If you grew up in the 80s and were a Transformers fan, you also had Go-bots. Some may deny it, but the truth is, we all had them. And we loved them. There's no running from the truth.
My play stories always had the Autobots and decepticons reluctantly teaming up to fight off an invasion of other transforming robots, whether they were gobots, rock lords, maybe even some zybots, but there were many random and inferior robots that were always threatening my beloved Transformers
My Mirage broke too before it burnt with my whole collection in the 2018 Ca. Fires…great video man. Great taste too, I liked and had all the same figz!
Interesting fact about soundwaves tapes. While they were meant to represent the full size cassette tapes used by everyone. They were in actuallity the same size as mini cassettes used in personal dictation devices for business men. Spies also used them as they were small enough to conceal in a pocket and record conversations.
The tapes were never meant to represent full-sized cassettes. They originally came from the Microchange line of toys where real-world scaled devices turned into robots. They were always meant to represent “microcassettes”. The CassetteMan toy (later used as the basis for Soundwave) even had the regular 3.5mm non-functional headphone jack.
Great story and video. Thanks for sharing your memories. I totally forgot about Zybots but had one or two myself, usually got the cheap knock off brands from grandparents on Christmas or school playground trades.
Thanks for watching! Yeah, this whole endeavor got me interested in the Gobots and Zybots, so I went a little eBay happy and will be posting a video reviewing what I picked up!
I watched the whole video waiting to see the photo recreated, but all I had at the end was my bated breath! Haha It was a fun video. Thanks for sharing it.
Great story! I had a similar mystery solved for me a few years ago. I had a little robot toy in the 80’s that looked like a yellow box that turned into a stumpy little ridiculous robot. Unfortunately it didn’t survive my childhood. I didn’t have any pictures of it either…just my memories. I would search the internet every couple of years trying to find it…to no avail. Chris McFeely did a video about “Muffy and the Mysterians” and its connection to G1 Transformers. It’s an interesting tale in and of itself. I watched it just out of curiosity, and I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw that stupid little yellow box robot. It was made by a company called Marchon under their Mysterians toy line. The name of the robot is “Major Repair”. Needless to say, I was on eBay and had one on the way almost immediately. He’s now standing on a shelf next to a handful of GoBots, coincidentally.
I LOVE this story! Isn't it such a great feeling to make that discovery of something so significant from your childhood? I had the same response when I saw them in the RC episode. And now I want to go watch the video you mentioned as well. Thanks so much for responding to my video! I really appreciate it!! And always love talking about 80s toys!!
@@Flashback_FunhouseIt's a great watch. There are tie-ins to defunct toy lines, the underpinnings of the original G1 toys, the G1 comics and some more surprises. It's a neat bit of lore!
I remember ZyBots! I had a few of them given to me by classmates and friends at my Birthday parties as a kid…I had a few GoBots as well. But, my brother’s and I were lucky to own every transformer with the exception of Fortress Maximus. I only came across Fort Max once. It was on a trip to Disneyland. He was at a Toys R Us on Beach Ball Blvd. I remember the street name because I thought it was a funny name for a street. Anyway, nice video. Was cool to see another child of the ‘80’s talk fondly about transforming robots 🤖!
I really appreciate the comment because I also love hearing about other folks' experiences! You must have had a great collection! I had friends in my neighborhood who had more than I did, and there was that ONE kid who had the GI Joe U.S.S. Flagg. He was the coolest kid on the block!
just an FYI, it wasn't Beaech Ball Blvd., it was Beach and Ball boulevards, 2 seperate streets that intersected each other. I know this because I grew up in the area and stayed in the general area for years after I grew up.
@@jeremydoud4885 In all fairness to you, that Toys R Us could have been on our near the intersection of Beach & Ball which is why you remembered it as Beach Ball blvd.
Ah, the 4000 year wait for the package to arrive. You'd wait anxiously. Then you'd wait in a state of madness. Eventually, you realized that you would be a "grown-up" before it arrived. Finally, acceptance and an almost blissful forgetfulness. Then, it DOES arrive as almost like an early Christmas or bday gift.
I've never felt strong envy for anyone except the kid who brought the whole beast that was Rodimus Prime to kindergarten Show&Tell back in '87. I would have traded my Metroplex in a heartbeat for that thing. Man.
Strangely a few years back I found a stack of Zybots on card, they looked great! Had a few of the knock off TFs back in the day, it didn’t matter that they weren’t official, great vid sir.
I think wanting to add them to your collection (Zybots) has a lot to do with nostalgia. I remember when I first got Luke Skywalker, my first ever Star Wars action figure. I didn't get to see the movie but I read the comic book and read the novel and was a HUGE fan. The sights, the smells, they all take me back to that joyful time. Later on when I was older (in the nineties) they came out with a four pack of the original figures (basically reproes just with a new date stamped on them) and when I opened it up, all of those sights and smells hit me hard. So, I started collecting action figures and vehicles like crazy. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, so while I did have some Transformers, I also had a Go Bot or two (the K-mart of transformers as we used to call them). But once I got a steady full-time job, I was able to fulfill my childhood wish list :) well mostly. I lived in Cincinnati, and growing up I lived only a few blocks from the Kenner headquarters (actually got a tour of the place in 11th grade as my mentor was able to facilitate a tour with the main man in charge at the time). Not too long ago my storage was broken into (along with everyone else in the complex) and someone stole a lot of my collectibles and I have been slowly trying to get them back. Like you, I had a box or two with little bits of pieces of things and cards of the figures I had. So, that gave me a starting point. Still working on getting back the collection they took though. But I do believe that we still collect to this day, because of the beautiful moments from our youth is brought back whenever we have one in our hand or whenever we are staring at our collection. Those feelings are great and should never be allowed to fade.
