History WesternAnimation / ChallengeOfTheGoBots

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: Yes, the Cold War is still going on in this near future. Nobody in the '80s expected it to end as it did, so this is totally forgivable.

Then in 2018, Creator/IDWPublishing released a 5-part comics miniseries, ''ComicBook/{{Gobots}}'' written and drawn by [[Webcomic/AmericanBarbarian Tom Scioli]] of ''Comicbook/TransformersVsGIJoe'' fame, which ushered in a drastically different new continuity. The series features the characters from the Hanna-Barbera TV series (both humans and Gobots) but significantly reimagined. In this series, Gobots are human-built sentient robots. Designed as ThreeLawsCompliant servant robots, a faction led by Cy-Kill has gone renegade and [[RobotWar started warring on humanity.]] Then, halfway through the series, there's a [[spoiler:TimeSkip to many centuries after the [=GoBots=] have won and mankind is all but extinct. And at the end, it's revealed Gobotron may be the first incarnation of ''Transformers''' Primus, [[CanonWelding going on to create]] the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' multiverse.]]

The series dealt with two opposing forces of [[TransformingMecha transforming robots]] from the planet Gobotron: the heroic Guardians and the evil Renegades. The Guardians were led by Leader-1, accompanied by Turbo and Scooter. The Renegades were led by the evil Cy-Kill, with Crasher and Cop-Tur among their ranks. The characters rarely had guns, instead shooting energy blasts out of their fists.

Despite the tagline of "Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles", the [=GoBots=] were in fact {{Cyborg}}s - alien humanoids who transferred their brains into robot bodies after their civil war had ruined their planet's biosphere. The Guardians then began converting the otherwise-dead world into a completely metal-sheathed CityPlanet, breaking up entire uninhabited worldlets for the necessary materials. At the time of the series, this massive construction effort was still ongoing, accounting for the metal world's peculiar "apple-core" shape. The [=GoBots=]' origin as organic beings accounted for the presence of genders among the characters - in fact, ''[=GoBots=]'' stood out among 80's cartoons for having a diverse cast: not only did the show include more female characters than the original ''Transformers'', it also included a woman of colour as a major protagonist!

The series generally focused on the "lead" three robots from each faction (Leader-1, Turbo and Scooter vs. Cy-Kill, Cop-Tur and Crasher), who were virtually ever-present. Other characters seemed to rotate in "guest-star" roles. [=GoBots=] had no clear divide between the two factions. The characters, as well as the toys, had no identifying insignias or markings to indicate their allegiance, although it was clearly indicated on the packaging. Likewise, there was no commonality of design within each faction. The only "themes" to a faction were that anything that turned into a monstrous-looking robot or vehicle was a Renegade and their type of voice: the Guardians had booming, echoing voices while the Renegades had a more electronic sound to them.

* BigBrotherMentor: Matt to Nick and A.J.

* ColonyDrop: Basically the reason of [=GoBots=] cyborg existence - during the early stages of the civil war, Renegades redirected the mining asteroid toward already war-damaged Gobotron. Armageddon didn't help them much, though.

* EscapeBattleTechnique: The "Astro-Beam" used for ultra-long-range teleportation reverses itself after a certain period, and the bad guys are simply not there any more.
** That said, the Astro-Beam's effects would sometime wear off at the worst possible time, such as the time a Guardian summoned was trying to hold a door shut against attacking intruders. When he realised the Astro-Beam was wearing off, he only had time to apologise before he was sent back to Gobotron and the invaders broke through.

* FantasticNuke: Sorium.

* FemBot: Averted. Except for their faces, both sexes' prosthetic robot bodies appear genderless. Except Crasher, sort of.
* [[FingerGun Fist Gun]]: [=GoBots=] tend to fight each other by firing lasers from their fists.

* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: Scooter tries replacing his hologram projector with a standard [[RayGun blaster.]] He discovers he isn't nearly as effective without his [[MasterOfIllusion illusion-casting powers,]] and quickly switches back.
** In the meantime, he gets out of a jam by remembering he still has his RequiredSecondaryPower as a VoiceChangeling.

* FlyingSaucer: Pathfinder's alt mode.

* ImposterForgotOneDetail: In "Tarnished Image", the Renegades disguise themselves as the Guardians to ruin the heroes' reputation on Earth. Unfortunately for the Renegades, Crasher (disguised as Scooter) makes the mistake of using her blasters - which the real Scooter does not have. This is what enables the Guardians to clear their names.

* {{Retcon}}: ''Ask Vector Prime'' and ''Renegade Rhetoric'' provided some interesting tweaks to the [=GoBots=] mythology in order to strengthen its ties to the ''Transformers'' universe. The "Evil One", a demigod-esque [=GoBot=] from "In Search of Ancient Gobonauts", was revealed to be an incarnation of The Fallen - you might know him as the guy from the 2009 movie. The Renegade Stretch was likewise revealed to be a Decepticon who had fallen out of the ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' universe and wound up on Gobotron.

