The Mind Core is a prominently featured object in the series. It contains the very essence of the Tobot's AI, and without it they would be nothing more than a mindless machine. Though they function slightly differently, Athlons are also built with Mind Cores.
Concept
Bonding Process
The Mind Core is placed on an incubator robot to assist in its development. The eventual pilot needs to bond with it, much like a parent bonds with their child. Eventually, the Mind Core will change colors, and that signifies that it is ready to be placed in a Tobot. The incubator robot is seemingly not required for the bonding process of an Athlon.
There are exceptions, however, like Tobot R not being bonded to Neon from the start, but instead to Dr. Noh. Tobot Z was set up by Limo to protect Dylan, but he didn't know about Z's existence until Zoom and Gloom. Same goes for Han, who became a co-pilot later.
If a Tobot is destroyed, it can be rebuilt if its Mind Core is salvaged, as shown with Tobot X and Y following their battle with Cyclops.
The Cores are also highly sensitive to heartless usage, as shown when Norman tampering with Tobot D's Mind Core, this cause some development issues, he lost control and ran amuck at a very fast speed. After Dolly's help, he got better. Noah filled Tobot T with vengeful thoughts about Mr. Majeeko for chopping down his tree and destroying his bike, which caused it to later fly into a rage state, and they only respond to positive personality traits.
Athlons
Exposure to the aforementioned abuse for extended periods of time, as was the case with Athlons Jango, Ambulan, and Metron, can completely shut off the Mind Core, wiping out all memories and ties that it might have had with its pilot (Nice Joe in this instance).
Others
As expanded upon In Tobot: Zero Story, Mind Cores store emotional, subconscious feelings, therefore acting as the key component to recognizing friends and family, while the actual memories are handled by the regular AI components. When X and Y were being recovered via the use of the Mind Cores, the memories were restored via backups stored in the lab. Tobot Zero's memories were siphoned by Dr. Wang, leaving him to know who Limo and Dylan were but not everything about how he knew them until the memory drive was recovered by the end of the webtoon.
Gallery
Foreign Names
- Russian: Ядро разума