Forget about the Transformers, I had a Nostalgia trip over the blue box. 😅 I think I had a blue, red and maybe green one as a kid. I totally forgot about those, so that hit me hard. Thank you for that experience. 😀
I had that pencil box in yellow and I kept my Micro Machines in it. 😄 You really took me back with those ZyBots, especially seeing that Children's Palace price sticker. Man. The memories! I also have fond memories of the cheap little knock-off toys we would get at flea markets or stuff like the "TransMobots" from Zayre's stores.
@CB-ke7eq I think I kept some type of small cars in 1 of my boxes. It wasn't micro machines or hot wheels. I believe they were a in-between size cars. I they were metal as well because I played with they outside alot and eventually the paint was scratched and rust formed. It probably was mostly the cars in the box and in my backpack that damaged the paint.
I miss being a kid sometimes. I definitely had to mix in knock off and generic bots (and sometimes, just straight up toy cars,) to make my Transformers battles suitably epic, but it was good.
I surprisingly had a few the same as you. Even the go bots, I had Spacey, Loco and the dumb looking silver Porsche (Barron Von Joy). Thanks for the trip back into the past.
Mirage was my first Transformer (or possibly my first Autobot) and he broke in half within one hour of getting him out of the box. Glad to know I'm not the only one who had issues. 😅
He ABSOLUTELY was a micro cassette player! I referred to him as a boombox incorrectly. That would be “Blaster”. Good catch!! And thanks! I don’t have a ton of G1’s but I have most of the ones I want and had as a kid.
Oh man, I've never heard of Loco. My son loves trains and I love Transformers. Glad Ebay has them for a reasonable rate and my son and I can have fun with some classic toys.
I've still got some of my Transformers and a Gobot from the 80s. Those Zybots figures look familiar to me. I can understand the need to collect all of them, the packaging whispers to you to buy them all. I also remember back at a World of Wheels in the 80s where a guy was dressed up like one of the Gobots, I got a picture taken, at the time thinking Gobots were Transformers.
I loved all of the bots from back them. We all wanted the real thing but when you couldn't get what you want, you got what you could and you made do and kept wishing.
I've got a handful of mine from when I was little and bought a few old and new here and there. Transformers and some Gobots but I don't think I had any Zybots. :) Unfortunately my parents decided, while I was away for the summer, to sell a huge chunk of my toys at a garage sale which included most of my robots. Still haven't quite forgiven them for that. Maybe another 30 years. Thanks for sharing!
Very similar for me!! I don't know HOW exactly or WHEN my collection disappeared, but every time I visited my childhood home I would dig through the attic and elsewhere hoping a few still existed, but they were long gone. Parents couldn't even remember what happened to them. This is why I'm storing all of my boys' toys for them properly so they will be there when they inevitably want to go down memory lane some day!
I had both Gobots (which came first to America) and Transformers. Played with Gobots more often because they were close in scale to Matchbox and Hot Wheels. They blended into the Hot Wheels City and Matchbox Maintenance Garage toys. The problem with Transformers was they were so damn delicate and too many accessories. I tended to leave them at home and indoors. Gobots traveled on trips better.
Very true about mixing them with Matchbox and Hot Wheels! I think I had more of those than anything else when I was a kid. They were so durable. I think I still have a couple from when I was a kid. I’m sure Torque spent a lot of time in my gravel parking lot with those guys!
I had all the different brands of stuff, robots, Zybots and transformers hung out together. Those dumb remco wrestlers fought with He-man and adventurer people flew the snow speeder every once in a while. Good times!
It's funny a few years ago I had found Torque in a bag of cars at a goodwill not knowing what it was thinking it was some sort of knock off and when I saw that episode of Robot Chicken I recognized that blue car and found out he was a Zybot. Unfortunately my copy has some issues with the legs so the rear of the car isn't straight and don't want to damage the sticker or risk breaking it trying to fix him. Fully transformed it's not noticeable but in car mode it is.
i still have every transformer I got as a kid, including Wheeljack, who was my absolute favorite. Wheeljack was the first Transformer I got, I think back in '84? He was like MacGyver and I absolutely adored him. He's seen better days though. Someday I have to see about reacquiring his accessories, as I lost them before I developed a storage solution for all my Transformer accessories. Wheeljack is still my favorite, I have so many versions of him now XD
In my eBay haul video of GoBots and Zybots, I talk about that specific truck at the 1:02:40 mark. (The video is too long, so I'm giving you the timestamp!) If you're interested, check that out!
LOL. The same exact thing happened to Mirage when I was a kid, made worse by the fact I was only borrowing the figure from someone in my neighborhood. Wound up having to buy him a new one, but hey...I got a half-and-half Mirage out of it.
My favorites were actuallt the Convertors. I bought a bunch at LaVerdiere's drug store downtown in the 80s. Nebo was a ripoff of some Robotech robot, it just had a ton of parts so we had a frog mode, a grasshopper, you name it. It could turn into just about anything. Another were like Soundwave, but weird. A cash register, pinball machine, slot machine, etc. Robot forms were very retro and primitive, right out of 1950s movies. Loved those, and they worked! Sort of, slot machine was rigged and you couldn't win it. So I guess they were accurate ;)
"...Don't worry, Megatron; it happens to everybody." Hahhh! My first actual Transformers figure was Optimus Prime - the "un-official" first TF was Diakron Red Sunstreaker from a year earlier. Nice deep dive.👍
Someone else noted that in the comments and I had no idea. Somehow I completely missed the new version from a couple years ago but he looks amazing and I need to get him!!
@@Flashback_Funhouse And now's a great time to get him! The latest release has the best deco so far. The plastic yellowing issues have been solved, and he comes with Buzzsaw, toy deco Frenzy, and Ravage.
