I Love Maria - David Chung & Tsui Hark 1988

My full ROBO FORCE #1-3 connecting cover image revealed.

Oni’s first NacelleVerse miniseries, ‘RoboForce,’ will debut in April

Melissa Flores and Diogenes Neves will bring the toy line to the printed page in a new miniseries.

cover by Dustin Weaver

Preview: Roboforce #1

Roboforce #1 preview. Roboforce #1 begins in 2091, a little over a year after the RoboForce were rendered obsolete, replaced by the superior Utopia Aegis 101 bots #comics #comicbooks

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Sunglasses - from The Color of Money (1986); 鐵甲無敵瑪利亞 / I Love Maria (1988); Silver Streak (1976); Deadpool 2 (2018); The Great Gatsby (2013); To Catch a Thief (1955); Barbie (2023); The Holiday (2006); Leave Her to Heaven (1945); Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970); Thunderheart (1992); Rogue (2007); Downhill Racer (1969); The Contractor (2007); Double Impact (1991); The Watermelon Woman (1996); Heathers (1988); Friday Foster (1975); and That Thing You Do! (1996).

I Love Maria - David Chung & Tsui Hark 1988

Roboforce a.k.a. I Love Maria (1988)

Lost in the New York Comic Con hustle and bustle including the first trailer for the Scott Pilgrim anime, Good Burger II: Do you want Good Fries with that? (Not the title but I am curious) and an Ultraman Blazar stage show that actually was filled to capacity, there was a little panel for something called the Nacelleverse, a ground up project from the Nacelle company with the goal of bringing numerous disparate franchises together.

And the panel really should have been recorded, because it was a very interesting TED Talk about how a company makes a franchise and how creatives build a shared universe from the ground up.

Seems easy enough, right? Well, the first thing they need to do is get some licenses people care about, or barring that, licenses that are available. And they got…well they got licenses.

There are a lot of moving parts in creating a universe. Finding partners in weird places, like how the Biker Mice from Mars reboot is actually a co-production with Ryan Reynolds of all people, building mythology where there was none and adapting it where there is one, and then finding a buyer for your show. For instance, while Roboforce had no real mythology and the writers built a story from the ground up (a very meta tale about a line of robots that were supposed to be the next big thing, only to be confined to menial work when a newer, superior line of robots completely upstaged their debut, which is essentially what happened to the 80s toy line when it was released opposite the Transformers). Biker Mice, meanwhile, was popular enough that people know what they were about, so in that case it’s more about bringing in the hot dog and (root) beer loving rodents and their story into the shared universe. Same with the Cowboys of Moo Mesa, a real thing that existed and even had an arcade game from Konami of all people (the game was a blatant but surprisingly playable Sunset Riders clone). Then there’s stuff like the Great Garloo, a Creature from the Black Lagoon looking guy with no story to speak of, being given the personality of a wisecracking comedian that happens to resemble the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The panel was 10/10, would recommend to anyone the least bit interested in understanding how a franchise works. But I don’t know if that means the Nacelleverse will be the big franchise that they want it to be.

Unfortunately, while shorts and ads are online, along with the website, I don’t have the one thing that ties this whole thing together. The opening for Roboforce from Cartoon Conrad. As per their discussion, they specifically went with Conrad to make a loud, Western style opening with an opening theme song that bludgeons you over the head with the blunt end of the show’s premise.

Knowing the way these things go, by the time Biker Mice comes out and is ready to air, Hasbro will have an Energon Universe cartoon animated by Studio Trigger.

Robo Force (Alt builds) (@toyfinity) #glyos #roboforce #zeroids #toyfinity #maxxsteele #robot #white #black #80stoys #toys #toyphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci8PbQEu5Bs/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

🤔🤔🤔• @toysnacelle 📸 @brianvolkweiss We’ve been getting a lot of concerned emails from people who have already purchased our Robo Force line asking questions like “what if the suction cups don’t work?” Well, every problem has a solution! So we’re launch a new line of Suction Cup Fluid bottles that only cost $89.89 per unit! It’s made of entirely 100 percent hydrogen and oxygen atoms with absolutely nothing artificial included. We get these atoms from a very very special source that is really hard to access! So please go to our web site and order as many water, I mean hydrogen and oxygen atoms, bottles as you want! This stuff works!! #roboforce #maxxsteele #nacellecompany #nacelletoys #deathbytoys #toysthatmadeus #atoystorenearyou #water #thisisajoke https://www.instagram.com/p/CfhwO9sO6VR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Preview: Oni Press' Roboforce #1 introduces round one of the NacelleVerse

The NacelleVerse is finally here in comic book form, as publisher Oni Press delivers Roboforce #1 to comics shops next week.

I Love Maria - David Chung & Tsui Hark 1988

ROBO FORCE #1 cover. Oni Press's streak of giving me fun characters to draw continues! This is the first of what will be three connecting covers. I'll post parts two and three as soon as I can. Robo Force #1 hits the stands April 2024.

This is Rhoald Marcellius' variant cover for RoboForce #1 (Oni Press, April 2024)

Preview: Roboforce #1

Roboforce #1 begins in 2091, a little over a year after the RoboForce were rendered obsolete, replaced by the superior Utopia Aegis 101 bots #comics #comicbooks

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Tony Leung in 鐵甲無敵瑪利亞 / I Love Maria (1988)