The Story of Robo Force: Murdered by Transformers
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Robo Force was a toy line created by the Ideal Toy Company in the year 1984 for CBS Toys.
A series of squat robots with suction cup bases Robo Force was lead by Maxx Steele in their fight against Hun Dred and the evil Nazgar.
Robo Force also had an incredible amount of marketing behind it, sure that it would be the next big thing. But what Ideal and CBS couldn't have seen coming was the pop culture juggernaut that was the Transformers.
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Lookin like a 50’s robot in the 80’s was not a recipe for success.
It may not be glamourous, but it's how I live my life.
You've mentioned the very thing i find cool about them,in fact in the 21 century the simplicity of the design is so refreshing,i think they look incredibly cool.
maybe
Can you imagine being the guy presenting these trash cans at that toy fair and getting a look at the Transformers? It must’ve been like a shot to the gut.
Yep, there must have been some heavy drinking at Roboforce booth that day.
"oh god damn it why?"
"Oh man, people are going to LOVE our new toy!"
Walks around sees Transformers, Go-Bots, Voltron.
"On second thought, lets start updating our resumes."
You’d need a tarp and access to a landline quick to try and sell your stock lol…
One of those moments where you quietly tip toe out of the back door.
I'm surprised the poor souls who had their brains inserted into robots that are a hybrid of a plastic drinking straw and a Garfield car window toy didn't try and rebel. Probably not their concept of immortality they had when they volunteered to have their brains preserved!
Hello you!
If you read Frank Herbert's "Dune", he hints that Robo-Force were the thinking machines that rebelled in "The Butlerian Jihad" leading to Dune's neo-feudal space society. That's not actually true, but what if, Larry, what if?
Thec design screams someone in corporate marketing...chomping a cigar.. saying 'The kids like dat trash can wid legs from the Star Wars?'
'Let's give em a trash can, but wid ARMS!'
@@joezilla6615 Frank Herbert was sounding the alarm on that decades before most
@@PlasmateIncognito I think the Hugo and Nebula Award committees had it hushed up, but Frank Herbert was arrested in 84' for going into a toy store and stomping on a bunch of Robo-Force figures. He screamed "The Sleeper has Awakened!!!" the whole time. At least, that's what the guy at the bus stop told me.
Every 80s kid had at least one of these. You didn’t even need to buy one. They just materialised in your toy box or sand pit.
Mostly the regift at your friends birthday party.
Truth.
I didn't own the Roboforce as they looked like trashcans. With that, I did have the Fortress of Steele, and used it as a Cobra base for my G.I. Joes to assault.
The Fortress of Steele was awesome as a large, universal base for a lot of other toys. I used it with my Gobots and Transformers.
Cobra are everywhere... GO JOE! Knowing is half the battle!
Nice, I had that fortress too, I used it as a base for my Super Powers figures!
@@Chris.Mc83 In hindsight it would have made a great Fortress of Solitude.
"It aired *at least* once" - CBS Fall Line Up director
I honestly remember it, it aired on a random Sunday afternoon in my market. That was a rare treat back an the mid 80s when I had all of 4 tv channels.
Holy shit. I had a whole bunch of these toys as a kid, but I don't think I ever knew the name of the line...
The giant sticker is a hint.
They advertised as robot crushing action but all I remember was robot hugging action.
Make love, not war.
i don't remembered this at all.
They should have marketed it as “great friendship hug” force.
I remember these. I had a steel figure and would stick his suction cup feet on the windows in my old house. Then a minute later, it'd fall off. Good times.
kinda of like whacky wall walker?
That Fortress of Steele was the headquarters of all my action figures as a kid! and i've only recently learned what the hell it was!
Still got mine!! >XD
I had a couple of these as a kid. I always thought they were knock-off Daleks.
Me too. lol
Paul Heap Great minds think alike!
Wonder if that means that Nazgar (sp?) was supposed to be like Davros, the creator of the Daleks.........
@@BornToPun7541 That's an interesting theory. I like it!
Robo Force: *exists*
Transformers: "I’m about to end this robot’s whole career".
More likely it's OP "Did we hit something?" Megatron "Nothing important, now where were we?" "You will never stop at one!!"