1:50 As well as Devastator bits, I also see guns from Shrapnel and Kickback, and a rocket from either Inferno or Grapple (from what you were stashing away at the end, it must have been Inferno)... 10:20 Oh, no, they absolutely have. I actually have my modern Earthrise Soundwave right next to me with 7 cassettes... (Rumble, Frenzy, Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Ravage, Ratbat and Wingthing) Plus the original G1 Soundwave has been reissued quite a few times over the years as well (sometimes using the thicc-chested Soundblaster remoulding which holds 2 cassettes if you're lucky)... 11:35 Yeah, that happened to my original Megatron, too. I did manage to source a junker, though, and swapped parts to create a working figure again. 12:45 That movie version was _barely_ Jazz... 😜 13:05 Again, a familiar plight, although it took about 25 years before it finally happened to mine... 15:00 Spay-C and Loco were easy to recognise. GoBots are great, and not inferior to Transformers _at all._ I think the only reason they were considered lesser was because of the impact of their respective cartoons. Your Spay-C is missing the tailfin section that swings round onto his back. I had literally never heard of Zybots before today, but found them on a site called "the-liberator [dot] net"... Turns out Trac, Mach1, Wrecker, Hot Stuff, Chopper and Pickup were also sold together in a box set, with parts to combine them into a super robot... which is one of the most bizarre beasts I have ever seen...
Absolutely love ALL of this! But most importantly WHAT?? How did I miss the Earthrise Soundwave? I had the Siege Soundwave, and he looked cool as the robot but of course the alt was a ship. The Earthrise looks AMAZING! (I actually do think I remember seeing the cassettes at Target, funnily enough, but I guess didn't realize there was actually a proper Soundwave to go with them). During Siege and Earthrise it was so hit or miss on whether we would be able to find them in our local Target, etc. If not, the prices were stupid on eBay! But I will have to get my hands on the Earthrise Soundwave. Thanks for pointing that out!! I think the best part about posting this video is how much I've learned from all the amazing comments!
@@Flashback_Funhouse The Earthrise Soundwave came with retooled Earth versions of Laserbeak and Ravage; there was also a previous two-pack of Cybertronian versions for the original Siege Soundwave. Then they came out with a two-pack of Rumble and Ratbat, and then there was a Selects 4-pack; two were redecoes of Rumble and Ratbat as Frenzy and Wingthing, and the other two were retools of the same into Knok and Skar, intended for Doubledealer. I've got all of these, but I repainted my Earth Laserbeak into Buzzsaw (the best cassette), and my Cybertronian Ravage into Nightstalker, to beef up Blaster's team...
I watched the History Channel episode "The Toys that built America " Paraphrased the robot wars. A deep dive into Tonka toy company in Minnesota and Hasbro toy company out California that started the Transformers/Gobots war. I love it how the episode highlights how transformers knockoffs were actually the catalysts to cement Hasbro/Takara's dominance in the industry. How many knockoffs were actually bought out and incorporated into the Transformers lore. And how Gobots are now Transformers
Yes!! That was my favorite episode of the series (obviously). 😎 The BUSINESS behind all these kids’ toys is always very intriguing. Just like the console wars!
I remember one Christmas I gotten remco zybot gift set witch had all the bots from robot chicken episode plus a few that didn't get shown ahhh the good old days
I remember those... mom got them for Christmas cause they were cheap and couldnt afford alot of Transformers. But I did transformers for Christmas, omega and optimus, jetfire, skylinx and the Transformers and GI Joe Tyco train sets those where thr big things i got for christmas.I was 11 back 84. I bought Megatron after we had a garage sale. He was the first I saw in Kmart just a few days after they came out or stocked. And I still have them all now.
Same!! If the toy was a bit more expense (like Transformers would have been for my family back then), they were definitely Christmas or birthday gifts for me! Probably what made them seem more special. Glad to hear you still have all of yours!!
I lean towards transformers but some gobots was also part of my childhood coz Transformer were expensive. I remember i had Jeeper Creeper, Waterwalk, Flip Top, Road Ranger.
I was so certain the blue car guy was one of the Go-Bots Puzzler guys till you showed the Zybot. Man there was just so many Transforming robots back then. Good times.
That was my first thought too but I knew that the Puzzler guy was a darker blue than that, as it and the red central one were the only two I had of the set Totally recognized Loco and Spay-C though, and I never even had the latter
When we moved when I was 15, my G1 collection got stolen by the Vietnamese kids living down the street. Allowance, yard work money, etc. Saved up to buy them. Everything gone. No prime, no Megatron, Soundwave or Shockwave. No autobots like Wheeljack and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Gone We spent the weekend moving. Had a few things left to move from old house to the new house a few blocks away. When we came back on Monday, d house broken into. Missing a few boxes. Transformers box also missing. Gotta love Stockton,CA. We know it was them when the little shits were bragging about their haul. Small neighborhood. Mutual friends heard. Business was handled.
My local toy store had a whole aisle of Japanese packaged GoBots, I think the owner of the store was actually importing them from Japan before the official release in the US. I remember actually thinking Transformers were an inferior knockoff for a hot second.
Back in the day i kept asking for the Stunticon gift set for Xmas but got a pack of 6 zybots with parts that let make a combiner bot with a head that looked like a rip off from a 80s rc robot from rad shake
My Mirage lasted from 1985 to last year, I managed to repair it with some Gorilla glue, had Spa-cee but the legs were always loose never stood up properly
The black one looks like Loco, the 4-4-0 steam engine Go Bot (he's far too short to have that wheel arrangement). The white one looks like a shuttle craft Go Bot. I don't know about the blue one or the yellow one.
There were a couple of smaller brands out there but if you really want to get crazy the big Sanrio stores back there there were hundreds of kinds from a few different Asian countries.
I remember always being the guy that had to bum a pencil from someone else at school. Now I realize it's because I kept my case at home with Transformers manuals in it!
I think he’s my favorite too. It fluctuates sometimes with Shockwave. But that’s mostly just the nostalgia of having Shockwave as a kid. I would imagine there are WAY more iterations of Soundwave out there! Must be a cool collection!
@@Flashback_Funhouse It's an ok collection I have a total of 8 only 3 transform. 2 transform into a tape deck and 1 transforms into a military communication vehicle. The ones that don't transform are 2 blokees, 1 Yolopark, 1 R.E.D. version and 1 Just Play Mini Figure.