There are a few {{Alternate Continuit|y}}ies for the franchise. A British [[NewspaperComics comic strip]] called ''Robo Machines'' appeared in the periodical ''Eagle'' from November of '84 to July of '85, featuring a radically different storyline ([[{{Wiki/Wikipedia}} the other wiki]] has information [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robo_Machines_(comic) here.)]] In France, where the American show had been quite popular, the Japanese ''Machine Robo'' series was used as a second season, despite the drastic ArtShift between the series.

* SequelHook: The movie ''Battle of the Rock Lords'' ends with Magmar still alive and vowing revenge as well as Boulder stating that he's certain they'll meet the Guardians again someday.

* SomethingWeForgot: "The Seer" ends with the Guardians leaving and unknowingly leaving behind Van Guard, who is stuck in a tar pit.

* CyberCyclops: Destroyer

* ToylessToylineCharacter: The cartoon had two notable [=GoBots=] who did not have their own toys.

In 2015, Facebook's "Ask Vector Prime" feature was temporarily usurped by "Renegade Rhetoric", hosted by Cy-Kill himself. The feature was decidedly tongue-in-cheek, as Cy-Kill was more than happy to take potshots at the Transformers universe. The bulk of the answers described plots for a "season 2" of ''Challenge of the [=GoBots=]'', produced in an alternate reality.

** The ''Renegade Rhetoric'' edition of the ''Ask Vector Prime'' Facebook page would serve as a spiritual second season to the cartoon, having the premise of Cy-Kill winding up on the [=TransTech=] homeworld of Axiom Nexus, and quickly setting about trying to take advantage of it while fulfilling the duties of answering questions in Vector Prime's stead and describing events that happened after the ''Battle of the Rock Lords'' movie before his acts of destruction on Axiom Nexus forced him to leave to his home dimension (but not without gathering recruits that happened to consist of [=GoBots=] toys who never appeared on the cartoon), afterwards he continued ''Renegade Rhetoric'' as its own separate Facebook page, with the final story shared by the Renegades leader being a two-parter titled "Combiner Wars" (wherein the humans, the Guardians and the benign Rock Lords formed a peace treaty between Earth, Gobotron and Quartex while Cy-Kill and Magmar were forced to go into hiding after the Guardians prevailed in a battle involving the Renegade combiners Puzzler, Monsterous and Nemesis).

* TeleportersAndTransporters: The Astrobeam can be considered this franchise's equivalent to the Space Bridges of ''Transformers'', as they are used to teleport [=GoBots=] and their allies across time and space.

The [=GoBots=] were largely forgotten, even after Hasbro bought Tonka in 1991. By the mid 2000s, the ''Transformers'' toyline and ancillary fiction began incorporating a few sly winks to its old competitor. In 2010, it was finally declared that the [=GoBots=] were, in fact, [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/GoBots_(franchise) actually part]] [[CanonWelding of the ''Transformers'' multiverse]], albeit very distant analogues- and that two [=GoBots=] were dimension-hopping Transformers (Fun Publications' prose stories for ''Transformers Timelines'' had Bug Bite join the Decepticons after gaining a new body that resembled a white version of the Autobot Bumblebee, while supplementary material for ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' established that Porter C. Powell's limo was transformed into the Renegade Stretch by an [=AllSpark=] fragment before Powell and Isaac Sumdac got rid of him by teleporting him to the ''[=GoBots=]'' universe).

* TeleportersAndTransporters: The Astrobeam.

* FullyAbsorbedFinale:
** Decades after the show's end, Fun Publications used their Transformers Timelines prose stories to provide a spiritual finale for ''[=GoBots=]'' where some of them traveled through the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' multiverse (mainly the ''Franchise/TransformersClassics'' one, with a quick stop by the ''ComicBook/TransformersTransTech'' universe first) to try and save Gobotron from a Cataclysm that threatened their world. The arc was ultimately wrapped up in the story "Spatiotemporal Challengers Part 4: Last Sunset", where Small Foot and Solarbot sacrificed themselves to end the Cataclysm and the Guardians celebrated this new age of peace while also preparing for the Renegades' inevitable resuming of attacks.