Wow, seeing these takes me back. My parents picked up a whole load of these when I was little, and I still stumble across the play castle from time to time when helping them in their basement. Transformers really did change the landscape so much that I only remember Robo Force from recollections under a Christmas tree. A plunger on a trash can with arms was a terrible gimmick.
I'm surprised they invested so much into such a basic 60's robot design.
As a 46 year old GenXer, I remember almost everything you guys have explored, either vaguely or in sharp detail. But... I must admit, I don't recall Robo Force at all. WOW, Thanx for the education , TG. 🍻
Every step of the way on this one was doused in nostalgia for me. An hour ago, I had completely forgotten that this toy existed. By the end of it, I remembered that I had the one with the squirt gun on it, and my neighbor had two of the others. I also remember drooling over the life-size Maxx Steele after seeing it in toy catalogs.
I also had that same one. Blazer I believe is the name. I went down an accidental rabbit hole of Madballs and ended up seeing the Robo Force on the shelf of a toy store tour video. It immediately brought me such vivid memories of that toy it was unbelievable. I dont think I ever saw anyone with the others, but that toy brought me so much joy.
Well roboforce is being revived now with an animated series and also new updated toys. It's part of a Crossover universe now that's coming out this year.
I like the design of the 'Enemy' character. Just a simple gray slate with jagged hands, a minimalist sort of menace.
I had Maxx Steele and Hun-Dred when I was a kid. I think I probably actually enjoyed playing with them more than my Transformers.
It appears as though they required more imagination than Transformers...
Looks like the robot from "Lost in Space" had some children.
I remember going to KB Toys and picking up SOTA. The box made him look hella rad for my young self, but when I took it home it was disappointing. Good thing it was cheap. But over time I grew to love these little useless toys. Thank you for finally making this history of :)
I still have my collection. They are packed away up in the attic but I still gots em :D
How much do you want for them?
@@michaeluhlir9009 Sorry. Separation anxiety. I can't get rid of them 😆
6:32 I remember reading this comic as a kid and even then i was uncomfortable on many levels seeing one of my toy robots talking about “hot sax” 😓
It got you ready for the live action transformers.
And of course its the robot with the squirting head playing the sax.
Robo Force: CRIMINALLY under-rated! I can quite categorically confirm that the line was known as "The Robots" here in the UK, although some figures were available as Robo Force as late as 1990 in places like Woolworth's and other cheapo import outlets which have since long departed the high streets.
Personally, I have Maxx Steele, Coptor, Wrecker, Blazer, Hun-Dred, Enemy, the Robocruiser and the Fortress Of Steele. In European markets, Coptor was marketed as an evil robot - maybe to even out the good guys and the bad guys, but most probably because on one publicity photo Coptor was positioned closest to the evil robots and the European sales reps mistakenly made the assumption that Coptor was a bad guy himself.
I have to side with Michael from RetroBlasting by saying that Robo Force has a lot of heart - because they are the robots that hug you back.
I actually had one or two of these... could never find any others. I know for sure used to own Cruel, the Detonator, and may also have had Hun-dred. That name certainly sounded familiar. This, and Starriors, were the most obscure robot toys I ever owned. Maybe I had a Maxx Steele or Sentinel, as well, I forget how many I had. They were goofy fun though! I'd seen enough "retro-futuristic" 60s and 70s sci-fi in TV reruns to understand what they were going for in this toy line. I still liked even my Go-bots better though.
Gobots were far superior!
Robo Force: Hi there
Transformers:
Iron birds of fortune
Adrift above the skies
Cloudy revelations
Unseen by naked eyes
*nasty, squealing guitar riff*
Instruments of destruction
Tools of foul play
It's a violent eruption
Existence drifts away
@@mavericktitan7874 "this was almost too easy Starscream"
i was LITERALLY watching the animated pilot episode for this earlier today!!
Dan knew ;)
Dan knows all. He KNEW i was watcing BOTSMASTER and BATTLETECH.
I like how you have highlighted the most pointless word in your statement 😂
I went and found it after watching this. Was “okay”.
@@namelessjedi2242 lol. true. it was NOT great.