The 80's was a Golden era. Transformers, Gobots, Robotech,. He-man and ThunderCats just to name a few. We had better cartoons then what the few generations after us got. I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything. The only thing I collect now are Transformers and I even stopped on that. Lately the price has gone way up and quality of the Transformer toys has gone down. I have close to 1,000 Transformers.
That’s an impressive collection! I stopped for the most part with modern as well because it seemed like every time something cool was coming out that I might actually want it just went straight to the scalpers. Shame.
Haha! I totally get that and I also appreciate that you watched that far! I wasn't really a collector for a long time, but that has changed very recently and they ARE going up on shelves and being stored properly now. Thanks for watching!!
14:50 A technicality on that one. Transformers, the brand, came out in '84. However, they already existed (many of the G1 ones) as Diaclones more than a few years before Go-Bots existed. So, Go-Bots are the 'copy' (if one wants to call either brand that).
Accurate! In the video I was mostly thinking about when they came out in the U.S., but a very good point. I didn't even mention the Diaclones, but probably should have. Regardless, I loved ALL brands back in the '80s, and still do!
The only regret that I have was never having enough transformers points to acquire the whole OmniBots team and only sending away for rhe Powerdasher jet figure. I think i remember a car version of Powerdasher. My all-time favorite send away transformers knockoff was the Gobots transforming cap pistol robot. 80s are The Gen x generation
I learned that I could just xerox the robot points. It isn't like they were going to send your money back because you didn't include the worthless pieces of cardboard.
Does anyone remember the creature-like Zybots like toys? I know that there were insects, birds and others like these, but the only one that I can remember was the one that turns into a bat.
"Remco made everything, And nothing." Totally TRUE...great take
If you grew up in the 80s and were a Transformers fan, you also had Go-bots. Some may deny it, but the truth is, we all had them. And we loved them. There's no running from the truth.
100%! There was NO difference for me as a kid! OR now!
had all sorts of robots, my parents didn't get it and I love them for it lol
My play stories always had the Autobots and decepticons reluctantly teaming up to fight off an invasion of other transforming robots, whether they were gobots, rock lords, maybe even some zybots, but there were many random and inferior robots that were always threatening my beloved Transformers
@@thestraynetworkLove that!! 😂
@@transformerstuff7029Same!!
My Mirage broke too before it burnt with my whole collection in the 2018 Ca. Fires…great video man. Great taste too, I liked and had all the same figz!
Aw, man! Sorry to hear how you lost the figures. But thanks for the comment and watching the vid! Cheers!
Was it a huge insured collection?
Interesting fact about soundwaves tapes. While they were meant to represent the full size cassette tapes used by everyone. They were in actuallity the same size as mini cassettes used in personal dictation devices for business men. Spies also used them as they were small enough to conceal in a pocket and record conversations.
It was used in one of the cartoon g1 episode when Soundwave transformed into a mini cassette to spy also!
The tapes were never meant to represent full-sized cassettes. They originally came from the Microchange line of toys where real-world scaled devices turned into robots. They were always meant to represent “microcassettes”. The CassetteMan toy (later used as the basis for Soundwave) even had the regular 3.5mm non-functional headphone jack.
My parents first answering machine used the same tiny sized tapes
@@humperdidoo Microchange did also include a couple of full-sized cassettes - though these transformed into vehicles for Microman to operate.
You are correct, but I think they were microcassetes 🤔
Great story and video. Thanks for sharing your memories. I totally forgot about Zybots but had one or two myself, usually got the cheap knock off brands from grandparents on Christmas or school playground trades.
Thanks for watching! Yeah, this whole endeavor got me interested in the Gobots and Zybots, so I went a little eBay happy and will be posting a video reviewing what I picked up!
Thank you! I had a Zybot bulldozer back in the day and would never have known its provenance without this video.
Man I was so sure one of those were gonna turn out to be just a PEZ dispenser
I watched the whole video waiting to see the photo recreated, but all I had at the end was my bated breath! Haha It was a fun video. Thanks for sharing it.
Haha! Well the thumbnail has the recreated photo at least! If I could go back in time, though, I would have definitely stuck it at the end!!
Great story! I had a similar mystery solved for me a few years ago. I had a little robot toy in the 80’s that looked like a yellow box that turned into a stumpy little ridiculous robot. Unfortunately it didn’t survive my childhood. I didn’t have any pictures of it either…just my memories. I would search the internet every couple of years trying to find it…to no avail. Chris McFeely did a video about “Muffy and the Mysterians” and its connection to G1 Transformers. It’s an interesting tale in and of itself. I watched it just out of curiosity, and I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw that stupid little yellow box robot. It was made by a company called Marchon under their Mysterians toy line. The name of the robot is “Major Repair”. Needless to say, I was on eBay and had one on the way almost immediately. He’s now standing on a shelf next to a handful of GoBots, coincidentally.
I LOVE this story! Isn't it such a great feeling to make that discovery of something so significant from your childhood? I had the same response when I saw them in the RC episode. And now I want to go watch the video you mentioned as well. Thanks so much for responding to my video! I really appreciate it!! And always love talking about 80s toys!!
@@Flashback_FunhouseIt's a great watch. There are tie-ins to defunct toy lines, the underpinnings of the original G1 toys, the G1 comics and some more surprises. It's a neat bit of lore!
Interesting video. Life-long G1 fan here. I dig the KO figures/off-brand TFers also.
Thanks! Me too!
Very cool! I enjoyed a lot of various mecha robots back in the day. Very nice that you were able to get them back! Thanks for sharing!
I remember ZyBots! I had a few of them given to me by classmates and friends at my Birthday parties as a kid…I had a few GoBots as well. But, my brother’s and I were lucky to own every transformer with the exception of Fortress Maximus. I only came across Fort Max once. It was on a trip to Disneyland. He was at a Toys R Us on Beach Ball Blvd. I remember the street name because I thought it was a funny name for a street. Anyway, nice video. Was cool to see another child of the ‘80’s talk fondly about transforming robots 🤖!
