Robo Force: Worth the Reboot?

I’m always amazed when a toyline gets a cartoon but it doesn’t warrant a whole series. It’s not uncommon to see a toyline get a three- or five-episode mini-series—Ring Raiders had five episodes (which frankly didn’t even deserve that many) and Robotix got a movie divided into three episodes. But apparently, one toyline didn’t even get that much: Robo Force, which got a single episode. It’s an amazing 22-minutes though. Strap-in, it’s a bumpy ride.

Before we get started on the cartoon, let’s take a look at the toyline that inspired it. Robo Force was a line of big, clunky robots with a few iffy action features created by Ideal in 1984. The more exciting of the two, if you could call it that, was the figures’ “crusher arms” which would squeeze together when you pinch two levers on the robot’s back. If it weren’t for the tiny weapons you plug into the robot’s fists (or whatever approximation of hands each robot has), it would look like a tender hug. The other action feature on each figure is a suction cup on the bottom to allow it to stick to walls. Other accessories include extendable guns or head-mounted devices. Each robot has its own tooling with only a few repeated parts like the skirt that covers the suction cup and the middle sections of the arms. Many of the robots include stickers on their chest or head that make them look like Star Trek: TNG control panels. The toyline included ten robots, two smaller vehicles, a larger vehicle, and a playset.

It may sound like I’m giving the toyline a lot of crap, but to be honest, these figures would have been right up my alley as a kid. I loved robots of any kind, with Transformers being my favorite line then (and now), and these big figures would fit in perfectly with them. The action features, while being kinda laughable now, were tactile and interactive, and the designs were fun. But does the cartoon do a good job of showing them off? Let’s find out.

The episode starts in the year 5044 with Dr. Fury, an engineer working on his first robot creation—Coptor, a big blue block of metal with arms and a tiny propeller on its head. Out of nowhere, other robots break into the lab (along with two humans). The black and gray Hun-Dred, leader of the Cult of Dred, wants to resurrect his master Nazgar and needs Dr Fury to do it. Hun-Dred destroys Coptor and kidnaps the doctor. The commotion wakes Fury’s son, Mark, who comes down to find his father gone and the remnants of another robot.

The show skips 10 years and introduces Councilwoman Deena Strong reporting on planet Celestria’s security. She speaks about the threat of Hun-Dred and Nazgar, but the counsel mocks her, as Nazgar’s been dead for 2,000 years or is just a legend. She shows a holographic projection of Nazgar’s war on Celestia. Nazgar vowed revenge after an attack from Celestria’s forces – his body was never found and there are rumors that Hun-Dred possesses his brain. She then shows a message crystal recovered from Nazgar’s hideout – Nazgar lays out how the message crystals can resurrect him and how his brain will live on. Cartoon science is wild, huh? She begs for resources to fight Hun-Dred but Councilman Frost denies her request and instead sends her after Mark Fury and his robots.

Elsewhere, Mark Fury is on a mission to find his father. He’s accompanied by Coptor, his father’s original robot, and others he’s created, making up the Robo Force. Led by the heroic Maxx Steele, the Robo Force tracks an informant to a bar and beats up a bunch of drunks. Not quite the intro the heroes of the show deserve. Councilman Frost reports to Hun-Dred that Strong has the message crystal and must be captured. It’s hard to tell who’s in charge here. Strong is ambushed by Hun-Dred’s forces and brought to an underwater fortress that looks like a castle you’d put in a fishbowl. Hun-Dred personally thanks her for bringing him the message crystal.

Mark and the Robo Force prepare to infiltrate the fortress, and we get a little introduction to each of the robots, which includes Blazer who shoots a column of fire inside their submarine. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why he felt safe blasting plasma in a cramped submersible. I mean, Blazer’s energy beams even work underwater, cutting through the wall of the fortress, it should have exploded that craft and killed everyone.

Mark Fury accidentally rescues Deena Frost, his dad nowhere to be found. One of the guards holds a gun on both of them, but Maxx Steele knocks him out with some kind of gas. I didn’t expect knockout gas to be in his arsenal. Deena’s not convinced, believing Fury and Robo Force to be a group of hooligans for some reason. Somehow, even though she knew of Mark’s father, Dr. Fury, she never connected the two – they both built robots for pet’s sake. How could you not know they were related? And she’s the planet’s security adviser? Celestia’s screwed! She finally realizes Hun-Dred is planning to force Dr. Fury to put Nazgar’s brain in a robot body. After fighting a bunch of generic robots, the Robo Force escapes the fortress with the knocked-out guard.

