Fred Silverman and MGM imported what would become Mighty Orbots from Japan in 1984. However, there was a prototype that was pitched to network executives before the final product hit the air.
At the time, the nascent project went under the working title of Broots, which, of course, is an anagram for Orbots. Pretty clever, don't ya think?
The characters are the same, but not the final designs. The narrator, as was the case in the series, is Gary Owens (ex-Space Ghost, Perils of Penelope Pitstop, et al):
Seems Tonka (later bought out by Hasbro) had a problem with the designs of the merged robot being too close to their Go-Bots, which have since been incorporated into Hasbro's Transformers line. As I wrote in reviewing the series some years back, there are also elements borrowed from Voltron, Defender of The Universe, which preceded Orbots to the air by a year.
Or as Jimmy Durante was supposed to have famously said, everybody wants to get into the act.
Rating: A.
3 comments:
The later character designs were definitely better.
It seemed like Mighty Orbots made it's debut just before Hasbro's Transformers, completely blowing Orbots away. However, Mighty Orbots had potential. Pity the show only ran for a single season.
The creators made the right call changing the name to Orbots (an anagram for robots); Broots sounds like a food product, like snack chips or pasta for kids.
Broots was also an anagram for robots, guys. Tonka raised a fuss because they were developing the Go-Bots, and, as I noted, they were later absorbed by Hasbro, becoming part of the Transformers line.
The voice talent, including Gary Owens, on Mighty Orbots, had a decided Hanna-Barbera flava to it, with Sherry Alberoni, Julie Bennett, Don Messick, Jim MacGeorge, and Barry Gordon.
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