The History of The Mighty Orbots: Sued Out of Existence By The Gobots

[@FunkyFu42]

Stylistically Mighty Orbots were superior over a lot of 80's cartoons.. Dezaki's style is visually stunning..

[@ageeksadventureswoohoo9213]

The designs for everything was breathtaking. Its a shame. Sigh

[@Elementa2006]

Most American 80s cartoons animated by TMS tend to be, they also did the animation for shows like Gummi Bears, the early seasons of Ducktales, Galaxy Rangers, Bionic Six and Galaxy High. They assisted in animating 90s cartoons like Batman TAS and Superman TAS. Of course, this is the same Japanese animation studio that gave Anime classics like City Hunter, Space Adventure Cobra and of course Lupin III.

[@markmarderosian4025]

Worked in a small animation studio at the time and we all loved this show. It was great seeing full hand dawn figure animation in a world populated with Punky Brewster and Care Bears, if only as a change of pace. And the animation was fluid, fun and the human characters moved liked real people.

[@frankiejones7858]

You seem like an expert so why does this animation seem more fluid and natural than some of today's animation?

[@animatrix1490]

@@frankiejones7858 For a specific answer: there are tons of good in-betweens between the incredibly strong keyframes. (The key frames are the main poses, what tells the story of the animation, and the in-betweens help keep the motion smooth.) There's also very good layout--that is, turning the storyboards into background paintings and animation which complement one another. This was planned ambitiously and executed well. For a more general answer: Partly expertise/experience, partly budget, and partly technology/processes. Expertise: TMS, the animation studio that created this series, was the same studio which made Akira and had been in animation since at least the 1960s, so they had employees with thousands of hours of practice drawing, painting, animating, and managing large animation projects. Budget: The 1980s was a prosperous time for Japan--a very big boom, actually--so there were quite a few projects in the 80s and through the early 90s that had a lot more budget than had been normal for a production in the 70s. For animation specifically, the movie Akira was something of a watershed as it was the most expensive anime movie ever made but it was also the most profitable anime movie ever made, which encouraged others to push a lot of money into animation in Japan in hopes of having a similar success. Tech/process: Nowadays there are still lots of skilled people, but there's quite a bit less money in the industry. With animation there are always a lot of technical aspects, and some of the cheaper processes (then and now) tend to favor more "flat" designs and fixed, rigged characters with a lot of reusable assets. This takes fewer people to do and it usually takes less long. With better digital tools for color, compositing, deformation, and organization, limited animation can look pretty good these days, so it's usually worth doing to save time and money. I do miss how this stuff looked, though. When it was good it was incredible. People still try and capture this feeling today, like some of Genndy Tartatovsky's work or Hayao Miyazaki; some European studios like Cartoon Saloon and Studio La Cachette; and even some artists on KZbin as well (the shows Lackadaisy and Monkey Wrench, for example).

[@DVDRAR]

​@frankiejones7858 it's a matter of animation companies, this was a thing even back then Back in the 80s, animation looked amazing because they'd outsource to more experienced, and costly, Japanese companies. It was very noticeable when something was animated by a company like Dic or Hanna Barbara compared to something like Toei or TMS. Another big thing was, and still is, price. These shows have a restricting budget and kids usually don't care about whether or not something is animated at 30 FPS with complex colors and art, so it just ends up costing more for very little reward

[@sanfordgreene106]

The Mighty Orbots intro was the ONLY intro that could give "Thunder Cats " a run for its money!

[@Enigma2K99]

Transformers G1 would like a word...

[@leonardstokes6036]

Agreed. I was 14 years old in 1984, a freshman in High School slowly phasing out cartoons. But yet it was something about The Mighty Orbots that made me wanna watch cartoons another year or two.

[@sgzartan]

Back in 1984, my next door neighbors Dad worked for Mattel. I remember seeing the Mighty Orbots toy in the Mattel Catalog while the show was still airing. I was eagerly awaiting the release of that toy. In Spring 1985 I asked him when the toy was going to be in stores and he said because the show was cancelled, so was the toy. Curse you Gobots!!!!!

[@jsttv]

Gobots got a dose of Karma.

[@shuroddaniels2048]

Sounds like "Gobots" were a bunch of haters!!!

[@cebrum1]

That was one of my favorite show back in the 80’s. Even as a kid I was so mesmerized by how sharp, crisp and vivid the visuals were! At that time I just knew that The Mighty Orbots was the next step in cartoon/visual evolution. That’s why I was so shocked (and disappointed) when it was cancelled.

