The Story of Robotix and it's Surprising Ending | Oddities #8
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- Опубліковано 3 січ 2018
- On this episode of Oddities we talk about Robotix which was a seemingly short-lived robot building toyline launched by Milton Bradley in 1984.
But Robotix isn't here because it faded into the pop culture background so quickly. Robotix are more of an Oddity for what happened to it after the initial mostly failed launch and for where it is today.
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Thanks for vid. I designed Robotix back in 1984 for Milton Bradley. Remember walking streets of Neurenburg trying to get the gear ratio, 1700:1, into the motors. Without that the whole thing was toast. Then a whole year doing the construction graphics in Cad, MB drew it by hand!!!, MB ran with the true 'enjoy learning' concept and it did well but Hasbro did the character merchandising thing and confused everybody and sales dropped off. Had a brilliant time working in UK, Germany and the States with a team of great guys. Nice to see it's still going as it was meant to be, a proper toy,
I dont mean to be so offtopic but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account?
I stupidly lost the login password. I would love any tips you can give me!
@Ernest Jonathan instablaster ;)
@Spencer Lucian Thanks so much for your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm in the hacking process atm.
Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
@Spencer Lucian It did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. Im so happy!
Thanks so much, you saved my account :D
@Ernest Jonathan glad I could help =)
This was one of my favourite toys when I was growing up. Graduated with a PhD in robotics last year and have been working as a robotics systems engineer since.
God it is great to know other 46 year olds still remember great toys and cartoons.
I used to work for the Milton Bradley division of Hasbro... fun times.
"Who puts the future in your hands? Robotix! ROBOTIX" I own the DVD of the entire series collected into one feature film! Always thought the story was just as good as Transformers or He-Man ... for the time XD
Agreed. I thought the Robotix cartoon was just as cool as Transformers! And the toyline commercial had the coolest jingle!
i herd that the dvd was only releasd in the uk region 2 is that the one you have ?
@@mauromesa78 yeah I'm in the UK sadly.
If it weren't for 'Super Sundays' I wouldn't have appreciated Robotix alongside Inhumanoids, Bigfoot & the Muscle Machines AND Jem...
All that before I went to Sunday Mass
I had a nice Robotix set when I was a kid, I designed a lot of things with it. I still work with robots today, many built from scratch. If it weren't for toys like this, and Radio Shack Heathkits, I would've never gotten into computers, 3d Printing and the maker scene. I also loved Capsela kits, you should talk about those too!
Dan: "HASBRO- Till all are one! LOL! 👍
Robotix were those toys that your somewhat spoiled cousin would have, however it would never be complete. There would be random parts of them scattered amongst the Star Wars vehicles and Lego bins, belonging in neither. You’d try to identify it as an off brand Zoid, along the lines if Tonka had made them, or some obscure toy they picked up on vacation. Invariably it would wind up languishing in the back of battle scenes between Transformers and Imperial Stormtroopers teamed up with gobots, as decor, and little else, doomed to forever be met with ambivalence..
^
This
I had one set of Robotix when I was a kid. It was my "big" present for Christmas that year and one of my favorite toys by far. I used to spend hours reconfiguring the limited parts I had into cars, outposts, ships, etc. I can't remember what it was called, but it was the one with the rotating legs that looked a little like a mantis. I took meticulous care of all my toys because I loathed losing parts. All that to say that my idiot next door neighbor broke one of the key parts that allowed the legs to rotate and I'm still bitter about it.
Dan Sulin ah man, I’d so be all over reissued Zoids like hate on TLJ. I found myself wistfully browsing them on eBay after mentioning them here.. A new updated line would be cool, though. One in much the same way that they’re bringing back G1 characters for Power of the primes/Titans Return. They’d still have to be snap together kits, though.
UncleDeluxe ugh, man.. One kid I knew (Lennard) broke some of my toys (My Gobots Stax for one).. Of all the kids in my childhood HE’S the one that is remembered because of that.
Michael van Kesteren yeah, i had some-what rich neighbors/classmates that had the toys. I would bring my transformers & gobots over to their house just so i could build & operate their robotix sets
I actually used my Robotix sets a couple of times for actual Science Fair projects. In second grade I won second place for setting up a Earth/Moon/Sun system that actually rotated using the Robotx motors. Construx also came in handy for other projects. They were great for "school class."
