Figure Heights
Due to the amount of information already on each page, the MC-Toy model heights are shown here in one place. As loose figure images are added and the line pages split up, heights will be moved back to those pages.
All heights are with the toy reclining back on its motor wheels not held vertically.
Standard Figures
ATV Trike - 9 cm
Dump Truck - 9.5 cm
Hovercraft - 10.5 cm (only included in Maisto Moto-Bots 1996)
Jeep - 8 cm
Jet - 11 cm
Pick Up - 8.75 cm
Pick Up Camper - 8.75 cm
Train - 9.5 cm
Truck - 9.25 cm
Mega Figures
All-Terrain Trekker (6 wheelers) - 11.25 cm
Container Truck - 12.5
Crane Truck -12.5 / 19.5 cm with boom
Fire Truck - 12.5 / 18.5 cm with ladder
Tanker Truck -12.5 cm
Model Release Order
Release 1 - Pick Up and Dump Truck
Release 2 - Jeep (red) and Train
Release 3 - Jeep (army green) and Jet
Release 4 - ATV Trike
Release 5 - Pick Up Camper and Truck (both reworks of the Pick Up and Dump Truck respectively)
Release 6 - Mega Series - Container Truck, Crane Truck, Fire Truck and Tanker Truck
Release 7 - All-Terrain Trekkers - bumper bar, snow plow and turret.
Release 8 - Hovercraft (1996 Moto-Bot by Maisto only)
History: The story so far...
I've reworked this so many times, starting with fairly confident to... this is probably what happened until new information surfaces to suggest otherwise.
[The below is current as of October 2026.]
While the original designer is unclear, they were first distributed by MC Toy (who may have also designed them) with manufacture taking place in Macau and China. Hong Kong based MC Toy was established in 1967 as 'May Cheong Toy Company' by brothers P.Y. Ngan and Y.C Ngan. They began manufacture in the May Cheong Plastic Toy Factory that year before migration operations to the May Tat Toy Products Facility in 1985.
MC Toy were well known at the time for creating diecast meta, scale model vehicles and it's not inconceivable they cut up a number of existing toys to be modified into mode changing robots. This would also account for the unexpectedly high detail and quality of the diecast sections for an otherwise budget toy line.
MC Toy / Maisto Release Time Line
Early 1983, before Transformers hit the market and potentially before Gobots, MC Toy attempted to bring mode changing robots to the US and Canada. These are what most today loosely call Moto-Bots, however the first North American line was titled Motorized Robot.
In what at the time was a bold move,
MC Toy directly distributed these same toys in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and likely other European countries. In addition, they seem to have reached out to any regional distributor in any country that may be interested. It looks to have been a cast a wide net and see what happens approach to test market interest. The line initially included only the Dump Truck and Pickup with the Train and Jeep later added to the assortment. Many of the non-MC Toy distributed lines outside of North America didn't progress past the first two models or at most, the first four. Many of the those distributions adopted prozaic names (by today's standard) such as and 'Truck + Roboter'.
This attempt did not appear to garner the hoped North American interest and correspondingly, this is also where the DynaBot name in the US ends even though it did continue in Canada for an extra wave.
MC Toy tried again in North America engaging Grand Toys to distribute the newly titled Dynabot line in Canada while continuing to distribut to the US themselves. Again, the US market wasn't ready for mode chaning robots. Historically, Bandai experienced a similar stalled distribution when first attempting to market their Machine Robo Series figures in the United States. Released on cardbacks as 'Machine Men' (Robot Machine Men in Canada), they were also unable to gain US market interest. Bandai cancelled that line and engaged Tonka who better knew the US market and Gobots were born.
Then why are there so many of the damn things in the US today?
As Bandai had leveraged Tonka's regional experience, in 1984 MC Toy entered a distribution agreement with Intex (also known as Zee Toys) to crack the US market. Whether it was better promotion, timing, knowing which stores should stock these items, etc. the line took off.
Intex (Zee Toys) re-issued MC Toy's first eight figures as Moto-Bot. The Moto-Bot assortment included the colour variants for the ATV Trike, Dump Truck, Jeep and Pick Up. This distribution saw new, higher quality cardbacks, new card art and the MC Toy branding removed from the cards entirely to be replaced with Intex Recreation and Zee Toys. The figures themselves however retained the MC Toy stamping.