[@michellemullins4588]

Cebrum1, I also like the Mighty Orbots! That was my favorite Saturday morning cartoon when I was 10!

[@orinanime]

This is one of your best retrospectives ever. Fun tidbit: I'm an 80s/90s kid. My mother was a kid in the 60s. And SHE was the Orbots fan in the family. She loved that show. And would rock out to that theme song.

[@Wirraburra07]

Parents like that are awesome! I'm envious!

[@ericpeterson8732]

I love your mom! She sounds great!

[@maycontainviolence5587]

The animation for Mighty Orbots was so far ahead of GO-BOTS, no wonder they felt threatened Tonka should not have won this case. I'm glad they got crushed eventually. Glad to be catching them now. It's a great vintage show.

[@AlmostAnimixers]

Imagine being accused of being a rip-off of Gobots. I'm not surprised that that's where the story ended. You don't come back from that.

[@hanzohattori2492]

considering the gobots were considered the "poor man's transformers" these orbots must have been really bad...never seen or heard of them until this video

[@marcusgurley9495]

It was absolutely NOTHING like GoBots. It was a good Saturday morning show. Check it out.

[@hanzohattori2492]

@@marcusgurley9495 will do.

[@crispycritterz]

@@hanzohattori2492 I STRONGLY recommend you watch the series. The stories were really good for the time. The writing was top shelf. The visuals were outstanding, (done in a comic book style.)

[@hanzohattori2492]

@@crispycritterz is it on KZbin?

[@HappyConsoleGamer]

The Mighty Orbots had the best opening song ever!

[@SecretGalaxyTV]

It's certainly gotten a lot of votes over the years

[@irahpaddock8979]

Too hyperbolic Johnny.

[@gigadrill0000]

Still in my head today. Did not know about the dvd release have to search for it.

[@chinito77]

I'd say third with Galaxy Rangers at second and Thundercats at first.

[@IffyJottere]

o/ Go! Mighty Orbots! They're coming together to fight for what's right, everywhere! Mighty Orbots! Protecting the world from the shadow of evil and doom! Orbots! Champions of justice and truth! o/ Ohno! Tor! Bort! Bo! Boo! Crunch! o/ Go! Mighty Orbots! Mechanical heroes, they're fighting for me and for you! Orbots! o/

[@ZK273]

This show was just too beautiful for this sinful world. ;_;

[@IffyJottere]

Loving that "Galactic Patrol" icon.

[@dnds4]

35 years later, thanks to Dezaki's vision and Araki's execution, this anime still holds up.

[@bootblacking]

Big truth

[@slapittywapitty8173]

Looked great AND...The MUSIC! What WAS that - Jazz/Disco fusion? ;-)

[@JoseBronxRican]

@@slapittywapitty8173 You may know by now, but... Yuji Ohno! I became a fan of his thru this show, long before I ever heard of "Lupin III". His soundtracks are scattered over youtube from time to time, except... this one. Still holding out hope the music will turn up, somehow.

[@Gojitron1]

....and Gobots went on to be remembered as "not Transformers" til the end of time. Karma?

[@qdllc]

GoBots was incredibly lame.

[@TheBrettAbides]

"The K-Mart of Transformers." (from Clerks 2)

[@stinkypinkeee5085]

@@TheBrettAbides GoBots were out first...

[@TheBrettAbides]

@@stinkypinkeee5085 That doesn't change the fact that they're still the K-Mart of Transformers.

[@floydjohnson7888]

@@TheBrettAbides HB's animated series based on the Tonka line struck me as having weaker writing and production than Marvel Productions' "Transformers". Even with the "each episode stands on its own", the latter gave us flashes of character development.

[@OldManTheseDays]

Best intro ever. This show was sooo good... love that you're giving it some love.

[@ageeksadventureswoohoo9213]

Omg seriously. Ok so the song was so 80s but so awesome epic 80s!!!! Horns rock instruments like john williams meets aerosmith lol

[@bancoran]

The "Transformers Animated" intro is a direct reference to this.

[@kingmarkseven17]

I guess Tonka's failure with the Gobots was just karma for them destroying the Mighty Orbots. Sucked for us who liked ALL giant robot shows but I can't say Tonka didn't deserve it now. The spoiler alert part her had me dyin 😂😂

[@ageeksadventureswoohoo9213]

Omg seriously! Gobots were just... Eh.

