By 1985, Transformers sales were through the roof, dominating the valuable market above the $3 price point. Tonka tried to license any robot products they could, creating an eclectic empire of GoBots branded merchandise. Relegated to competing solely at the ~$3 price point, GoBots took on the schoolyard caste of cheap wannabees despite booming sales. GoBots countered the mostly larger Generation 1 toys by licensing Bandai’s larger designs as Super GoBots, but these failed to compete effectively. Once Transformers hit, however, competition was fierce. Tonka pumped out all the Bandai designs available in rapid succession, adding indigenous designs like Zod and the Command Center. The lines were instant hits, gripping the market months before Hasbro’s Transformers hit the shelves. Bandai marketed the figures directly in Europe as Robo Machine, and in Australia as Machine Men. American toy manufacturer stepped in to start marketing the toys in the US with a new name and an accompanying Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The line instantly sunk in the US, much like competitor Takara’s Diakron line. The earliest waves were marketed directly by Bandai as Machine Men, named after their alternate modes. The brainchild of Popy, a division of Bandai, the GoBots started out as the affordable Machine Robo series, small reasistic or futuristic vehicles that transformed into robots. GoBots first came to the western market in 1983, intending to capitalize early on the spreading transforming robot craze that already gripped Japan. Movie - Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) (116).
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