We have NAMES! Really!
In 2004, Takara released an e-Hobby exclusive set of recolored Autobot Mini-Vehicles renamed as Tonka GoBots characters. The intention was to have them be those characters infiltrating the Transformers universe. However, Takara got skittish when it was suggested that there was no telling how Bandai (the company responsible for the toys that Tonka adapted to create the GoBots back in the '80s) would react to the set, despite the minimal chance of provable copyright infringement.
Like such, although the set retained the name "G1 GoBots" and the references to various GoBots concepts were kept in the team bio, the individual character names were dropped from the final packaging.
The Dimensional Exploration Team/Guardian Security Force/Experimentation Team/Renegade G1 GoBots include...
- Bad Boy
- Bug Bite
- BuggyMan
- Man-O-War
- Path Finder
- Rest-Q
- Road Ranger
- Small Foot
- Treds
- Water Walk
Notes
Ferocious battle scene or family picnic? You make the call!
- The concept behind this set is more ingenious if you know a little about the events of the Challenge of the GoBots TV show. During the GoBotron Saga miniseries, it was revealed that the Renegades possess a machine that can reconfigure GoBots to blend in with robots from other worlds! It is possible that this very machine was used by the G1 GoBots Team to make them appear Cybertronian.
- The team Bio suggests that the GoBots passed some of their technology on to the Cybertronians. Among these is the technology behind the Spy Changers, toys whose molds were originally marketed as the Generation 2 Go-Bots.
- Treds, Bad Boy and Path Finder's colors are inspired by prototype versions of the Mini Vehicles seen in an early Takara catalog book. (See image at right.)
- The Ladybird book Autobots' Lightning Strike features miscolored versions of Huffer and Gears that somewhat resemble the colorations given to Road Ranger and Small Foot. Whether or not the GoBots' similarities are intentional or not is debatable.