Thanks so much for reviewing Roboforce - I _LOVED_ these toys when I was a kid! Sure they were chunky, yes they didn't have nearly as much playability as Transformers, but that never mattered to an imaginative 10 year old. The character designs were very unique, indelible (I still like those designs), and - I think, spoke well to each robot's personality.
On a down note: advertisements for the Robocruiser were highly misleading; the way it was described led you to believe it floated on a cushion of air... fast forward to Christmas morning, and imagine my disappointment when it not only stayed flush to the floor, it barely moved at all. : / I guess Robotech just wasn't popular enough for a class action lawsuit. 🤷♂️
Man, I remember these. Totally forgot about em until your video jogged my nostalgia...as always. Thanks for the fun walks down memory lane and keep the vids coming!
To me, they stood out on the shelf. They looked like 1950’s robots that you could buy in the 80’s. Incidentally, I acquired the whole collection of the toy line about 3 years ago for peanuts. Very inexpensive, but neat.
I got the "Command Patroller" as a birthday present. I remember tearing off the wrapping paper and my reaction was along the lines of "what the hell is this crap?"
I didn't recognize it, and it was difficult to play with. It was so clunky and awkward that I couldn't mix it with my other toys.
I would much rather have had something He-Man or GI Joe, and was profoundly disappointed.
That's a perfectly good eternain dustbin right there.
I really loved these toys as a kid. I think about them ever once and awhile but I had never heard about them until now! Thanks for letting us know about them. I even remember watching the cartoon one time when I was SUPER sick. I didn't know it was only a one-shot! RIP Robo Force!
These definitely found their way to the U.K. and I never knew the name of them until now. I swapped my James Bond DB5 for one of the baddies and my Mum was not impressed. We swapped back very shortly after :)
I had a Robo Force handset phone for like 30 years...it was amazing!
I wanted the phone.
I found it at a church jumble and used my recycling and lawn mowing money to buy it. I thought it was the bee's knees!
God, I LOVED these toys. I screamed until everyone in a mile around me thought something was wrong when I got the mountain playset. I remember when the 1990's version came out, I kept saying "uhhh...where's the Roboforce?" And everyone looked at me like I had a 3rd eyes. That may have been the very first time I started to feel old.
I remember reading a book about these back in elementary school. Subsequently, we created a group called Gorilla Force, with members compromising of classmates who looked like apes.
Thank you so much for this Dan! My best friend in the 80s had one or two of these oh, I had no idea what they were. But we had a blast playing with them. I forgot all about it until I watched your video today. Thank you for some 80s nostalgia!😎👍
I never saw the toys as a child in Australia, but somehow I ended up with a Robo Force storybook and cassette set.
Can't say I ever craved any of the characters as toys, but the robot designs were appealing to me as a young-'un.
I was about 10 when these came and I remember not being impressed enough to give up on GI Joe for them. I had limited resources at the time.
These toys would have been perfect drone type robots on Cybertron.
Just think, had Transformers (Diaclone) never come to the US, Micheal Bay would have been ruining our childhood memories of Robo Force :D
I remember having so much fun with the two I had. Hun-Dred - The Conqueror and Enemy - The Dictator. I didn't know them as "bad guys" at the time, I was just enthralled with their look
Great vid Dan! I remember Robo-Force, lol. Yeah they couldn't compete with Transformers but they were still pretty cool. I had Maxx and a couple others. I recall my grandma getting them all on discount at Montgomery Wards Outlet, lol. Their base & the huge control center vehicle were awesome though and found their way into a lot of my figure adventures. Good times!
Yes! Those toys were great! You could always tell which kids had parents who didn’t love them because they had Roboforce instead of Transformers.
I learned of these from the TV commercial. Saw them at the old department store, Best, and my parents bought them for me. In hindsight I wish I had gotten a Transformer or GI Joe but they were kinda cool.
Oh man, I used to love going to Best! 😍 and i drooled over their catalog nearly as much as the Sears Wishbook 🤤
@@Gappasaurus Wow. Totally forgot about Best. But yeah, better catalog (for toys) than Sears, for sure. Also, Service Merchandise.