I really appreciate the comment because I also love hearing about other folks' experiences! You must have had a great collection! I had friends in my neighborhood who had more than I did, and there was that ONE kid who had the GI Joe U.S.S. Flagg. He was the coolest kid on the block!
just an FYI, it wasn't Beaech Ball Blvd., it was Beach and Ball boulevards, 2 seperate streets that intersected each other. I know this because I grew up in the area and stayed in the general area for years after I grew up.
@@Riceball01 thank you for that info…I guess my childhood memories turned it into what I thought the name was.
@@jeremydoud4885 In all fairness to you, that Toys R Us could have been on our near the intersection of Beach & Ball which is why you remembered it as Beach Ball blvd.
Ah, the 4000 year wait for the package to arrive. You'd wait anxiously. Then you'd wait in a state of madness. Eventually, you realized that you would be a "grown-up" before it arrived. Finally, acceptance and an almost blissful forgetfulness. Then, it DOES arrive as almost like an early Christmas or bday gift.
Had those same Zybots. Got them from my grandma. Came in a multi-pack. Thanks for the flashback.
Thanks for the comment!! Have a great day!!
You got him for Christmas too! Awesome! Oh the stories that little blue car probably tells when everything comes alive at night, wow.
😂😂😂
I had op prime, Soundwave, breakdown and Loco. And i totally forgot about loco until I watched your video. So thanks for unlocking a fond memory😊😊
These are my favorite responses! I'm always trying to trigger old memories and very happy to hear when I've done that for someone else!!
I've never felt strong envy for anyone except the kid who brought the whole beast that was Rodimus Prime to kindergarten Show&Tell back in '87. I would have traded my Metroplex in a heartbeat for that thing. Man.
For me, it was the kid down the street who had the USS Flagg!! (I was also a big fan of G.I. Joe)
Strangely a few years back I found a stack of Zybots on card, they looked great! Had a few of the knock off TFs back in the day, it didn’t matter that they weren’t official, great vid sir.
I really dig the Zybots packaging. Think I’ll def be on the lookout for more!
I think wanting to add them to your collection (Zybots) has a lot to do with nostalgia. I remember when I first got Luke Skywalker, my first ever Star Wars action figure. I didn't get to see the movie but I read the comic book and read the novel and was a HUGE fan. The sights, the smells, they all take me back to that joyful time. Later on when I was older (in the nineties) they came out with a four pack of the original figures (basically reproes just with a new date stamped on them) and when I opened it up, all of those sights and smells hit me hard. So, I started collecting action figures and vehicles like crazy. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, so while I did have some Transformers, I also had a Go Bot or two (the K-mart of transformers as we used to call them). But once I got a steady full-time job, I was able to fulfill my childhood wish list :) well mostly. I lived in Cincinnati, and growing up I lived only a few blocks from the Kenner headquarters (actually got a tour of the place in 11th grade as my mentor was able to facilitate a tour with the main man in charge at the time). Not too long ago my storage was broken into (along with everyone else in the complex) and someone stole a lot of my collectibles and I have been slowly trying to get them back. Like you, I had a box or two with little bits of pieces of things and cards of the figures I had. So, that gave me a starting point. Still working on getting back the collection they took though. But I do believe that we still collect to this day, because of the beautiful moments from our youth is brought back whenever we have one in our hand or whenever we are staring at our collection. Those feelings are great and should never be allowed to fade.
Forget about the Transformers, I had a Nostalgia trip over the blue box. 😅
I think I had a blue, red and maybe green one as a kid. I totally forgot about those, so that hit me hard. Thank you for that experience. 😀
I love this comment so much! Ain't it crazy the items that just hit DIFFERENT sometimes when they bring back those memories???
I had that pencil box in yellow and I kept my Micro Machines in it. 😄
You really took me back with those ZyBots, especially seeing that Children's Palace price sticker. Man. The memories! I also have fond memories of the cheap little knock-off toys we would get at flea markets or stuff like the "TransMobots" from Zayre's stores.
@Flashback_Funhouse I didn't mean forget about the transformers in a bad way. I just wasn't expecting to see something that I forgotten about. 😅
@CB-ke7eq I think I kept some type of small cars in 1 of my boxes. It wasn't micro machines or hot wheels. I believe they were a in-between size cars. I they were metal as well because I played with they outside alot and eventually the paint was scratched and rust formed. It probably was mostly the cars in the box and in my backpack that damaged the paint.
I have that yellow motorcycle zybot,i had forgotten their brand! Thanks for the nostalgia
Thanks for checking out my video and commenting. Really appreciate it!
I miss being a kid sometimes. I definitely had to mix in knock off and generic bots (and sometimes, just straight up toy cars,) to make my Transformers battles suitably epic, but it was good.
Same! I’m very certain He-Man, Skeletor and even some stormtroopers from Star Wars got involved in my battles as well! 😂😂
What's the point of having Castle Grayskull if your TMNT can't team up with Wolverine to fight COBRA while Megazord dukes it out with Devastator?
I remember the transformers/gobots knockoffs. Dynabots and zybots!! I had that blue car around 9 10 11 years old playing in the den with these!
I surprisingly had a few the same as you. Even the go bots, I had Spacey, Loco and the dumb looking silver Porsche (Barron Von Joy). Thanks for the trip back into the past.
Thanks for watching!!
Mirage was my first Transformer (or possibly my first Autobot) and he broke in half within one hour of getting him out of the box. Glad to know I'm not the only one who had issues. 😅
I thought sound wave was a micro cassette player but this is an awesome collection the G1 can never be beat
He ABSOLUTELY was a micro cassette player! I referred to him as a boombox incorrectly. That would be “Blaster”. Good catch!! And thanks! I don’t have a ton of G1’s but I have most of the ones I want and had as a kid.
Cool
Cool stuff. I've never heard of the Zybots, before.
Oh man, I've never heard of Loco. My son loves trains and I love Transformers. Glad Ebay has them for a reasonable rate and my son and I can have fun with some classic toys.
