RoboForce has returned! The first show in Nacelle Toys’ “Nacelleverse” world, RoboForce: The Animated Series is a brand-new show running on Tubi. The show vastly exceeds the original RoboForce in terms of story and character, not to mention episode count, growing from a single 22-minute toy commercial to a six-episode miniseries. Following on a trail of acquisitions, including Biker Mice from Mars, Sectaurs, and Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, Nacelle’s bringing back some of the lesser-known shows of our youth and cramming them together in a shared universe. So, how does their opening effort fare? Let’s check it out.
Before we get into the cartoon, we should check out the toys first, since they were announced a while ago. The original figures were trash bin-looking things with faces, “hugging action” arms, and suction cups on the bottom. They were goofy-looking but certainly had their charm. The new figures Nacelle released are upgraded to full action figures with articulated arms and legs and include a few extra pieces for the characters’ signature weapons. While they look a lot more imposing, as a fan of vintage toy designs, I kinda prefer the look of the originals – these are a little too upgraded for me, like they’re trying too hard to be cool. I might still pick up a Hun-Dred though. And give me Sectaurs Wave 2, you cowards! I want my General Spidrax!
The story changes up a few things from the original cartoon. Instead of being creations of Dr. Fury, the RoboForce presented here is built by young genius Soraya. After creating the 64 series of RoboForce (each of them looking like the original cartoon’s designs), she upgrades them all to the 89 series, which have the new toy designs. Unfortunately, the reveal of her new line is completely overshadowed by her rival, United Aegis, with their series of advanced 101 units. Relegated to obscurity, RoboForce languishes in menial tasks and getting drunk on grease in Copter’s bar.
It’s a pretty good allegory for the original toy, beaten to the punch by cooler toys like Transformers. Unlike the mass-produced 101 units built by UA, RoboForce all have individual personalities and free will, which causes Maxx to lament his role in the world. He’s so unhappy having to unclog toilets (using the suction cup feet from the original toy, no less) that he asks Soraya to delete his memory of the heroic programming. However, he gets his chance to live up to his purpose when some of the 101 units are hacked and start running amok.
The show does a great job introducing us to the many members of RoboForce. Besides Maxx and the others hanging out at the bar, a few, like Blazer and SOTA, left and broke contact. Hun-Dred still hangs out with Maxx, but there are hints of a dark past. The series doesn’t have anything to do with the Cult of Dred wanting to resurrect Naz-gar, so many of the villainous RoboForce characters get left in the dust. The twist about who hacked the 101s and their motive is really well done, and we even get to see one of the 64 series bots come back.
The writing in the series is great, definitely hitting that feeling of 80s cartoons. It has a lot of great jokes (many of them directed at Nima, a representative of AU who tries to recruit Soraya, but gets called a frat boy in return). One of the funniest jokes in the show, whether intentional or not, was about Tilter, who was introduced to Soraya’s mother. She thought Tilter was so lifelike that she assumed he was a suitor for Soraya, but that’s the robot with the most digitized voice of the whole team.
The fight scenes are also pretty good, even though it’s mostly tendril guns shooting at each other. The character development with Maxx becoming the leader he should be, and Hun-Dred turning against his creator, are both well done. The one thing that does let the show down a bit is the animation. It reminds me of Transformers: Rescue Bots that came out in 2011 and was aimed at younger kids, but missing a bit of its polish. It’s not bad by any means, but I do hope the following seasons from Nacelle get better.
As the first part of the combined Nacelleverse, there are some small hints at a bigger world. During the opening of each episode, we see a wide shot of all the Nacelle properties with proper exciting music. In the background of the episodes, we see some characters that look like Sectaurs and the C.O.W.boys. The Biker Mice from Mars make two extremely forced cameo appearances in later episodes. I would have preferred to just see them ride by on their motorcycles rather than show up to make some bad joke. The end of the series does a good job not only of setting up further adventures of RoboForce but teasing the big bad of the world. If he’s a villain from another cartoon, it’s not one I’m familiar with (looking it up on Nacelle’s website, it’s Arkus from Power Lords, and yup, I am not familiar with it). Each season of the Nacelleverse is based on a different property, and the next one is Biker Mice from Mars. Nacelle just announced that Season 3 will be Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa. Honestly, that’s got me more interested in watching than the original series ever did.
Is this new RoboForce worth a watch? Yeah, I’d say it is. It’s so much better than the original cartoon and introduced actual characters, not just toys. It was a lot of fun to watch and got me hyped for the return of a bunch of other ’80s and ’90s properties.
RoboForce: The Animated Series can be watched for free on Tubi. If you want to read my review of the original cartoon, you can check it out here.
