Now, I know what you're thinking! Rock Lords? On the week the TRANSFORMERS ONE trailer came out?? Well worry not, buttercup! Be back here tomorrow for a special bonus video breaking down the One trailer!
Oooh, I can't wait for that. I was wondering if you were going to do a video about the trailer for the new movie. Anyways, good job with this video Chris. Can't wait for your next Basics video. Fingers crossed it's for Metroplex to finish up with the most famous titans since you did basics for Scorponok, Trypticon, and Fortress Maximus. Stay safe and keep up the great work.
I wasn't thinking that at all, figured you have an upload schedule, and might be too late to make a video. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on TF: One😊
It's a lot better than Challenge of the Gobots. The story I heard is that Bandai was going to just import the American Gobots cartoon the way Takara did with the American Transformers cartoon. Then they actually saw Challenge of the Gobots and decided they needed to make their own cartoon instead.
People criticized War for Cybertron Soundwave for transforming into a plastic brick. Meanwhile, you have a whole line of these guys who transform into.. rocks. Just rocks.
But that's because he was brick shaped, not a literal brick. Stationary, geometric forms like rocks or, you know, mini-cassette players are fine as long as you commit to them. But if the thing just looks like a shape that doesn't evoke anything or any ideas in particular, then people won't like it. I remember that, back in design school, we had to do a small cellphone speaker for one of the assignments. The one I made with my partner looked vaguely like a turtle, and the teacher saw and said that it had potential, but right now it looked kind of weird. That if it was going to vaguely resemble a turtle anyway, then we should just embrace that and actually make it look like a turtle, on purpose. It made the design 100% better.
I think the idea behind rocks that turn into robots was formulated under the idea they were supposed to act as diorama pieces for a kid's playset. The rocks could ambush the hero toys by transforming
Really, I have to wonder if the simplicity of the idea is part of why it had that brief spurt of appeal. A rock is, when you get down to it, pretty easy to work with for transformation purposes, because as long as you get the texture right, then just about any somewhat compact shape can work. If you get a chunky robot and ball him up, that already puts you most of the way to a rock transformation--if he has arms and legs visible, then eh, it's just a weird-looking rock. And that's how most of the 80s rockformers worked; you kind of roll them into a ball.
Interesting how Tonka got the jump-start on Transformers with Go-Bots, tried to retake an initiative with Rocks Lords, and now both have been integrated into Transformers lore. And imagine Tonka's reaction if Kranix and his people had been rock beings as seen in the initial draft of Transformers: The Movie.
I feel like the new guys shoulda turned into mini-castles or mountains or something, so they can still be stationary stone-type things. Feels like Hasbro heard all the jokes people made about Rock Lords, so they wimped out and just made 'em vaguely rock-themed Transformers.
That would be a cool idea for a Leader class toy. I’d like to say Commander or Titan to have the smaller Infernacverse members use it as a base of operations, but unless it was a feat of engineering I get the feeling it wouldn’t sell too well. 😅 On the other hand, while you’re probably right as to why they’re rocky vehicles now, I like to think of them as another Cybertron colony. Infernac being a rocky volcanic world whose Transformers evolved to integrate deposits of mineral and stone throughout their being to better survive the harsh conditions of their home.
I remember watching the English dub of "Blue: Child Of The Earth" on The Children's Channel back in 1992; I did a double take when I spotted the tiny Rock Lords, so it's good to learn the explanation! :)
I would go even further with the GoBots, I would fuse the origin story of GoBots with American version of the Nebulons (Headmasters, Powermaster, and Targetmasters). GoBots were biologic lifeforms in machine bodies. Also it seems illogical for Decepticons to bond with sentient "filthy organics" for any purpose. Also I prefer the Japanese origins of the Headmasters anyway. Thus I would rename Gobotron Nebulos, have all of the GoBots become Hadmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters, etc and have Cybertronians steal the tech to create inorganic versions with Headmasters and Powermasters being minaturized Cybertronian with Transtector bodies.
I wish someone made a series in which the Go-Bots exist as a really awful transforming robot cartoon or comic book. Like a show-in-a-show, the way Itchy and Scratchy exists as a cartoon in the Simpsons universe.
Don't worry! Hasbro will probably cancel Superion in favor of the combining fossilizer looking gestalt character. Maybe we can pay a thousand dollars through Haslab and get the Arielbots for just a little extra money! Yaaay!
I remember these being laughed at in school a lot of kids thought that a rock was a lame transformation. I liked to use them as bowling balls to knock over other figures. Bolder and Nugget where particularly good at this due to being fairly round.
I inherited a Rock Lords Granite figure from my dad. I always had it on the knickknack shelf above my desk, never knowing what it was. I only found out about Rock Lords when the Legacy Armorizers were released; I still can’t believe I’ve been holding on to a Gobot all this time, I thought it was a weird knockoff type thing
Hell yeah I'm a fan of Rock Lords. I got Nuggit, Slimestone, and Tombstone for Christmas as a little kid and adored them. Looked cool, and easy to take with me in my pocket. I've collected most of them by now, including Flamestone, Solitaire, & Sunstone. They're simple toys, but very tactile-satisfying.
