Challenge of the Gobots - the cartoon series the was the poor cousin to the transformers, but the toys do have a illustrious history and a pedigree that might outshine the Transformers.

The line, originated in Japan by a company that was later bought over by Bandai.  The Scooter box above shows that this company goes by the initials GK.  Then the series of toys were just called Popy Machines Robo Series, as the inset below shows.

The Japanese boxes were representative of the Japanese culture - things are well packaged and well presented inside the box.  Even the Scooter instruction shows well drawn out art as instructions:

Latter Bandai Japanese Gobots continued this tradition, such as the MR-38 box.

The Japanese had the Gobots who were the good guys battling the Devils or the bad guys.  The bad guys originally consisted of Vamp, Pincher and Scorp, but later expanded to include the huge gestalt Monsterous.

There were many elaborate Japanese creations, including a mobile base and Power Suits:

Notice the two torso types for the body suit on the right.

Of course, when the Americans took over the series to create "Challenge of the Gobots" the cartoon series, they made half the gobots good guys, or Guardians, and the other half bad guys or renegades.  They christened MR-01 as Cy-Kill, and designated him as the leader of the bad guys.  MR-07 was named Turbo, and he was the brawny one of the Guardians.

Western Gobots weren't packaged as meticulously as Japanese Gobots - they were mostly sold on a card with a plastic bubble.  The Italian card is shown above, the French one below.

Of course Bandai licensed the toys to be produced in North America under Tonka and thing started getting confusing.  The numbering of the Gobots, which under the Japanese has been orderly, suddenly were usurped internationally and thus, confusion arose.  Tux, for example, is listed as MR-46 on the back of Klaus card above and MR-48 on the Japanese insets shown below.

The numbers of the early Gobots were molded into the Gobots themselves.  Cy-Kill, MR-01 has this number on the inside of his right tigh.  Likewise with Tank, MR-02 and Fitor, MR-03.  Cop-tur has his number on the inside left thigh.  These are what most would consider the "original" number.  The newer American Gobots (e.g. Hornet) lack this MR number on the body of the Gobots.

 The full list of Machine Robo is given below:

MR-01	Cy-Kill
MR-02	Tank
MR-03	Fitor
MR-04	Cop-tur
MR-05	Loco
MR-06	(Bus)
MR-07	Turbo
MR-08	Buggyman
MR-09	Dumper
MR-10	Pumper
MR-11	Dozer
MR-12	(Bullet Train)
MR-13	Hans-Cuff
MR-14	Spray-C
MR-15	Res-Q
MR-16	Scooter
MR-17	Screw Head
MR-18	Road Ranger
MR-19	Royal-T
MR-20	Crusher
MR-21	Spoiler
MR-22	(Bullet Train)
MR-23	Blaster
MR-24	Crain Brain
MR-25	Leader One
MR-26	Fly Trap
MR-27	(Doubledecker Bus)
MR-28	Geeper Creeper
MR-29	Pathfinder
MR-30	(Trike)
MR-31	Water-walk
MR-32	Slicks
MR-33	Dive Dive
MR-34	Spoons
MR-35	Block Head
MR-36	Smallfoot
MR-37	Night-ranger / Nightbeat
MR-38	(Mini)
MR-39	Zero
MR-40	Flip-top
MR-41	Sky gun / Warpath
MR-42	Tailpipe
MR-43	Street Heat
MR-44	Good Knight
MR-45	Sky Spy / Snoops
MR-46	Tux
MR-47	Bad Boy
MR-48	Major Mo
MR-49	Heat Seeker
MR-50	Twin Spin
MR-51	Mach 3
MR-52	Sky Jack
MR-53	(Unknown)
MR-54	Man O War
MRT-41	Scratch
MRT-42	Vanguard
MRT-43	Sparky
MRT-44	Stinger
MRT-45	Stallion
Unknown	Ace
Unknown	Apollo
Unknown	Bent-Wing
Unknown	Bolt
Unknown	Bugsie
Unknown	Bullseye
Unknown	Dart
Unknown	Gunnyr
Unknown	Klaus
Unknown	Mr. Moto
Unknown	Treds
Puzzler	Crossword
Puzzler	JigSaw
Puzzler	Pocket
Puzzler	Rube
Puzzler	TicTac
Puzzler	ZigZag
MRD-101	Vamps
MRD-102	Pincher
MRD-103	Scorp
MRD-104	Creepy
MRD-105	Bladez
Monsterous	Fangs
Monsterous	Weird Wing
Monsterous	Fright Face
Monsterous	Gore Jaw
Monsterous	Heart Attack
Monsterous	South Claws

Notice the earlier American Gobots has MRT numbers... and that the majority of the American Gobots have no numbers.  MRD numbers are used for the Devils - MRD stands for Machine Robo Devils.  Monsterous is sometimes listed as MRD-106 to MRD-111.

You can check out other links as well - there are other non-MR Gobots including the American Scales and Zed at 80s Toyarchive Gobots pages or head over to this commentary to see a picture of Monsterous.

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