@einherjar 81
I’ve heard tales of the greatness of the Service Merchandise catalog, but never saw it growing up, as there were no SM showroom stores near where i lived, so we never received any of their catalogs ☹️ Same with JC Penney 😭
Had the sheet and pillow set, never had a single toy. Could never find them.
If Gobots died in the shadow of Transformers, this had no real shot.
Gobots didn't die because of transformers, gobots died because of Tonka,, taking an incredible toyline (machine robo) and then rebranding it gobots and aiming it at pre school kids was insane,also insane was changing the robots face's' in the cartoon and books(crasher??) But then selling repackaged robo machine's with unchanged faces was dishonest and shameful, Tonka killed the gobots by devising a shit story line seemingly scribbled on the back of a beer mat in ten seconds, now as a kid in the 80s i wasnt stupid enough to fall for that,but as an adult i now collect machine robo,i love them,but the word gobots is banned in my house 😉,you can thank tonka for that not tf
I had Enemy and Sentinel when I was a kid, but I couldn't remember what they were from. They made a real impact on me because they were bath toys for me. And because I used them to pull several tiles off the bathtub wall, forcing my parents to redo the bathroom far ahead of schedule.
I'd totally forgotten about these guys.
I never had any of the toys, but my brother and I had a storybook from the line and we would both make drawings of the robots using the illustrations as reference; I remember we would interchange their parts to make our own creations.
Thank you so much for doing this - love getting all the details of the obscure stuff. I remember first seeing these in the UK around 1986 (maybe a year before) and thinking how weirdly old they looked - reminded me of the 60's Lost If Space. Someone got me S.O.T.A. for my birthday and it came with a mini-comic that didn't really make much sense. A couple of my friends had modest collections of them, but they usually ended up being bad guys for Transformers and Star Wars figures to shoot at.
I remembered everything about this line. I thought the simplicity was very familiar and cool
I think the problem was stated pretty poignantly. Voltron, Transformers, and Go-bots looked more advanced because they were humanoids. They had human forms and human faces, and that was where the fictitious 80's robot was going. Robo Force not only looked like 60s and 70's sci-fi, but they're downright preschooly. They can give it as mature and dark an origin as possible, but the toys themselves looked like something you'd get horrifically picked on if you had them past the age of five. The human and main villain figures would have probably boosted sales, as they look a little more G.I. Joe-esque, something for an older audience. But the juvenile, retro look just wouldn't have appealed to kids unless the line came out or 3 years earlier. Had this been tail end of the 70's, it would have done gangbusters.
Some toys just hit you out of the blue when you see them all these years later. I remember my brother had 'Sentinel' & I always wanted Max Steele but could never find him. Pretty basic toys, but they were pretty robust too. They got involved in a lot of adventures with lego spacemen, gobots and yes, even Transformers.
Still one of my favorite lines. They along with Zeroids are great classic robot designs.
It's funny. I used to be friends with the father of the Glyos System. When I first found your channel I was sure that you were a long lost brother of his :D
Is Glyos still a thing? I remember everybody talking about it for a couple years, then nothing.
@@AintNobodyAtAll yes
@@AintNobodyAtAll I haven't spoken with him in years but as far as I know he is still doing his thing.
Do a segment on "The Little Rascals!" Before the 80s animation boom, The Little Rascals was a staple of daytime children's programming, and they even had a cartoon and a toylike in the late 1970s.
Then do one on hoop and stick!
Your grandparents' definition of 'toy'!
Fun fact: one of the Rascals ended up being Perry White in the 70s and 80s Superman series!
Ohh my god I had alot of these forgot the name ...WoW
Sad really the fate of this show!😢. I absolutely loved the robot designs and think I would have loved that show also. Back then so many good cartoons some just could not hang in and compete. Thanks Dan and Greg for connecting us once again with our nostalgic past😁👍
I think that PACE Toys got the license or something to the human figures of the Robo Force toyline. Professor Hacksaw Hacket looks so much like the main kid: www.action-figures.ca/earth_force.htm I love the clunky damn robots, they're the only kind of robots I ever want to see in real life. Not those horrific Boston Dynamics robots that are surely going to be the killing machines for the AI when Singularity happens.
