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Roar! I hunger.
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Join the Galactic Patrol, and meet cute girls like Dia here.
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Unfortunately, there was never an opportunity for a Might Orbots toy.
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The Great Cartoon Archive
From the makers of Robotech, Monster Rancher, and the Batman Beyond movie come this classic, Mighty Orbots.
February 17, 2000
Funny how we keep coming back to 1984. The year where Orwell predicted it would all fall apart instead heralded a truly groundbreaking year of cartoons. This is the year that Transformers and Robotech arrived, introducing the American mainstream to Japanese anime style for the first time, forever influencing impressionable young minds that fuel the creative talent in Hollywood today. Along the way, though, there were many noble failures in Japan-US collaborations. We examine one such multicultural fusion today: The Mighty Orbots
Mighty Orbots
The Time: 1984, ABC
The Company: Intermedia Entertainment, TMS Entertainment
The Skinny: As the Transformers were dominating the cartoon landscape, various other companies were scrambling to do something on a similar scale, with even more flare. So, Intermedia Entertainment, an American company, went to Japan to seek out TMS Entertainment, which had produced the landmark anime series Macross, which would become the first third of the major cartoon epic of the 80s, Robotech. A rare collaboration ensued, with American and Japanese animators working together to produce the flashy Mighty Orbots.
The Story: It is the far future, and the universe is menaced by the forces of Shadow. Led by the evil Umbra (a mean-looking globe straight out of Hindu nightmare) in its evil Shadow Star, it attempts to control worlds through force and subversion.
To combat the threat, Rob Simmons of the Galactic Patrol, creates the Orbots, a group of six super robots: Ohno, an early prototype; Tor, a super-strong, apish robot; Bo and Boo -- twin robots with feminine wiles and elemental powers; Bort, the neurotic shapechanger; and Crunch, the omnivorous, paunchy comic relief. Together, they can form Mighty Orbots, a giant robot of immense power and agility.
Effects on Popular American Culture: Not much except for fond memories, although its innovative use of high-energy colors and glows helped substitute for inconsistent animation. The overall quality of the show, though, did prove that American and Japanese styles weren't incompatible, and that a collaboration could be quite successful. In fact, in the near future, we may be seeing more Japanese-American fusion shows than you might expect.
Where are they now?: After 13 episodes, Mighty Orbots vanished off the air for good. It showed up briefly when released onto home video by MGM/UA, but has never been seen again. TMS Entertainment, though, went on to produce shows like Monster Rancher and the upcoming Batman Beyond movie. The Orbots themselves, though are rumored to be working as a lounge act in Robot Vegas.
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