Subscribe!Mighty Orbots (1984)
Originally posted on 03 January 2026First episode title: Magnetic Menace
How familiar with the show am I?: Not familiar at all.
We've had Transformers and we've had GoBots, but they were of course not the only giant robots around in 1984. So, now we have Mighty Orbots, one of the less well-known examples of the genre, focusing on one team of combining robots and their human inventor.
Before the opening sequence, a narrator explains the show's premise.
Narrator: Earth. The twenty-third century. A time of robots and aliens.
Yeeees, this is what the future should be. We see a futuristic city on Earth that seems to have as many aliens as it has humans, and flying cars travelling through transparent tubes above the streets. I've seen those in a few things set in the future, but I wonder where they originate from? Then we learn that the Galactic Patrol's job is to protect this Earth from an evil computer called Umbra, and this Umbra is represented by showing a weird five-eyed face made of swirls staring menacingly down at the planet.
Now we get introduced to the team of robots that work for Galactic Patrol. Well, we start off with a human, Rob Simmons, who is said to have secretly invented the team. Whenever there's a leader of Earth's defence, they always seem to be Americans in these things, don't they? The first of his robots looks like a little metal girl and is named Ohno. The other five robots are much bigger, Transformer-scale things who will get a proper introduction sequence within the episode itself, so I'll skip over them for now, but the main takeaway here is that they combine to form an even bigger robot named Mighty Orbots. Yes, you would probably assume that the title of this show is plural, but it's used as a singular when referring to the combined robot.
The opening sequence really highlights how "anime" this thing looks - despite being an American-conceived cartoon, it seems all the design work was done in Japan, so this makes sense.
And now for the episode itself. As the camera takes us through space, the narrator tells us that Earth is where the headquarters of the Galactic Patrol are - another one of those typical things. We see a spaceship with a circular front section travelling through a meteor swarm, which is an interesting term to use about meteors, and then it cuts to Earth. There's a large building which we're told is the concealed headquarters of Galactic Patrol, and there do seem to be some rock formations around it but it's still a pretty big building that it would be hard to hide. Anyone flying above it would certainly see it! A grey-haired man called Rondu with a moustache and pointy ears - presumably a very human-like alien - is in charge, and he's watching the spaceship on a giant screen.
He sends an urgent message to Rob, who is currently zooming around a city on a hover-bike of some kind. Rob is a blond man with glasses, and right now he's also wearing a bike helmet - he receives Rondu's message on a screen on his wrist, presumably a watch. Rondu tells him that this is a job for Mighty Orbots, and Rob sends a message to Ohno to meet him and bring the "beam car". And then he says "Orbots, activate!"
The narration tells us that each of the Orbots bursts from their underground recharge chambers, and when we see Tor emerging from his it seems this is very literal, as he sends rocks flying when he breaks out through the rocky ground. It has to be quite destructive to break out this way every time! Tor is the strongest of the Orbots team, and his name seems to come from the fact that he's the torso of the combined form, or else referring to his own large body. He is in the traditional heroic colours of red, white, and blue, so you know he's the leader of the team. A blue plane exits from a pyramid and turns into a thin robot that we learn is the "shape-changing" Bort. As I'm so used to Transformers, it's funny to me to see a robot whose specific gimmick is to be able to change his shape. Also, I can't see the name Bort and not think of that one Simpsons scene.
Next is Bo, an orange robot who has power over the elements. Daang, it's like she's the Avatar! We even see her bursting out of ice in a spray of water! A yellow robot called Boo, which is a confusingly similar name to Bo, is said to be the mistress of illusion, but that aspect of her power isn't the sort of thing that comes up when trying to get somewhere very fast, so we just get to see her doing some acrobatics through the air above a desert. All of these robots are able to fly, by the way. The last robot of the main team is Crunch, a round purple guy with a big mouth whose power is to bite and swallow things, referred to as a "disposal unit", and who lives in a big trash pile where we see him guzzling various pieces of scrap metal before he flies off to join everyone else. What a life, eh? Also, I'll note that all of the others in the main five have names that only use letters found in "Robot" (or "Orbot"), so Crunch seems to be an intentional pattern break.
The narrator then introduces us to the "little cutie" Ohno. It is quite funny to hear her described that way by the narration even though it's probably the way I myself would describe a character like this. I'm just glad she's not the only female member of the team and that there are some actual fighters there too. She's described as the team's "mother hen", despite her youthful appearance, and we see her rushing along carrying a helmet and then flying off in a hover-car. Elsewhere, Rob gets off his hover-bike and presses a button inside his jacket, which we're told is him activating his "omni-suit" - his regular clothes transform into a more future-y white outfit, which doesn't seem to give him any obvious superpowers but apparently qualifies as him turning into the Orbots commander. He also, hilariously, doesn't have his glasses in this form - does becoming the Orbots commander improve your eyesight?