And this is where the episode shows just how bonkers it is. During an interrogation with the guard, Blazer, that freaking psychopath, fires a blast across the guard’s nose and then shoves the barrel of his blaster in the guy’s mouth. And these are the good guys? Holy crap, this is something you’d see in a Lethal Weapon movie, not a kids’ cartoon. The prisoner tells them about the Cliffs of the Lost before he jumps out the window – presumably to his death, which the Robo Force doesn’t give a crap about.

Some hypnotized woman with a smoker’s voice gives Hun-Dred the second crystal, which just tells them where to find the third crystal. I’m not sure how this crystal knew it would be the second one found. It really makes me wonder how they’re supposed to work, especially when Nazgar comes out of the crystal in a puff of smoke like a freaking genie. The first one just showed a video like the holographic projection of Nazgar’s war.

Oh well, Nazgar sends Hun-Dred and his cult to the Isle of Doom, where the magnetic field disrupts sensors and the poisonous atmosphere prevents Mark and Deena from joining Robo Force. Maxx says they’ll go in and “nail” Hun-Dred, which is a threat he keeps repeating, and it makes me giggle every time I hear it. Maxx leads them into a cave and tells them to take up standard exploration posture as if these robots can assume any other posture besides straight up and leaning forward a little. Hun-Dred has the third crystal and activates it, conjuring some weird skull-faced guy in a robe that tells them to go to Mount Infinity to find Nazgar’s brain. Not sure why Nazgar didn’t tell him that himself, or why they needed all three crystals to get that simple message, but I’m finding it harder to care as the minutes count down.

Robo Force hears the Cult of Dred chanting that Nazgar lives and Blazer charges in. Even his team thinks he’s crazy, but they follow him in, screaming “Ahhhh!” which sounds hilarious in juxtaposition to five robots just hovering ahead slowly. Hun-Dred shoots his face lasers at the cavern ceiling, knocking stalactites loose and dropping all of Robo Force into the boiling bubblegum below. Hun-Dred escapes while Robo Force just kinda floats there. Not even their thrusters can free them, but luckily one of them has a grappling hook and pulls them all out.

Hun-Dred goes to Mount Infinity and talks to some computer that protects Nazgar’s brain. The computer questions who the human is with them, and it turns out Dr. Fury had built Nazgar’s robot body. It’s hard to tell where the next scene takes place – Robo Force senses something going on at Mount Agony, which collapses, exposing Nazgar’s fortress. Is it the same as Mount Infinity? Who knows, there’s only 5 minutes left of this fever dream. Mark rescues his father incredibly easily, and the fortress’s Death Ray is ready to destroy Celestia. The planet? Isn’t that where Nazgar lives too? Maxx Steele finally faces off against Hun-Dred, which they treat as inevitable, even though they’ve never spoken to each other in this whole episode. Hun-Dred forgets he has face lasers and tries to stab Steele with a hand-held drill before Maxx punches him into a wall and kills him in one hit. I mean, it’s pretty impressive looking, and the balls to kill off our show’s main villain at the end of its lone episode!

Nazgar tries to escape in some metal coffin, but Robo Force blows it up. They say Nazgar’s gone, but the screaming during the explosion tells us he met the same fate as Hun-Dred. Maxx Steele stops the Death Ray by punching the giant cannon. He really “nailed” it, I guess. Robo Force saves the planet, or city, or whatever, they drink some oil, and the writers pathetically hint at the possibility that Hun-Dred and Nazgar could still be out there.

The single episode didn’t seem to do much for the toyline, as a second wave of toys was designed and promoted but canceled before release. It would have doubled the amount of figures and included another vehicle and a smaller weapon playset. Normally, after getting this kind of minimal release and lukewarm reception, a toyline might just disappear in obscurity, but Robo Force got extremely lucky. Nacelle, the company behind the series The Toys that Made Us, resurrected the property, creating new (some would say improved) toys and a new cartoon. After pulling Robo Force from the ashes, Nacelle went on to bring back fellow short-time cartoon Sectaurs and a few other cartoons, giving them new figures and including them into a shared universe in their own comics. While it could be debated whether the original cartoon and toyline justified a return like that, I feel Robo Force got lost in the jumble of robot-centric cartoons of the 80s and unfairly suffered compared to the juggernaut of the Transformers. I’m glad Robo Force is getting another chance, though I wish Nacelle stayed a little truer to the original designs and story.