Soundwave is a 1:1 mini cassette recorder. You can actually put a real mini cassette into Soundwave.
I'm gonna confirm that in my next video! 😃
@@Flashback_Funhousenot true
Oh! I had that yellow guy! Always knew he was not legit, but he was one of my favorites for some reason.. lol
I had the yellow Zybot with red arms, COMPLETELY forgot about him until this video.
I've still got some of my Transformers and a Gobot from the 80s. Those Zybots figures look familiar to me. I can understand the need to collect all of them, the packaging whispers to you to buy them all. I also remember back at a World of Wheels in the 80s where a guy was dressed up like one of the Gobots, I got a picture taken, at the time thinking Gobots were Transformers.
Love it! And yeah I might have hopped on eBay and grabbed a few more. 😂
I loved all of the bots from back them. We all wanted the real thing but when you couldn't get what you want, you got what you could and you made do and kept wishing.
Thanks for sharing. I am so mad when I gave all mine away.
I've got a handful of mine from when I was little and bought a few old and new here and there. Transformers and some Gobots but I don't think I had any Zybots. :)
Unfortunately my parents decided, while I was away for the summer, to sell a huge chunk of my toys at a garage sale which included most of my robots. Still haven't quite forgiven them for that. Maybe another 30 years.
Thanks for sharing!
Very similar for me!! I don't know HOW exactly or WHEN my collection disappeared, but every time I visited my childhood home I would dig through the attic and elsewhere hoping a few still existed, but they were long gone. Parents couldn't even remember what happened to them. This is why I'm storing all of my boys' toys for them properly so they will be there when they inevitably want to go down memory lane some day!
Every house in the 80s had that exact chair in the photo.
It's TRUE!!!
Zybots were the Transformers of the local Flea Market.
It was almost always a foreign person manning the booth, and you could negotiate the price.
I had both Gobots (which came first to America) and Transformers.
Played with Gobots more often because they were close in scale to Matchbox and Hot Wheels. They blended into the Hot Wheels City and Matchbox Maintenance Garage toys.
The problem with Transformers was they were so damn delicate and too many accessories. I tended to leave them at home and indoors. Gobots traveled on trips better.
Very true about mixing them with Matchbox and Hot Wheels! I think I had more of those than anything else when I was a kid. They were so durable. I think I still have a couple from when I was a kid. I’m sure Torque spent a lot of time in my gravel parking lot with those guys!
Zybots and Roadbots were awesome!
Agrred!
I still have a Leader One, and Turbo in a small wooden box in my junk drawer. LOL
That photo looks slot like the arrangement I saw on my cousin's dresser, when I was super young!
I had all the different brands of stuff, robots, Zybots and transformers hung out together. Those dumb remco wrestlers fought with He-man and adventurer people flew the snow speeder every once in a while. Good times!
Yes!! That’s just how we rolled! Pretty sure I would use Hot Wheels cars to beef up the Autobot ranks.
Loco. He was a 50¢ machine capsule prize you could never get as a kid... I have 2 now, two different colors 😂
Just from the thumbnail… I knew exactly who the last two were. You could get them in a 10 pack… I got mine in 1986
Yeah, I had Reflector that I got with the Robot Points. Wish I still had any of those.
It's funny a few years ago I had found Torque in a bag of cars at a goodwill not knowing what it was thinking it was some sort of knock off and when I saw that episode of Robot Chicken I recognized that blue car and found out he was a Zybot. Unfortunately my copy has some issues with the legs so the rear of the car isn't straight and don't want to damage the sticker or risk breaking it trying to fix him. Fully transformed it's not noticeable but in car mode it is.
It's crazy! I saw both Torque and RPM2 in that Robot Chicken episode and was like "WAIT! I have those!"
i still have every transformer I got as a kid, including Wheeljack, who was my absolute favorite. Wheeljack was the first Transformer I got, I think back in '84? He was like MacGyver and I absolutely adored him. He's seen better days though. Someday I have to see about reacquiring his accessories, as I lost them before I developed a storage solution for all my Transformer accessories. Wheeljack is still my favorite, I have so many versions of him now XD
He IS pretty awesome, and there have been so many cool variations over the years!
17:17 HOLY CRAP i had that black semi truck Xybot. Since we were broke and couldnt find an Optimus Prime anywhere i think i used him as OP's stand-in
In my eBay haul video of GoBots and Zybots, I talk about that specific truck at the 1:02:40 mark. (The video is too long, so I'm giving you the timestamp!) If you're interested, check that out!
LOL. The same exact thing happened to Mirage when I was a kid, made worse by the fact I was only borrowing the figure from someone in my neighborhood. Wound up having to buy him a new one, but hey...I got a half-and-half Mirage out of it.
lol so sort of a happy ending!
Now you need to find that table and chair so you can TRULY recreate the photo. LOL
😂😂😂
Its so weird how we all have these memorys of these toys and every memory is different
It really is! So many different associations tied to THINGS! Some great, some not so great. Crazy!
My favorites were actuallt the Convertors. I bought a bunch at LaVerdiere's drug store downtown in the 80s. Nebo was a ripoff of some Robotech robot, it just had a ton of parts so we had a frog mode, a grasshopper, you name it. It could turn into just about anything. Another were like Soundwave, but weird. A cash register, pinball machine, slot machine, etc. Robot forms were very retro and primitive, right out of 1950s movies. Loved those, and they worked! Sort of, slot machine was rigged and you couldn't win it. So I guess they were accurate ;)
I'm starting to really love the off brands for the crazy variety of alt modes you can only get from them!
"...Don't worry, Megatron; it happens to everybody." Hahhh!
My first actual Transformers figure was Optimus Prime - the "un-official" first TF was Diakron Red Sunstreaker from a year earlier. Nice deep dive.👍
Not for nothing, but Soundwave did get new figures in his original micro cassette deck alt mode.
And he even got released as a boombox once.
