Go-Bots vs Rock Lords - Round 1
 

Pick your favorite 80's toy line!

Go-Bots

http://i.imgur.com/CGZj1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7icEz.jpg

Rock Lords

http://i.imgur.com/KeP1H.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XRTCz.jpg

don't really remember Rock Lords but even if I did I enjoyed Go Bots in not as a knock off to Transformers but rather a supplement

Werent Rock Lords Go-Bots? I remember the cross over movie which I watched a billion times one summer. But my vote is with the Go-Bots. I had a small handfull of them and 2 Rock Lords.

Gotta be Go-Bots. I had lots of them. Fun like Transformers. Can't say I remember them all, but I sure do remember Leader-1 and Cy-Kill. Played with those two A LOT.

Not exactly a fair match-up. Pitting Rock Lords against GoBots is not unlike "Transformers vs Micromasters."

I vote GoBots, because Rock Lords are an extention of the GoBot line, and a vote for GoBots is a vote for both.

Go go Go-Bots!

Go Bots, only because I thought Rock Lords was kind of lame. Robots that turn into rocks, or robots that turn into vehicles? Kind of a no brainer.

Doesn't make for exciting toys or fiction, but when you go into true reality... of all the "alien robots disguised as ____" concepts, Rocklords are by far the best and most realistic.
What fits in everywhere, universally? What never looks out of place? What would you *never* expect to suddenly spring out at you and become a robot bent on killing you? A rock.

Voted GoBots. Easy vote, but I do believe RockLords were a sub group of GoBots.

I still have a few and They are quality figures despite their bad rep. I think I recall GoBots preceding Transformers by a month or so (Late '83).

Other than some of the Super GoBots with their head being the entire cockpit of the car (an unfortunate side effect of being bought up form other properties, where they were mech a piloted by people, not sentient robots) these were solid figures.

Great line, and in no way the "poor man's Transformers" they get pidgeonholed into. They just had a very different aesthetic from TFs


Rock Lords were interesting, that's about all I recall from them. Not much play value, but there was a novelty to them as at the time there weren't many non-vehicle options, save for the cassetes/insecticons/etc.

I voted Go-Bots. I had a few, and used them to be citizens of Cybertron when my TF's had to travel back to their planet. They were good supporting characters. I think they just got outshined by Transformers. Too bad, too.

Go bots are like the megablocks of transformers but still doesn't seem as bad as rocklords, I vaugely remember them. I need pics to refresh my memory.

It's a myth that gobots are the "K-Mart Transformers," or the "Megablocks of Transformers." I guarentee 99% of the people who say that either barily remember, or have even *seen* an actual gobot.
The reason why everyone thinks they're "cheap," is because they were smaller than a good deal of TFs, and as such, were naturally sold at a cheaper price point.
GoBots had much more variety in terms of alt modes, Ranging from WWII fighter planes, all the way up to the then contemporary mini cooper (A mold not released in the US.)
They didn't weather the ages as well, because they were made mostly of diecast, and as such has all the weaknesses associated with it (It's likewise a myth that Diecast is the best material to make a toy out of), and as such, they tend to look much more weathered than TFs of the same size.
They also often had more complexity in their transformation than most TFs of simular price, and even some of the larger TFs. They also quite often were better articulated than most TFs. Where TFs got articulation exclusively due to transformation, Gobots had standardized shoulder articulation all across the board (Where TFs, you were lucky if you got that).

This is not to say gobots are superior to transformers, this is to say Gobots do not now, nor have they *ever* deserved the continuous bashing they consistantly get, especially from people who can't even remember them, let alone those who've never held one.

(EDIT: This mini rant is *not* directed at anyone specific, especially you Behindthemask. Wanted to point that out since I used your megablock analogy. This is just a pet peeve I've had all my life.)

They should determine the final winner by the most lopsided poll.
I disagree rocks are the best possible disguise. ...Fits in anywhere, not detected as a threat, super suprising as a killer transforming robot? Betty White all the way. If they remade Ghostbusters it'd be Betty white.

Voted for GoBots. I still have a few of them and will probably work on rebuilding my original collection of them one of these days.

Had some RockLords as well. While they were fun and had rather unique alt modes for the time (unless you count MOTU's Rock People), I am constantly reminded of that scene from Big, where Tom Hanks' character questions the idea of a robot that turns into a building.

And I can confirm that Rock Lords is a spin-off of GoBots, in case there was any doubt. But I'd say a better comparison would be putting Transformers against Animorphs.

Go Bots were the ish...

I had around 5 Go-Bots (no Rock Lords) and that awesome playset near the upper left of that ad. I made that playset the base for all of my Transformers and Go-Bots. Because when I played, they worked together.

I see pics are up, GoBots wins just off Puzzler alone.

A six car combiner that required no add on parts, Transformers still can't do that going on 30 years later......

Definitely had to go with GoBots. I had a ton of these as a kid and although they get dumped on a lot by some collectors, I preferred these to Transformers because they were more in scale with each other, whereas Transformers varied wildly.
I had a bunch of Rock Lords and while I loved the designs of the characters, at the end of the day they ended up being pretty much like the robot that turned into a building on 'Big.' Not much fun at all.

True, but Hasbro's getting there. We'll soon have a 5-member combiner using deluxe molds and no additional parts/kibble for the combined mode (aside from the combined gun). Hopefully, FoC Bruticus is successful enough that they try more of these (including an official Classics-style Devastator that isn't a redeco of a previous mold).

Gobots was the same line that had an F-15 Eagle that was the same size as a motorcycle and a scooter. Scale? What's that? ;)

For sure! RailRacer was a step in the right direction, and still one of my favorite TF/Combiners. I'll bee buying at least two sets of FoC Bruticus. I hope they sell well enough for Has/Tak to continue pursuing Combiner technology. And an official Devastator like you said, plus Menasor.



LOL, scale and transforming toylines cannot be uttered in the same sentence. DiveDive? Isn't he the 200 foot long submarine, or is he the 2 inch submarine, can't remember.

100% certain he ment in scale character wise, where as with Transformers, Blaster was bigger than Devestator, and almost equal to Metroplex, where as Powerglide was as small as Rumble and Frenzy (Who were often shown to be just a tad bigger than humans, and Powerglide was equal to just about any other TF.)
You can rationalize it's because Transformers was cobbled together from several lines, but the inconsistancies still percist even to today, where classics Grimlock is a full size class smaller than Classics Optimus. Further, when Blackout and Starscream, while being amongst the largest TFs in their universe, were both barily larger than Bumblebee, and quite a bit smaller than Optimus. Something that was never fixed for Blackout.
Scale... character wise or alt mode wise is something that continues to elude Hasbro.
Gobots at least had a somewhat consistant character scale, if not vehicles.

And if we're going to get into inconsistancies with vehiclular scale within a line, need I point out a certain TF combiner with a space shuttle for an arm, and a korean war era army jeep as a leg? ;P

Go bots gets my vote, while it was okay in the US, in Japan, Bandai did mad clever things with this line, and some of their brilliance was shown in the designs brought here.

I said megablocks mainly because all the gobot figures I had broke or had parts snap where as my transformers were mainly diecast and never had that problem. Some cool figures made though. I seriously don't remember rock lords.

I had like two Rock Lords....and its funny, I didn't even remember they were called that until now. I saw them in my head, but didn't know the name.

As far as Go-Bots, yeah....I had quite a few of them...not as much as Transformers, though. I love cars and robots....so Go-Bots gets my vote.

Yeah, kinda confused about this match-up.