Fairlady Robo MR-48
This model was originally designed in Japan by Bandai and released for their Machine Robo Series line as Fairlady Robo*. By this time Tonka's successful rebranding to 'Gobots' and US distribution saw the now more established name 'Major Mo' applied and adopted for Bandai's Robo Machine in Europe and their Australian Machine Men release; predominantly to benefit from the Challenge of the Gobots cartoon. Multilingual Robo Machine cardbacks display both Datsun 300ZX** and Major Mo in the name section.
* Fairlady is the name used in Japan for the line of Nissan Z Series vehicles and named after the musical My Fair Lady; a favourite of the company president at the time. The name was not used outside of Japan likely leading to it being dropped or a pun name for Gobots based on it being created.
** Datsun are owned by Nissan and in Europe the Datsun name was prominent in the early 80s. While the 300ZX was technically a Nissan vehicle it made more sense regionally to refer to it as a Datsun.
Further details are below, on the Series 1 Index and for more in-depth reading see the Toy Line History page.
Region Codes Used: JP Japan / US United States / CA Canada / AU Australia / EU Europe
NOTE: Region codes only shown where items were known to be released. This list is accurate yet likely incomplete.
Gobots 54 Series 2 US/CA Tonka [Red] 1985 (Turbo V6 and 'Z' stickers
not included)
Robo Machine RM-48 EU Bandai [Darker Red] 1985*
Machine Men AU Bandai [Red] 1985*
Machine Robo Series MR-48 JP Bandai [White] 1985
*Robo Machine advertising and Machine Men cardbacks showed both white and red versions, however it's unconfirmed whether both versions were actually distributed in these lines.
Gobots and Robo Machine colour comparison.