Someone else noted that in the comments and I had no idea. Somehow I completely missed the new version from a couple years ago but he looks amazing and I need to get him!!
@@Flashback_Funhouse And now's a great time to get him!
The latest release has the best deco so far. The plastic yellowing issues have been solved, and he comes with Buzzsaw, toy deco Frenzy, and Ravage.
1:50 As well as Devastator bits, I also see guns from Shrapnel and Kickback, and a rocket from either Inferno or Grapple (from what you were stashing away at the end, it must have been Inferno)...
10:20 Oh, no, they absolutely have. I actually have my modern Earthrise Soundwave right next to me with 7 cassettes... (Rumble, Frenzy, Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Ravage, Ratbat and Wingthing)
Plus the original G1 Soundwave has been reissued quite a few times over the years as well (sometimes using the thicc-chested Soundblaster remoulding which holds 2 cassettes if you're lucky)...
11:35 Yeah, that happened to my original Megatron, too. I did manage to source a junker, though, and swapped parts to create a working figure again.
12:45 That movie version was _barely_ Jazz... 😜
13:05 Again, a familiar plight, although it took about 25 years before it finally happened to mine...
15:00 Spay-C and Loco were easy to recognise. GoBots are great, and not inferior to Transformers _at all._ I think the only reason they were considered lesser was because of the impact of their respective cartoons. Your Spay-C is missing the tailfin section that swings round onto his back.
I had literally never heard of Zybots before today, but found them on a site called "the-liberator [dot] net"... Turns out Trac, Mach1, Wrecker, Hot Stuff, Chopper and Pickup were also sold together in a box set, with parts to combine them into a super robot... which is one of the most bizarre beasts I have ever seen...
Absolutely love ALL of this! But most importantly WHAT?? How did I miss the Earthrise Soundwave? I had the Siege Soundwave, and he looked cool as the robot but of course the alt was a ship. The Earthrise looks AMAZING! (I actually do think I remember seeing the cassettes at Target, funnily enough, but I guess didn't realize there was actually a proper Soundwave to go with them). During Siege and Earthrise it was so hit or miss on whether we would be able to find them in our local Target, etc. If not, the prices were stupid on eBay! But I will have to get my hands on the Earthrise Soundwave. Thanks for pointing that out!! I think the best part about posting this video is how much I've learned from all the amazing comments!
@@Flashback_Funhouse The Earthrise Soundwave came with retooled Earth versions of Laserbeak and Ravage; there was also a previous two-pack of Cybertronian versions for the original Siege Soundwave. Then they came out with a two-pack of Rumble and Ratbat, and then there was a Selects 4-pack; two were redecoes of Rumble and Ratbat as Frenzy and Wingthing, and the other two were retools of the same into Knok and Skar, intended for Doubledealer.
I've got all of these, but I repainted my Earth Laserbeak into Buzzsaw (the best cassette), and my Cybertronian Ravage into Nightstalker, to beef up Blaster's team...
Cool keeping the booklets!
I was so happy to open that box up and see that they had survived! If only my Transformers had survived as well!!
Awesome memory lane story.
Thanks!
Jazz & Blitzwing deserve better than "tossed casually into a box". 😬
You are ABSOLUTELY correct!! I’m setting up a shelf now to display them all properly!!
I watched the History Channel episode "The Toys that built America " Paraphrased the robot wars. A deep dive into Tonka toy company in Minnesota and Hasbro toy company out California that started the Transformers/Gobots war. I love it how the episode highlights how transformers knockoffs were actually the catalysts to cement Hasbro/Takara's dominance in the industry. How many knockoffs were actually bought out and incorporated into the Transformers lore. And how Gobots are now Transformers
Yes!! That was my favorite episode of the series (obviously). 😎 The BUSINESS behind all these kids’ toys is always very intriguing. Just like the console wars!
Children's Palace, back then, toy stores everywhere. I remember when Toys r Us was called Bargain Town.
It really sucked to go from taking my young sons to toys r us to browse the shelves to just browsing Amazon with them.
Megatron, Don't worry- All us old guys have that problem.
😂😂
I remember one Christmas I gotten remco zybot gift set witch had all the bots from robot chicken episode plus a few that didn't get shown ahhh the good old days
I remember those... mom got them for Christmas cause they were cheap and couldnt afford alot of Transformers. But I did transformers for Christmas, omega and optimus, jetfire, skylinx and the Transformers and GI Joe Tyco train sets those where thr big things i got for christmas.I was 11 back 84. I bought Megatron after we had a garage sale. He was the first I saw in Kmart just a few days after they came out or stocked. And I still have them all now.
Same!! If the toy was a bit more expense (like Transformers would have been for my family back then), they were definitely Christmas or birthday gifts for me! Probably what made them seem more special. Glad to hear you still have all of yours!!
I lean towards transformers but some gobots was also part of my childhood coz Transformer were expensive. I remember i had Jeeper Creeper, Waterwalk, Flip Top, Road Ranger.
I definitely had a nice mix in my collection as well for the same reason.
I was so certain the blue car guy was one of the Go-Bots Puzzler guys till you showed the Zybot. Man there was just so many Transforming robots back then. Good times.
Definitely good times!
That was my first thought too but I knew that the Puzzler guy was a darker blue than that, as it and the red central one were the only two I had of the set
Totally recognized Loco and Spay-C though, and I never even had the latter
Mannn. Childrens palace was awesome. Got so many toys there as a kid
They really were!
When we moved when I was 15, my G1 collection got stolen by the Vietnamese kids living down the street. Allowance, yard work money, etc. Saved up to buy them. Everything gone. No prime, no Megatron, Soundwave or Shockwave. No autobots like Wheeljack and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Gone
We spent the weekend moving. Had a few things left to move from old house to the new house a few blocks away.
When we came back on Monday, d house broken into. Missing a few boxes. Transformers box also missing. Gotta love Stockton,CA. We know it was them when the little shits were bragging about their haul. Small neighborhood. Mutual friends heard. Business was handled.
