''Tobot'' ( Korean: 변신자동차 또봇, RR: ''Byeonsinjadongcha Ttobot'') is a South Korean

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

produced by and . The series features transforming cars, and some of them can fly like Tobot W or Tobot Y The series is available in Korean and English on Young Toys' official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel. The toy line beat

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

's most popular toy line in 2013. An official English dub was produced in

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by Ocean Productions and its sister studio Blue Water Studios, airing over a few months in 2018. This version was available on

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. A spinoff series known as ''Athlon'' ''Tobot'' aired in three seasons from 2016-2017, before getting rebooted in 2018 as ''Tobot V'' (in English dub version known as ''Tobot: Galaxy Detectives''), with animation done by Studio Button, an animation studio that made ''Jurassic Cops & Fire Robo,'' instead of Retrobot (which also created Biklonz & Potendogs). Like the original, Galaxy Detectives is also available on Netflix. ''Tobot V'' lasted for three and a half seasons from 2018 to 2022, and a sequel to the original series is set to release in 2023. Retrobot once again animates for the series, known as Tobot: Heroes of Daedo City/Daedo's Heroes, featuring new Tobots designed after Hyundai vehicles instead of Kia.

Plot

While investigating a string of mysterious car accidents, Dr. Franklin Char is abducted by the perpetrators. This incident activates his creations called "Tobots", cars that transform into robots with a special key called a "Tokey". Dr. Char's first two Tobots, Tobot X and Tobot Y, are entrusted to his twin sons Ryan and Kory, respectively, to fight crime and protect their neighborhood.

Production

Young Toys came up with the idea of developing an animated series and related toys during the early 2000s. While

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

and

Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an American media franchise created by Haim Saban, Shuki Levy and Shotaro Ishinomori built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise ''Super Sentai''. It is currently ow ...

are popular among older elementary school children, Young Toys decided to market ''Tobot'' to younger primary school children and kindergarteners. Rather than obtain licenses from animation studios after production, Young Toys did the opposite by developing the animated series and characters from scratch before producing the toys.

Marketing

Between August and October 2014, Young Toys sold the licenses for the ''Tobot'' toys and characters to Southeast Asian nations. The series was made available in some Middle Eastern countries in January 2015. In December 2014, Young Toys erected an eight-meter, three ton statue of Deltatron at the Sky Park outside Seoul's Lotte Mall

Gimpo International Airport Gimpo International Airport , sometimes referred to as Seoul–Gimpo International Airport but formerly rendered in English as Kimpo International Airport, is located in the far western end of Seoul, some west of the Jung District, Seoul, cen ...

shopping complex to commemorate the fifth anniversary of ''Tobot''. The statue was on display until 2019.

References

External links

* {{Kia 2010 South Korean television series debuts 2010s South Korean animated television series South Korean children's animated action television series South Korean children's animated adventure television series South Korean children's animated science fiction television series Computer-animated television series Fictional robots Animated television series about children Animated television series about robots Transforming toy robots