Hacksaw Hooooooooooooo!
I just saw the comment count. It's getting close to the dreaded triple number.
And I'm just now realizing that my comment is taking that count ever closer to that number...
Oh boy.
I don’t think I’ve thought about this line in 30+ years!!!! Thank you Dan!!! Just when I think you’ve unlocked all my childhood toy memories!!!!
Oh my god, I had these robots when I was kid. I loved the suction cup base and still played with them even when Transformers came out. I wish I hadn't lost mine. It really brings back the memories.
I had odd memories of Robo Force. Just slightly too young to enjoy their initial launch, I remember them most from friends' hand-me-down collections or from yard sales. I actually bought several of the ToyFinity releases and was part of their Club Zeton for its inaugural year. I'd still love to see them do a Blazer or Vulgar
Damn, I had all of these. All 10 characters, and some of the mobile units and headquarter base. Seeing the prototypes of 4 new characters made me tear up. I loved these guys! They are LONG gone...and asking for the Maxx Steele Robot was always on my Christmas wishlist. Nope...never got it. Great memories, great upload!!
10:30 I remember seeing commercials for these as a kid, and this quote is totally right. Even as a little kid, they seemed klunky and out-of-date. Well, except for that awesome working robot, of course, but my god, that pricetag. $600 in 1984 was (googles) FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS today. That was as much as a decent computer! What parent would buy a toy that expensive, except actual one-percenters?
Oh man, I forgot these things existed! My mate had a couple of these toys when we were kids. Thanks for yanking that memory out of the dustiest corner of the vault!
I used the few Robo Force I had as "background robots," like you'd see in Star Wars. The exception was Blazer: he got to play Dalek in my Food Stamp Cinematic Universe: GI Joe vs Secret Wars vs Super Powers vs Transformers. He-Man, whose toy size was just incompatible, didn't get a good movie in my universe either. 😥😁
I use to have the leader of the robo force villains.Use to be 8,1984 was great amen hall & otaes on my background while playing toys.
I had maybe a half dozen figures when they first came out, but I never knew about the brain angle. Sounds like Gobots, Robotix, and Robo Force were all drinking from the same well. Also (really dating me) I remember that Maxx Steele RC robot in the Sears "Christmas Wish" catalog.
I remember watching the one episode as a kid on one of our local L.A. channels. The following day at school, all my friends were playing as characters. Some of them had the figures. But, the one thing that we all agreed upon was that Maxx Steele was too powerful. Even as 8-year-old kids, we noticed that. It was a turn-off and we quickly forgot about Robo Force.
Man, you guys do some good writing on this channel. Props! "That's the thing about retro-futurism: it only works in the future." LOL
11:40 "... the kind of engineering that Hasbro and Tonka were producing..." Well, all of that engineering was done by Takara and Bandai/Popy.
Anyway, I'm not even sure if its pilot episode aired even once where I lived. My memory of it is that where I had been eagerly waiting for it to air all day, but where I lived (Massachusetts), the show was pre-empted for something else, and I never got to watch it. My dad even called the station to see if it would ever be re-aired (which it wasn't).
Any chance you do one on Robotix ? The animated show didn't last long but alot of the vocie actors like Peter Cullen ,Frank Welker were on each opposing teams leaders and used alien humanoids that they themselves were also adversaries robotics to fight each other..it's literally akin with Transformers
I'm so glad you guys made this one.. I had a few of these growing up and it's been low level stressing me out for years trying to remember what they were called.
(Born in ‘79) I had one of these floppy arm guys as a kid along side Transformers. I have a much older brother, and I thought the RoboForce toy was one of his old childhood toys. Seemed so dated compared to Transformers!
So glad that you finally got around to this video. These are so charming. I've got a bunch in storage in my basement that need to wind up in my eBay store soon. But this damn video makes me want to dig in on them! Argghh... Must. NOT!
Roboforce. They toy your parents got you to be quiet while they shopped at the K Mart. I had many of these and the "non-affluenza" neighbor kid somehow had got the giant remote controlled Max Steel.
I have a MaxxSteel telephone that I’m sure I’d still be using to this day had it not been zapped by a surge from lightning. (It actually now prevents all land line phones in the home from working if I plug it in.) Still a cool looking piece though!