What a wonderful history lesson about the Rock Lords,i used to see the Rock Lords movie all the time and enjoyed them very much when i was a kid,i hope they have a proper comeback in the future, thank you Chris ❤🥰👍👏
I doublt I'll ever own one, but I kinda keep an eye out. There's usually one or two languishing at a high price on eBay at any given time. Then someone will list one at a decent price out of nowhere and it'll be gone instantly.
A fan got ahold of a film print and is working on a 4K restoration of the film! This footage is from a recreation of the trailer they made using it; the whole film should be out soon!
A lot of Gobot toys were actually really good. They just suffered because the supporting media wasn't very good. But I remember taping the Rock Lords movie when I was a child, and I absolutely loved it. I have a few Rock Lords still.
Guess that most of them being the equivalent to mini bots didn't help. But, yeah, I wouldn't mind getting a few of them, the evil leader and a female one that transform into a black ovni that I had. Curiously, I only got 2, one being a Rock Lord animal. That said, I don't care about Leader 1.
@@jesusromanpadro3853: I'm not so sure about that. Being mostly smaller figures also means cheaper to buy, and with a larger assortment at that price point, there were probably lots of parents who were more likely to buy their kids Gobots. Also, for Gobots, the smaller figures were arguably the better ones anyway, as many of the larger figures had originally been designed as piloted mecha and so just had driver seats instead of actual heads. I think the failings of the franchise had more to do with the cartoon than the toys. Notably, I don't think it helped tgat it focused almost entirely on just a core cast of six with the rest of product line limited to cameos, whereas Transformers had more of a rotating asmble cast that gave more exposure to different toys.
Yeah. The super Gobot “Destroyer” had a pretty cool figure. Strange and uncanny in a way few Decepticons could claim to be. You’d think a bot with a tank alt-mode would be boxy and bulky, but instead he’s this lanky, freakish thing with no face. Plus, real working treads!
@@Jhiaxus315 Rocklords was the only one where the entire toyline was primarily made of transforming rocks. The others shown here weren't entirely rock based. Inhumanoids was a toyline based around huge monster toys, which were a race of monsters that arose from underground. There were some smaller toys, and some of them were rock people. The other line mentioned was Masters of the Universe. If you don't know, that's He-Man. There were just two rock guys that turned into humanoid creatures, as well as some toys that were imported from Japan that transformed from eggs into animals. The MOTU versions were rebranded as being meteors rather than eggs.
I became a Rock Lords fan specifically because of that Australian comic you mentioned, which I read and reread so, so many times. It was unlike anything else I’d come across at the time and I was hooked. Of course, my Rock Lords interacted with the Transformers more than the Gobots (or Machine Men, as they were called down here) but I also imagined Gobotron as one of Cybertron’s moons so there you go :)
I have to admit, I never thought transforming rocks was a good idea until I saw the fossilizers from kingdom and amorizers from legacy. Those figures look sick and cool.
For those confused how these guys were so popular back then, remember that "Pet Rocks" used to be a thing. Having a toy one that could convert into a robot was the obvious next step.
Pet Rocks were a very brief fad from the 1970s. It was literally an actual rock in a mini version of cardboard box that one would bring an animal home from the pound in. The fad had already died before Rock Lords' target audience was even born, so I don't think it was a factor.
I still have the Rock Lords movie on VHS. Haven’t seen it in years. It pointed out that most of those rock lords are actual living rocks, there was one that was a robotic rock.
Nugget, who turned into a gold nugget was the robot. Had him and Boulder when I was a kid. Remember Nugget due to how shiny he was. There was also a Rock Lord that turned into a silver nugget who was also very shiny. Never got that one so I don’t know what his story was.
My older brother and I went to see the Rock Lords movie in theaters. Apart from two other kids, we were the only ones in the entire theater for that showing.
Wow, watching this video I saw some toys I had as a kid and it brought back a lot of memories. NEVER knew they were called Rock Lords! Thank you for this blast from the past!
Can’t wait for a leader class rocklord in the legacy or 3rd party lines. Some oversized ones too!! Rockosaurs retools from dinobots, titan class. Yeah bring it.
I must be one of the few 80s kids who went through a Rock Lords phase at one point.. my brothers and I had about seven or eight all told.. they were appropriately very solidly constructed and surprisingly varied in both their robot and rock modes..
I'm still convinced Battle of the Rock Lords was conceived as a five-episode miniseries first. The movie has the episodic nature and the animation quality you would expect from such a miniseries when edited into a "movie".
Hello there Chris McFeely. I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful new video dealing with the Rock Lords, which is actually a series that I never really heard about before or paid much attention to. Now the only reason why I am saying that is because of the fact that when I was younger, I always thought that the Transformers series just dealt with the Autobots and the Decipticons and nothing else. However, now I must admit that it is thanks to these incredible videos that you put out that I am learning so much more about a true fan favorite series such as Transformers and how other series, like Go Bots and Rock Lords got integrated in the lore of Transformers. Anyways, thanks again for this incredible video, as well as all the super cool information that came out of it. Hope that you have a terrific day and a wonderful weekend. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us in the next video. Until then, please stay safe, healthy and keep up the great work that you do for this channel. Until All Are One. Peace Out and Maximize.
