Forgotten TV shows I still like. Time to blast off into space and get robotic with… Mighty Orbots!

It’s the distant future. Mankind has spread across the stars as part of the United Planets, living peacefully with aliens and robots. Everyone is kept safe by the heroes of the Galactic Patrol. An evil organization called S.H.A.D.O.W., led by a demonic supercomputer named Umbra, seeks to overthrow the United Planets. (With me so far?) Enter young inventor Rob, who has created six super-powered robots that can combine into one big robot to battle Umbra and S.H.A.D.O.W. They are… Mighty Orbots!

Yes, it’s the ol’ five-robots-combine-to-one-big-robot thing. You’ve seen Voltron, you’ve seen Power Rangers, you’ve seen… okay, I can only think of those two. But I’m certain there are others. What’s interesting is that when combined into one robot, each of the five maintains their voice and can access their individual superpowers. This makes the big battles interesting, with different ways to mix it up.

There’s so much going on here, it’s hard to know where to begin. First, the five robots. Tor is the strong one, a self-confident blowhard. Bort is the shape-changer, who is not cowardly, but – let’s say – hesitant to go into battle. Bo and Boo are the two girls, both with flirty and playful personalities. Bo can cast illusions, which doesn’t come up much, while Boo has the sci-fi/fantasy cliché of controlling the air/water/fire/earth elements, potentially making her the most powerful one. Then there’s Crunch, who is a, ahem, chubby robot with the power to eat anything. I dislike the “fat guy who’s always eating” character seen in so many old cartoons, but Mighty Orbots skirts around this by having Chunk be a “disposal unit” who converts everything he eats into energy for the team. He’s goofy comic relief, but he serves a purpose.

There are even more characters to keep track of! Rob is the robots’ human inventor, with some business about him having a secret identity as the Mighty Orbots commander, although everyone knows he’s associated with the ‘bots. He mainly the stalwart hero type, reminding us about the importance of the mission. Ohno is another robot, one who provides “ignition” to the combined robot, however that works. She’s our other comic relief character. She’s childlike, yet also likes to boss the other robots around like she’s their mom. Rondu is the leader of the United Planets, who doesn’t do much except act all stately. Much more interesting is his daughter Dia, who often kicks off any given episode by getting into trouble after exploring uncharted worlds. One imagines a Space Agent Dia spinoff series.

The characters are simplistic, and you really have to work to find any interesting aspects to them. For example, one scene has Bort not knowing what his original shape was, which speaks to how he’s the one hesitant to jump into action. But it’s just one short scene, as opposed to devoting an entire episode to this. Episodes are more concerned with the action, introducing a villain of the week and creating a crisis, and then spending the remainder of the episode with the characters dealing with it all. Despite the show overflowing with content, I wish it could’ve found more time for character work.

Here’s a fun question: What, exactly, does the name “Mighty Orbots” refer to? In most episodes, it’s a singular name, referring to the big combined robot, as in “The one robot named Mighty Orbots is here to save us.” But there are occasional moments where one of the robots will be refer to themselves as “an orbot.” And while I’m nitpicking, what is Umbra? We’re told he’s a supercomputer, but he has a biological-looking face with five eyes and very suggestive-looking mouth. Really, the show constantly throws so much sci-fi craziness on screen at once, that it’s more about being exciting than any sort of consistent world-building or continuity.

It sounds like I’m ragging on this show for its flaws, but I genuinely do like it. Why? Because of the visuals! This animation looks spectacular, far above your usual Saturday morning cartoon. This was a true international creation, co-produced by MGM in the United States and TMS Entertainment/Intermedia Entertainment in Japan. So it’s the best of reliable toy commercial US cartoons and flashy, super-detailed ‘80s anime.

Other observations:

• Why didn’t the show succeed? Allegedly, the creators of Challenge of the Gobots sued, thinking Mighty Orbots was a ripoff. I can’t find any info on how this lawsuit went down, but it was likely a big enough deal to end the show.

• Animators often enjoyed sneaking some cheeky bits into old ‘toons for the grownups. The flirting with Bo and Boo gets a little kinky at times, notably in one scene where Bort transforms into a couch so both of them can lounge on him. What’s going on there?

• Unlike most cartoons of the era (era), Mighty Orbots had a definitive ending. The final episode has the robots fearing they’re about to be decommissioned, so they travel to Umbra’s home world to take him on head-to-head in a final battle straight out of Star Wars. Things even get hallucinogenic at one point when the robots journey inside Umbra’s brain. Absolutely wild!

Mighty Orbots is cartoon nonsense, but it’s beautifully animated, hugely entertaining cartoon nonsense. Don’t try to make sense of it, just sit back and enjoy the spaced-out giant robot vibes.

All 13 episodes of Mighty Orbots are currently available on YouTube.

Next: Push, don’t shove.

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.