Quote Originally Posted by Sky Shadow View Post
As I've always pointed out: "Go-Bots beat Transformers to market, arriving five months before the robots in disguise."

Can everyone who's ever said GoBots/Machine Men were a rip-off of Transformers please keep their mouths shut for the next thirty years?
I didn't realise that there were people adamantly stating that Transformers came out first, and GoBots came out later to cash in on the craze?
I thought most people just knew that they came out sometime in 1984, roughly at the same time to compete with each other, but since we never really had something significant or official documented source be a headline news item... it never became mainstream, common knowledge either way.
I mean, I was never sure either way, as I'm not even sure where to look for an official document of when each series was officially released to American stores. (and when you count global markets, it gets even more blurred as which came first)

I DO know that Hasbro and Tonka were signing up their various JP toy designs and licenses during 1983, but which one made it to stores first in America and worldwide, was never something I was ever bothered about... because they were BOTH in conception, production and retail release at the same time (1983-1984)... to me personally, whichever one "won" the race doesn't matter as much as who "won" the war (which Transformers did ). But it would be nice having a document/proof of GoBots losing from a 5 month head start.

"Although Transformers appeared five months after GoBots, Hasbro came from behind and outsold GoBots almost 2-1," according to the book "Toyland: The High Stakes Game of the Toy Industry."
I wonder if that book has that detail sourced, or if it is just another recollected memory, because it was written in 1991. After reading the reviews, I'm rather intrigued about this book, and will look at getting one, just to see what else is written about the 80s global toy industry.