Secret Galaxy

We've covered the history of Robotech on this channel before. A LOT. This is a compilation video of all of those Robotech videos remastered and re-edited into 1 long saga, and even this is basically incomplete. This video does cover Robotech, Battletech, Exo-Squad and has an additional 2024 update at the end. Enjoy!

Digimon or Digital Monsters is a long running media franchise that started life as the "male" version of Tamagotchi and grew to encompass cartoons, comics, card games, toys and movies. But there's one thing that Digimon could never shake and that's it reputation as a Pokémon clone or rip off, especially here in the United States.

TEDDY RUXPIN was a talking animatronic... NOT bear introduced in the mid 1980's that quickly became the hottest toy on the market. Buoyed by that success WORLDS OF WONDER, the makers of Teddy Ruxpin, went all in on tech with Lazer Tag and a host of other tech driven toylines. And then the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, came along and changed everything for both World of Wonder and Teddy Ruxpin.

In the early to mid 1980's, during the burger wars, Wendy's, Burger King and McDonalds all realized they needed to shake thing up. Wendy's had "Where's The Beef" and McDonalds, partly inspired by Max Headroom, introduced Mac Tonight, a singing moon-headed mascot intended to alert customers that anytime was the right time for McDonalds. Mac Tonight blew up in popularity, rolled out nationally and went on to become a cult icon who was fondly remembered. But the internet eventually got hold of him and tarnished all of that. This is the story of Mac Tonight.

Did you know that at the absolute height of their popularity the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became a rock band and went on tour? The called it the "Coming Out of Their Shells" Tour and it traveled all over the US and even went international a little bit. They released an album of songs that included "Count on Us", "Pizza Power" and "Cowabunga" that was sold in Pizza Hut. And, of course, there was that stop at the Oprah Winfrey show.

Nintendo was big. The biggest! And Super Mario Bros was the marquee name. So the time was perfect to turn the Super Mario Bros Nintendo game into Super Mario Bros: The Movie (1993). Hire some writers, hire the people who created Max Headroom. How hard can it be? Super Mario Bros The Movie didn't turn out how anyone that worked on it hoped it would. This is the story of chaos. This is the crazy story of The Super Mario Bros (1993) failure.

When Todd McFarlane left Marvel Comics to form Image Comics his first title was Spawn and it was huge. Naturally that drew the attention of toy companies, tv and movie studios and everyone else. But Todd had a very particular style he wanted if he was going to do a Spawn cartoon and along came HBO at just the right time with the right answers to his questions. Premiering in 1997 and lasting for 3 seasons this is the story of Todd McFarlane's Spawn: The Animated Series

In 2001 the Transformers franchise was at a crossroads. Beast Wars was coming to an end an the next version of Transformers (Armada) was not ready. But Hasbro didn't want to have NO Transformers on TV. So what to do? Look to Japan, where they had an entirely different continuity going, pinch one of their shows, put the Power Rangers guys on it and transform it into Transformers: Robots in Disguise! Easy money!

Back in 2018 we release episode 1 of The History of Robotech and in that video we alluded to all kinds of behind the scenes drama that led to the creation of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross animated series that led to the creation of the Robotech animated series. This is that story of all the behind the scenes drama that led to the creation of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the Macross franchise at large, Robotech and how and when you can watch Macross in the United States.

ore than anything GI Joe exists as a series of reboots and nowhere in it's history is that more illustrated than in the time between GI Joe: A Real American Hero and the first GI Joe live action movie where it seemed like Hasbro was rebooting GI Joe every few years. One of those reboots was called GI Joe: Sigma 6 and it was an attempt to move away from war as entertainment and go in a more anime direction with a smaller team. Did GI Joe: Sigma 6 succeed? What do you think...

Reboot and Transformers: Beast Wars were all the rage and World Events had one of the biggest properties of the 1980's, VOLTRON, just sitting on a shelf. What seemed like a fairly safe bet, VOLTRON: The Third Dimension was anything but, although it did break some ground and help introduce VOLTRON to a whole new generation.