** The ''Renegade Rhetoric'' edition of the ''Ask Vector Prime'' Facebook page would serve as a spiritual second season to the cartoon, having the premise of Cy-Kill winding up on the [=TransTech=] homeworld of Axiom Nexus, and quickly setting about trying to take advantage of it while fulfilling the duties of asking questions in Vector Prime's stead and describing events that happened after the ''Battle of the Rock Lords'' movie before his acts of destruction on Axiom Nexus forced him to leave to his home dimension (but not without gathering recruits that happened to consist of [=GoBots=] toys who never appeared on the cartoon), afterwards he continued ''Renegade Rhetoric'' as its own separate Facebook page, with the final story shared by the Renegades leader being a two-parter titled "Combiner Wars" (wherein the humans, the Guardians and the benign Rock Lords formed a peace treaty between Earth, Gobotron and Quartex while Cy-Kill and Magmar were forced to go into hiding after the Guardians prevailed in a battle involving the Renegade combiners Puzzler, Monsterous and Nemesis).

** The ''Renegade Rhetoric'' Facebook page would serve as a spiritual second season to the cartoon, having the premise of Cy-Kill winding up on the [=TransTech=] homeworld of Axiom Nexus, and quickly setting about trying to take advantage of it while fulfilling the duties of asking questions in Vector Prime's stead and describing events that happened after the ''Battle of the Rock Lords'' movie before his acts of destruction on Axiom Nexus forced him to leave to his home dimension (but not without gathering recruits that happened to consist of [=GoBots=] toys who never appeared on the cartoon), afterwards he continued ''Renegade Rhetoric'' as its own separate Facebook page, with the final story shared by the Renegades leader being a two-parter titled "Combiner Wars" (wherein the humans, the Guardians and the benign Rock Lords formed a peace treaty between Earth, Gobotron and Quartex while Cy-Kill and Magmar were forced to go into hiding after the Guardians prevailed in a battle involving the Renegade combiners Puzzler, Monsterous and Nemesis).

** Cy-Kill himself would wind up on the [=TransTech=] homeworld of Axiom Nexus, and quickly set about trying to take advantage of it. He successfully recruits several Transformers into his Renegades (coincidentally toys that never made an appearance on the cartoon) before fleeing back to his own universe with his new troops in tow.

* {{Cyborg}}: The [=GoBots=] in general; but also the Last Engineer, who still looks human but with bionic bits.

** Decades after the show's end, the actual [=GoBots=] from the show travelled to various ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' universe (mainly the ''Franchise/TransformersClassics'' one, with a quick stop by the ''ComicBook/TransformersTransTech'' universe first).

Then in 2018, Creator/IDWPublishing released a 5-part comics miniseries, ''ComicBook/{{Gobots}}'' written and drawn by [[Webcomic/AmericanBarbarian Tom Scioli]] of ''Comicbook/TransformersVsGIJoe'' fame, which ushered in a drastically different new continuity. The series features the characters from the Hanna-Barbera TV series (both humans and Gobots) but significantly reimagined. In this series, Gobots are human-built sentient robots. Designed as ThreeLawsCompliant servant robots, a faction led by Cy-Kill has gone renegade and [[RobotWar started warring on humanity.]] Then, halfway through the series, there's a [[spoiler:TimeSkip to many centuries after the [=GoBots=] have won and mankind is all but extinct. And at the end, it's revealed Gobotron may be the first incarnation of ''Transformers''' Primus, [[ArcWelding going on to create]] the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' multiverse.]]

Then in 2018, Creator/IDWPublishing released a 5-part comics miniseries, ''[[Comicbook/{{GoBots}} GoBots,]]'' written and drawn by [[Webcomic/AmericanBarbarian Tom Scioli]] of ''Comicbook/TransformersVsGIJoe'' fame, which ushered in a drastically different new continuity. The series features the characters from the Hanna-Barbera TV series (both humans and Gobots) but significantly reimagined. In this series, Gobots are human-built sentient robots. Designed as ThreeLawsCompliant servant robots, a faction led by Cy-Kill has gone renegade and [[RobotWar started warring on humanity.]] Then, halfway through the series, there's a [[spoiler:TimeSkip to many centuries after the [=GoBots=] have won and mankind is all but extinct. And at the end, it's revealed Gobotron may be the first incarnation of ''Transformers''' Primus, [[ArcWelding going on to create]] the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' multiverse.]]

The [=GoBots=] were largely forgotten, even after Hasbro bought Tonka in 1991. By the mid 2000s, the ''Transformers'' toyline and ancillary fiction began incorporating a few sly winks to its old competitor. In 2010, it was finally declared that the [=GoBots=] were, in fact, [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/GoBots_(franchise) actually part]] [[CanonWelding of the ''Transformers'' multiverse]], albeit very distant analogues- and that two [=GoBots=] were dimension-hopping Transformers (Fun Publications' prose stories for ''Transformers Timelines'' had Bug Bite join the Decepticons after gaining a new body that resembled a white version of the Autobot Bumblebe, while supplementary material for ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' established that Porter C. Powell's limo was transformed into the Renegade Stretch by an [=AllSpark=] fragment before Powell and Isaac Sumdac got rid of him by teleporting him to the ''[=GoBots=]'' universe).