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I just found out (a year late) that both seasons of Exosquad are available for free on Peacock! Season 2 never got DVD release and has been unavailable online for years. Not to mention that the show had a short run in odd time slots when it was originally aired on broadcast TV.
When you look at the animation, writing, voice work, themes and overall execution it still holds up today and compares very well against other Mecha shows of the 80s and 90s. Plus there's no interrupting the action with middling pop music!
Any other fans of the series here? I loved it as a kid and have begun giving my old Exosquad toys to my son. It's up there with Batman the Animated Series in my 90s cartoon pantheon.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/05/11 11:23:14
I fething love exosquad. I have a bootleg dvd set of the whole series from like... 10 years ago. If they ever release this show in even a decent quality blu ray I will buy the hell out of it.
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Almost didn't, but I gave the toy to my son last week.
I don't think I ever saw every episode of the second season (bought the season 1 DVD a few years back but 2 was never released) but the series stuck really stuck with me and I'm going to now. No doubt it's a kids show designed to sell toys, but it definitely had deeper themes (much like BtAS) and a good overarching storyline.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/05/11 20:23:02
It has fantastic themes of racism and cycles of retribution because of the mistreatment of people. Episode 1 opens with a war crime. The last few episodes have some amazing speeches by one of the series main characters Marsala. And sometimes, major characters just die. Not in a blaze a glory. Not in dramatic ways. Just "I can't shake him!" ::Boom::.
The leader J.T. Marsh looses someone on a mission and has PTSD about it for the rest of the show. It's incredibly adult for being a kids shows about brightly colored power armor from the 80/90s.
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This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/05/11 20:50:42
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Over here Exosquad was aired after we got the full run of Robotech, so it didn't have quite as big of an impact, but still, it is a really good series, with all amounts of heroism, pettiness, stupidity, selflessness, selfishness... that you can find in good war stories.
And it was a very good war story, all told. I loved it.
Love that show, was ahead of it's time in certain themes, though never got to see it as a kid, I barely caught battletech when it was on.
But I caught it as an adult when it was on hulu before it went paywall, probably appreciated it more than if I had seen it when I was younger.
The expanse series gave me some exosquad vibes, I would totally watch a live action version if that production crew did it.
Am watching the first episode with my son now.
Hopefully he enjoys it as much as I did.
cuda1179 wrote:I loved exosquad. My toys are totally complete and in mint condition.
My biggest gripe about the toys was that they were just a tad smaller than my vintage GI Joe toys.
Count me Jealous. Mine aren't trashed, but definitely missing a few bits here and there and not minty.
Lance845 wrote:It has fantastic themes of racism and cycles of retribution because of the mistreatment of people. Episode 1 opens with a war crime. The last few episodes have some amazing speeches by one of the series main characters Marsala. And sometimes, major characters just die. Not in a blaze a glory. Not in dramatic ways. Just "I can't shake him!" ::Boom::.
The leader J.T. Marsh looses someone on a mission and has PTSD about it for the rest of the show. It's incredibly adult for being a kids shows about brightly colored power armor from the 80/90s.
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That's an excellent overview of the series and the themes.
PondaNagura wrote:Love that show, was ahead of it's time in certain themes, though never got to see it as a kid, I barely caught battletech when it was on.
But I caught it as an adult when it was on hulu before it went paywall, probably appreciated it more than if I had seen it when I was younger.
The expanse series gave me some exosquad vibes, I would totally watch a live action version if that production crew did it.
I remember the Battletech cartoon. I think ExoSquad had better (and sturdier) toys and a better show, but I enjoyed both even though I didn't see nearly as much BT show. Most of my Battletech toys are in much better shape because I lucked into an almost complete set as an adult. Wish I hadn't sold off the Mauler... Another interesting item I picked up is the "First Sommerset Strikers" sourcebook. Which covers the whole cartoon and -despite a few incompatibilities and inconsistencies- attempts to fit it into the Battletech Cannon.
I really wish there had been some sort of tech manual for Exo Squad. The Wiki is nice and all but you can't beat a well illustrated dead-tree edition.
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Hulksmash wrote: This sparked joy. I actually finally downloaded Peacock and watched the first episode.
What did you think of it?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/05/14 22:57:15
It held up to my memory. I'm excited to watch it again. I used to watch before leaving for school in middle school. Excited to see the more adult themes I missed in the cool sci-fi booms as a kid.
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Hulksmash wrote: It held up to my memory. I'm excited to watch it again. I used to watch before leaving for school in middle school. Excited to see the more adult themes I missed in the cool sci-fi booms as a kid.
That's great to hear.
My son and I watched through the first two episodes and he says he liked it better than Robotech and Gundam. He has toys from all of them, but he things Exo-Squad (and I agree) is the best show. As the video reviewer suggested, it really does have some heavy themes and dark undertones. I knew they were there, but I think I'd forgotten how quick they come. We're definitely looking forward to watching more.
Finished the series. Really good stuff. Definitely recommended and worth your time. My son says it's his favorite Mech cartoon and I agree.
One caveat.
If you like resolution I do recommend that you either skip the last episode or stop the last episode just as JT Marsh steps into Colleen O'Riley's hanger.