[@odizm5196]

Haveing the gobot line unicroned (absorb) by transformers & Hasbro Years later is karma from destroying the mighty orbots

[@TI2_EvilTwin]

Tonka with their little MIGHTY GOBOTS was just mad because they ain't have a thing over Hasbro's TRANSFORMERS, that's all. That's why Tonka started exacting revenge and venting it out on the creators of THE MIGHTY ORBOTS. As always though, Karma has some tendencies to come back to haunt folk - eventually in the form of Hasbro swallowing up Tonka. This is a testimony for us all to watch the types of socioeconomic vibes that we put out there.

[@DVDRAR]

It was their own fault for trying to buy Kenner, now we have those cruddy Star Wars figurines clogging the shelves and it's all Tonka's fault

[@ChenowethGames]

This was one of my favorite shows as a kid. Way better than Gobots imho. The theme makes me all nostalgic.

[@ageeksadventureswoohoo9213]

Omg love the video of leader one working at a coffee shop trying to sell a script to prime and Megatron

[@jwalk31]

it was waaaaay better.

[@andrejg4136]

Man, Mighty Orbots combined still looked a lot like God Mars. I kept expecting Orbots to finish its foe with an overpowered stock footage broadsword slash.

[@FCastle23]

Holy crap this is the cartoon I was trying to remember. You are, once again, my hero.

[@icebergo6]

THE...BEST...OPENING...SEQUENCE...OF ANY SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON, EVER! I was hooked on that alone. So cool. There was nothing like it at the time...not on the weekend. Its hard to imagine now but the artwork was incredibly detailed with lightning fast, seizure inducing graphics.

[@maguffle]

I used to LOVE this cartoon. I bought the boxes set at SDCC last year. Anytime I see something about Mighty Orbots I watch it! Thanks for the vid!

[@CollectionDX]

Great video of a little known show. Thanks again for the shout out! Go Mighty Orbots!

[@MrTrickstercoyote]

Thank You! Couldn't remember the name but liked the show when I was a kid. Been trying to describe it to people for decades, with no success

[@zxcibe5744]

Same here but could not remember the name.

[@fortkavanagh]

So that's what happened to Orbots, that sucks, I really enjoyed the cartoon

[@alanguages]

Likewise.

[@valecrassus7835]

Yeah, I hadn’t heard in so much detail but had looked it up several years ago and found out the short version that it was Tonka’s fault. I really liked the cartoon as a kid and wondered why it just vanished with no toys.

[@norbertop.niebres6320]

I loved the cartoon. It reminded me of the Transformers.

[@norbertop.niebres6320]

I would buy it.

[@turinturambar6795]

the only thing i remember about mighty orbots from my childhood is the theme song which stated in the video is exceptional

[@Larry]

The characters ring a bell, one of those repressed '80s memories again :D BTW could you ever have a look at the Police Academy cartoon and toys in a future episode? It was Kenner's last license acquisition, am I right?

[@SecretGalaxyTV]

BRB. Adding Police Academy to the list...

[@peterparker6584]

hey Larry, funny seeing you here. At any rate I do believe he's Artie done police Academy. The animated series. I know somebody did in the last year pretty sure it was this fellow. If you look at up on KZbin, you'll find the video. And for the record, I do believe you're right that was around the time Kanner went into the great abyss.

[@freddyvidz]

@@SecretGalaxyTV I loves the show and the toys.

[@Despondencymusic]

Yay! A Larry sighting!

[@slapittywapitty8173]

@@SecretGalaxyTV: How do you check (ahead-of-time) if other toy corps have 'similar' IP patents/trademarks?

[@oliverortiz8507]

This show's animation was pure art and stood out from.anything in that era. I was mesmerized when I saw this.

[@mgvillanmp478]

I LOVED this cartoon always wondered what happened and why they stopped it

[@scottsoenksen842]

I always wondered what happened to the show. It's so disappointing when a show you love abruptly goes off the air. I really loved the show!

[@ComicFiction]

Loved The Mighty Orbots! Thanks for the history lesson.

[@RedAlertIt]

Years later, the orbots got a shout out of sort when Derrick J Wyat quoted the series as a prime inspiration for his 2007 Transformers Animated series.