After Thundercats ended in 1989 they tried again in 2011 and it did not go well at all. Maybe 3rd time is the charm? Announced in 2018 Thundercats Roar was the 3rd try at Thundercats and a wild departure from what came before. The reaction to Thundercats Roar was overwhelming and immediate. And terrible.

Back in the 1990's, in search of the next big thing, producers in the US grabbed a Tokusatsu show from Japan, reshot and repackaged it for American audiences and made history with The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Being copycats, suddenly everyone was trying to replicate the formula and there was a rush of shows trying to capitalize on the Power Rangers success.

Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers was an expensive gamble the ultimately paid off as another piece in the Disney Afternoon puzzle following the huge success that was Ducktales. Fondly remembered Chip N Dale started out very differently at Disney before being drafted into Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers with an enduring legacy that has made it all the way to modern day with a movie having been recently released.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was huge but, as a result of it's reliance on previous footage couldn't last forever in it's initial form. A change needed to be made. An entire established identity needed to be left behind. After a brief Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers detour we got POWER RANGERS ZEO, the 4th season of Power Rangers and a template for the future of the Power Rangers. But the transition to ZEO was not without it's bumps including a fan perpetrated hoax.

Phantom 2040 was a 2 season animated series that took place in the far future of 2040. Following on from King Features other recent animated show "Defenders of the Earth" and using The Phantom as the star this time, Phantom 2040 was an ambitious show with a great cast that partly fell victim to regulation and just never really found its audience.

After the original Battlestar Galactica went off the air and Galactica 1980 failed to catch on a devoted fan base kept the property alive. So much so that various creatives tried a few more times to get Battlestar Galactica back on TV. One of those attempts finally made it to air. Battlestar Galactica hit the air in 2003, lasting 4 seasons and bringing with it much controversy, first from casting and then from tone but went on to be one of the top series of the 2000's.

In the early 1980's, with a hit on their hands in Strawberry Shortcake, Kenner approached American Greetings about reimagining the Teddy Bear so they could take a bite out of the plush market. What American Greetings came up with was not only a reimagining of the Teddy Bear but Care Bears were a full out assault on the marketplace in the United States with every kind of merchandise imaginable. The Care Bears were everywhere and on everything.

Labyrinth was released in 1986 starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, directed by Jim Henson hot off The Dark Crystal and produced by George Lucas. What could go wrong? Unfortunately Labyrinth hit the box office with a thud, poorly reviewed, poorly attended. But if we're making a video about it in 2024 then something happened in the years since turning Labyrinth into a beloved classic.

Street Fighter 2 exploded into arcades back in the early 90's and changed gaming forever. Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li and Guile were suddenly household names. The Street Fighter 2 roster of characters were even added to the GI Joe line of action figures. The brand was so hot and so well-known that a movie seemed inevitable. And it was but a funny thing happened on the way to the movie theater. Street Fighter starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue opened in 1994 and did... okay. But the Street Fighter brand? It's done just fine.

Fruit Stripe gum was the butt of many short-lasting flavor jokes in its history, including a few in this video, but it's discontinuation is another marker on the passage of time. Another indicator that you're getting old and that eventually we'll all be dead. Enjoy!

We've made a lot of videos about The Transformers over the years and some other form-changing robot guys. Enjoy this compilation of those videos and know there are still some gaps in the history of The Transformers. We're working on it.

Animation on TV was undergoing a bit of a revolution in the 90's as the children of the 80's grew up. Enter MTV's Liquid Television, a show made to push the boundaries and appeal to the 90's sensibilities. Looking around the industry, Liquid Television enlisted animator Peter Chung to create a segment from them. Born from that was AEON FLUX. So weird and sexy and popular that AEON FLUX was first renewed for a 2nd set of segments and then spun off into her own half hour animated series and, eventually... unfortunately, a movie called AEON FLUX.

