Kneel Before Zod!

Gobots are awesome or GTFO.

Of all the Gobots I owned as a kid and have wished I could recapture in adluthood, the motorized tricycle Dinosaur Zod has eluded me the longest.

Well now that title belongs to Scooter, because I found Zod at the flea market this past weekend!

Zod is a motorized monster and with the help of three 'C' batteries he frantically chomps (or as my intern says 'snops') and lurches forward in spasms and fits and leaps until you spear the red button on his belly.

Fun!

He originally came with a joust-like spear to help you stab him into submission. Mine doesn't have his but mine does work perfectly, which is a nice bonus.

Zod isn't in mint condition, but I don't care. The guy selling him had no idea what he was, and so I tried to talk him down from his five dollar asking price since there was no telling if Zod worked or not. The seller didn't even realize Zod was supposed to be motorized. Well, he tracked down some batteries at another seller's booth (hey, it's the flea market, they have EVERYTHING!) and when Zod proved to be in perfect working order, he wanted more for him. I ended up paying seven bucks for him but got fresh batteries so I guess I should have just nabbed him at five, but either way I think it was money well spent.

I wish I had held on to all my Gobots from childhood, but I guess you can't win 'em all. I also wish I still had my Gobot Command Center. That thing was epic.

Here I am back in the day with my Gobots collection (along with some transformers and other transforming robots and an Astro Magnum Shockwave which is probably worth more these days than a regular Shockwave.) WHY DIDN'T I KEEP ALL THIS BEAUTIFUL STUFF?!?!?!

Okay even I admit Zod is ridiculous. But I still love him and am ecstatic to have regained his big lumbersome self.

Gobots Bolt :: The OTHER Transforming P-38

'Bolt' is a WW2 era P-38 Lightning, and a damn fine looking one at that. GoBots always seemed to have been designed from the vehicle mode out. The vehicle modes were often pretty accurate appx. 1:64 scale die-cast and plastic representations of their real world counterparts, and GoBots didn't shy away from vehicles from many different eras and walks of life.

GoBot haters tend to give GoBot robot modes a hard time, which I will never understand (G1 Megatron, anyone?) Sure, there were some lemons, but no more or less than in the Transformers line. And in fact there were many really clever transformation designs in the GoBot line. Bolt is one of these.

Bolt transforms easily and turns into a rather solid robot - no small feat for any transforming aircraft toy of the eighties. His change is simple but effective, and he feels like he'd stand up well to play in both modes - hell, he stands up, and that alone is a success (many Transformers and GoBots can't say the same.) In airplane mode he even has little rolling wheels - a level of detail that would be tossed right out today in favor of a cheaper alternative.

I found Bolt at the flea market last weekend and am lucky he is in such great condition. All of his propeller blades are intact and he has minimal chrome wear. His joints are tight and solid, and he still has all his stickers! Not bad for two bucks.

Bolt is a really cool GoBot who is even more impressive in person. Pictures just don't do the engineering and quality of the toy justice. Especially when you consider this guy is close to thirty years old!

Simple yet effective, Bolt is a great 1980s era transforming robot/vehicle in general, let alone a great GoBot.

It's a bird, it's a plane...

...it's a Super GoBot!

Cy-Kill to be precise.

Although GoBots were well known as predominantly 1:64 ish scaled vehicles/robots, a handful were produced which were much larger and more in proportion with their major competition, the Transformers.

Both the Guardian leader (Leader-1) and Renegade leader Cy-Kill were produced as Super GoBots during the series' short run.

Cy-Kill, as his name implies, transfo...I mean Goes from Bot mode to Motorcycle mode. The Super GoBot version differs from his mini version in that his wheels and engine are integrated and do not detach from Cy-Kill at all. While this is an advantage in that you do not have any extra parts to keep track of, it detracts a bit from his design - part of what made Cy-Kill look so cool in robot mode was that his wheels were held on his shoulders.


Cy-Kill is pretty solid, with his torso/head being die-cast metal and the tires being made of rubber. His "change" is simple but effective, and of course his old school Japanese giant robot design is quite groovy.

With GoBots recently on my brain, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that I found him at the swap meet today, but good golly miss molly I nearly lost it when I stumbled onto him! I had the small Cy-Kill when I was a kid (and he had the green/grey/black color scheme) so although this one is a little roughed up, he's a great find and in good enough shape to happily be added into my slowly rebuilding GoBot collection.