[@gigadrill0000]

Sweet

[@AGD-Andon]

I loved this show! I asked my mom for my first alarm clock to wake up early so I could watch it. Then it just disappeared and I never knew anyone who knew it existed. For years I thought I had imagined it all. Thank you for posting this.

[@ChristopherDrum]

Not only was the opening theme great, but the show itself was really cool. I especially enjoyed the one where the dark carnival created mirror clones of the humans who control Earth's defense shield. Ohno becoming human on Wish Planet, left her unable to become the heart of the combined robot. The jewels that turned out to be dragon eggs. The final battle with Umbra. It's all burned into my memory far more deeply than any 13-episode series that I only had the chance to watch during its first run has any right to be.

[@soopahsoopah]

What a shame, that single season of Mighty Orbots was EXCELLENT. Top-notch animation, great voice actors, and killer music.

[@ksaun4573]

Loved Mighty Orbots as a kid. Always wondered what happened to the show. Great video! Would've been great if that toy was released!

[@jamese3169]

This is one of my favorite cartoons. Thank you for doing this one.

[@BoisegangGaming]

Had this show survived the lawsuit, the IP would probably have been gobbled up by Hasbro.

[@mitchfletcher2386]

And they would've probably become part of the TFU.

[@Jayce_Alexander]

Would have been an infinitely better outcome than what actually ended up happening. Go-Bots at least live on in some form in the Transformers universe, and the Mighty Orbots just faded into obscurity. :/

[@bootblacking]

Great show, great theme song, strong characters. One of my favorite aspects of the show is that Mighty Orbots didn't rely on an "gotta end the episode" attack like Voltron's Blazing Sword. Every monster was a unique problem.

[@Lone432345]

I'm surprised that Tonka didnt sue the dude who came up with Pet Rocks. You know, because of Rock Lords.

[@barrybryan9676]

Yes! I loved the Mighty Orbots one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons.

[@Summertimeblues28]

Wow you finally found a cartoon from the 80’s that I honestly don’t remember. Looks like it was pretty awesome! Well played Larson. You’ve won this round.

[@stormbreaker9194]

THIS was the episode I've been waiting for!

[@GarbledReverie]

Yes! This is the one I've been waiting for! After you did Bionic Six, I knew you'd eventually get around to Mighty Orbots. This was a really cool concept and execution by talented people that just never caught on. In some slightly better universe there's a new Mighty Orbots series on Netflix and everyone is like 'Volt-ron? What's that?'

[@WidebodyLotty]

I remember loving this show during its brief run while I was a kid. When it abruptly went off the air, I remember missing the cartoon for a long time. There were no Google searches back then to explain what happened to the cartoon. It’s disappearance was a mystery to me up until watching this video.

[@markmolino6091]

Ah the Mighty Orbots what an underrated cartoon show ,a cross between Transformers and Voltron ,but just didn't get the love that it deserved.

[@SlashTheWeasel]

I remember Orbots very fondly from my childhood and watching it on TV. This entire video answered lot of questions I had even back then. I didn't know this happened.

[@stargrave1866]

Some of the best animation you could find on the dial I loved this show thanks Dan! ...totally had a crush on Bo and Boo...that’s not weird.

[@ericpeterson8732]

Boo was the cute one. Bo reminded me of Storm's personality from the X-Men.

[@Slumberjunk1e]

Don’t know why Im tearing up over here. Thank you soo much for explaining their demise as to why they got extinguished from reaching the heights of awesomeness to being on the silver screen. These damn companies always about $. Family>Money. Subscribed. Sniff. Orbots was one of my faves & even as a child I knew the team that put them together had a hand in creating Thundercats, Bionic 6, Silverhawks & Tigersharks. Every creation taught me the importance of family 😭

[@timothylewis2527]

Loved this series so much as a kid. I saw it before I even knew of Voltron.

[@ericjefferson6249]

A criminally underrated series! I wish it had lasted longer.

[@Ruffian71]

Another great 80’s cartoon… It’s a downright shame it only lasted 13 episodes. I’m remember watching all of them in ABC as a kid. When you’re a kid & things just ‘disappear’ from TV you’re somewhat traumatized & wonder what happened to my favorite new show. 😉

[@ericpeterson8732]

This cancellation was the one that really broke my heart. For decades after, I still had the prison planet episode on VHS, recorded off TV back in 1985.

