Subscribe!RoboCop (1988)
Originally posted on 11 July 2026First episode title: Crime Wave
How familiar with the show am I?: I've only heard of the movie.
In a futuristic Detroit, a police officer named Alex J. Murphy gets critically injured on a mission, and is rebuilt into a bulletproof cyborg. I hope you don't need any more explanation than that, because this episode jumps right into its story!
To start the episode, a gang of criminals try to rob a blood bank, but RoboCop and his partner Anne Lewis successfully catch the thieves, in the process having no choice but to explode a bomb that the criminals had set. Back the police station there is an argument, as the cop in charge of the operation blames RoboCop for almost getting everyone blown up. At the headquarters of OCP (Omni Consumer Products), who created and maintain RoboCop and run the police force, a designer called Dr McNamara argues that the expenses being incurred by the project are outweighing the benefits. He wants the company to exclusively use his enforcement drones, and we see one being used as a traffic cop and causing chaos, opening fire on cars for minor violations. So, McNamara's suggestion is rejected.
A gang of criminals called the Vandals, including the insane car-loving mechanic Crash, have their headquarters in a video game arcade, where they spend their time playing games, and then smashing up any machines that displease them. McNamara shows up at their hideout and has his drone fire on them in a show of power, and then offers them a large amount of money (and his technical assistance) to go on a massive crime spree, in order to discredit RoboCop. Soon, the police find themselves overwhelmed, while RoboCop is in the middle of an upgrade courtesy of chief technician Dr Tyler. She gets in an argument with Lewis about whether all these modifications are necessary, but then the police chief rushes in and forces RoboCop to go out without the upgrade. The Vandals are smashing up and robbing a mall using high-tech weapons, and the regular cops are getting thrashed - and even when RoboCop and Lewis arrive, it's still a struggle. In the end, Crash's dangerous driving badly injures RoboCop and the Vandals get away.
RoboCop goes in for repairs, and Tyler says that all of this was because they didn't let her finish the upgrade. Meanwhile, McNamara uses news reports of the crime spree as evidence that RoboCop should be replaced, and his boss decides that RoboCop should only be given one last chance to prove himself. The police are struggling without him, so RoboCop gets pulled away from Tyler once again and heads out to face the Vandals. The Vandals break into a bank using a heavily armed bulldozer called the Killdozer that Crash built, and then they leave to find RoboCop waiting for them. Tyler attacks them first but gets captured. RoboCop manages to take out a few Vandals but then gets flattened by the Killdozer. He just about manages to get back up and fire at the bulldozer's fuel tank, setting it alight and forcing Crash out of it. The Vandals are all arrested, and McNamara swears that he'll find a way to take down RoboCop.
I find it interesting that OCP are not only the corporation that created the technology for RoboCop, but also explicitly run the police force. The fact that RoboCop is depicted as good might suggest that the writers are in favour of a privatised police force...? But then, we see conflicts between the people who work there too, so perhaps OCP isn't intended to be read as something unambiguously good, but just a company that happens to have created this one good thing (and which is only so good because Murphy is a good person).
Still, RoboCop himself is fairly violent for a kids' show. He shoots several criminals in the heist at the start, and the shots would clearly be deadly with actual bullets - but we're presumably meant to assume that his lasers have a stun setting, since the criminals are shown being arrested afterwards with no obvious injuries to their bodies.
Amongst the Vandals, Crash has the most personality - he loves designing new vehicles, and wrecking them too! Hence the name. Outside of him, I don't think any of the others are even named in this episode!
There are a surprising amount of funny bits in this. After RoboCop gets beaten at the mall, Lewis asks him if he's alright, he says "I think so", and then his arm falls off! It's possible that was only unintentionally funny, but there are some obvious jokes too, like a news program that puts a story about a dancing poodle ahead of the city's crime wave. (By the way, is that the smallest poodle ever or what?)
Oh, and this bit, where a police officer tries to reassure a reporter only to be immediately proven wrong:
Police officer: The situation will soon be under control. There is no reason to panic at this time. [a statue explodes]
As mentioned, there's a lot of conflict amongst the police force too in this one. Characters who don't want RoboCop on the force, characters who argue about whether he needs upgrading, and such. RoboCop himself seems to remain neutral about everything, since being turned into a cyborg seems to have given him a fairly robotic personality.
McNamara is a memorable enough villain - him setting his drones on the Vandals is a pretty standout moment - but it's unclear what his motivation is at this stage. Surely wanting your invention to be used by the police is quite a petty motivation for all that he goes on to do? Interestingly, his own hands seem to be robotic, so there might be more to him than meets the eye.
Not having seen the original film, I don't know how it compares, but this was a decent enough cartoon episode. I liked the humour, and the fact that there was conflict between the various "good guy" characters who each have their own priorities, as well as the actual villains.
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