GOBOTS IN STARLOG MAGAZINE ISSUE 106

From May 1986: the OTHER giant robot animated movie of the year - GOBOTS: WAR OF THE ROCK LORDS gets some coverage in the pages of STARLOG issue 106.

This is the joy of picking up cheap back issues of 'the log' when they occasionally surface (yup, I know they are all online but it's not the same somehow)... finding articles on long-forgotten projects which haven't been elevated into the cultural zeitgeist.

1986: EAGLE FEBRUARY COVER GALLERY (IPC)

Ever felt like you're being eased out of something?  THE TIGER must have started to have a few suspicions in February 1986 when the EAGLE masthead was suddenly redesigned, significantly reducing Tiger's logo in the process.  The coming together of equals was starting to look like just another merger.

The cover of issue 204 was pretty shameless.  Not only does the colouring of the "rogue robots" text look suspiciously like the logo of a well known giant robot toy line (whose comics license resided elsewhere) but Dan's nemesis is obviously one of the ROBO-MACHINES.  Shame.  Shame.  Shame.

Issue 205 featured a free cardboard boomerang which - if my memory serves - was fairly useless.

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1984: THE ROBO MACHINES PART TWO (EAGLE)

The ROBO MACHINES reach Earth!

I'm not intending to post all of the RM strips from EAGLE but I've scanned the first few weeks worth by way of an introduction to the less well remember rival to THE TRANSFORMERS.

This is Part two, originally published in EAGLE cover-dated 17 November 1984.

1984: THE ROBO MACHINES - PART ONE (EAGLE)

I previewed this, using the full-page previews from the preceding three weeks of the EAGLE, a few days ago, and now here it is: the first chapter of THE ROBO MACHINES.  Hurrah.

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of the Marvel (comics or animated) origins of THE TRANSFORMERS will spot many similarities.  Whether this was a conscious effort to offer a TF clone to lure back defecting readers or whether it just shows a distinct lack of ideas about what to do with giant robots that turn into cars (and stuff) is open to interpretation.  

This first appeared in EAGLE cover-dated 10 November 1984 and has never been reprinted.

1984: EAGLE ROBO MACHINES PREVIEW (IPC)

Marvel UK launched THE TRANSFORMERS, initially on a fortnightly schedule, in September 1984, hot on the heels of the US limited series (which supplied the main strip for the first eight issues).  Bolstered by the buzz surrounding the toy line, and plugged in a series of TV spots bankrolled by Hasbro, the new title was an immediate success (and swiftly redefined Marvel UK's publishing strategy).

IPC and EAGLE were surprisingly quick-off-the-mark to get their own giant robots strip up-and-running.  The first instalment appeared in the issue cover-dated 10 November 1984 after several weeks of full-page previews.

ROBO MACHINES were the British incarnation of GOBOTS and herein lay a problem.  Hasbro were able to leverage a global marketing plan, incorporating an animated series and comic books, to support their giant robots whereas their rival was far more piecemeal.  

The (pretty dire) GOBOTS animated series did reach the UK courtesy of TV-am (which also aired The Transformers animated show) but, other than feature the same characters and toy designs, bore no resemblance to Eagle's interpretation of the franchise.

Followers of giant robot action seem to have overlooked this strip which is a shame... but hardly surprising.

The RM's actually made their IPC debut, more than a year earlier, on the front cover of 2000AD 329.  I posted it here.

I'll be posting more RM action in the near future.

1984: EAGLE NOVEMBER ISSUES (IPC)

Here's another month of EAGLE covers as we approach the end of 1984.

The big news during November, other than a free 'stinky sticker' was the arrival of the ROBO-MACHINES, only weeks after the rival giant robot franchise THE TRANSFORMERS opened for business across the river at Redan Place.

1986: CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS

Here's a US print advert (published in comics cover-dated February 1986) for the syndicated transforming-robots show CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS.

This Hanna Barbera produced show, created to sell Tonka's imported toys (known as Machine Robo in their native Japan), really was poor.  The animation was simplistic and crappy, the scripts poor (even by animated show standards) and production standards non-existent.  Despite these obvious shortcomings, Britain's breakfast broadcaster TV-am seemed to favour this show above the rival - and vastly superior - Hasbro/ Marvel THE TRANSFORMERS show, which it also aired in the UK.

TV-am chopped-up GOBOTS episodes into five-minute chunks and stripped them across a week as part of their school holidays-only daily show WACADAY, hosted by Timmy Mallett.  They'd previously done the same with Marvel's show (and later reran them - relatively - intact at weekends) but, much to the annoyance of Transfans, swiftly seemed to favour this (clearly inferior) show.

Perhaps H-B cut TV-am a better deal.  Or - possibly - the breakfast station felt more comfortable airing the Gobots because its toy association was a little less blatant.  The Gobots toys were sold as ROBO MACHINES in the UK and - possibly - TV-am felt it was less of a blatant plug for the toys.  TV-am's roster of kids shows also included JEM, CARE BEARS, THE GET-ALONG GANG and M.A.S.K which - maybe - made them sensitive to acquisitions that they were operating as an extension of toy companies marketing departments.

The TV show ran to 65-episodes, stripped daily by local stations in the States.  It's likely TV-am only bought a fraction of the available shows (one episode did, after all, last a week in the UK!) and most will never have been seen on this side of the Atlantic.  

Challenge of the Gobots even managed to spawn a spin-off: the long-forgotten GOBOTS: BATTLE OF THE ROCKLORDS animated feature film.  Cursed with the same production standards as the small-screen version (indeed, it was originally created for TV and suddenly upgraded as an opportunist big screen release) - and designed to sell a crappy toy idea (robots that transform into - err - rocks!) - the movie made barely a dent on popular culture when it was released in 1986, the same year as TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE.

A ROBO MACHINES strip briefly appeared in IPC's EAGLE.  Although it featured the some of the same characters, the premise was completely unrelated to the animated show (contrasted with THE TRANSFORMERS, which - despite some differences - demonstrated strong consistency across its various media and publishing incarnations). 

1985: ROBO MACHINES TOY ADVERT (from EAGLE)

This is a UK toy advert for Bandai's Robots-in-Disguise-alike ROBO MACHINES (aka GOBOTS) from April 1985.  It appeared in EAGLE.

Robo Machines, despite having some nice looking toys, never came close to matching the success (or playground credibility) of THE TRANSFORMERS despite (or perhaps - because of) a toy tie-in strip in EAGLE and the (shoddily) animated GOBOTS series which aired on TV-am's Wacaday.