OMG! This is why I love this channel. I completely forgot about Robo Force. I never had the toys, but as soon as I saw them, the cartoon popped into my head & I remembered that I loved it, but didn't record it, so I only saw it the one time. After I finished watching this video, I went and found it on YT & watched it. The feeling of nostalgia I am feeling right now is unlike any I have ever felt. It's like I'm a kid again, mixed with a feeling of Deja Vu. It's incredible! Thank you!
I used to have the MAXX STEELE ROBOT & THE PJ'S. I WON THAT CONTEST AT 4 YEARS OLD.
Oh, I *absolutely* remember these guys! I specifically remember having Hun-Dred: The Conqueror, Vulgar: The Destroyer, and multiple robots on Max Steele's team but I don't remember their names because they weren't as interesting (one was grey/blue, though.) :EDIT: It was S.O.T.A., I totally remember that pop-up target thing on his head. Man oh man! I played with these things til they fell apart, and then kept playing with them. So awesome, the big suction cup bottoms.
Also, do you guys have any plans for an Air Raiders episode sometime, maybe? I think the Air Raiders are comparable to Starcom for obscurity and how long they lasted (which is really too bad, because both were pretty damn rad.)
Given their designs, no wonder Robo-Force just wasn't as appealing as either the Transformers or the Go-Bots; even the droids of Kenner's Star Wars line just looked better.
I recall my brother and I having one or two of these guys, but I was never aware of character names, let alone backstory!
Those Glyos figures by Toyfinity look great-it's too bad they sol out years ago.
I've been watching this channel for amor a year, but it just hit me because of this episode that a big part of why is because it's a bit like Toyfare magazine. Robo Force was one of the articles I remember reading in the early 2000's, so it's cool seeing this topic in much more detail than what I returned seeing at the time. Quite the pleasant blast from the past
I loved this toy line so much and was sad to see it fade away...... I had some of the figures and even the erector set...... the big talking Max Steele radio control robot was my ultimate goal.
As much as I loved transformers, gobots, and voltron, I could still appreciate the 60's sci-fi robot aesthetic this toy line was clearly inspired from.
How to know you've been utterly dominated and destroyed as a toy property: your sole animated contribution was thrown in as a bonus feature on the Gobots DVD.
Me and my brother had a few of those toys. We had alot of fun with them.
I remember trying to watch The Robo Force pilot. Only saw the first few minutes of it.
I had one of the Choose your own adventure little books. It was awesome.
Hell yeah! The art was so sick
This brought back memories. I got quite a few random toys as a child that either I thought were cool when we were out at the store, or one of my parents thought could be fun for me to add to my play rotation. I remember having a few of these, and man, did those arms break rather easily.
IDEAL scared me as a toy company because they made the JAWS game.
I played with Jaws game briefly. I was more impressed by the shark than the game itself.
This shows why Transformers was so awesome.
Because it had ascended eons ahead of old-school robot relics like Robo Force.
Sometimes I miss the figure reviews, but there are a few other peeps out there doing that. No one else is doing this, and I rly enjoy it.
I loved these, though the plastic bands attached to the accordion arms would break, preventing the pincor action from working
I love that last line, combining their conflicting qualities. I was never a big fan because they seemed so inferior to the Transformers and other toys of the time. I appreciate their story now, and kind of wish a reboot could happen. I am glad someone has given the series new life, but only time will tell for how long.
I still have most of my Roboforce collection, all the characters and the fortress, I did and still do love them
I definitely had one of these. I think it was the helicopter one. I recall playing with it once.
Just
Once.
Thank you so much for this. I've never heard of this range before but realised I had a Hun-Dred figure for years and had no idea what line he belonged to
I totally remember wanting one of these.
Indeed, that toys looked obsolete even if compared to japanese robot toys of the 70. Actually, many robots from the diaclone line, before Transformers, were better than many g1 toys, like starscream, cause they had not to look like a real plane or car when they transformed
I used to use these with my He Man toys great fit
I had a few of these figure when I was a kid, and I now only have Blazer.
It’s a fun bit of nostalgia.