Great video and I still remember seeing the movie as a kid and hope TF Legacy keeps releasing more figures based off Rock Lords in the future but until than I better Rock N’ Roll.
I had not idea rocklords went so deep with media. 0.o or even that it was successful! this is maybe the most informative video i have ever seen on tranformers/gobots
3:55, Rock people? ROCK OOOOOOONN!! 4:14, sold well? What?! 0_o 5:08, YAY!! More BH mentions!! 5:24, and a surprise addition of a limb from Golion/Voltron IMMEDIATELY supplanting that Golion is indeed not only a Rock Lord but also a Machine Robo/Gobot by default, making him the STRONGEST ROCK LORD possible. 6:10, oh. 6:56, 0.0 7:10, those kid robots look like they got milk cartons for heads. XD 8:40, you mean the Bulkhead looking dude? NEAT!
Excited to pick up shard. Bouldercrash is a really fun little figure. This answered my question about what the infernac universe was too. Awesome video
I wish rock lords took off more outside gobots, it was such a cool concept. It actually would have been better if Lithone had rock beings for two reasons: ive seen a lot of first time viewers think it's cybertron and be confused as the story moves forward. Also I think g1 relied too much on other races being robotic, the movie Introduced 4 new races in it and all were robotic/transformer-like
I remember finding some rock lords figures in an op-shop (goodwill) and thinking that they were some terrible McDonald's happy meal toy. I left them where I found them, I should have brought them. Oh well. Live and learn.
Nugget and Boulder will forever by "My Boys". I find it amusing and actually very cool that the Infernac Line is out/coming out. Each of those figures are unique, and in a good way. Great dive into the Rock Lords!
honestly the idea of the transforming rock creature is really cool and I'd love to see more transformers stories, especially ones were the travel the galaxy and such.
Armorizers: Mighty Homage, Powerful Living Rock Vehicles! Within my headcanon, the Armorizers are the product of Shockwave’s experiments with the hellish planet Infernac’s ores. The ores reacted strongly to the prototype Super-Energon Shockwave had on hand, resulting in the birth of Transformers composed of metal and minerals fused on the molecular level. Shockwave deemed it logical to turn these newborn primitive robots into free labor, and they ended up becoming Decepticon laborers. However, thanks to the intervention of Autobot spies, a select bunch of Armorizers gained free will. Autobots Magneous and Bouldercrash adopted personas based on an eccentric detective and his bombastic ward from a 60s TV show; the brooding Shard sided with Toxitron’s Decepticon-adjacent Pollution Patrol and was supercharged by exposure to Toxic Energon.
I was of the thought that maybe the Armorizers might've been the creation of Infernac's master, Metlar. Sort've an experiment, plan to create his own Transformers. A combination of Cybertronian technology, and the Primal Energy of the Earth's Core. The same power the Tyrant of the Core used to animate his Statue Warriors. Always been a big fan of the property,and bugged to no end Hasbro let the rights slip through their fingers.
I can certainly understand how the idea of robots the transform into rocks may seem kind of silly. But I personally always held a fondness for fantasy monsters that take on the appearance of the elements such as mud or stone. Perhaps one of the most well-known examples being the mythological creature from Jewish mythology, the golem.
I still have my Nugget figure I got when I was like 5. Carried everywhere I went for years. Most of his gold has rubbed off leaving him looking more like a cheese curd than a nugget lol
Loved these guys. They were well built and had a lovely glossy finish. I had Granite and my brother had Boulder. Would have loved to get my hands on the dinosaur rock lords; Terra Roc and Spikestone.
Goodness I remember having rock lords as a kid! I really enjoyed them. I liked how they did an homage to them in the legacy line. I hope I can find the movie on tubi !!
Interestingly, I learned of the Infernac Universe last night while looking at the Legacy toyline on the Transformers Wiki. Then today you have a video including them
All of the knowledge I had on the Rock Lords came from Thew Adams, so I'm glad my other favorite Transformers TH-camr made a whole video about the lore lol
Ahh Inhumanoids thought they were gonna be a big deal. Still have a few of them as well as one of the vehicles...as well as quite a few of the Visionaries figures....the 80's were so good to us!! Never really got into Rock Lords but now I want a few of them gotta check out the new Legacy Transformers toys online later today. Can't wait for the review of the One movie tomorrow.
I have a few scattered memories of those. I mainly remember owning two of them. The two-headed one and the one with the long neck and visor eye. My brother had the four-legged one. I also remember renting the movie a few times. The only thing that I remember from that was actually seeing multiple Go-Bot ships. At the time my limited kid brain couldn't conceive of there being more than one.
I was a fan for a little while, and got all the toys I could (I particularly liked the ones with monstrous or otherwise unique non-rock modes). I rented the movie from a local store regularly until the store burned down; one of these days I have to find a way to watch it again.
Yes, I was a Rock Lords fan. I owned most of them. And the release of the Infernac Transformers figures interest me a lot. I've picked up each one released so far.
