Tobot is a South Koreananimated television series produced by Young Toys and Retrobot. The series features transforming cars - some of which are designed after Kia Motors vehicles. The series is available in Korean and English on Young Toys' official YouTube channel. The toy line beat Lego as South Korea's most popular toy line in 2013. An official English dub was produced in Canada by Ocean Productions and its sister studio Blue Water Studios. A spinoff series known as Athlon aired in three seasons from 2016-2017, before getting rebooted in 2018 as Tobot V, with animation done by Studio Button instead of Retrobot. Season 1.5 has been released and a new enemy has the technology to turn the Tobot’s against each other. This enemy also has new Tobot’s that rival the power of Master V.
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 and Power Rangers are popular among older elementary school children, Young Toys decided to 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 Airportshopping complex to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Tobot. The statue was on display until 2019.