The five Orbots fly over to join Rob. He instructs them to unite, and they do so, becoming Mighty Orbots in the typical five-robot combiner setup of one robot being the torso and the other four being the limbs, making one gigantic mecha that towers over Rob. The elaborate combination sequence looks so clearly designed to sell toys that it's surprising to find out that this show never had a toyline in the end, although prototypes were designed.
Ohno flies the hover-car over at that moment, and Rob hops into it as it flies up and into the chest of Mighty Orbots, the car itself then transforming to become a kind of little control room for the robot. Rob gives Ohno the instruction "ignition", and a kind of tube comes out of her abdomen and connects to a port in the wall of the giant robot, so I guess she is also a critical component even though she's not part of the combiner herself. A bunch of screens light up inside the robot, and then we see the view from outside again as Mighty Orbots raises his arms into the air and flames come out of his feet, lifting him up and flying him into space.
Mighty Orbots flies into the meteor swarm where the aforementioned spaceship is trapped. As the robot rockets along, Rob tells everyone how bad the situation is for the ship, and there's a shot inside of Mighty Orbots where Rob appears to just be hitting random buttons on his control panel without looking at them - but that isn't as bad as Ohno, who isn't even strapped into her seat and is therefore floating around in the zero gravity while she also hits random buttons!
The giant robot flies out to the front of the ship and starts smashing meteors. Then, Tor's voice speaks, meaning this isn't the sort of combiner where the combined form just has one personality of its own - instead, each member of the team retains their own consciousness.
Tor: There's too many of them, Rob! We can't be everywhere at once!
Rob: Oh yes we can, Tor! Orbots, separate!
Did Tor just forget his team's main gimmick? The Orbots separate back out into the individual component robots, in the process ejecting the car containing Rob and Ohno, which, being a flying car, seems to easily double as a spaceship.
Rob tells the team to perform their "Meteor Madness" routine, but Bort can't remember what that is. He has a slightly stammering voice and seems to not be totally with it - perhaps it's a symptom of spending so much time not being himself. Although I do wonder how often they would need to use a routine that is apparently specifically for clearing meteors. Anyway, the others start showing him how it's done.
First, Bo uses her power on one of the rocks, which glows and blows up. Since her power is over the elements, was that a fire attack, or just her manipulating the "earth" of the rock itself? Boo sends out some kind of beam that bats a meteor out of the way - there must be more to her moveset than just illusions but it's not clear to me what it is. Crunch, who has a higher-pitched voice than you might expect the "fat" robot to have, predictably starts eating meteors. And Tor just physically smashes meteors with his own two hands. All of this reminds Bort of his part in the operation, which is to turn into some kind of tube on legs that vacuums up meteors from one side and ejects them out the other side, redirecting them away from the ship.
Once the spaceship is free of the meteors, Boo notices a logo on the outside of the ship, and, astonished, points out to Bo that this is the ship of "Dragos and Drax". Bo is also amazed, since they're one of the most famous rock bands in the galaxy. Rob opens communications with the ship, asking if they need any more help, and that's when we see the people inside - two humanoid yet alien robot men, both wearing sunglasses and holding odd instruments, who speak in an obviously sinister way and tell the Orbots team that they're welcome to come to tonight's concert for free. Boo immediately accepts, and the Orbots fly away as the musicians laugh to each other that it will be the last concert the Orbots ever go to...
Back at the headquarters, Rondu is looking at the screen displaying the spaceship, commenting that Mighty Orbots saved it. He says that it's a shame Rob isn't here to see it - now, we already know he knows Rob is the commander of Mighty Orbots, so he must be saying this because he's in the presence of someone who isn't in on the secret. The woman with him is his daughter, Dia, who shares his grey hair and pointy ears. It's hard to tell which features are characteristic of their entire species and which are just family resemblance when you only have a sample of two.
Dia says that Rob, being an engineer, is probably busy working out something really complicated. This leads us in to an establishing shot of another base, which I believe is where we saw Ohno departing from earlier, and then a close-up of Rob's face. He has a thoughtful expression and is talking about how some "vital ingredient" is missing from what he's trying to solve... and then we zoom out to see that he's looking at a heavily stacked sandwich, as he declares that the missing piece is "mustard". He's back in his ordinary, glasses-wearing mode here, with a lab coat on, but it seems he's just as playful no matter what he's wearing. He presses a button on a nearby machine and it dispenses a bottle of mustard, which he pours all over the sandwich, not even bothering to lift the top bun! He's just about to take a bite when Ohno approaches.