I still have a rock lord I inherited from my uncle, the little guy really captured kid me's imagination and caused teenage me to go through a major rock lords phase for a while (even made up a few of my own), I've never gotten my hands on any other toys but I still have a great fondness for them
I had the Go Bots: Battle of The Rock lords movie on Video/VHS as a kid, absolutely loved it! Glad they're making a comeback in figure form...in the TF universe..🤯
I had that mammoth at 6:37 as a kid. It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned it was a branch of the "Masters of the Universe" toyline called 'Meteorbs.' And it wasn't until this video that I learned said toys were made to follow a trend made by Rock Lords.
The Meteorbs were actually an import of the Japanese line of transforming egg toys “Tamagoras” (tamago means egg in Japanese) that includes everything from skeletal dinosaurs to Dracula and still continues into modern times. Apologies if I’ve just led you down another rabbit hole. 😅
Thank you for the breakdown on the various rock themed transforming toylines, I was genuinely confused lol. I think I had a He-Man toy I called a "rock lord". Had never even seen the translucent ones before.
I gotta say, for a series more or less separate from Transformers making the jump to at least getting homages, Rock Lords just... well, you know, ROCK! LOL
I remember having the silvery boulder guy. It was actually a pretty cool little toy, and had interesting articulation. So much so that I still remember it decades later...
I didn’t know what Rock Lords was until a couple years ago but when I saw the toy catalog I saw a Toy that I did have as a child. It was Granite which was kinda cool to learn I did play with Rock Lords as a child
I still have 3 of the four Rock Lords we had as kids. Boulder, Magmar and Granite. Lost their weapons, though. I still like these toys and wish I had more.
Fuuuuck!!! I remember randomly scoring a vhs of this from a hotel vidstore back when i was like 5-7 years old. Utterly adored it, but i also remember my parents thinking outloud how fucking stupid they though it was and taking off to bed. 90% sure my younger brother was made that night.
Now, I know what you're thinking! Rock Lords? On the week the TRANSFORMERS ONE trailer came out?? Well worry not, buttercup! Be back here tomorrow for a special bonus video breaking down the One trailer!
😮😮😮😮😮😮😮 OOOH
Oooh, I can't wait for that. I was wondering if you were going to do a video about the trailer for the new movie. Anyways, good job with this video Chris. Can't wait for your next Basics video. Fingers crossed it's for Metroplex to finish up with the most famous titans since you did basics for Scorponok, Trypticon, and Fortress Maximus. Stay safe and keep up the great work.
I wasn't thinking that at all, figured you have an upload schedule, and might be too late to make a video.
Can't wait to hear your thoughts on TF: One😊
Hi Chris
Yep, I am old enough to remember the Rock figures in Masters of the Universe toy line
That Machine robo anime looks awesome!!!
Absolutely! I didn't even know it existed until just now. Very cool looking!
It is awesome,i have seen it and well worth a watch@@MDestron2282
It's a lot better than Challenge of the Gobots. The story I heard is that Bandai was going to just import the American Gobots cartoon the way Takara did with the American Transformers cartoon. Then they actually saw Challenge of the Gobots and decided they needed to make their own cartoon instead.
You could say unicron is a robot that transforms into a giant rock
Depends which version of Unicron.
@@Mecharnie_Dobbs what do yo mean which version?
armada unicron
I adore how blasphemous that is.
Like pointing out how Battletrap, Flywheels, and Overlord are all Duocons.
Unicron is the biggest Bakugan.
People criticized War for Cybertron Soundwave for transforming into a plastic brick. Meanwhile, you have a whole line of these guys who transform into.. rocks. Just rocks.
He’s a Cybertronian dropship in Siege- which is brilliant when you consider what he does regardless of what he turns into.
But that's because he was brick shaped, not a literal brick. Stationary, geometric forms like rocks or, you know, mini-cassette players are fine as long as you commit to them. But if the thing just looks like a shape that doesn't evoke anything or any ideas in particular, then people won't like it. I remember that, back in design school, we had to do a small cellphone speaker for one of the assignments. The one I made with my partner looked vaguely like a turtle, and the teacher saw and said that it had potential, but right now it looked kind of weird. That if it was going to vaguely resemble a turtle anyway, then we should just embrace that and actually make it look like a turtle, on purpose. It made the design 100% better.
"That's just a stupid boulder! 🙄"
"It's not just a boulder... It's a rock! 🥹"
I think the idea behind rocks that turn into robots was formulated under the idea they were supposed to act as diorama pieces for a kid's playset. The rocks could ambush the hero toys by transforming
I like that.
Guerilla warfare
Really, I have to wonder if the simplicity of the idea is part of why it had that brief spurt of appeal. A rock is, when you get down to it, pretty easy to work with for transformation purposes, because as long as you get the texture right, then just about any somewhat compact shape can work. If you get a chunky robot and ball him up, that already puts you most of the way to a rock transformation--if he has arms and legs visible, then eh, it's just a weird-looking rock. And that's how most of the 80s rockformers worked; you kind of roll them into a ball.