Yeah, I'm hoping to recycle/kitbash my stuff for the kids' school projects too--we're gonna get that A+!!!
The Robotics cartoon was a full, long story, and pretty deep, with great charcater development! But somehow I was the only guy I knew who knew what they were!
Why did finding out they still make them make my heart flutter?
Kinda like find that girl you had a crush on years ago is single again...
Or there was a reissue of that one collectible you are missing
Ok, I'm over a year late, but WHAT!?! They STILL make those?! I threw out what was left of my Robotix sets years ago, figuring no point to keeping these few parts from what I assumed was a discontinued building system. (Insert Darth Vader meme "Nooooooo!")
Out of all the stuff on this channel the only thing I've owned was the big Robotix set. It was awesome making robot arms and eventually the pieces would loosen up and anything you made suffered a catastrophic failure once you tried to use it.
I never experienced pieces loosening up. In all my sets the joints always seemed like cement if they were really pushed in. For me the problem was more about age making them brittle, which ruined the tight hold. The downside being you had to sometimes literally pry pieces apart with a knife...
I LOVED Robitcs, I was 7 when I got given the Master set and a couple of smaller sets. Best Christmas EVER (Extended family visited, including my mums uncle, wilf who i had NO idea I was related to, he was a genuine inventor and appeared on a weekly kids show called "jigsaw" showing some funny half baked ideas).
I was prescribed a lot of morphine back then and I was really worried for a few years, worried that day was just a beautiful opium inspired dream, but then I found the photos :)
EPIC toy, I used to make working AT AT's and ATST walkers to play "Star Wars" with my friends. This toy actually DID make me the cool kid and fuelled my love of science and engineering. Thanks for the video Dan, I'm off to by a whole load of moulded plastic!
Working AT-ATs and AT-STs? Ok yeah. That would be actual coolness (with me and my nerdy friends).
I was in a sleepover party with my friend Gary and he had the Robotix set. I made a "game" where each side had a robotic arm and the objective was to destroy the other side's arm. It was the best childhood sleepover party ever.
I remember seeing Robotics when I was really young. It's mind blowing that not only is it still going but that it's completely backwards compatible.
Look at it this way: We're the alternate timeline where Transformers and GI Joe survived.
I love your Oddities series! You should bring it back! I miss this series. It always feels like a special treat! I remember seeing some Robotix commercials when I was growing up, but the kits were too expensive for me. Please do more videos like this again soon!
That line about designing factory just killed me. I hand to pause and laughed for a good straight 20 minutes 😂
I had one off the origanal sets, complete from a garage sale. These were a cool toy
3:15 I skipped Jem and Bigfoot but never missed those 6 minute Robotix shorts.
I remember having an out patient procedure as a kid and on the way home my parents stopped at what I'm guessing was toys r us and bought one of these for me.i never knew what it was called and have no idea what happened to the pieces but the action figure that came with it was one of my favorites even though he didn't have knee joints like my GI Joe's did.i remember having difficulty putting stuff together cause I was weak and couldn't pull the pieces apart.cool toy nonetheless. Thanks Mr toy galaxy for this trip down memory lane
I wonder if this was one of the fatal flaws: to market exclusively to kids while not making it easy enough to disassemble. You really gotta be determined to get some of those pieces apart. My dad often had to rescue the pieces apart with a folding knife.
The kid build his first robot but it probably sucks and then he can't take it apart. Damn. How many kids did we lose that way?
Would there be a market today? How much of it has been passed down and protected?
Can we 3D print any of it? I think the original Robotix style friction connections need to be too precise, for resin to really do it well... You'd need molds if you were gonna rebuild from scratch.
I want that entire series of Robotix! Here is another line that needs to be rebooted(building sets, cartoon series, maybe a CGI movie)!!! I had the comic and loved it!!!!
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾Bravo Dan, that had me in stitches throughout lol👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
So speaking of Inhumanoids... When's that line getting the Toy Galaxy treatment?
Metlar! D. Compose! Skipper and Giligan, too!
rocotix is one of the best cartooons of the era and it still holds up today
These sound awesome!! Quickly, to the Ebay!!!!! On another note, glad to see someone else still has a Christmas tree up.