My local toy store had a whole aisle of Japanese packaged GoBots, I think the owner of the store was actually importing them from Japan before the official release in the US. I remember actually thinking Transformers were an inferior knockoff for a hot second.
That’s funny. It would be cool to still have some of those import Gobots though!
@@Flashback_Funhouse I still have the submarine and dump truck (I think) ones but I don’t think I kept the packaging
Back in the day i kept asking for the Stunticon gift set for Xmas but got a pack of 6 zybots with parts that let make a combiner bot with a head that looked like a rip off from a 80s rc robot from rad shake
I believe right now there is a boxed Zybot combiner on eBay, and they're asking $850!!!
My Mirage lasted from 1985 to last year, I managed to repair it with some Gorilla glue, had Spa-cee but the legs were always loose never stood up properly
Geeze, I definitely had Space-c, but never heard of zybots.
Enjoyed.
Thanks
The black one looks like Loco, the 4-4-0 steam engine Go Bot (he's far too short to have that wheel arrangement). The white one looks like a shuttle craft Go Bot. I don't know about the blue one or the yellow one.
There were a couple of smaller brands out there but if you really want to get crazy the big Sanrio stores back there there were hundreds of kinds from a few different Asian countries.
I forgot about those boxes we used as pencil cases
I remember always being the guy that had to bum a pencil from someone else at school. Now I realize it's because I kept my case at home with Transformers manuals in it!
I collect Transformers but since Soundwave is my favorite I'm collecting every version of him I can get my hands on.
I think he’s my favorite too. It fluctuates sometimes with Shockwave. But that’s mostly just the nostalgia of having Shockwave as a kid. I would imagine there are WAY more iterations of Soundwave out there! Must be a cool collection!
@@Flashback_Funhouse It's an ok collection I have a total of 8 only 3 transform. 2 transform into a tape deck and 1 transforms into a military communication vehicle. The ones that don't transform are 2 blokees, 1 Yolopark, 1 R.E.D. version and 1 Just Play Mini Figure.
Gobots were fall of 83 just so Tonka could beat Hasbro to the punch after Tonka heard Hasbro was talking with Japanese companies
I'll have to tag you when I do a video of my old transformer toys from my childhood.
The 80's was a Golden era.
Transformers, Gobots, Robotech,. He-man and ThunderCats just to name a few. We had better cartoons then what the few generations after us got. I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything. The only thing I collect now are Transformers and I even stopped on that. Lately the price has gone way up and quality of the Transformer toys has gone down. I have close to 1,000 Transformers.
That’s an impressive collection! I stopped for the most part with modern as well because it seemed like every time something cool was coming out that I might actually want it just went straight to the scalpers. Shame.
@Flashback_Funhouse Thanks! Yeah I hate people that buy them all then try to sell them for 2-3x the price.
I remember those motorcycle robots
Don't feel too bad, Megs. Prime's legs were prone to breaking off.
I'm a collector and I think people that keep their transformers in the box are insane...lol but it's ok. You do you.
Haha! I totally get that and I also appreciate that you watched that far! I wasn't really a collector for a long time, but that has changed very recently and they ARE going up on shelves and being stored properly now. Thanks for watching!!
@@Flashback_Funhouse haha thanks for the video! I love videos like this
Definitely saw the go bots in that photo
Well spotted!
14:50 A technicality on that one. Transformers, the brand, came out in '84. However, they already existed (many of the G1 ones) as Diaclones more than a few years before Go-Bots existed. So, Go-Bots are the 'copy' (if one wants to call either brand that).
Accurate! In the video I was mostly thinking about when they came out in the U.S., but a very good point. I didn't even mention the Diaclones, but probably should have. Regardless, I loved ALL brands back in the '80s, and still do!
9:03😮
Starting from the left.....
Unknown. Leader 1. Crasher. Cop Tur.
"Don't worry Megatron, it happens to everybody"
😂😂
Thanks for sharing.
🤣I can't stop laughing now. My cousin had rpm 2. I remember roasting him so hard. kids are so cruel.
That’s just the way it was!! 😂
I'm pretty sure my 90s version of Mirage is also broken the same way. 😂
😂😂
The only regret that I have was never having enough transformers points to acquire the whole OmniBots team and only sending away for rhe Powerdasher jet figure. I think i remember a car version of Powerdasher.
My all-time favorite send away transformers knockoff was the Gobots transforming cap pistol robot. 80s are The Gen x generation
Kudos to you, though, for sending away as much as you did! I regret only ever having done it for Star Wars toys.
Loco is like Tank! Easy and sick!
Plus he came with parts that were easy to lose! That translucent green piece on the back of his head though!
03:54 i always wanted that watch
I remember having a little yellow bot that turned into a quadricycle, but I haven't been able to find it anyware.
Any chance it was the "Lil Yellow" Zybot?
@@Flashback_Funhouse the same as yours? It actually looks similar but mine definitelly had 4 wheels.
I had a blue and gray parrot type bird that transformed into a robot. Can’t place what line it was from but trying to find him again lol
Could it have been the Convertors parrot named "Calypso"?
It’s close but the one I had had gray tips that folded back into the wings. I got him at KB Toys around the mid to late 80s
My parents had that table and chairs, lol
I think everybody did! I’d wake up after a sleepover at a friend’s house and think I was still at home!
Pure 80’s Goodness!
Converters were also a good cheap alternative transforming toys robot if you can’t afford Go bot or transformers
I think they had a car that looked kind of like the trans am from Smokey and the Bandit. Might have been the only one I owned.
I learned that I could just xerox the robot points. It isn't like they were going to send your money back because you didn't include the worthless pieces of cardboard.
That’s pretty smart actually. 👍
I remember having the space shuttle go bot
Does anyone remember the creature-like Zybots like toys? I know that there were insects, birds and others like these, but the only one that I can remember was the one that turns into a bat.
Probably Select's Converters line?
@@SoelGriffinseconded, I had an owl; there were others that turned into things like cash registers, pinball machines, combination locks, and so on