[@medioculus]

Such a shame that such a stylistically refreshing series with potential for more episodes was stomped out. What made this show so great was exactly like you said, because the story wasn't attached to selling any toys. Mighty Orbots captivated me as soon as I saw and heard that legendary opening! That song rocksss🔥👏 I play it on bass still sometimes cause it's catchy and takes me back to being 11. Great job on these vids!

[@Tsambaista]

This show was stuck in my head for years cause I remember watching it as a kid. I couldn't recall the title and was searching for Godmars stuff when I found this. What a coincidence.

[@popculturehero]

It was a huge inspiration for the style of Transformers Animated. Crunch specificly was the inspiration for Bulkhead. The original Orbots series did get printed on Dvd last year. Got my copy.

[@dreamedweaver7676]

I was born in 1980, thank you for taking the time to put these videos together. I love & miss those years, thanks again for reminding me how awesome it was back then.

[@jokerz7936]

1984 was a great year for cartoons I still remember waking up the Christmas of 84 and my mum bought me every G.I. Joe and Cobra Figure and Vehicle she could find and had them all built and in a battle formation in front of the tree on Christmas Morning Best Christmas Ever.

[@dinomonzon8853]

Jokerz 79 you were a very lucky kid growing up! 👍

[@jokerz7936]

@@dinomonzon8853 Yeah my mum was great even on a fixed income she made the Holidays amazing what can I say the woman was the Queen of the Layaway. Also she was an action junkie so I grew up on Bond, Rambo, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Segal, Norris, Lee, Bronson, and various Cannon films. 😀

[@CAPCOM784]

You had a good Christmas and what a terrific mom!

[@stinkypinkeee5085]

So you were spoiled as a child...got it...

[@jokerz7936]

@@stinkypinkeee5085 Far from it I had more Gobots than Transformers because Gobots were only a dollar a figure. I remember being excited to go to the Food Bank because the old lady there would give us day old bake goods which were a real treat. But my mother always wanted Christmas to be special so she'd start buying in the Summer and put everything on Layway.

[@RawNWigglin]

Mighty Orbots was brilliant. Hard to believe it had only one season, I remember it fondly.

[@davesaints8023]

🤯 Wow! I remember watching that show. Talk about going down memory lane. Always enjoy the history of the toys and cartoons I use to watch and forgot about

[@drewwilliams9332]

I remember this show fondly as a kid. I was sad that the show disappeared back then. I couldn't remember the name and always just thought it was a show about Godmars. Thanks for clearing up my childhood memories.

[@stephens4175]

I remember this show, Thought of it back then as the slickly animated and designed Saturday morning robot forming show, just could never remember its name, used to look forward to it and record it on my top loading VCR with the chorded pause button for commercials. need the box set now. and thank you for explaining what happened to it.

[@Tai_Jitu]

Thanks for this one! I adored this show, it had some of the best animation of the '80s shows that I loved. I loved the music so much that I kept wishing that they would release an album of it, once I found out (much later) that background music albums were a thing.

[@georgetrigoiii3229]

Holy shit! Been waiting for this one! I remember watching this on TV but couldn't remember the name until a couple of years ago while looking for Saturday morning cartoons from my childhood on KZbin. Thanks for the episode!

[@bluedragon807]

Orbots was hands down my favorite 80s cartoon. I was so ready for every episode and they pulled it off so fast. I literally remember the day I was waiting for it to come on and it was gone.

[@STB-jh7od]

I loved this series and bought the DVD set. I hated Muppet Babies and Smurfs.

[@mrdrofficer]

I thought I was one of the few that remembered. Glad I'm so wrong. Really happy so many people loved this short-lived series. It long stood as one of those "I remember ..." things that took me until college to find the name of it again. Thrilled at the footage you all found for this show and will be buying a copy of that DVD now that I know it exists.

[@mattsquires2622]

Nice honorable mention in the WatchMojo most underrated at KZbin channels this week. Way to go Dan

[@Funckle73]

I had completely forgotten about this. I remember my favorite was the “transforming” character. Cute host too!

[@b.thomas8926]

Talk about memory lane. I totally forgot about this. Thanks Toy Galaxy!

[@ohdogwow2]

This was my favorite Saturday morning show when it aired. I made a point to watch it. Then it was gone. Being a kid I had no idea why. Years later the fragmented memory of it would pop into my head as an adult. But I couldn't remember the name. So thanks to this channel for letting me remember and know again.