Ohno: Oh, no! What's that?
Rob: Lunch!
Ohno: Oh, no! You already had today's lunch!
Yep, the character named Ohno has a gimmick where she says "oh, no" way too much. Not usually in a worried "oh dear" kind of way, but as a reprimand, like "Oh, no, you will not be going out dressed like that!" Now I get what they mean about her being the mother hen. She takes the food and keeps nagging him about how much he's planning to eat, until he holds up a screwdriver and threatens to reprogram her into saying "oh yes", at which point she does say the worried kind of "oh no" and tosses the sandwich back to him. There's one way to win an argument.
Rob's second attempt to actually take a bite of his food is interrupted again, though, by some very strange sounding music. He looks around - the other robots are watching a Dragos and Drax performance on some kind of large holographic tube, and Boo and Bo are grooving to the music. One of the two musicians plays something like a guitar, and the other strange instrument is approximately a saxophone, which plays some jazzy off-key riffs over a plodding bassline. One of the girls comments that "Rock and Rule", probably the song that's playing, is her favourite, and Tor grumbles that the music just sounds like noise to him. The other two guys have the girls on their minds, as Bort says he'd like to be Boo's date to the concert, and Crunch says the same about Bo. Tor tells them to let the idea go, since the girls are clearly too infatuated with the band to have their eye on anyone else.
Boo says that she can't even think what she would say if she actually met Dragos and Drax, and Bo suggestively says "I can". Rob tells the boys not to worry because the girls just have a harmless crush. I guess he for some reason built all the robots to be straight. Remember when I said I was glad there were a couple of girls on the fighting team in this show? Well I do wish this wasn't their first plot line.
Rob, who is not as small in comparison to the robots as he should be considering the scale difference between him and Mighty Orbots, dances around a bit to the music too, but then the performance suddenly goes off - we see Ohno with the removed plugs to the machine in her hand, and she tells them all it's time for them to recharge. She adorably hops up and down in front of them as she orders them to go, so Tor responds by also jumping, which shakes Ohno off her feet. He tells her that being built first doesn't mean she gets to tell everyone what to do, which I guess makes her the oldest even though she looks youngest. Tor says it's him that says when it's time to go, bending down to Ohno's level to talk to her, so she grabs his nose and that convinces him that it's time.
As they head to wherever they recharge, Boo and Bo are still enthusing about the band while Bort and Crunch reassure each other that the girls' crush is harmless. Quite randomly, on a screen behind them during this scene, we see what looks like a clip of a Donkey Kong like arcade game without the Donkey Kong - a character is standing on one of a few tilted platforms and gets killed by a round object rolling down them. It's far from clear what this screen is doing there or who's playing it, if anyone.
As if we had failed to notice, in response to the boys saying that the crush is harmless, the narrator tells us that Dragos and Drax are in fact far from harmless. This accompanies a cut to the "Shadow Star", which looks like a dark world with bright orange shining through cracks in it - we're told that it's a huge hollow planet warmed by an inner star. Is this supposed to have come about naturally somehow, or was it built? However it got there, it is the headquarters (a planet-sized headquarters!) of a huge evil organisation called Shadow. What kind of organisation? Well, we don't see too much of it here - Umbra, that five-eyed computer from the intro, is based here in the Shadow Star, but we won't be seeing any other members other than Dragos and Drax in this episode.
Umbra broadcasts a communication to the band's ship, asking them of their progress, and one of them responds that they are ready to test the "magnetic monster", which they will use to destroy one of Earth's cities! So this is the menace of the episode's title. Umbra orders them to proceed, and Dragos and Drax start playing what sounds like the same piece of music as earlier. But this time some big swirling mass with a face emerges from the ship, as the narration tells us that the music is creating a monster. Why this would happen is not explained in any way.
Umbra: Excellent. You two have played your parts well. The galaxy believes you are music superstars. No-one suspects you are agents of Shadow. It is the perfect disguise.
This speech ends on a rather lovely close-up of one of the musical pair (I'm pretty sure the episode never clarifies which one is which), with a metallic sheen, and the reflection of one of Umbra's eyes in his sunglasses. There's a bit more conversation which concludes with Umbra saying that Mighty Orbots will be destroyed - it seems he's so powerful as to be considered the main obstacle for a group like Shadow.