Hasbro: We have a Giant planet 🌏 eating robot 🤖
Tonka: I got a rock 🪨
Interesting how Tonka got the jump-start on Transformers with Go-Bots, tried to retake an initiative with Rocks Lords, and now both have been integrated into Transformers lore.
And imagine Tonka's reaction if Kranix and his people had been rock beings as seen in the initial draft of Transformers: The Movie.
And Inhumanoids
Hasbro is kinda like Boeing. Sucking up all of the smaller manufacturers
@@PhantomLover007 Like all corporate entities.
That's the difference between having Marvel (of yore) handle your comic and cartoon
I feel like the new guys shoulda turned into mini-castles or mountains or something, so they can still be stationary stone-type things. Feels like Hasbro heard all the jokes people made about Rock Lords, so they wimped out and just made 'em vaguely rock-themed Transformers.
That would be a cool idea for a Leader class toy. I’d like to say Commander or Titan to have the smaller Infernacverse members use it as a base of operations, but unless it was a feat of engineering I get the feeling it wouldn’t sell too well. 😅
On the other hand, while you’re probably right as to why they’re rocky vehicles now, I like to think of them as another Cybertron colony. Infernac being a rocky volcanic world whose Transformers evolved to integrate deposits of mineral and stone throughout their being to better survive the harsh conditions of their home.
I remember watching the English dub of "Blue: Child Of The Earth" on The Children's Channel back in 1992; I did a double take when I spotted the tiny Rock Lords, so it's good to learn the explanation! :)
I wish someone could make a series that shows the Rock Lords, Gobots, and Transformers in a single universe.
I would go even further with the GoBots, I would fuse the origin story of GoBots with American version of the Nebulons (Headmasters, Powermaster, and Targetmasters). GoBots were biologic lifeforms in machine bodies. Also it seems illogical for Decepticons to bond with sentient "filthy organics" for any purpose. Also I prefer the Japanese origins of the Headmasters anyway. Thus I would rename Gobotron Nebulos, have all of the GoBots become Hadmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters, etc and have Cybertronians steal the tech to create inorganic versions with Headmasters and Powermasters being minaturized Cybertronian with Transtector bodies.
It sounds like that is exactly what Habro is doing.
I wish someone made a series in which the Go-Bots exist as a really awful transforming robot cartoon or comic book. Like a show-in-a-show, the way Itchy and Scratchy exists as a cartoon in the Simpsons universe.
Say no more, I could probably make one, just probably gonna take like 7 years💀
I kinda wish they didn’t have to beat around the bush and just admit the new Legacy figures are Rock Lords
My thoughts exactly!
The fossilizers were obviously taken from the Fossilsaurus too.
That may cause them some legal trouble. At least if they put it on packaging. But they have said it before in Livestreams. Or at least hinted at it.
Don't worry! Hasbro will probably cancel Superion in favor of the combining fossilizer looking gestalt character. Maybe we can pay a thousand dollars through Haslab and get the Arielbots for just a little extra money! Yaaay!
@@SurprisedCoyote-mj8px?
I remember these being laughed at in school a lot of kids thought that a rock was a lame transformation. I liked to use them as bowling balls to knock over other figures. Bolder and Nugget where particularly good at this due to being fairly round.
Strike!
I liked them, but I never really heard other kids (other than my brother) even talk about them, positively or negatively.
I thought they were hilariously lame myself. I knew someone who had one. I still played with it of course. 😅
I inherited a Rock Lords Granite figure from my dad. I always had it on the knickknack shelf above my desk, never knowing what it was. I only found out about Rock Lords when the Legacy Armorizers were released; I still can’t believe I’ve been holding on to a Gobot all this time, I thought it was a weird knockoff type thing
The Gobots ARE a weird knock-off thing
Hell yeah I'm a fan of Rock Lords. I got Nuggit, Slimestone, and Tombstone for Christmas as a little kid and adored them. Looked cool, and easy to take with me in my pocket. I've collected most of them by now, including Flamestone, Solitaire, & Sunstone. They're simple toys, but very tactile-satisfying.
What a wonderful history lesson about the Rock Lords,i used to see the Rock Lords movie all the time and enjoyed them very much when i was a kid,i hope they have a proper comeback in the future, thank you Chris ❤🥰👍👏
The Fossilsaurus is now my holy grail.
Known as the "Gattai Saurer" in Japan, if that helps you track it down! 😉
@ChrisMcFeely thanks very much Chris! TRDQ's recent reviews have rekindled my interest in these things.
It's honestly kinda brilliant, since fossils are rocks themselves (as I understand it).
I doublt I'll ever own one, but I kinda keep an eye out. There's usually one or two languishing at a high price on eBay at any given time. Then someone will list one at a decent price out of nowhere and it'll be gone instantly.
There's a listing for the European version which in my 6-7 years of collecting rock lords, I've never seen
Goodness, that Battle of the Rock Lords movie footage! I've never seen it look so clean and crisp! Amazing!
A fan got ahold of a film print and is working on a 4K restoration of the film! This footage is from a recreation of the trailer they made using it; the whole film should be out soon!
A lot of Gobot toys were actually really good. They just suffered because the supporting media wasn't very good. But I remember taping the Rock Lords movie when I was a child, and I absolutely loved it. I have a few Rock Lords still.
