Hey, want to see an episode of a 1980s kids show so prophetic it’s sad?
Granted even in the 1980s there were attempts to sanitize KIDS TV by the parent groups, but using computers to change movies? Questionable social message propaganda poorly disguised as storytelling? Manipulating the news? G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero saw it coming.
The episode is “The Wrong Stuff”, as the Joes must travel into space to stop Cobra’s satellite television network from spreading pro-Cobra propaganda. Why they didn’t already use Joes who know about space travel, given they had a space station in one of the early miniseries and there’s an astronaut on the team (unless he wasn’t added to the 1980s toyline despite being one in the original 1960s line) back when the only “U.S. Space Force” was part of a competing toyline and TV show I couldn’t tell you. It is interesting to note that how Cobra altered old movies and put together new movies involves technology that didn’t exist then but in today’s AI Deepfake world I’m surprised we haven’t seen happen in a world of altered dubs, censored dialog, purposeful mistranslations, and digitally extended hair covering naked buttocks. It’s probably coming, and we don’t have a highly trained special mission force to save us from current Hollywood. Let’s see if they can save the day here. Enjoy.
I tried looking for videos of people playing through the story. All I found were builders and a weird game of hide-and-seek.
Against all logic, the lackluster A Minecraft Movie isn’t doing lackluster numbers, currently dominating in theaters. As usual, Hollywood’s press agents in the media are having trouble grasping this, but the director has an easy answer: people really like Minecraft. Someone in the comments also noted that it’s a kids movies adults don’t mind sitting through, meaning parent and child can go together. I hear it is more respective of the source material, even if it’s mostly references in a story with uninteresting characters. I’m not into the franchise so I have no plans to see it either way, but it is interesting that it kicked live action Snow White‘s butt as well as being one of the better received video game adaptations.
I thought Nacelle just made documentary shows, but apparently they’re getting into the fiction game. I first noticed it when I started watching an old favorite, Skysurfer Strike Force, on Tubi and saw Nacelle was the distributor. I would have thought Hanna-Barbera would have that one since they bought the Ruby Spears Productions library, which is now part of the Warner Brothers Discovery library, but I guess Bohbot distributing it as part of their “Amazing Adventures” programming block put it with them. I don’t know. Point is the people behind the Icons Unearthed series is also doing kids animated series.
Now they’ve partnered with Tubi to release a cartoon based on the 1980s toyline Robo Force. Originally cylindrical robots with a suction cup, as we’ve gone over in the Free Comic Inside reviews of their minicomics, they were revamped in the 2010s with legs. The new rights owners, who put out a webcomic by virtual mentor Jerzy Drozd, opted for the “Glyos” system of interchangeable parts and little to no paint apps. Now Nacelle is putting out toys as well as shows and comic, setting up their “Nacelleverse“…because shared universes have been doing so well lately. Even Marvel Studios doesn’t know how to do it anymore under the current caretakers, Hasbro is making their second attempt via Skybound’s “Energon Universe” after the IDW one failed to get a strong audience thanks to various choices IDW made, and now Nacelle wants to bring in previously unconnected 1980s/1990s toylines that at best had a cult following and form their own universe. The line will consist of…
Robo Force as step one in animation, though most of them already have had toys out for a while
Biker Mice From Mars, which is the second season for the Nacelleverse but the third try for this series, and yet Robo Force is marketed as now being tied into this show
Sectaurs, which has also had a Saturday Night Showcase and Free Comic Inside appearances–curious how they’ll work that around 2020 plague flashbacks
The Wild West C.O.W.Boys of Moo Mesa, a rather odd edition, but doing Sectaurs I’m assuming means we’re not limited to Earth depending on what’s changed in these franchises
Power Lords, and I’m curious if they’ll bother with the transformation gimmicks of the original toyline in toy or toon form
and the only thing that makes less sense than Moo Mesa…Barnyard Commandos!
With the cartoon set to post to Tubi on Saturday, a friend of mine stumbled upon two of the three issue Robo Force miniseries. Since I don’t have all three, and these are relatively new comics, I won’t be doing a spoilery summary like I do with Scanning My Collection. This used to be my new comic reviews back when I got them regularly, replacing the feature with “Yesterday’s” Comic for older comics. I’m just going to give my overall thoughts on the two-thirds of the story currently available to me.
“Wait, Rang-A-Tang, that building’s on fire, too. Don’t take him there!”
Blue Ribbon Comics #2
MLJ Magazines, Inc (December, 1939)
I don’t know if it’s the anthology nature or lack of insanity, but some of these are getting hard to remember because I do so many every Friday. Then again, most of these characters are hard to remember and you begin to realize why they never stood the test of time. I looked up last issue’s review and I was kind of neutral. Hopefully this second issue does a better job. Let’s dive in and see.
Notice that, while Gary often comments on the culture war and how it affects sci-fi and fantasy, he notes that being “woke” is only part of the problem. We need to acknowledge this more, because the other mistakes Hollywood has made are part of the reason the activists took over so much of pop culture, following those who didn’t care about the source material because of their own ego and snobbery with little to no concern for the people who made popular the brands they usurp or why it was popular. If that wasn’t an issue, the culture war wouldn’t be bleeding into stories.
The original Tron movie was created at a time when computers were still a new and scary thing. So it was a story in which a man was digitized and brought into a computer world. The video game Tron 2.0 and a tie-in game, Killer App, would go there again. Tron: Legacy would introduce The Grid, a virtual world that made more sense now that computers are such a part of our normal lives, and it would be the focus of the short-lived and incomplete animated series Tron: Uprising. This and other tie-in media has created a franchise that has survived by being sparse.
Now we have a third movie coming up. From the trailer, it looks like Tron: Ares either has Clu winning or someone winning in his place by getting the digital armies of The Grid into our world and causing mayhem. There isn’t much of a story available now, but let’s take a look.
“This BW site is really cool!” (Hey, how often do I do that?)
Collective Of Heroes
Free Comic Book Day 2015
From what I can tell this is a digital book promoting an aggregate site for different superhero webcomics. I would link to the comics previewed here, but the list isn’t very well maintained. Some of the links don’t work, one went to a completely different comic, and the lineup in the comic includes things no longer on the site. So this will just be a look at the various comics previewed here.
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Daily Video> How Hollywood Destroyed Fandom
Catch more from Nerdrotic on YouTube
Notice that, while Gary often comments on the culture war and how it affects sci-fi and fantasy, he notes that being “woke” is only part of the problem. We need to acknowledge this more, because the other mistakes Hollywood has made are part of the reason the activists took over so much of pop culture, following those who didn’t care about the source material because of their own ego and snobbery with little to no concern for the people who made popular the brands they usurp or why it was popular. If that wasn’t an issue, the culture war wouldn’t be bleeding into stories.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 11, 2025 in Comic Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged commentary, Doctor Who, geek culture, Nerdrotic, stories and culture.
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