LOS ANGELES, April 12 (UPI) -- RoboForce: The Series creator Brian Volk-Weiss says the show, premiering Saturday on Tubi, was inspired by the toy line's real-life defeat by the popular Transformers franchise in the 1980s.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Volk-Weiss said he had the freedom to create a new story since CBS previously canceled plans for a show inspired by the toys. In his animated series, RoboForce is immediately rendered obsolete by a new line of robots called the UA 101s.
"Instead of it being Transformers, it's another robot line called Utopia Aegis's 101s, the UA 101s," Volk-Weiss said. "The cartoon starts with RoboForce basically being announced to the world and across town another company announces an even better robot and it destroys RoboForce."
CBS originally bought Ideal Toys in 1982, with RoboForce to be the first toy and animated series produced together. They brought RoboForce to the 1984 Toy Fair convention but the toys were quickly overshadowed by Transformers.
"On Tuesday they announce this to the world," Volk-Weiss recounted. "Everybody goes crazy. Toys 'R' Us orders 2 million units, to this day the biggest first wave order in the history of Toys 'R' Us."
By the end of the week, Toys "R" Us would cut its order to ⅛ of that number.
"Do you know what they introduced at Toy Fair on Thursday? Transformers," Volk-Weiss said.
Since Transformers robots could turn into vehicles, each toy was essentially a 2-in-1 for kids to play with. Volk-Weiss, however, became obsessed with RoboForce after his mother bought him two discount toys from the bargain bin.
"I didn't know what the hell they were," he said.
As an adult, Volk-Weiss completed his collection before he bought the entire property. Each RoboForce robot has a unique power -- Max Steele has lasers in his backpack and a double cannon on his back, and Blazer has plasma and water cannons, for example.
"I was already a fan but I didn't know what I was a fan of," Volk-Weiss said. "I just loved the design."
Volk-Weiss founded and serves as CEO of the toy and television production company Nacelle, which acquired the rights to RoboForce in 2021. They gave RoboForce another shot as a toy line and animated series.
All that survived from the planned CBS animated series was one episode that aired in 1984, so Volk-Weiss and co-writers Gavin Highnight and Tom Stern decided on a story of redemption.
15 years after their obsolescence, RoboForce has a chance to save the world from malfunctioning 101s. Volk-Weiss said redemption is at the core of every animated series he's producing.
"Every single character in RoboForce, the season ends where they are in a different place than where they were in the beginning," he said. "It's all about growth because as they see things and experience things, it changes their point of view and you start to see everybody evolving."
In addition to creating the story, Volk-Weiss and Matthew Margeson wrote an original theme song for RoboForce.
"The song in cartoons doesn't get enough credit for how important it is to the success when it comes to animation," he said.
RoboForce is also the beginning of a Nacelleverse. All of the characters Nacelle owns appear in the show, except for Barnyard Commandos, which they acquired after RoboForce was complete.
Volk-Weis has a grand plan where after introducing four series, a fifth season will combine them all. That could include RoboForce, Biker Mice from Mars, Sectaurs and Barnyard Commandos.
"We're taking all the heroes from our properties and all the villains from our properties, over the course of these five seasons, uniting them in those two groups," he said. "By season 5, they're going to go at each other."
Biker Mice from Mars is not as obscure as RoboForce. It had a successful toy line and animated series in the '90s about Martian rodents saving the Earth from Plutarkians, and Volk-Weiss is sticking to that story.
"We're modernizing everything," he said. "We're adding some new characters. We're adding some backstory but we are being reverential about the Biker Mice canon. Biker Mice has millions and millions of fans. We've got to be respectful of that."
Nacelle has also announced new seasons of its docuseries The Toys That Made Us. Though Netflix has not officially announced dates, Volk-Weiss hopes Season 4 will air by the end of this year and Season 5 in mid-2026.
Seasons 4 and 5 will tell the stories behind Pokemon, Hot Wheels, Superhero Toys, Polly Pocket, NERF, Ghostbusters toys, and two broader topics.
"We're doing an episode about American Greetings," he said. "That gives us Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, My Pet Monster and Madballs. Then we're doing another episode that is all about Fast Food Toys."
RoboForce marks Volk-Weiss's first foray into creating fictional shows as a writer, though he served as a producer on the Mad About You revival. Nacelle also teamed up with Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia's company Seven Bucks Productions, who he said share their values for family entertainment.
"We're really trying to stress action, humor and heart," Volk-Weiss said. "There's a lot of action, there's no blood, there's no real violence. It's all robots and lasers. There's humor. We put in a lot of humor. Seven Bucks really amped up the humor. We put in quite a bit of heart."