Guess that most of them being the equivalent to mini bots didn't help. But, yeah, I wouldn't mind getting a few of them, the evil leader and a female one that transform into a black ovni that I had. Curiously, I only got 2, one being a Rock Lord animal.
That said, I don't care about Leader 1.
The Go-Bots cartoon was a bit ass, yeah. But the theme music was great.
@@jesusromanpadro3853: I'm not so sure about that. Being mostly smaller figures also means cheaper to buy, and with a larger assortment at that price point, there were probably lots of parents who were more likely to buy their kids Gobots.
Also, for Gobots, the smaller figures were arguably the better ones anyway, as many of the larger figures had originally been designed as piloted mecha and so just had driver seats instead of actual heads.
I think the failings of the franchise had more to do with the cartoon than the toys. Notably, I don't think it helped tgat it focused almost entirely on just a core cast of six with the rest of product line limited to cameos, whereas Transformers had more of a rotating asmble cast that gave more exposure to different toys.
A few of them were in two scales weren’t they? Gobots and Robo Machines. I don’t remember breaking any Robo Machines, they seemed more sturdy.
Yeah. The super Gobot “Destroyer” had a pretty cool figure. Strange and uncanny in a way few Decepticons could claim to be. You’d think a bot with a tank alt-mode would be boxy and bulky, but instead he’s this lanky, freakish thing with no face. Plus, real working treads!
Not gonna lie, in my 27 yeara on earth, this is the first time I heard of Rock-formers was a trend
A very brief trend..
I have some vague recollection of seeing one...maybe at a cousins house? I gotta do some research
I knew about Rocklords, but I didn't know there were other transforming rock toylines.
@@Jhiaxus315 Rocklords was the only one where the entire toyline was primarily made of transforming rocks. The others shown here weren't entirely rock based.
Inhumanoids was a toyline based around huge monster toys, which were a race of monsters that arose from underground. There were some smaller toys, and some of them were rock people.
The other line mentioned was Masters of the Universe. If you don't know, that's He-Man. There were just two rock guys that turned into humanoid creatures, as well as some toys that were imported from Japan that transformed from eggs into animals. The MOTU versions were rebranded as being meteors rather than eggs.
I became a Rock Lords fan specifically because of that Australian comic you mentioned, which I read and reread so, so many times. It was unlike anything else I’d come across at the time and I was hooked. Of course, my Rock Lords interacted with the Transformers more than the Gobots (or Machine Men, as they were called down here) but I also imagined Gobotron as one of Cybertron’s moons so there you go :)
Man, I absolutely loved these guys when I was a kid.
I have to admit, I never thought transforming rocks was a good idea until I saw the fossilizers from kingdom and amorizers from legacy. Those figures look sick and cool.
Some how my childhood Marbles figure has survived to semi retirement on my bedside table to this day.
For those confused how these guys were so popular back then, remember that "Pet Rocks" used to be a thing. Having a toy one that could convert into a robot was the obvious next step.
Pet Rocks were a very brief fad from the 1970s. It was literally an actual rock in a mini version of cardboard box that one would bring an animal home from the pound in. The fad had already died before Rock Lords' target audience was even born, so I don't think it was a factor.
Kids ate paint chips back then too, sooo…😅
I still have the Rock Lords movie on VHS. Haven’t seen it in years.
It pointed out that most of those rock lords are actual living rocks, there was one that was a robotic rock.
Nugget, who turned into a gold nugget was the robot.
Had him and Boulder when I was a kid. Remember Nugget due to how shiny he was. There was also a Rock Lord that turned into a silver nugget who was also very shiny. Never got that one so I don’t know what his story was.
@@YeldellGW I think Nugget could fly in the movie.
My older brother and I went to see the Rock Lords movie in theaters. Apart from two other kids, we were the only ones in the entire theater for that showing.
Of course the basics on the rocks is uploaded on the day all about being stoned
Hahahaha!
Wow, watching this video I saw some toys I had as a kid and it brought back a lot of memories. NEVER knew they were called Rock Lords! Thank you for this blast from the past!
Had a couple of these back in the day but I would love to see modern ones done.
You got to admire the courage it takes to go "You know what's more marketable than robots that transform into vehicles and machines? *Rocks*."
Love this Chris! So much media I wasn’t aware of. I loved playing with rock lords outdoors as a kid, I thought they were great toys
Your channel makes my day. I feel like I'm 6yrs old again. Thank you very much.
Can’t wait for a leader class rocklord in the legacy or 3rd party lines. Some oversized ones too!! Rockosaurs retools from dinobots, titan class. Yeah bring it.
I must be one of the few 80s kids who went through a Rock Lords phase at one point.. my brothers and I had about seven or eight all told.. they were appropriately very solidly constructed and surprisingly varied in both their robot and rock modes..
I'm still convinced Battle of the Rock Lords was conceived as a five-episode miniseries first. The movie has the episodic nature and the animation quality you would expect from such a miniseries when edited into a "movie".