I vaguely remember robotix. Mabey it just didn't play on tv much in my area back then because I love any toy or toon about robots. Awesome show Dan. I love when you remind me of old awesome shows so i can look em up and watch them.
This is a rare one where you can actually watch the entire thing here on UA-cam.
Toy Galaxy thanx alot. I will check it out. Your the best Dan!!!
I remember the ads for Robotix and I had at least one friend who actually had them, but Capsela preceded Robotix as a 'tech toy' for kids, so I had that already and it was a hell of a lot of fun. I think Capsela was a European toy set, which had plastic capsules you could link together to build modular vehicles, by adding an engine capsule, battery pack, gears, differentials, floaters or wheels, etcetera and it was killer! It seemed very popular among kids I knew but I have no idea if it was a regional thing or nationally popular, because I haven't seen it turn up in toy-related conversations online, but there are videos about it here on UA-cam.
I rewatched the movie for some reason and it's godawful.
The first year my parents simply gave me money on my birthday, we went to Tons of Toys and I bought 2 of these sets. I did the same for the next couple of years until the store closed. The toys were great and I usually built things that were much cooler than what they had in the books. Eventually, most of the pieces got weak and cracked, but there was still enough left for my son to play with 20 years later.
I had the Bront playset. I built a space bulldozer for the 4th grade science fair and got an honorable mention. I'm just glad nobody stole my set while it was on display.
Soooo Robotix survived the ‘80’s toy wars??? Mind blown!
I loved Robotix! It was my favorite. Although, I had construx also which was pretty cool but robotix was top shelf. I remember having more construx ... probably because it was cheaper 🤣
Wow! This is literally the only Robotix Video I can find on the site. I still have tons of complete sets.
i had some of these as a kid, my uncle was a science guy and got me some sets, LOVED playing with them but they were a PITA to take apart esp the smaller connector pieces
I remember getting Robotix as a kid in the 90's. The one thing that confused me was the cockpits because none of the sets I ever got had a figure. And as you mention the mythology didn't really pan out. I remember I even had the 5? foot tall robot
I loved these toys. My dad worked for Brendle's. So whenever a set was returned opened and damaged, he could buy it for cheap. Very cool toys.
you're doing god's work dan.
Love your show thank you
Oh wow, thanks for this video! I had the absolute vaguest of memories of having one of these things when I was a kid. No idea which one it might have been. Probably just parts that were one of my cousin's castoffs. Holy crap this is cool. These are surprisingly affordable, nice!
I loved playing these as a 80s kid, I still have 2 whole sets, bront and venturax
Cripes, that brought back a lot of memories! I remember playing with these and Capsela sets as well.
My one friend had tons of these parts! We used to make robots in the 80’s and fight them like Battlebots way before there was robot fighting on TV!
For Christmas back in 1994, my grandmother got me the five foot tall robot kit, as well as two giant lego technic sets. My dad had just died that year, so she got me thousands of dollars worth of toys to try to cheer me up.
I had one Robotix set when I was a kid. Can't remember which one but I do remember that the pilot figure was very cool with a flip up visor and he was quickly repurposed as a Star Wars bounty hunter.
Great vid as always. In the UK we only had access to the movie but I did have 2 of the playsets. It was a great idea but had to much competition to make it big.
I chalk a lot of it up to having robot designs that weren't ultimately that compelling.
I owned Bront when I was a kid and went through scores of batteries playing with him. Awesome toy line
I once had some mixed Robotix/Construx/Capsela parts and figures from a yard sale back in the 80's. Robotix were amazing, down to the detail and the quality of plastic. The figures looked like film-licensed material, the villain in particular looked like he could have been pulled from Dune. Either way, high caliber enough to mix with Star Wars stuff!
Big thanks for informing us about the site that still sells new sets. They are pricey, but it's good to see that something of quality released decades ago continues to be appreciated. I bought an old set off Ebay recently and created a most-heinous Binary Ion Thermospheric Cosmic Heliostar 3000! pew pew!
Wow, i had the set as a kid, i enjoyed them, never tought they actually survived to this day
Subbed, my Brother. Much love and looking forward to keeping up with your content. Absolutely amazing!