[@ericrook78]

How is this on DVD but the the Bionic Six isn't?!? Don't get me wrong, now that I've been made aware of this cartoon, I'll be getting the DVDs, but I still want the Bionic Six on DVD!!!!!!

[@MoveInSilence23]

Bionic Six was the ish

[@n34z3r]

YES!!! Loved BIONIC SIX. I used to record them to VHS because....we loved it.

[@jorgetomas380]

RIIIIGHT. Smh. I was obsessed with Bionic6!

[@jerbojones]

Mighty Orbots was a badass cartoon! I remember watching it and turbo teen right after. Cool ass theme song too!

[@FCastle23]

I vividly remember trying to not go to my soccer game so I wouldn’t miss this cartoon

[@ryan8211982]

Mighty Orbots first aired on ABC Saturday mornings in September 1984, just before Voltron: Defender of the Universe which became an instant ratings hit.

[@Outlawstar79]

All Giant robot combiners are welcome in my home, From the heroic Autobots to the Gritty Galaxy Guardians of the Go-bots!...Till All Are One!

[@batmanofsanantonio5331]

I LOVED Mighty Orbots!!! That theme song was the best.

[@EryxUK]

Would you do a video on the 1970s Microman/Micronauts toys please? I had loads of them as a kid back then and would love to know more about them.

[@shiftee7treez631]

EryxUK , Micronauts toys were fucking amazing!!!!

[@XDragokingGames]

EryxUK IIRC, Microman actually came from the original GIJOE figures, imported and rebranded to get away from the war themes considering it was post WW2 Japan. They shrunk them down to save on plastic during the mid 70s and they eventually became the basis for the original Transformers toys

[@XDragokingGames]

So long story short, without GIJOE there would be no Micro Man or Transformers

[@XDragokingGames]

Happy 2BeHere ikr, I wonder what that reunion looks like

[@hanzohattori2492]

@@XDragokingGames so takara import gi joe to Japan to make microman/micronaughts and then Hasbro reimport them to the west to become transformers....weird.

[@DocMicrowave]

One of my favorite shows as a kid. It had a unique look that made it stand out to me. I liked it better than the other robot shows of the time.

[@kingmarkseven17]

I really don't remember Orbots and I'm 39. That's crazy. I need to watch it now.

[@airporttrucker8529]

You're too young when they premiered. Im 44 and I was 8 or 9 when they premiered on ABC.

[@AlisonCrockett]

I loved this cartoon! The song and the characters were great! I missed them when they went away.

[@Chazreal]

I LOVED Mighty Orbots way more than Gobots, absolutely sucks the lesser franchise won. I loved how badly misproportioned Mighty Orbots was when combined! LOL!

[@Chazreal]

Actually as an 80s baby I genuinely deducted that Rob Simmons, Commander of Mighty Orbots, was on the scientific fore front of innovation with his application of molecular expansion technology. That's only because my dad was an engineering executive of Seagate Technologies and he would always tell me that the software and hardware is there, but where is the battery source? Do we genuinely want a multi storey robot with a nuclear generator *defending* us?! No one smashes your dreams quite like parents. ;)

[@archangel5627]

Growing up in the 80’s I never heard of or saw The Mighty Orbots cartoon series. I was definitely a robot junkie as a kid and it always amazes me that this show slipped by without me knowing of its existence.

[@sdcrews]

TONKA killed Mighty Orbots! What the crap, man! It wasn't on long but this was another favorite of mine. And like you since WB holds the license now and then don't direct anything to kids that doesn't have DC stamped on it we're poo outta luck. But thank you guys again for spotlighting another classic. Y'all are the best 👍

[@mraaronhd]

I’ve pretty much learned that this channel isn’t just about talking about toy franchises, but about the behind-the-scenes drama that goes into these franchises.

[@joetrosclair8434]

As a child I loved this show and adults were blown away at the quality of the animation. I was distraught when it disappeared

[@thadchristian7581]

I still get the theme song stuck in my head today. Loved that show.

[@CitrusXVA]

My family loved this show. While not the most original plot, as was pointed out, it certainly was one of the higher quality pedigrees out there of the genre. We were sad to see it disappear and it's even more tragic as to why. Thanks for creating this episode.