Hello there Chris McFeely. I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful new video dealing with the Rock Lords, which is actually a series that I never really heard about before or paid much attention to. Now the only reason why I am saying that is because of the fact that when I was younger, I always thought that the Transformers series just dealt with the Autobots and the Decipticons and nothing else. However, now I must admit that it is thanks to these incredible videos that you put out that I am learning so much more about a true fan favorite series such as Transformers and how other series, like Go Bots and Rock Lords got integrated in the lore of Transformers.
Anyways, thanks again for this incredible video, as well as all the super cool information that came out of it. Hope that you have a terrific day and a wonderful weekend. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us in the next video. Until then, please stay safe, healthy and keep up the great work that you do for this channel. Until All Are One. Peace Out and Maximize.
Can you do the basics on Chromia?
Great video and I still remember seeing the movie as a kid and hope TF Legacy keeps releasing more figures based off Rock Lords in the future but until than I better Rock N’ Roll.
I had not idea rocklords went so deep with media. 0.o or even that it was successful! this is maybe the most informative video i have ever seen on tranformers/gobots
3:55, Rock people? ROCK OOOOOOONN!!
4:14, sold well? What?! 0_o
5:08, YAY!! More BH mentions!!
5:24, and a surprise addition of a limb from Golion/Voltron IMMEDIATELY supplanting that Golion is indeed not only a Rock Lord but also a Machine Robo/Gobot by default, making him the STRONGEST ROCK LORD possible.
6:10, oh.
6:56, 0.0
7:10, those kid robots look like they got milk cartons for heads. XD
8:40, you mean the Bulkhead looking dude? NEAT!
Excited to pick up shard. Bouldercrash is a really fun little figure. This answered my question about what the infernac universe was too. Awesome video
I wish rock lords took off more outside gobots, it was such a cool concept. It actually would have been better if Lithone had rock beings for two reasons: ive seen a lot of first time viewers think it's cybertron and be confused as the story moves forward. Also I think g1 relied too much on other races being robotic, the movie Introduced 4 new races in it and all were robotic/transformer-like
9:42 "Rocks and stone" deep rock galactic is that you?
THAT'S IT LADS ROCK AND STONE!
ROCK AND STONE!
Thanks for documenting this interesting history! Some of those later toys were actually pretty cool lol
I like the Armorizers! I've started putting them together with the Junkions recently and have gotten great success out of them!
Junk and rocks seem like natural allies. Throw some bones in too. :)
I remember finding some rock lords figures in an op-shop (goodwill) and thinking that they were some terrible McDonald's happy meal toy. I left them where I found them, I should have brought them. Oh well. Live and learn.
thank you for this vid I still have all my old rock lords and its nice to see them get some move.
I still have a few of mine. There's still something oddly satisfying how they transform. I don't understand it either.
Saturday cartoons & an episode of the Basics the best way to start the weekend.😊
Nugget and Boulder will forever by "My Boys". I find it amusing and actually very cool that the Infernac Line is out/coming out. Each of those figures are unique, and in a good way. Great dive into the Rock Lords!
honestly the idea of the transforming rock creature is really cool and I'd love to see more transformers stories, especially ones were the travel the galaxy and such.
Fantastic video review!👍👍👍👍I miss the Gobots and the Rock lords🥹🥹
Armorizers: Mighty Homage, Powerful Living Rock Vehicles!
Within my headcanon, the Armorizers are the product of Shockwave’s experiments with the hellish planet Infernac’s ores. The ores reacted strongly to the prototype Super-Energon Shockwave had on hand, resulting in the birth of Transformers composed of metal and minerals fused on the molecular level. Shockwave deemed it logical to turn these newborn primitive robots into free labor, and they ended up becoming Decepticon laborers.
However, thanks to the intervention of Autobot spies, a select bunch of Armorizers gained free will. Autobots Magneous and Bouldercrash adopted personas based on an eccentric detective and his bombastic ward from a 60s TV show; the brooding Shard sided with Toxitron’s Decepticon-adjacent Pollution Patrol and was supercharged by exposure to Toxic Energon.
I was of the thought that maybe the Armorizers might've been the creation of Infernac's master, Metlar. Sort've an experiment, plan to create his own Transformers. A combination of Cybertronian technology, and the Primal Energy of the Earth's Core. The same power the Tyrant of the Core used to animate his Statue Warriors. Always been a big fan of the property,and bugged to no end Hasbro let the rights slip through their fingers.
I can certainly understand how the idea of robots the transform into rocks may seem kind of silly. But I personally always held a fondness for fantasy monsters that take on the appearance of the elements such as mud or stone.
Perhaps one of the most well-known examples being the mythological creature from Jewish mythology, the golem.
I own Magneous, and he's a pretty cool Rock Lords homage
I still have my Nugget figure I got when I was like 5. Carried everywhere I went for years. Most of his gold has rubbed off leaving him looking more like a cheese curd than a nugget lol
My wife keeps these with her adult collection. She's a massive fan.
8:11/8:22 I know it was also featured in one of Takara's Cool manga which featured one of them attacking Rodimus' team before the start of Season 3.
Loved these guys. They were well built and had a lovely glossy finish. I had Granite and my brother had Boulder. Would have loved to get my hands on the dinosaur rock lords; Terra Roc and Spikestone.
