Free Comic Inside> Who Doxxed The Robo Force?

Hey, I finally found one that’s been on the list for awhile AND it’s next in rotation!

For those of you who missed out on them in the 1980s, let me introduce you Ideal’s Robo Force toyline

On the planet Zeton, Maxx Steele leads a group of robots to protect humanity from Hun-Dredd and his bad robots. Robo Force also had a pilot video that I’m tossing on the list I was sure showed up long ago on Saturday Night Showcase but apparently didn’t. Or at least it’s not coming up. Guess I know what I’m doing for this week’s entry.

However, this is Free Comic Inside so you know the toyline also had pack-in minicomics. Only four were produced that I could find thanks to The Old Robots, along with other Robo Force promotional material. It really didn’t help as the toyline didn’t last very well. I guess cylinders with suction cups on the bottom were no match for bipedal robots that turned into other machines. At least now I get to finally add these to the Free Comic Inside rotation!

Hun-Dred’s robo-massage therapy business picked up immediately.

No credits for these. That’s too bad because I like to see who worked on these things and if they did anything else in the comic book industry. Ah well…on to the story!

You know Maxx Steele was Ideal’s focal character (like He-Man was for Masters Of The Universe) because he has his own headquarters, Fortress Steele. In this would-be Fortress Of Solitude, or at least that’s how the toy promo at the end of the comic made it sound like, Maxx is trying to boost Blazer’s data recall abilities just in time for him to hopefully remember where he put his saxophone. Wait, were they a music group? I must have missed that one. Blazer is put in sleep mode while Maxx begins the upgrade…just as Hun-Dred somehow finds the base and decides to attack alone.

After getting past Maxx’s heavy defense of one gun that kindly asks Maxx’s mortal enemy to state his name and business and never gets a chance to fire. Hun-Dredd is sure fighting Maxx himself will be easy. Here’s we learn the horrible truth: Maxx Steele, not to be confused with the later cyborg human and kid with a talking jetpack, both from Earth, has another name: Gary Stu. Hun-Dredd can sense fear, but Maxx has none. Hun-Dredd can’t score a single laser blast while Maxx hits him like it’s job. (I guess technically it is.) Hun-Dredd even tries blasting a girder to land on the still shut down Blazer so that Maxx is forced to grab it, but unlike the cover shooting him in the back doesn’t work when he has back guns.

Maxx Steele, the bot with no fear. Like Daredevil or Batman.

Finally Hun-Dredd is knocked out cold and comes to as part of Maxx’s machines, wiping Hun-Dredd’s memories. He then…let’s him go with full knowledge that Hun-Dredd’s allies will restore him minus the location of Fortress Steele. You don’t want to lock him up for his crimes or blast him to bits for the sake of Zeton? Just let him go because they still need to promote his toy in the other minicomics. Blazer finally comes online, having done nothing but give us the end joke…he still doesn’t know where his saxophone is. So much for that experiment.

Our first look into these comics, and I don’t have an official or even suggested order for this quartet, is uneven. The art is good but they’re basically cylinders. The action is okay but the story isn’t much to write home about. It’s not terrible but we’ve seen much better in this article series. Maybe the other three will show us something more? They’re probably just as short (about eight pages of story and some ads for the toys) but it’s not unlikely.

Next time, depending on what happens in the meantime, we journey from planet Zeton back to planet Symbion to see how the Sectaurs are holding out.