Blockbuster video was founded in the mid 80's on the back of the VHS revolution that reshaped the entire movie industry. Blockbuster grew fast, swallowing up smaller stores at a voracious pace but the fall, influenced by a number of factors including bad management, was just as fast.

Back in the early 90's, the fledgling FOX Network thought they had a sure hit on their hands on Friday nights. THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR. had everything going for it with a charming lead, wit, charm and a clever premise. Being branded as the bloodiest show on TV by the government sure didn't help. FOX was right. They did have a hit on Friday nights only it wasn't THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR.

In the early 1980's John Badham made a gritty, ambiguous movie about surveillance and the militarization of the police called Blue Thunder. As a result of the success of Knight Rider, ABC took that movie , stripped out the message and made a TV show about a kick ass helicopter called Blue Thunder that made it to air BEFORE Airwolf. History shows that out of BLUE THUNDER and AIRWOLF, one was way more successful than the other.

Back in the early 90's a crudely animated show began airing on MTV called Beavis & Butt-head. Adored by kids for being a couple of idiots and hated by parents for being a couple of idiots, Beavis & Butt-head courted controversy. It wasn't justified, it was just stupid.

Goosebumps was a series of extremely popular children's horror books that catapulted their author RL Stine to fame following his modestly successful Fear Street series. As with everything else, Goosebumps didn't just stay in the literary world, crossing over into TV on Fox Kids, movies, merchandise and more. But Goosebumps fame also came with a lawsuit and controversy from parents groups.

THE CROW is a 1994 film based on a comic by James O'Barr about a rock musician brought back from the dead to put things right. THE CROW has become a classic but has also been overshadowed by tragedy at every step including the creation of the original comic.

Lots of kids in the mid 80's tuned into the Ghostbusters cartoon expecting the further adventures of Slimer, Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddmore and instead got the Ghostbusters with the gorilla. WTF?! Filmation had every right in the world to piggyback off the success of the other Ghostbusters but how did they get away with it?

Millions of Unusual Creatures Lurking Everywhere also known as MUSCLE is a Mattel toyline that burned hot and bright for a very short time. These tiny, rubbery pink men were an import from Japan and merchandise from Kinnikuman, who started as a parody of other Japanese shows at the time. The jump from Japanese Kinkeshi to Mattel's MUSCLE was quite the journey and is still going to this day...

Here is a compilation of some of the WTF stuff we've covered or seemingly normal stuff with a bit of a WTF twist in the story all originating from the 1980's. 00:00 Turbo Teen 10:10 Daicon 4 26:03 Entertech 32:52 Mouse Trap 49:55 ManTech 1:00:54 Mac Tonight 1:14:58 Filmation Ghostbusters 1:31:07 The Noid 1:43:14 Japanese Spider-Man 1:54:00 Godzilla 1985

MONOPOLY. A game everyone loves to hate. The history behind MONOPOLY, starting at the turn of the 20th century, is a wild story in and of itself. It includes the works of economist Henry George, an actress and inventor, copyright infringement, patent deception, lawsuits, depositions and games getting dumped in a landfill. The history of MONOPOLY has it all!

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 is one of the longest running shows in terms of years of all time but there are plenty of twists and turns to get us from the 1980's to today. Joel, Mike, Jonah, Emily, Tom, Crow and Gypsy have bounced around from network to network covering all the distribution methods you can think of but they're still here, riffing on movies aboard the Satellite of Love. This is the story of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

There was a time when the X-Men weren't as well known as they are today and when getting an X-Men animated series to air was a fight. Margaret Loesch believed in the X-Men and put her job on the line to make X-Men the animated series happen on Fox Kids in the early 90's. Such a hit that it spawned a sequel series X-Men '97 decades later.

The Centurions had a lot of talent and enough checkmarks in the mid 80s playbook to make it a hit but in a field that was crowded AF Centurions by Mattel came and went in just one calendar year, 1986. This is the story of Max Ray, Jake Rockwell, and Ace McCloud, dressed in specially created exo-frames in a battle against Doc Terror and pop culture of 1986.