"On the Moon," the narrator casually begins his next statement, as if it's perfectly normal that that's where the Dragos and Drax concert is taking place. The sign outside the concert hall actually says "Drgos & Drax", but it's spelled correctly on stage. In an audience full of humans and aliens and robots, Boo says that she wishes she could meet the band face to face, so Bo tells her to use her invisibility power on the both of them so that they can sneak backstage. Everything I've seen so far suggests that Bo is the more outgoing and daring of the pair, and as the two of them are on their way past some tough-looking security guard robots, Boo is nervously saying that she's not sure if they should be doing this. I like their dynamic.
And so we see Dragos and Drax backstage, with their instruments - the one with the guitar might be tuning it because he's looking down at it while playing some chords. The girls appear out of nowhere, startling them, and the one with the saxophone asks where they came from. Bo very forwardly says that she'd rather discuss where they'll be going after the show, and Boo gasps and makes a facial expression that would certainly be accompanied by a blush if she was capable of that.
One of the band members starts to tell them to leave, but the other, quietly so that only his bandmate can hear, points out that the girls are Galactic Patrol members, as the camera zooms in on the insignia the two of them both wear. It's a bit strange to openly wear those badges in public, right? At least for something like a concert. The first member points out that he already knows they're Galactic Patrol and that's why he wants them gone, but the other one points out that they might know something about Mighty Orbots. It's interesting that they don't seem to suspect the pair of them are part of Mighty Orbots - I guess this means that, when the band communicated with the Orbots after they saved the ship, they didn't get a visual as part of the communication, or else they would recognise these two.
Dragos and Drax tell Boo and Bo that they'll play a song exclusively for them right there. They start playing something much slower and more hypnotic-sounding than the other track, which quickly puts both the girls to sleep. This piece is clearly being played on the same instruments as the other one, so the composers for this show must have composed a couple of different tracks specifically for this episode unless those were somehow both stock tracks (which in general is how 80s American cartoons that aren't focused specifically on music almost exclusively operated, with a library of tracks per show, sometimes overlapping with other shows, and nothing specific to each episode).
The musicians leave Boo and Bo asleep back there for now as they go out on stage for their concert, where they are introduced as "the hottest thing in the galaxy since the last supernova". Have I mentioned how much I love it when even little throwaway lines get themed around the kind of show you're watching? We see Rondu's daughter Dia delighted in the crowd, and then Dragos and Drax start playing the same song from earlier. And just like when they played it for Umbra, the magnetic monster starts to form above them again.
At that very moment, Tor, Bort, and Crunch happen to be flying up into space too. Bort says that he's not sure the girls will want them there at the concert but Tor says that it's not up to them. It sounds like Tor did get just as jealous as the other guys after all. Tor asks Bort whether he's a robot or a mouse and Bort thinks he's a robot. How reassuring.
Bort: Never mind what I am - what's that?
Yep, he's pointing towards the magnetic menace, which is heading past them on its way from the Moon to the Earth, the opposite way from where they're going. Except they're not any more, because, as the name implies, the monster is magnetic and the robots get pulled towards it! And yet Bort still mentions out loud that they are made of metal, in case it was unclear.
The monster flies over one of Earth's cities and immediately everything metal starts being ripped away from the ground and into the monster, buildings and vehicles and all. No matter what they do to save the day in this episode, that city is going to stay pretty destroyed, and a lot of people will have died. The narrator says that the monster feeds on metal, making it larger and larger, until it will be big enough to attract all the metal on Earth. Luckily it doesn't seem to be absorbing the robots in the same way it does with the other things.
At the concert, it doesn't seem like the crowd have noticed anything and they're all still cheering, but then a big glass tube comes down encompassing the stage and it lifts off, taking the band away, and one of the members announces that this has been a "Shadow production". I guess everyone knows how bad Shadow are because the audience run away screaming - except Dia, who complains about Shadow and then follows the band, suddenly wearing a space helmet and jetpack which she must have happened to have concealed on her? I guess if you're in the Galactic Patrol you always need to be prepared. The band members are taken back aboard their ship by the tube and Dia just about gets in after them before the hatch closes.
Now on the ship, Dragos and Drax have taken the unconscious Boo and Bo into a room, not knowing that Dia is hiding around the corner. The musicians play a short blast of music that is apparently the antidote to the hypnotic one as it wakes the girls up.
Bo: Wow, it must have been some night! I don't remember a thing!
Well, that raises some questions about whether these sorts of robots can get drunk. What with this and her flirting earlier, Bo seems to be determined to say things that are a little surprising for a kids' show like this! Then the girls realise Dragos and Drax are there when one of them demands to know where Mighty Orbots is. Bo says "never heard of him", which brings me back to what I said about the title sounding like a plural - someone who actually didn't know about Mighty Orbots certainly wouldn't assume that "him" is the right word here!
