Transformers G1 would like a word...

The designs for everything was breathtaking. Its a shame. Sigh

Most American 80s cartoons animated by TMS tend to be, they also did the animation for shows like Gummi Bears, the early seasons of Ducktales, Galaxy Rangers, Bionic Six and Galaxy High. They assisted in animating 90s cartoons like Batman TAS and Superman TAS. Of course, this is the same Japanese animation studio that gave Anime classics like City Hunter, Space Adventure Cobra and of course Lupin III.

You seem like an expert so why does this animation seem more fluid and natural than some of today's animation?

@@frankiejones7858 For a specific answer: there are tons of good in-betweens between the incredibly strong keyframes. (The key frames are the main poses, what tells the story of the animation, and the in-betweens help keep the motion smooth.) There's also very good layout--that is, turning the storyboards into background paintings and animation which complement one another. This was planned ambitiously and executed well. For a more general answer: Partly expertise/experience, partly budget, and partly technology/processes. Expertise: TMS, the animation studio that created this series, was the same studio which made Akira and had been in animation since at least the 1960s, so they had employees with thousands of hours of practice drawing, painting, animating, and managing large animation projects. Budget: The 1980s was a prosperous time for Japan--a very big boom, actually--so there were quite a few projects in the 80s and through the early 90s that had a lot more budget than had been normal for a production in the 70s. For animation specifically, the movie Akira was something of a watershed as it was the most expensive anime movie ever made but it was also the most profitable anime movie ever made, which encouraged others to push a lot of money into animation in Japan in hopes of having a similar success. Tech/process: Nowadays there are still lots of skilled people, but there's quite a bit less money in the industry. With animation there are always a lot of technical aspects, and some of the cheaper processes (then and now) tend to favor more "flat" designs and fixed, rigged characters with a lot of reusable assets. This takes fewer people to do and it usually takes less long. With better digital tools for color, compositing, deformation, and organization, limited animation can look pretty good these days, so it's usually worth doing to save time and money. I do miss how this stuff looked, though. When it was good it was incredible. People still try and capture this feeling today, like some of Genndy Tartatovsky's work or Hayao Miyazaki; some European studios like Cartoon Saloon and Studio La Cachette; and even some artists on KZfaq as well (the shows Lackadaisy and Monkey Wrench, for example).

​@frankiejones7858 it's a matter of animation companies, this was a thing even back then Back in the 80s, animation looked amazing because they'd outsource to more experienced, and costly, Japanese companies. It was very noticeable when something was animated by a company like Dic or Hanna Barbara compared to something like Toei or TMS. Another big thing was, and still is, price. These shows have a restricting budget and kids usually don't care about whether or not something is animated at 30 FPS with complex colors and art, so it just ends up costing more for very little reward

Gobots got a dose of Karma.

Sounds like "Gobots" were a bunch of haters!!!

Loving that "Galactic Patrol" icon.

35 years later, thanks to Dezaki's vision and Araki's execution, this anime still holds up.

Big truth

Looked great AND...The MUSIC! What WAS that - Jazz/Disco fusion? ;-)

@@slapittywapitty8173 You may know by now, but... Yuji Ohno! I became a fan of his thru this show, long before I ever heard of "Lupin III". His soundtracks are scattered over youtube from time to time, except... this one. Still holding out hope the music will turn up, somehow.

GoBots was incredibly lame.

"The K-Mart of Transformers." (from Clerks 2)

@@TheBrettAbides GoBots were out first...

@@stinkypinkeee5085 That doesn't change the fact that they're still the K-Mart of Transformers.

@@TheBrettAbides HB's animated series based on the Tonka line struck me as having weaker writing and production than Marvel Productions' "Transformers". Even with the "each episode stands on its own", the latter gave us flashes of character development.

Omg love the video of leader one working at a coffee shop trying to sell a script to prime and Megatron

it was waaaaay better.

considering the gobots were considered the "poor man's transformers" these orbots must have been really bad...never seen or heard of them until this video

It was absolutely NOTHING like GoBots. It was a good Saturday morning show. Check it out.

@@marcusgurley9495 will do.

@@hanzohattori2492 I STRONGLY recommend you watch the series. The stories were really good for the time. The writing was top shelf. The visuals were outstanding, (done in a comic book style.)

@@crispycritterz is it on KZfaq?

Omg seriously! Gobots were just... Eh.

Haveing the gobot line unicroned (absorb) by transformers & Hasbro Years later is karma from destroying the mighty orbots

Tonka with their little MIGHTY GOBOTS was just mad because they ain't have a thing over Hasbro's TRANSFORMERS, that's all. That's why Tonka started exacting revenge and venting it out on the creators of THE MIGHTY ORBOTS. As always though, Karma has some tendencies to come back to haunt folk - eventually in the form of Hasbro swallowing up Tonka. This is a testimony for us all to watch the types of socioeconomic vibes that we put out there.

It was their own fault for trying to buy Kenner, now we have those cruddy Star Wars figurines clogging the shelves and it's all Tonka's fault

Cebrum1, I also like the Mighty Orbots! That was my favorite Saturday morning cartoon when I was 10!

It's certainly gotten a lot of votes over the years

Too hyperbolic Johnny.

Still in my head today. Did not know about the dvd release have to search for it.

I'd say third with Galaxy Rangers at second and Thundercats at first.

o/ Go! Mighty Orbots! They're coming together to fight for what's right, everywhere! Mighty Orbots! Protecting the world from the shadow of evil and doom! Orbots! Champions of justice and truth! o/ Ohno! Tor! Bort! Bo! Boo! Crunch! o/ Go! Mighty Orbots! Mechanical heroes, they're fighting for me and for you! Orbots! o/

Parents like that are awesome! I'm envious!

