 Of
all the offshoots of Machine
Robo, it's the history of the European version, Robo Machine,
that is probably the most convoluted. This is often the way with European
action figures as anyone trying to piece together the early 1990s Transformers
range will tell you, with a general lack of large, indigenous companies
means various regional offshoots are usually trying to mould their parent
companies' products into a shape that will be a success in Europe with
minimal additional costs. The initial idea was simple enough. Machine
Robo was doing well in Japan, and when Bandai took over from Popy
in 1983, one of the first things they looked at was exporting it. Thus
the company launched the line in America and Australia as Machine
Men, and as Robo Machine in Europe. After releasing the
first five Machine Robo Series figures in Europe, sales were encouraging,
and Bandai opted to issue the Scale Robo figures (as Robo Machine DX figures).
These continued the steady influx of money, and then the line began to
pick up speed, with more of the '600 Series' figures coming out. |
 However,
the transforming robot market was already shifting. Bandai had followed
the same rough practice as they had done in Japan, issuing the figures
under vague designations (Bulldozer, Jet, Jeep, F15 Eagle, and so on).
Across the Atlantic, however, two interesting things had happened. Firstly,
the American Machine Men line, despite being supported by a TV
advertising campaign, had died so quickly as to be almost stillborn. The
other was that American manufacturer Hasbro had snapped up the rights
to Takara's Diaclone and Microchange lines, and reworked
them into the Transformers line. Competitor Tonka decided to do
the same, licensing Machine Robo and converting it into Gobots.
|
 These
lines saw the figures turned from mecha into sentient aliens, and each
was given their own name and unique personality (well, in Gobots
it was usually just a name, but you get what I mean). Fiction such as
cartoon series and comic books were used to promote the toys, and both
Gobots and Transformers were huge hits in America. Robo
Machine was initially slow to react, but as the Transformers phenomenon
took off in Europe, they responded by adding names and factions to the
cards of figures, and also licensing a comic strip in Fleetway's Eagle
comic. Although Tonka were only involved in the North American market,
they allowed Bandai to use the names they had devised for the characters,
and with rare exceptions the figures had the same names as their Gobots
counterparts. |
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However, while sales were steady, they were hardly spectacular. The increase in VCRs in UK households, and the blooming home rental market, gave them a potential opening, as videos of the US cartoon series, Challenge of the Gobots, began to arrive in Europe, courtesy of Vestron video. |
Throughout
1984, Bandai expanded the Robo Machine line. As well as the the
regular figures, the Robo Machine DX figures were relaunched as Super
Gobots, Battle Armor 5 was issued as Battle Suit, the Robot Puzzler
was added, the Command Centre and Zod were leased from Tonka, and figures
from Bandai's Winch Robo line were also released.  For
1985, the line was thoroughly revamped. The small figures now came on
cards signifying they belonged to Challenge of the Gobots - A Robo
Machine Product, while quirks such as early divergent names were corrected
and brought in line with the American releases (though Europe would continue
to get different variants of some figures). However, while the move wasn't
disastrous, it didn't see the wanted quantum leap happen. While it was
growing, the home video market was still too small to successfully promote
the line, and the Eagle's strip had been retired in July 1985.
Long-established cash-in kings World Distributors took over the licence
for that sort of thing, issuing an uninspiring annual full of text stories
(following the cartoon continuity... well, attempting to) in October.
There was also a sense of schizophrenia to the line - Super Gobots (in
Europe, a subgroup) still featured Robo Machine branding, while
the Combinators (the European release of the Japanese Double Machine Robo
toys) figures came out in Robo Machine boxes, for the large part
hastily stickered with Gobots logos. Around the same time, Bandai
USA dumped piles of unsold Godaikin
figures on their European counterpart, and these hastily had Robo Machine
logos slapped over the Godaikin branding. |
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The line is generally better remembered more favourably in Europe than America, possibly because unlike Gobots it managed to avoid getting shackled with a downmarket image. Indeed, the only serious Western revival to date was limited to Europe, in the shape of Robo Machines. |
Despite
all this, the line continued chugging away happily enough. However,
a bigger problem was around the corner - in 1986, Bandai wound down
the original Machine Robo line, revamping it to tie in with the
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Robo
Machine Resources on Counter-X.net: - See
Also: |