Goodness I remember having rock lords as a kid! I really enjoyed them. I liked how they did an homage to them in the legacy line. I hope I can find the movie on tubi !!
I still own Challenge of the Go-Bots on cassette tape back when I was…Younger.😉
Interestingly, I learned of the Infernac Universe last night while looking at the Legacy toyline on the Transformers Wiki. Then today you have a video including them
All of the knowledge I had on the Rock Lords came from Thew Adams, so I'm glad my other favorite Transformers TH-camr made a whole video about the lore lol
Ahh Inhumanoids thought they were gonna be a big deal. Still have a few of them as well as one of the vehicles...as well as quite a few of the Visionaries figures....the 80's were so good to us!! Never really got into Rock Lords but now I want a few of them gotta check out the new Legacy Transformers toys online later today. Can't wait for the review of the One movie tomorrow.
Perfect timing since I'm wearing my Gobots T-Shirt today.
I have a few scattered memories of those. I mainly remember owning two of them. The two-headed one and the one with the long neck and visor eye. My brother had the four-legged one. I also remember renting the movie a few times. The only thing that I remember from that was actually seeing multiple Go-Bot ships. At the time my limited kid brain couldn't conceive of there being more than one.
I was a fan for a little while, and got all the toys I could (I particularly liked the ones with monstrous or otherwise unique non-rock modes). I rented the movie from a local store regularly until the store burned down; one of these days I have to find a way to watch it again.
I had a couple of Rock Lords, I liked them for some reason
Thanks for this present, Chris ❤🎉
Yes, I was a Rock Lords fan. I owned most of them. And the release of the Infernac Transformers figures interest me a lot. I've picked up each one released so far.
Great video! Really fascinating. I have some suggestions for future videos. Roadbuster, Silverbolt, The Technobots and Rumble and Frenzy.
I still have a rock lord I inherited from my uncle, the little guy really captured kid me's imagination and caused teenage me to go through a major rock lords phase for a while (even made up a few of my own), I've never gotten my hands on any other toys but I still have a great fondness for them
I had the Go Bots: Battle of The Rock lords movie on Video/VHS as a kid, absolutely loved it! Glad they're making a comeback in figure form...in the TF universe..🤯
I had that mammoth at 6:37 as a kid. It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned it was a branch of the "Masters of the Universe" toyline called 'Meteorbs.' And it wasn't until this video that I learned said toys were made to follow a trend made by Rock Lords.
The Meteorbs were actually an import of the Japanese line of transforming egg toys “Tamagoras” (tamago means egg in Japanese) that includes everything from skeletal dinosaurs to Dracula and still continues into modern times. Apologies if I’ve just led you down another rabbit hole. 😅
@@slumberparty4738 I think there are also Godzilla and other kaiju, too.
Thank you for the breakdown on the various rock themed transforming toylines, I was genuinely confused lol. I think I had a He-Man toy I called a "rock lord". Had never even seen the translucent ones before.
I had one of the Narlies as a kid. Might still have it in a storage bin somewhere.
I loved Rock Lords! I bought 5 a couple years ago at a convension. I still want to get them all !!!
I do remember seeing the Gobots movie that premiered the Rock Lords. Also the only Gobots media I’ve ever watched.
I gotta say, for a series more or less separate from Transformers making the jump to at least getting homages, Rock Lords just... well, you know, ROCK! LOL
Honestly Rock Lords are pretty good at the “robots in disguise” thing. No one would expect their enemy to be that random rock over there.
The chance of a collection of these being used as blunt instruments against your siblings is higher than most toys.
Saw this as a joke in a robot chicken clip didnt think they actually made transformers rocks. Learn something new every day
Great Stuff, as always!
I remember having the silvery boulder guy. It was actually a pretty cool little toy, and had interesting articulation. So much so that I still remember it decades later...
7:40 this head looks very much like the new Calcitron figure, the one released with Thundertron !
I didn’t know what Rock Lords was until a couple years ago but when I saw the toy catalog I saw a Toy that I did have as a child. It was Granite which was kinda cool to learn I did play with Rock Lords as a child
I really love the infernac universe toys. They're just so much fun.
2:17 you blew a perfect opportunity to say "make the _rocks stars_ "
9:45 did you just say "GObotic"? Because if so, I love it!
Thanks for all the lore 👍
Great Video!
Amazing Bro
I still have 3 of the four Rock Lords we had as kids. Boulder, Magmar and Granite. Lost their weapons, though. I still like these toys and wish I had more.
Tim Allen was fighting one in "Galaxy Quest"...
Ho yeah we are rocking hard with this one
Very interesting. A lot I didn't know. Thanks.
I got one of these at a used toy store when I was a kid and had no idea what it was til' now
I remember owning Sticks and Stones the two headed rock lord I really loved that figure since it was so sturdy and fun to play with.
Fuuuuck!!! I remember randomly scoring a vhs of this from a hotel vidstore back when i was like 5-7 years old. Utterly adored it, but i also remember my parents thinking outloud how fucking stupid they though it was and taking off to bed. 90% sure my younger brother was made that night.