Tonka acquired the USA/Canada distribution rights for the toys from Bandai who were marketing it in the rest of the world under it's Robo Machine brand in UK/Ireland/Europe and Japan/SE Asia and Machine Men in Australia/NZ. Surprisingly only Australia showed the Cartoon using the name that Bandai was selling the toys under in Australia under the Challenge Of The Machine Men title while UK/Ireland/Europe stuck with the US title Challenge of the GoBots rather than re-title the series as Challenge of the Robo Machines after Bandai and Worldvision who was the then Worldwide distributor for the series offered the US series made by Hanna-Barbera Productions either dubbed into Japanese or in the original English soundtrack with Japanese subtitles to the Japanese TV networks who turned both options down.
One major claim why the series never took off in Japan like Transformers did. Was due to the animation quality of the show, that did not measure up to that of Japanese animation. Resulting in Bandai creating its own animated franchises.
While both Guardian and Renegade factions have no distinguishing symbols to represent their factions. There are still two things that distinguish the two sides. Guardian laser blasts are blue, while Renegades are yellow. And huge difference is the Guardian's voices have echoing tone to them, while the Renegades have more an electrical one to theirs.
A significant difference between the Gobots and Transformers is... While the Transformers are sentient machines, the Gobots are actually cybernetic. As the show would reveal they were once humanoids, who underwent cyber conversion after the Renegades caused a global disaster that made Gobotron's ecosystem inhospitable to organic life.
In the UK, the Gobot toy line was called Robo Machine, that featured its own title brand and box art. To promote the line, a comic series was published in the weekly magazine comic Eagle. As one of a number of other comic stories published in chapters that were no longer than three to five pages long. Two story arcs were written and produced, before the comic series was discontinued. Leaving the story on an unresolved cliff hanger.
The comic had its own story line with various differences to the show. Originally the Gobots were called Robo Machines. Gobotron was called Robotron and was inhabited by both sentient robots and cyborg beings. New characters featured was the evil scientist; Stron-Domez, who would invent the method transforming; called Metamorphosing. And would give this new ability first to Cy-Kil and Tank.
Stron-Domez and his Renegades would then flee to Earth after their treachery was unearthed. And be pursued by the Security Force, led by the Gobot sized android; Ex-El. Ex-El would research Stron-Domez recovered design specks for Cy-Kil and Tank conversion means. And apply it to the Security Force volunteers. Consisting of Leader1, Han-Cuff, Dozer and other characters. Another new character introduced was Human ally Charlie Brampton.
The comic had its own story line with various differences to the show. Originally the Gobots were called Robo Machines. Gobotron was called Robotron and was inhabited by both sentient robots and cyborg beings. New characters featured was the evil scientist; Stron-Domez, who would invent the method transforming; called Metamorphosing. And would give this new ability first to Cy-Kil and Tank.
Stron-Domez and his Renegades would then flee to Earth after their treachery was unearthed. And be pursued by the Security Force, led by the Gobot sized android; Ex-El. Ex-El would research Stron-Domez recovered design specks for Cy-Kil and Tank conversion means. And apply it to the Security Force volunteers. Consisting of Leader1, Han-Cuff, Dozer and other characters. Another new character introduced was Human ally Charlie Brampton.