Dia approaches a switch labelled "Gravity Control" and says that the guys need to "lighten up". That would be a great one-liner if she didn't follow it up by actually saying that she's going to turn off the gravity. She pulls the switch, and everyone in the room starts flying around out of control, although Dia was of course braced for it and floats in place. While Dragos and Drax are flailing in confusion, Dia activates a triangular device on her wrist that puts a kind of bubble around the bad guys, trapping them, and then turns the gravity back on again, all the girls landing gracefully while the musicians fall in a heap in their bubble. Of course, the robot girls can fly and Dia has a jetpack, so those three can all avoid landing heavily.
Dia asks Boo and Bo, who she clearly doesn't know, whether they're alright. It was clear from her scene with Rondu that Dia isn't supposed to know who are parts of Mighty Orbots, and the girls obey that here, hurriedly claiming that they have paperwork to do and running off. That little exchange just about qualifies this show for the Bechdel test, although, as Boo and Bo are leaving, Dia then says that she'll turn Dragos and Drax over to headquarters.
On Earth, Tor, Bort, and Crunch are squaring up against the monster, but it shoots a beam at each of them in turn that pulls them towards it magnetically and sticks them to it. Bort tells it threateningly not to make him mad, before ineffectually flailing as it abducts him - I think he's the funniest character in the show. At this point, while stuck to the monster, Tor talks into a communicator on his wrist to call Rob for help. Why did he not do that earlier, in space?
Anyway, Rob receives the message, and he and Ohno rush to the hover-car and take off. Meanwhile, Boo and Bo arrive on Earth, wondering where the guys are - do they not have communicators? - and then are very confused to see the magnetic menace! If you think about it, none of the main characters here have any context for this monster or the fact that it's connected to the band. The monster uses its magnetic powers on those two as well, and so now all five Orbots are stuck to it.
Tor: Welcome to the party! Stick around.
In the car, Rob analyses the monster with a display on the dashboard that tells him it's magnetic. Ohno says that there's nothing they can do against it because "we're metallic", which is a weird thing to say to Rob but I guess they are both in a metal car together. She says "it's got us cold", and the word "cold" inspires Rob, since cold temperatures weaken electromagnetism. So, logically, he drives the car into the monster, burying the front half right near where the Orbots are. Driving forwards (and having the Orbots activate their own flight powers) pushes the monster all the way off the planet. Does the monster barely weigh anything? It turns out they are taking the monster to the rings of Saturn because they are so cold. I'm no physicist but wouldn't space itself be colder?
In any case, they get it to Saturn, and the planet and its rings are beautifully depicted. The cold visually seems to literally cause the monster to freeze over, but Rob just says that the cold has stunned it. This enables the car and the Orbots to break free, and Rob commands the Orbots to unite, giving us a shorter combination sequence than before, again having the car fly into the robot's torso. The fully-formed Mighty Orbots battles the monster, which tries to use the magnetic beam attack again, but the robot's own beam attack can apparently counteract it! It's a good thing the magnetic attack is so directed. Mighty Orbots then grabs the monster by the tail, flies it through space, and throws it into a volcano on what must be one of Saturn's moons. From too cold to too hot?
Mighty Orbots grabs a huge rock and slams it on top of the volcano, then flies off. The resulting pressure causes the moon with the volcano on it to explode! You're not much of a planetary saviour if you do things like that, Mighty Orbots! The explosion is elaborate - it's like four completely different explosions in a row. Maybe each of the animators wanted to show off how they would do it. Mighty Orbots flies off victoriously like he hasn't just blown up a whole world.
There is a shot of Umbra on the Shadow Star, where he says that his subspacial sensors tell him the magnetic monster is destroyed, and that it must be the work of Mighty Orbots. As if it wouldn't have been plain to see to anyone with a telescope!
We're back at the Orbots' base again and Boo and Bo are tidying themselves up, telling Tor that they're getting ready to go to another concert. Bo says that Disaster Area are playing on Mars - this is an unexpected reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where Disaster Area is the name of the loudest band in the galaxy. Tor confidently asks the girls whether they'd like to go to the concert with a real hero, and they respond by taking the arms of the respective robots who had set their sights on them earlier, Boo with Bort and Bo with Crunch, and walking out the door. Tor's pleading face in response is hilariously pathetic, and the other four turn around to tell him to come along with them.
Well, it's no Transformers, but there's a lot to like here. While the form of combining that the robots use is not very original, the characters have quite distinctive personalities and the animation is very creative.