I love your mom! She sounds great!

Likewise.

Yeah, I hadn’t heard in so much detail but had looked it up several years ago and found out the short version that it was Tonka’s fault. I really liked the cartoon as a kid and wondered why it just vanished with no toys.

I loved the cartoon. It reminded me of the Transformers.

I would buy it.

the only thing i remember about mighty orbots from my childhood is the theme song which stated in the video is exceptional

Omg seriously. Ok so the song was so 80s but so awesome epic 80s!!!! Horns rock instruments like john williams meets aerosmith lol

The "Transformers Animated" intro is a direct reference to this.

Sweet

And they would've probably become part of the TFU.

Would have been an infinitely better outcome than what actually ended up happening. Go-Bots at least live on in some form in the Transformers universe, and the Mighty Orbots just faded into obscurity. :/

Same here but could not remember the name.

BRB. Adding Police Academy to the list...

hey Larry, funny seeing you here. At any rate I do believe he's Artie done police Academy. The animated series. I know somebody did in the last year pretty sure it was this fellow. If you look at up on KZfaq, you'll find the video. And for the record, I do believe you're right that was around the time Kanner went into the great abyss.

@@SecretGalaxyTV I loves the show and the toys.

Yay! A Larry sighting!

@@SecretGalaxyTV: How do you check (ahead-of-time) if other toy corps have 'similar' IP patents/trademarks?

Jokerz 79 you were a very lucky kid growing up! 👍

@@dinomonzon8853 Yeah my mum was great even on a fixed income she made the Holidays amazing what can I say the woman was the Queen of the Layaway. Also she was an action junkie so I grew up on Bond, Rambo, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Segal, Norris, Lee, Bronson, and various Cannon films. 😀

You had a good Christmas and what a terrific mom!

So you were spoiled as a child...got it...

@@stinkypinkeee5085 Far from it I had more Gobots than Transformers because Gobots were only a dollar a figure. I remember being excited to go to the Food Bank because the old lady there would give us day old bake goods which were a real treat. But my mother always wanted Christmas to be special so she'd start buying in the Summer and put everything on Layway.

Boo was the cute one. Bo reminded me of Storm's personality from the X-Men.

Bionic Six was the ish

YES!!! Loved BIONIC SIX. I used to record them to VHS because....we loved it.

RIIIIGHT. Smh. I was obsessed with Bionic6!

I have to wonder how much of Gary Owens's narration was scripted and how much was ad-libbed.

@@mattceccato8302 I headcanon that Space Ghost is narrating the story of the show to a younger Jan and Jace to boost their spirits.

Actually as an 80s baby I genuinely deducted that Rob Simmons, Commander of Mighty Orbots, was on the scientific fore front of innovation with his application of molecular expansion technology. That's only because my dad was an engineering executive of Seagate Technologies and he would always tell me that the software and hardware is there, but where is the battery source? Do we genuinely want a multi storey robot with a nuclear generator *defending* us?! No one smashes your dreams quite like parents. ;)

It's surprising that DC was not the one who sued them, the Metal Men arre also robots created by a genious robot designer with their own powers and the ability to combine.

Ironically, there's an issue of Action Comics (#590) where the Metal Men combine into a super robot to battle a chemical monster with Superman's powers.

Rob resembles Robby Reed from Dial h for hero 1966, that resembles earlier Johnny Quest 1964.

1962 Metal Men were 6 robots Gold could inspire ort, iron strong Tor, lead fat could inspire Crunch that was fat. The other 3 robots no direction relation other than resemble female like Platinum. Two other resemble male Mercury and Tin. One Metal Men story all six are combined into one form.

It's the personalities. Both the Metal Men and the Mighty Orbots have such interesting personalities. Also the way they interact with their creators. But I didn't learn about the Metal Men until 1986 and John Byrne's run on Superman. I think they might have had a brief cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it wasn't big enough to appreciate the characters.

If I think about you are right. Mighty Orbots came on at 10am CST on ABC and Pole Position came on at 10:30am CST on CBS.

EryxUK , Micronauts toys were fucking amazing!!!!

EryxUK IIRC, Microman actually came from the original GIJOE figures, imported and rebranded to get away from the war themes considering it was post WW2 Japan. They shrunk them down to save on plastic during the mid 70s and they eventually became the basis for the original Transformers toys

So long story short, without GIJOE there would be no Micro Man or Transformers

Happy 2BeHere ikr, I wonder what that reunion looks like

@@XDragokingGames so takara import gi joe to Japan to make microman/micronaughts and then Hasbro reimport them to the west to become transformers....weird.

I checked as well. Still can't believe how much they sound alike.

He was voiced by Barry Gordon who was also the voice of Donatello in the original TNMT.

Oh, and the Nestle Quick Bunny during the 80's.

Thanks, Andy. Thanks, Dan. How about a Thundarr video?

Man, if they do Pole Position next I'm gonna be like a kid in some kind of store🍬

You should buy the dvd.

@@CAPCOM784 I agree

The music director was none other than the legendary Yuji Ohno, who was also the composer for Lupin the Third. Side note: The opening of Transformers Animated was a tribute to the Orbots intro!

@@bancoran Well he's a genius !I can still sing it in my mind till this day...and Bionic 6 too!

@@fireresq7 Oh God, if there are two shows that deserve a reboot...

@@bancoran FACT!

You're too young when they premiered. Im 44 and I was 8 or 9 when they premiered on ABC.