Go-Bots continuity family

This article is about a character or concept which lacks any official name or designation. For more information, see Help:Nameless.

The Go-Bots continuity family is a continuity family that was, depending on how you look at it, launched in either 2001 or 2002. It consists of franchises that were specifically aimed at children of preschool age, which back then hadn't been done since the 1993 third release of the First Transformers line. Because the continuity family's franchises were not aimed at the usual Transformers audience, they do not feature the characteristics common to other Transformers lines, such as Cybertron, Autobots, Decepticons and civil wars. Instead, the protagonists are the Go-Bots, a transforming robotic species (sometimes) native to a comet. There are no true antagonists or a central conflict. Instead, the Go-Bots help out with various little and not-so-little problems on Earth because it makes them feel good about themselves.

Franchises

1-2-3 Transformers

1-2-3 Transformers is a small, fictionless toyline released by Hasbro under the Tonka brand in 2001. It lasted until 2002, when its formula was continued with the Go-Bots line that was released later that year. At the time, there was nothing tying the two franchises together in a continuity family-sense. In 2003 though, Takara released its own Rescue Hero Go-Bots line that used molds from both 1-2-3 Transformers and Go-Bots, while in 2010 The AllSpark Almanac II used Rescue Roy's release date in the name of a Go-Bots universal stream. Neither fact definitely sets 1-2-3 Transformers in a continuity family with Go-Bots and Rescue Hero Go-Bots, but it is so much easier for TFWiki.net's organization to act like they do.

Go-Bots

Transformers: Go-Bots is a franchise that was marketed from 2002 to 2005. It was released by Hasbro under the Playskool brand and went through four different identities during its lifetime. It was known as Playskool Big Adventures: Transformers at its kick-off in 2002. In 2003, the line continued as Transformers: Go-Bots, but the "Transformers" part was dropped later that year. Under the name Go-Bots, the line entered 2004 and remained so for a few months. Then the line became Transformers: Go-Bots again, but with a different logo than the previous time it was called such. To make matters even more confusing, a few toys were produced for the Go-Bots line in 2004, but were not released at the time for unknown reasons. They were eventually released in Go-Bots packaging in 2005 in Europe, when Transformers: Go-Bots had already ended in the USA.

Unlike 1-2-3 Transformers, Go-Bots was given some fiction to promote it, such as bios. The central piece is an awkwardly released, four episode-long cartoon made by Wang Film Productions, which tells the story of Aero-Bot's team's mission on Earth.

Rescue Hero Go-Bots

Kids' Transformers: Rescue Hero Go-Bots is a franchise released by Takara in 2003. Its toyline comprises molds from both 1-2-3 Transformers and Go-Bots, but doesn't present them as the same characters from the Hasbro franchises. Rescue Hero Go-Bots got its own fiction in the form of a pack-in mini-manga series of which one issue was included with each toy.

Notes

• Though carrying the Transformers brand name, Hasbro does not consider the preschool lines part of the larger Transformers brand.<ref>ASM Hasbro Q&A, December 2009</ref>
• In-universe, the Go-Bots continuity family is referred to as "Yayayarst" in the TransTechs' universal stream designators, which also includes the First Transformers line.

References

<references />