At the same time and the same new cardbacks, DynaBot reappeared on shelves in Canada. The cards show distribution by Grand Toys with no mention of Intex or Zee Toys and again, the figures carry the MC Toy stamps. At time of writing (2026) it's unknown if MC Toy engaged Grand Toys to manage the Canadian distribution or if this was an initiative from Intex.
1985 / 1986 the 'Mega' figures were added to some of the distributions. DynaBot in Canada saw them added to the standard line, while MC Toy released them specifically as 'Mega Motobot' removing the hyphen between Moto and Bot. Updated 'Light and Sound' features were added to the All Terrain Trekker (6 wheeler) in the very late 80s / early 90s.
It's unclear when in the 80's the arrangement with Intex and possibly Grand Toys was dissolved, however it appears to have been mid to late 80's.
France received the country specific Transfo-Robot line that seems to have ended mid 80s and did not receive the Mega figure assortments.
While all this was going on, in borader Europe, the Motorized Robot line mentioned above had been a continued success. Interestingly, the Mega figures were also never included in this line even though they'd been released for other lines many years before.
Then things paused for a few years bar sales of old stock.
The nineties.
In 1990 MC Toy incorporated the company Maisto (Fontana, California, USA) and around the same time rekindled the Motorized Robot name. They re-reissued the standard eight figures in their original colour variants along with new colour schemes for some of the figures. Cardbacks for this new run of Motorized Robot show both the MC Toy logo on the front and often a sticker printed with Maisto on the back. This could hint that the release date was 1990/1991 during that transitional phase.
1993 brought a complete revamp of the colour schemes for the North American and United Kingdom distribution by Imperial Die-Cast. The reason behind Imperial's involvement is still unclear. Imperial Die-Cast were a respected brand at the time and it's unknown if they themselves manufactured these toys using MC Toy moulds or if they were purely distributing under their known brand name. Titan Toys handled the UK distribution on behalf of Imperial. All figures received brand new, significantly brighter and more colourful colour schemes as well as character names; eg. the train became Cannonball. The lines were under the names Moto-Robot, SupeRobot for the Mega assortment then finally MegaRobot Light / Sound. This distribution appears to have ended as quickly as it started and the low
number of figures from these assortments surviving today reflects this.
In 1996, re-re-released under Maisto branding alone, the standard eight figures hit shelves again with all the early 90's Motorized Robot colour variants now on newly created cardbacks with new art and this time as Moto-Bot. Interestingly, the line did not include colour variants seemingly unique to the Imperial Die-Cast release three years earlier. This could possibly hint that Imperial Die-Cast did in fact manufacture those. It's also quite possible this Maisto branded re-issue could all have been unsold warehoused surplus figures put onto new cards for a second attempt sale. Figures have a 'Made in China' gold sticker applied in place of, or over the top of the original moulded figure
stamping that further indicates this could have been old stock vs. newly manufactured.
1997 -1998 after a protracted period of selling old stock, by the end of 1998 the MC Toy 'Moto-Bot's have largely gone from retail shelves.
Interestingly, while Moto-Bot is the most well known name for these toys, MC Toy didn't distributed a Moto-Bot titled line under MC Toy branding. They did however distribute the Mega-Motobot line as MC Toy.
Bootlegs
For such widely distributed toys and over so many years, oddly there are very few unlicensed releases. It may have been this market saturation combined with a low retail price that made it unviable for bootleggers.
A notable mention is the unofficial Transfo-Robot line that blatantly re-used Transfo-Robot French language cards.
Not only did this bootleg release offer all new colour schemes, the articulated vehicles were modified to carry an oversized rocket while the jeep model included Transformers G1 Streetwise' turret gun. Other than quality, the bootleg Transfo-Robot cards are easy to tell from the genuine versions as they lack the glossy finish and are far flimsier than traditional blister cardbacks. The toys themselves are very obviously of a much lower quality than any of the genuine versions.
Another bootleg offering was by Spanish company Gisima who are better known for their G1 Transformers bootlegs. In addition to the low quality build and overall cheap feel, the face sculpts were replaced with flat, silver paper stickers including seemingly odd, very 80's inspired, sunglasses wearing
faces; see related page this section.