The Mighty Orbots

Combining super-heroics with the giant robot craze of the 80's, mixed in with a style that mimics Japanese Anime (and why not, since most of the animators were, indeed, from Japan), "Mighty Orbots" was a wonder to behold. The stories were solid for a half-hour "kids' show," and the animation was clean from day 1.

The 5 Orbots each had their own unique talents, which became part of the talents of the fused giant robot known as Mighty Orbots. (OK, the name isn't sensational, but that's about the only campy bit.) Tor was the "strong-bot" of the team; he formed the main torso of Mighty Orbots, with MO's head rising out of his body to replace Tor's head. Bort was a shape-changer; he was one of MO's leg. Bo, the confident female weather-wizard Orbot, became one of MO's arms, while shy Boo, whose talents were more ephemeral as well, became the other arm. Crunch was the "fat bot" who was always eating; he was MO's other leg, as well as the primary energy source for the giant robot. Finally, Ono (or "Oh No!," as she was always fond of saying) served as the "key" to activate MO, while seated in the command craft with the Orbots Commander (who was secretly Rob Simmons, builder of the Orbots); the craft entered MO's torso and became the command center.

Oh, how I wish these episodes were available on DVD, and that we could see some new ones.

A very FAST-PACED sci-fi cartoon featuring our very funny, lovable robots who can arrange themselves into a gigantic robot just like the one in "Voltron" to battle the evil forces! First, there's this big, fat robot who likes to eat alot that becomes the "body", then the two very spunky female robots who go as the "arms", and finally, the two fun-loving brothers to be turned into "legs". Now, along comes the head (uh, if I remember correctly), which is actually a flying spacecraft piloted by the young human scientist and the cutest little robot girl you'd ever see with a few clever tricks of her very own up her metal sleeve! Simply MARVELOUS, color-splashed animation that looks very Japanese both in character and action as well as such good-natured humor and very zany whimsicality at every turn! Oh, how you'd gasp in such amazement during the very rapid sequence where each flying robot instantly transforms himself or herself into massive body parts to be attached to each other before the big heroic acts! And the very perception of the whole cartoon is always turning and moving so much you'd feel like you're turning and twisting in an anti-gravity room! A very unique and entertaining fantasy experience with cartoon robots, indeed!

Have to say though I really loved this short lived cartoon series as a kid. This along with Transformers and Voltron were my favorite cartoons. I always enjoy the robots that combine to form bigger robots or transform. I also watched Gobots a bit, but I did not care for that one nearly as much, and I learn now that it is the reason this much more entertaining show was canceled. Really, how the heck did that lawsuit even work when Gobots was clearly a Transformers rip off while Orbots more closely resembled Voltron than Transformers or Gobots. Here we had a dude who along with six robots fought the evil UMBRA's forces (I did not remember the villain's name but rather a reviewer mentioned it). The Orbots consisted of a strong robot that would turn into the main torso, a shape shifting robot that would be one of the legs, a junk eating robot who was the other legs, two rather attractive twin girl robots who formed the arms, and a little girl robot who sort of was the glue for when they combined as the dude entered the robot in combined form and fought against stuff that I can not remember thanks to the brief run of this show. I am guessing it will never come on DVD unless the gobot creators die or something so I will never get to relive this show and see why I enjoyed it as a kid.

Orbots was definitely among the highest production value, best-paced and best-edited cartoons of its time. It just wasn't attached to a big-budget toy line like the Transformers/Gobots, which limited its value to TV networks. It was anime before anime got big in the states--the quality of the animation was more like recent series than Voltron.

You can currently find Orbots episodes on a YouTube competitor, which shall remain nameless, but whose name begins with a letter near the end of the alphabet. Unfortunately, they aren't high quality videos, so the slick feel of the real TV show isn't there.

Most excellent of shows of the giant robot genre. Insane plots and superb animation for its time made me want to watch this every Saturday morning. On par with or sometimes better than Transformers, Robotech, and Voltron. Even the theme song was cool and catchy. The music from the rock and roll episode really sticks with you. Too bad it was only one season. The characterization of the robots was also excellent. The only annoying thing i remember from the show was the announcer explaining everything too much even though it was Gary Owens who has a great voice. I'm lucky enough to have the garbage episode and the rock and roll episode on tape and both are excellent episodes. Highly recommended watching.