The series wraps up everything pretty nicely and then drops a huge and unnecessary plot expansion and cliffhanger at the very end of the last episode.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/10/21 21:00:08
Eilif wrote: Finished the series. Really good stuff. Definitely recommended and worth your time. My son says it's his favorite Mech cartoon and I agree.
One caveat.
If you like resolution I do recommend that you either skip the last episode or stop the last episode just as JT Marsh steps into Colleen O'Riley's hanger.
The series wraps up everything pretty nicely and then drops a huge and unnecessary plot expansion and cliffhanger at the very end of the last episode.
When I originally watched Exosquad and saw the final couple minutes I had a bit of a nerdgasm. One of those alien mech things was a toy my aunt had given me several years prior. I'm pretty sure the toy company had acquired the rights to someone else's toy line at that point.
You could get the exo-squad mecha and some of the macross mecha - in the USA at least, they were available through the same company.
They used to have the occasional colour advert on GDW's house organ "Challenge" (gaming magazine put out by the company that published Traveller amongst others - but also allowed content for games they didn't publish**.).
**GW only allowed D&D stuff in WD magazine because they had the UK publishing rights for D&D.
I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.
That is not dead which can eternal lie ...
... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
Little late to the party, but yes. You can say I'm a fan of the series. I'm the Admin of r/exosquad, founder of the Exo-wiki, owner of the Exosquad Discord server, am working on a Visual novel project to pitch to Universal and helped launch the Exosquad Archive.... and a good portion of the images found online are mine.
I remember the Battletech cartoon. I think ExoSquad had better (and sturdier) toys and a better show, but I enjoyed both even though I didn't see nearly as much BT show. Most of my Battletech toys are in much better shape because I lucked into an almost complete set as an adult. Wish I hadn't sold off the Mauler... Another interesting item I picked up is the "First Sommerset Strikers" sourcebook. Which covers the whole cartoon and -despite a few incompatibilities and inconsistencies- attempts to fit it into the Battletech Cannon.
Offically the cartoon exists in universe and was a FedCom childrens propaganda flick. Nikoli Mlathus tried to sue the fedcom Boradcasting corperation for character assasination....
The trial found against him and he was arrested when he attempted to issue a Batchall to the judge
Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two
Little late to the party, but yes. You can say I'm a fan of the series. I'm the Admin of r/exosquad, founder of the Exo-wiki, owner of the Exosquad Discord server, am working on a Visual novel project to pitch to Universal and helped launch the Exosquad Archive.... and a good portion of the images found online are mine.
Hmmm.... Maverike_prime you seem like a good person to ask. I have a bunch of the boxes my Exosquad toys came in from back in the day that I found in my parents' attic. The toys are on a display shelf at home, but are there people out there who are just looking for the boxes?
Little late to the party, but yes. You can say I'm a fan of the series. I'm the Admin of r/exosquad, founder of the Exo-wiki, owner of the Exosquad Discord server, am working on a Visual novel project to pitch to Universal and helped launch the Exosquad Archive.... and a good portion of the images found online are mine.
Very cool!
My son and I enjoyed reading much of the material on the WIKI.
With all of the "Retro" toys coming out- Where are my E Frames in either 3- 3/4 inch, or 6 inch?
The show was ahead of it's time. Top Tier watching and it was harder core then most things out there at the time. Back when Sci Fi was getting more edgy and had to work at it to earn an audience.
Amazingly, I liked this one a lot better then the BattleTech one, that was out like a year or two earlier.
At Games Workshop, we believe that how you behave does matter. We believe this so strongly that we have written it down in the Games Workshop Book. There is a section in the book where we talk about the values we expect all staff to demonstrate in their working lives. These values are Lawyers, Guns and Money.
Easy E wrote: I started watching, but got hung up and could not continue shortly after we find out that those space trains of Terrans are being flown.....
Spoiler:
Straight into the sun!
That former space cop character.... I do not relate to that guy at all.....
It definitely deals with some hard material. Not unusual for Anime, but not as common in saturday morning cartoons.
Sean Napier (the cop) has a pretty good character arc. Definitely starts out as a loose cannon with some issues though. Gets interesting when his ex-wife comes into the picture.
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Grot 6 wrote: With all of the "Retro" toys coming out- Where are my E Frames in either 3- 3/4 inch, or 6 inch?
The show was ahead of it's time. Top Tier watching and it was harder core then most things out there at the time. Back when Sci Fi was getting more edgy and had to work at it to earn an audience.
Amazingly, I liked this one a lot better then the BattleTech one, that was out like a year or two earlier.
I don't find it surprising that you enjoyed it more than Battletech. I think it's just done better. I like the 1st Sommerset Strikers as much as anyone, but Exo Squad had better characters and story in my opinion and I like the classic animation style better than the hybrid style of BT. However, I think that Battletech is the more promising franchise these days for new TV shows, movies, merch, etc.
I was digging though my gaming stuff this weekend and I found my nearly complete set (no Mauler, sold that a long time ago) of the first wave of toy Mechs and Pilots that were released for the Battletech show. Fun stuff but they're a bit to big to convert into my 28mm Mech games so I gotta decide whether to keep them or sell them...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/07/05 20:35:37