[@3rottenkids43]

Orbots my old friends! I don’t know how many more memories I can expect you guys to unlock but I’m sticking around to find out. Thanks so much

[@jdewitt]

Yup, I remember this one too! This was one of those shows I couldn't miss on Saturday mornings for a few weeks. I always wondered if there was more to it that I had just missed, but now I know the truth. Screw you Tonka! I remember liking the show, but I was a pretty little kid, and anything with giant robots was awesome, so my taste may be a bit off. Ironically, this and Bionic 6 stuck with me for both having great intro sequences and killer songs. Turns out it's because the same people worked on them, go figure!!!

[@smstnitc]

I was just talking about this show with some co-workers that were too young to remember it.. I decided to do a quick search for them and found your video... Might Orbots was one of my favorites when I was a kid, so much more entertaining than gobots! I had no idea that's why they disappeared so quickly... thanks for the video, it was really interesting to learn.

[@Echowhiskeyone]

The Mighty Orbots for some reason remind me of DC Comics "The Metal Men".

[@Hektols]

It's surprising that DC was not the one who sued them, the Metal Men arre also robots created by a genious robot designer with their own powers and the ability to combine.

[@Megared82]

Ironically, there's an issue of Action Comics (#590) where the Metal Men combine into a super robot to battle a chemical monster with Superman's powers.

[@hydrolito]

Rob resembles Robby Reed from Dial h for hero 1966, that resembles earlier Johnny Quest 1964.

[@hydrolito]

1962 Metal Men were 6 robots Gold could inspire ort, iron strong Tor, lead fat could inspire Crunch that was fat. The other 3 robots no direction relation other than resemble female like Platinum. Two other resemble male Mercury and Tin. One Metal Men story all six are combined into one form.

[@ericpeterson8732]

It's the personalities. Both the Metal Men and the Mighty Orbots have such interesting personalities. Also the way they interact with their creators. But I didn't learn about the Metal Men until 1986 and John Byrne's run on Superman. I think they might have had a brief cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it wasn't big enough to appreciate the characters.

[@pedrocamelo2567]

Thanks for letting me know the DVDs are now available. This was my favorite show as a kid and I had to hunt down the VHS tapes years ago.

[@SkotNealey]

MIGHTY ORBOTS WAS THE BEST!!! LOVED their personalities.

[@agentblaque1971]

Wow! This was very informative and well done. I grew up watching most of the cartoons mentioned, and had no idea about the battle for market shares behind the scenes. Thank you for doing this.

[@badbirdkc]

Such and odd time for cartoons. I didn't realize how short the run of Mighty Orbots was, but I did watch it. But there was so much other weird shit that I seemed to gravitate to: Spiral Zone, Wheeled Warriors, Ulysses, Sparticus, etc. Yeah, I was a fan of your standards: Transformers, He Man, Muppet Babies, Voltron, and all that. But there was just something appealing about those other "off brand" cartoons. Also, I fucking choked for real when I saw the "Lint Licker" bit.

[@exidy-yt]

Absolutely LOVED Mighty Orbots as an 11 year old when it came out. It was obviously Japanese what we called 'Japanimation' back then but felt very different then Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets etc. It was really something else.

[@fireresq7]

Man I loved that show. Best intro music!

[@bancoran]

The music director was none other than the legendary Yuji Ohno, who was also the composer for Lupin the Third. Side note: The opening of Transformers Animated was a tribute to the Orbots intro!

[@fireresq7]

@@bancoran Well he's a genius !I can still sing it in my mind till this day...and Bionic 6 too!

[@bancoran]

@@fireresq7 Oh God, if there are two shows that deserve a reboot...

[@fireresq7]

@@bancoran FACT!

[@Buddy74656]

I remember that show particularly Oh-no. But until today I couldn't remember the name of the series. Thank you.

[@brycevo]

Wow. This is cool. Being sued out of distribution is always fascinating

[@markschemers3132]

I just sent you guys an email 2 weeks ago about this show and here it is! Thanks!, it was my 3rd favorite cartoon growing up after Transformers and GIJoe.

[@CS-dd4yf]

I loved the Mighty Orbots, I still watch them on KZbin

[@CAPCOM784]

You should buy the dvd.

[@CS-dd4yf]

@@CAPCOM784 I agree

[@ChristopherBibbs]

I loved this show when I was a kid. Thank you for bringing it up.

[@rootfish2671]

The only thing I remember of this cartoon was that my friends and I called it whorebots, we thought that we were so damned funny.

[@tardiswhovian]

Hey, Dan! I’d kill for this channel to talk about The Raccoons. No (direct) toyline, but an AMAZING series, and a great soundtrack to boot!