Skip to main content

GoBots: Guardian Command Center


If there is one thing that gave GoBots a leg up on Transformers it was that they had playsets. They had two official, two unofficial, and one unproduced set. Playsets go a long way with me and if you've followed this blog for awhile that shouldn't be a surprise to you. Probably the most important GoBot playset was the Guardian Command Center. I never had one growing up but I did get a brand new one from Dallas Vintage Toys this week.



There is always a magical feeling when you get something brand new. It is a little bit like time travel for the emotions. Everything here was brand new but unfortunately it had water damage, as you can see in the pictures. This wasn't a huge problem but it did cause me grief in the stickers department. The entire sheet had developed a few layers of grime from dust and being in a water damaged box. I was able to clean it a little bit but some of the stickers were unusable. To compensate I ended up finding some repro stickers from various Star Wars vehicles and playsets online. I like the end result and I might work on adding some more.


The directions were in really bad shape and unsavable. I took pictures of each page before getting rid of them.







The set also included a mini comic. The story inside predates the cartoon but unlike the Masters of the Universe mini comics, this one really didn't improve on the overall story, save for the fact that it gives an explanation for why the GoBots look like Earth vehicles.


The exterior of the Command Center:


Walker mode. This guy is scaled pretty well.



Spaceship mode.




The back hatch.






One of my favorite stickers above the head.

And now the interior:


Trauma Center/Med Bay



The Interrogation Center.



The cool red screen was supposed to help identify Guardians and Renegades. It was a cool concept. The included stickers could be applied to your figures. These were some of the beyond saving stickers unfortunately.


Notice how the top row stickers became F's for Friendly and the bottom row became E's for Enemy. A pretty thoughtful add on that they didn't need to include.



The Detention Center and, yikes, De-Materializer. Guess you could only cross Leader 1 so many times.



Again, yikes, the Reprogramming Center.



Perhaps for the best, the GoBot Cafeteria sticker was damaged.
So this became a computer terminal.



The GoBot Maintenance/Refueling area


I feel like there is a lot of unused space here.
I'm going to try to find some things to add to the area. 
Maybe a maintenance lift.



The Vertical Transportation Module. Again, notice the details here. 
The sticker labels each floor of the Command Center. Pretty cool.


And finally, the Strategic Command/Strategy Center.


I still might add in some more buttons and computers.



All in all, a pretty cool toy. It really bummed me out to have the sticker sheet so dirty, especially because there are not a lot of options to replace them. No one has them scanned online and the only place selling replacements is Toy Hax but $66 is ridiculous. However, they do have Guardian and Renegade insignias that I might pick up. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kre-O G.I. Joe Forces/ USS Flagg

Seeing this boxed set a few years ago is what got me back into collecting G.I. Joe. I had passed on the joy of G.I. Joe to my younger brothers, and to its credit, its one of the few franchises that has stuck with them. I don't feel bad about giving them my collection because most of my collections began when my cousins passed them on to me. Plus, with all of the vehicles and playsets, they are a little much to have up and displayed. Finding the Kre-O sets allowed me to keep showing my love for G.I. Joe on a smaller scale.  The fact that it was a Slaughter's Marauders set is was truly sold me. Love the Sarge. So anyways, here are my current Joes. I've already posted a blog about my Cobra collection, which you can find here,  Cobra Forces . After this, I'll make a post on my Iron Grenadiers and the rest of my Vehicles/Playsets. USS Flagg Not an official set. I found this Chinese knock off and modified the cabin so that it could hold figures. Also added...
Post a Comment
Read more

Star Wars Power of the Force Classic Edition 4 Pack

I had no idea this 4 pack existed until a few weeks ago. As I've previously mentioned, my first Star Wars toys were hand me down vintage figures. Later on I would get Bend-ems and the Micro Machines sets, but the vintage figures were my Star Wars figures until Power of the Force 2 came out. Apparently, this pack was released ahead of their arrival in a way to both build anticipation and also create a neat throw back for classic fans. If I had known about this, I would have been ALL over it. I only had Hoth Han Solo and Bespin Luke in my collection at the time so having these versions of the two would have been amazing. I didn't even have a Chewbacca or a Darth Vader, so yeah. I would have bought this. I probably would have bought two, one to open and one to keep as a memento. Star Wars toys were just so rare at the time that the idea of having one complete in package would have been a piece of art for me. I had been watching some of these on ebay for awhile but I finally found ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Star Wars Power of the Force Deluxe Red Card Figures - Luke with Desert Sport Skiff, Han Solo with Smuggler Flight Pack, and Crowd Control Stormtrooper

  When it comes to the 1990's Kenner Star Wars relaunch, there are a lot of things people love and a lot of things people hate. The Deluxe assortment was something I absolutely loved. These kinds of figures showcased Star Wars as a toy line vs a collector's line. And Kenner wasn't new to these types of gimmicks. Just one look at their Batman line and these things make complete sense. Unfortunately, I don't think everyone else felt the same way. The first wave of these figures were brand new concepts that felt  like they could belong in the universe. The second wave that would come with the Green cards gave us more things that actually existed in the films, save one. I can only imagine what a deluxe Chewbacca or Darth Vader could have come with. My only complaint about these toys is that all of the backpack accessories will only fit VERY few figures. This is because they were made to insert into a medium sized hole in their back. I'm absolutely sure that they could h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mattel DC Retro Action Batman

  Late in 2020, I went back through The Toys That Made Us series on Netflix and the Star Trek episode took some time to really dig into the history of Mego. Many of the toys I played with growing up or have collected are technically before my time but Mego was WAY before my time. I always kind of had a general idea of the toys, mainly thanks to Robot Chicken, but something about the presentation of the episode really gave me an itch to try this type of toyline out. I decided to get just one figure, to try it out. If I didn't like them, no big deal, not a lot of time/money wasted. My favorite superhero is Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern/Ion) and I remembered that Matty Collector had a Mego-like brand for a few years. A google search later and I found a Kyle Rayner figure for $10! Perfect. I could hardly ask for a better price for making a trial run. A week later, the figure arrived and I loved it. They had an entire sub series of GL's that I bought and some other items but that is fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Super 7 Hordak and She-Ra 2 pack

As I've mentioned before, I was lucky growing up between the decades of the 80's and 90's. I was the right age to have TMNT, the rebirth of G.I. Joe, and the X-Men but also benefit from the collections and fandoms of my older cousins. I was one of the few kids my age who had an extensive collection of Star Wars, M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, and Masters of the Universe. And, as I've also mentioned before, Masters of the Universe is probably my favorite franchise, so of course I had the vintage Hordak. The Horde was such an intriguing group of villains, whereas Skeletor ruled a group of territorial warlords, Hordak was the leader of a technologically advanced army with hideous generals at his side. I was also lucky enough to have Leech and Mantenna, both of whom have better figure appearances than their animation counterparts. Now, I never had a She-Ra figure but I did have Teela. With all of that in mind, when I saw the prototypes for Super 7's ...
Post a Comment
Read more