the cartoons in a nutshell. HB could produce a movie (or a series for that matter) quickly and cheaply, ideal for a company that wants to grab money while the grabbing is good. The more ornate style of Transformers (to say nothing of more ornate musical score and more expensive voice talent in the movie) would have taken longer to produce and cost more to do, but worth it if you were playing a longer term strategy (which they showed they were doing by eliminating virtually all the old characters and replacing them with new ones). Ironically, both movies failed in their objective to sell new toy lines; transformers had to bring back many of the characters they had removed because the old ones didn't sell as well as they did, and Rock Lords did not seem to get off the ground :(

@@blakm3516Agreed, the movies prove your point for sure about TF's using the longer term approach. Gobots movie looks like it was rushed and it shows.

@@Crasher1982I think also they went to HB for it because they they were cheap because this was the industry standard. The whole, using cartoons to sell toys was largely a new thing, mostly driven by MOTU's success after launch in the 3rd quarter of 1983. If you think about that president, these 'advert cartoons' were mostly made cheaply by companies such as Filmation. Tonka's distribution of Gobots was very regionally isolated to North America and some in the UK. So beyond that they weren't going to see much return from production because Bandai were doing the rest of global distribution AND benefiting from the cartoon. That and in Japan, Bandai were selling their toys as Machine Robo, not Gobots. The Takara/Hasbro deal was very different. Takara rebranded their old toys Transformers, the cartoon was made in Japan and Korea and translated into Japanese with global distribution largely handled by Hasbro. So the investment from Hasbro's point of view was worth throwing a few more bucks at. So the relationship was very different with Bandai really only engaging Tonka as a broker with local knowledge of the US market to do the lifting while Hasbro/Takara was a partnership and more broadly helped both.

They're so good. They're borderline indestructible!

Exoskeleton creatures immediately makes sense as robot versions far more than... oh say a truck that's suddenly an ape. ;)

Oh God don't encourage him! Uuuugh, you know now Tom will make a return one day 😂

I pronounce it "Neesh" so my grammar is already wrong :). Thanks for the comment!!!

Oh you can stay! I'm painting you a personal parking space while typing this.

Thanks! We are trying for as much accuracy as we can get!

Cheers! It bothered me significantly too! And I said it!

Glad you enjoy it!

Thanks! Do feel free to share once we get something up relevant to your pages. 😉

The world needs this!