Cartoon Profiles: The Bots Master

The Bots Master is a series that is full of flaws, but still incredibly lovable.

WARNING: If you aren't a fan of rap (and possibly if you are), this song is both catchy and annoying as heck. You might want to turn the sound off. (I did.)



Flaws? Oddball designs, general "'90s-ness," the music in the intro, the fact that the intro makes you think that some of those characters will be more relevant than they are (that chef robot? I don't remember a single thing he did, if he even showed up at all), and the fact that it ends on a cliffhanger (the villains can finally manufacture intelligent robots, which is game-changing in a series where the standard robot is basically an even stupider mook than you usually find).

Lovable parts? The fact that every kind of robot imaginable shows up (intelligent robots, stupid mook robots, pet-like robots, talking head robots, giant combining and transforming robots-and all built by the same people), the fact that the villain was a half-step from post-Crisis/DCAU Lex Luthor, the fact that the heroes were basically rebels or terrorists (depending on your point of view), and the fact that the director was actually named Xavier Picard (okay, so that's kind of a little thing, but it's hilarious).

I always enjoyed the show. Unfortunately for it, its success relied on a rather lackluster toyline, and it was in a cartoon suicide slot (6:00 AM locally-any cartoon in that slot or the 2:30 PM weekday slot was pretty much dead after a single seasonal rotation, the exception being the wonderful Exosquad).

It could have been better, but it was already better than it perhaps had any right to be, even with the theme song.

-Signing off.