#ShoNuff
I had the R-2000 set. Made some cool AT-AT type walkers with it. Only problem I had with mine was that somebody the hex shaped sockets split at the corners making for loose connections
I would have loved to have this as a kid, couldn't afford it though. I loved the cartoon. Same art style and voice actors as Transformers. I believe they are now part of Transformers canon.
Super Sunday??? I only recall Super Saturday, which later became Super Week.
It all makes sense now. Super Saturday (Sunday) was like a pilot episode. It was the commission of a small piece of work to see how well it does before fully committing. A test run. I don't recall Inhumanoids being part of Super Saturday. I thought it was always its own separate show. I recall in the beginning it was Robotix and Bigfoot. Then later on Jem was added. But they could only show two shows at a time. So it was either Robotix and Bigfoot, Robotix and Jem, or Jem and Bigfoot.
Tyrannix was a copy of Starscream. The disloyal treacherous mutineer who wanted to overthrow his leader so he could have all the power for himself. Starscream's personality in fact was copied many more times. The early Black Arachnia, Tarantulus, and Terrorsaur from Beast Wars all plotted to treacherously betray and overthrow Predacon Megatron so that they could lead and have the power for themselves.
perfectsplit Tar was a spy send to keep a eye on Megatron.
I had the Robotix VHS collection; I enjoyed it! I always thought it was a movie.
I remember them just never owned any. A charity shop in my town had a 5ft tall humanoid robot made out of them for sale. I was tempted.
Had to go back and watch this after the Starrions episode. I loved these.
I have been wanting to start a mint box collection for a while but have not pulled the trigger! Loved this line as a kid and loved the show/movie!
♫"Who puts the future in your hands? ROBOTIX!"♪
Construx was something affordable to my parents that I had at home. Robotix was something that my school had. I really loved both!
I wish my elementary school had the budget for these things back in the day
Cool I never knew they kept on making Robotix. Was a cool cartoon.
I don't remember it being a toy line or series of cartoon shorts. I got a VHS tape for my birthday and remember watching the hell out of it growing up. It's like one of those things you remember but don't remember until you see something that reminds you of it. Just happened to see a Robotix clip in a video I was watching today and suddenly remembered the movie and just watched it. Definitely not as good as I remember but I could see why I liked it as a kid.
Bront was my second favorite toy, right behind the Dinobots.
Hahaha I had Robotix and Constructs!!! I had no idea they kept making those toys!!! Thanks Dan for bringing the "KNOWLEDGE "!!!
I put my jaw into spasm because I tried pulling sections apart with my teeth.
Don't do that. Take care of your teeth. They're the only ones you get.
Entertaining and informative toy reviews AND quality dental advice!? Your skills know no bounds sir!
If only I had Toy Galaxy back when I was ten years old. I’d have avoided “drinking” my meals for two days.
I had so many of these. I played with them for many years. I built so many cool things. I loved them.
I would've loved a Robotix set or two as a kid but do remember them being too expensive for my parents' budget for anything other than a main present on Christmas. Competing with Transformers and Masters of the Universe didn't help either. My pre-school actually had the R-2000 set in the play area, missing half the pieces of course, but still. These days I buy them whenever I see them - they're very affordable! I have a few MB and Learning Curve boxes; biggest surprise getting into it as an adult was how neat the sculpts on the figures were. I think there was only 3 moulds but check out "Tauron Oxus"! You can actually make a decent AT-ST with all this stuff too.
I loved Robotix as a kid. I used it for projects at school, and learned a little something. I hear the commercial saying "Robotix" whenever I see the name. I wish they had more electronic inputs like motion sensors, and outputs like leds, lcd screens, etc. It would have been great to offer computer interfaces to teach kids programming too.
I had a couple of the non-powered kits and loved them. Wish I had kept them around.
I still own Argus and also have it in the box complete !!! Awesome toy line. too bad they did not stay in the store too long !!
This was one of my favourite cartoons. I wish it was more popular :)
I watch it in UA-cam this should get a sequel series
I actually had one of the Robotix sets from the Learning Curve era. They even came with figures that can connect to the construct pieces and seemed to scale quite well with Kenner figs. I just hated how fast the motors guzzled 4 D cell batteries though. But it was fun to build overall.
1:56 Made me crack up so bad. What was that like the x-files theme song all goofed up?
