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 Treckers - 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 2025.]
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.
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 line was titled DyanBot.
In what at the time was a bold move,
MC Toy directly distributed DynaBot in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and likely other European countries. This seems to have been a, cast a wide net and see what happens approach to test regional market interest. The line initially included only the Dump Truck and Pickup with the Train and Jeep later added to the assortment.
The attempt did not appear to garner the hoped US market interest correspondingly, this is also where the DynaBot name seems to pause.
Late 1983 MC Toy appears to have taken another swing at it by releasing a more fleshed out version of the line as the newly named 'Motorized Robot'. This was conducted throughout Europe and via select retailers in the US handled by East West Distributing Co. Again, this seems to have been warmly welcome in Europe while seeing limited traction in the US.
Then why are there so many of the damn things in the US today?
The relevance of mentioning Bandai above is linked to that company also trying to market their Machine Robo Series figures to the US as Machine Men in late 1982 and also struggling to gain market traction. In response Bandai entered a regional distribution deal with Tonka and in 1983 Gobots appeared on shelves. Also in 1982, Bandai brought the same figures to market in Australia again as Machine Men and Robo Machine in Europe. As with MC Toy, in these regions they were a success and ran until 1986.
As Bandai had leveraged Tonka's regional experience, MC Toy entered a distribution agreement with Intex (also known as Zee Toys) to crack the US market.
1984 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 on the same new cards DynaBot reappeared on shelves in Canada. The cards shows distribution by Grand Toys with no mention of Intex or Zee Toys. Again, the figures still carried the MC Toy stamps. At time of writing (2025) 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.
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.
In 1996 Maisto formally released the standard eight figures with all the early 90's Motorized Robot colour variants on newly created cardbacks with new art as Moto-Bot. Bar the Jeep, these figures were now for the first time Maisto.
1997 -1998 After a protracted period of selling old stock, by the end of 1998 the MC Toy 'Moto-Bot's have 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.
Notable Non-MC Toy / Maisto Release Time Line
While the exact nature of global distribution is unclear, controlling company MCG (May Cheong Group) distributed their products under a myriad of different names in even more countries. There's also strong evidence they licensed these models to local and global distributors.
1983 - MC Toy licenses these toys to New York based STRACO to who, along side MC Toy's own Dynabot release, may be one of the first, if not the first time these toys were retailed in the US.
1983/1984 - MC Toy begins a licensed agreement with Agglo (Chinese toy distributor) in what appears to be a short lived and limited distribution of Dynabot on alt mode cards. Breadth of this distribution is unclear.
1983-1989? - Straco secures distribution rights and release the Truck-Robots and Loco Robot lines; the latter seemingly limited to the one, steam train model.
Mid-80s Simba Releases the Robo-Toys line in West Germany and likely to other local European countries. This sees the brunt of new line additions such as Mutators, Moto-Botz, Play Bots and Truck + Roboter.
Numerous other country's retailers outside the United States coordinate distribution with MC Toy to retail locally.
Mid to late 80s BHS (department store) in the UK retailed Motorized Robots (with an S) on custom, BHS Wheels branded cards.
1990 Bikin International SA release Super Transfo Robot and are suspect to have been sold exclusively at Speedway gas stations in the United States. These included the standard series as well as the Mega models. The unique gimmick with this line was that the backing cards each made up a piece of a play track.
Imperial (Imperial Die-Cast) enters a distribution deal with Maisto and releases Convertible Motorized MotoRobot on both English and English and French blister cards for the United States and Canada respectively. Imperial also distribute Convertible Motorized Super Robot in the United Sates made up of the Mega models.
1993 Imperial Die-Cast distributes the standard and Mega lines as SuperRobot in the United States and Canada with new colour schemes and stickers.
Simba (under license from MC Toy) released the Galaxy Transformer and Galaxy Transformer Light and Sound lines, seemingly limited to Europe and only including the standard run models and the six wheel ATV figures from the Mega lines.
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 additional the low quality build and overall cheap feel, the face sculpts were replaced with flat, silver paper stickers showing odd, very 80's inspired, sunglasses wearing faces.