This Week's Robots: Part 1

On 07/07/2023 at 10:17 AM by KnightDriver

Breaks in gaming for TV time were full of 80s robots this week (This blog is in multiple parts because I also played a ton of 80s games and did my usual multiplayer and random plays).

What happened in 1984? Four robot cartoon series debuted, all using almost identical style robots that transform into vehicles or tools. I looked at the trailers for Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Mighty Orbots, Transformers and Challenge of the Gobots and chose Mighty Orbots because I loved the complex and colorful animation. It's director is Osamu Dezaki who worked on the original Astro Boy and many other shows. Full episodes are watchable on youtube. I watched episode one and will watch more next week.

I also watched several episodes of Starcade, the video game game show on youtube. It's pretty fun to watch especially if you want to wallow in 80s video game trivia and cheer on the contestants as they try and get high scores in video games. I went full on and tried to yell out strategy hints as they played games like Super Pac-Man and Burger Time. The contestants are always a kid and an adult. The kid has always won so far, not surprising.

Also on youtube is the animated series Dragon's Lair based on the laser disc game. It's pretty bad but reproduces some of the scenes from the game, plus has a narrator that descirbes what would happen to Dirk if he made a bad decision. It's like the game's death scenes. The animation is so so, reminds me of the Dungeons and Dragons show, and the writing is juvenile in the extreme. Not surprising, but I was hoping for some quality Don Bluth art. I don't think he had anything to do with this. Not continuing with this one.

Finally my friend and I watched He-Man and The Masters of the Universe. I got a best-of collection from the library and was surprised to find Paul Dini wrote many of the episodes. He became a DC writer a few years later and created the character Harly Quinn. I wanted to watch it mainly because Robot Chicken used it so much as a joke in their show, but also because Castle Greyskull is a cool design, and Skeletor is so rediculous to me (as is He-Man). The episodes are well done thanks to Paul Dini, and they are followed up with a moral lesson, which is interesting, if corny. Animation isn't bad either. I noticed a lot of the characters are named for what they are, kind of like a medieval morality play. There's He-Man of course, Man At Arms (a merc), Ram Man (who rams), Cringer (the cat who's afraid), Skeletor (a skeleton), Beast Man, Clawful, Stinkor, and King HIss. Not too imaginative, but fun. My favorite is Evil-Lyn. The purple outfit is wonderful.

Cary Woodham

07/07/2023 at 03:19 PM

I remember watching three of the four robot cartoons you listed. Voltron was one of my first introductions to anime, alongside Star Blazers. Of course I was a big Transformers fan, and the Go-Bots cartoon felt like a budget Transformers so I mostly avoided that one. But I had never remembered watching The Mighty Orbots. I didn't even know about it until many years later, when I watched it with some friends I made after college. Seemed pretty cool.

Man I loved watching Starcade when I was a kid. I always wanted to be in that arcade they started out in. I learned about a lot of arcade games from watching that show.

Wait did I read that right that you said the animation in He-Man "isn't that bad?" I have to disagree on that one! That's the poster child for bad animation in 80s cartoons. I never got into He-Man toys, but I had to watch the cartoon because my mom watched a lot of the neighborhood kids and they all wanted to watch it.

You know about the female version of He-Man, right? She-Ra? Well when I was a kid, I was playing outside with a neighbor kid and he asked, "What's your mom's name?" And I said, "Sheilah." And his eyes got real big and he said, "Whoa, your mom is She-Ra?" My mom heard that and loved it, so from then on we had to watch that cartoon, too. To this day, my mom names her characters in video games "She-Ra."

There's a new He-Man cartoon on Netflix and most everyone hates it, and I can't blame them. But I watched it all anyway because they take some crazy liberties with the plot, and it's almost the same plot as Final Fantasy 6's, so that got me intrigued. Plus other characters besides He-Man use the sword to power-up, so that got my attention.

KnightDriver

07/08/2023 at 09:46 AM

I was just a bit too old in the 80s for cartoons. I was watching David Letterman, MTV and shows like Hill Street Blues, Taxi and Cheers. My best friend at the time mentioned Danger Mouse in one of our home made radio shows, so maybe he watched that. It's fun to see these today. My friend now is into anime and such, and so watching old cartoons and cheesy scifi/fantasty TV like Wizards and Warriors (which I just got) is perfect during game breaks.

Yeah, I watched the trailer for He-Man again and agree with you. It's like most of the animated cartoons of the time, barely passable. Might Orbots though, is wonderful, as is Star Blazers which I watched as a kid and will again once the DVDs aren't so expensive.

I'll have to check out She-Ra next week. That's a funny, and touching, story.

I think I saw one episode of the new He-Man and didn't enjoy it, and neither did my friend. Only He-Man should have the sword. That's just not right.

07/08/2023 at 05:16 PM

In Japan they did a remake of Star Blazers a few years ago. I watched the first season of it on one of them new fangled anime streaming services called Crusty Roll or something like that. It was pretty good, but not good enough for me to watch past the first season.

There's also a remake of She-Ra on Netflix, and it's decent, but defintely targeted toward a younger crowd.

I don't mind if other characters use the He-Man sword. But then, I'm not a big fan of He-Man so I don't really care. If I ever got the He-Man sword, I'd just shoot YOU with it and power you up! So there!

07/10/2023 at 04:16 PM

Crunchy Roll. I only want to see the original again. I followed it pretty closely as a kid and really loved it.

Thanks! I HAVE THE POWER!!!

PixlBit