I used to love ROBOTIX. Reminded me of the old Micronauts which to this day I still miss. I actually bought a set in an educational toy store a while back.
My dad bought all of them for me for Xmas.I love my dad.There wasn't anything like it in the 80's.
Its was awesome.
I have two loose Roboticx figures my brother picked up, always thought they were Robotech. Very well done, esp for a construction set sideline.
Great video! However, I wish you had touched on the unreleased sets that were planned for 1986 as well as Paul Alexanders magnificent packaging art designs for the first 4 sets.
I had Robotix, Construx and Legions of Power as a kid. I have no idea where my collections went.
1:37 lol, that's on you, the rest of us are Mech Engineers making robots.
I was waiting for WHY this was an Oddity and cool Dan delivered! I think I went to the bathroom while the RobotiX was on and hoped Bigfoot was on when I came back. But good on them for surviving even though a lot less cool with RobotICS. NERDS!
The cockpits weren't superfluous. They were intended to be used by the Protectons and Terrakors to pilot the Robotix (in order to rebuild their home) once they awoke from stasis.
Wow, how could I have lived this long without knowing this toyline existed? I had LEGO, Construx, Capsela and later K'nex so I was no stranger to building things that my He-Man, GI Joe, Transformer and later Ninja Turtle could battle, drive or climb on...thank you Dan!
Construx! My fave toy as a kid by a long way..... It was so versatile - you could buy a kit that was designed as a spaceship, make swords with it, and hack each other to bits!
I miss my Argus set ☹️ I hope the new sets feature more robust pieces, all of mine ended up cracking on the octagonal connectors. And as always Dan you are the Man. Just not a cool kid.
I had both Robotix and Construx (bright orange briefcases) and a 3rd space themed line i can't remember the name of. Space line was my favorite.
I just rediscovered my old box of these toys. I had the one where you could build bug models.
I had some Robotix as a kid and loved them. I used to play with them with my Star Wars toys since they were the same scale and aesthetically worked worked well with one another. I made a lot of custom starships.
These were sick. Period.
HOly Cr@p, I totally forgot about loving that toy! Thanks!
I still have a bunch of my original 1984 Robotix pieces in a box in my closet. Including the jaws, the walker legs, several motors and battery packs. And many of the hex connections are cracked or outright broken with some still having 1980s era super glue trying to seal those cracks up. It was a fun set of toys to play with but the hex connections were just too tight and broke too easily. But I did like the motors that powered everything.
These videos need FAR MORE screenshots of the products, video and footage of the toys IRL
Construx - yes!! Can you all do a history of that toyline? I loved those as a kids in the 80s.
I remember walking into one of those mall education stores that sell everything from crystals and rocks to science fair kits to rain sticks around 15 years ago and being shocked to find a selection of Robotix toys. Loved the cartoon, but never owned any of the kits (lots of Construx and Legions of Power though).
Robotix gave me hundreds of hours of enjoyment!!! R2000 and r4000 sets I still have today. (Yeah I'm that nerd!)
I hated the swivel pieces because they always broke. I had the R-1500 and my brother had the R-2000. I have the VHS of the whole show, but by the time I got it found it too campy. I also have the comic book. The extreme lack of resemblance between the toy and the licensed stuff was a problem.
Woo, the opening intro had that Stranger Things vibe!
I had the animated movie for this on vhs as a kid. Watched that thing far more often than it deserved, but come on, it was giant robots smashing each other.
OMG! You can still get them! I'm gonna go check out that website... Need to order Some Robotix, for my child. Shoulda rsn the commercial song. Put the future in your hands! Robotix!
I guess Robotix is like Christianity, Capitalism, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They stand the test of time...
I LOVED Robotix. One of my favorite toys of all time. Made all kinds of crazy things for GI Joe and Star Wars dudes to fight back in the ‘80s.
I had those 2 words sounding in my head during all my adolescence: Roboootix, robooootix!!
I remember getting a display unit of Vox Centurion that had formerly lived in a museum gift shop for Christmas. I was excited until I realized it had all been glued together...
Your best scripted and hosted episode. How much entertainment can two men cram into 5 minutes and three quarters? I believe in you too much to imagine this is your zenith but my heart is afraid I'll explode if it isn't.