Does anyone remember Star Wars Droids?
Star Wars Droids is without a doubt the biggest wastes of a golden opportunity. Star Wars was huge hit at the movies and in the toy isles. So obviously George Lucas decided to cash in on the 80’s toy and cartoon trend like MOTU, G.I. Joe Thundercats etc.
Of course it seems a fore gone conclusion that it would make perfect sense to make a Star Wars cartoon. After all everyone loved the characters from the movie and would no doubt want to see further adventures based on them. Maybe stories before the events of a New Hope like or all the adventures after the fall of the Empire in Return of the Jedi etc.
But no that would be to simple. Instead we got a cartoon of the adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Fun characters in the film but undoubtedly the least interesting of the main hero characters in the movie.
And that is only the start of the shows problems.
First of all an awful theme tune…which remarkably was written by a member of the Police (the band not some random law enforcement officer…all though in that scenario it might have sounded better).
Poor animation. Not even up to the standard of the weakest Sunbow animation like Transformers season three.
One of the most boring opening title sequences in all of 80’s animation…which believe it or not has more action and excitement than in any of the episodes in the season.
Aside from R2-D2 and a brief appearance from Boba Fett no other character from the films appears.
It only lasted 13 episodes, yet in those 13 episodes they have three story arcs so basically no real characterization. They made toys of some of these figures that appeared in basically 4-5 episodes each. At least a few of the other 13 episode cartoons had the main cast appear in the vast majority of the episodes.
It didn’t even get any of the music from the movies to at least help it feel a little like Star Wars.
Then to top this all off, the fact that CBS were against guns so all the Stormtroopers and characters are going around with staffs etc. that shoot lasers and not the iconic weapons from the movies.
It is such a shame we got the Star Wars Droids cartoon when you think of what could have been. A Star Wars cartoon with the movie cast, done by quality Japanese animation studio and a bunch of quality American animation writers with 65-130 episodes would have without a doubt been one of the best…if not the best 80’s cartoons.
I’ve never seen Star Wars: Droids, but I’ve seen a RetroBlasting video on YouTube about it.
Very well said! George Lucas wanted to cash in on the Star Wars mania, but instead of an animated Star Wars cartoon featuring Luke, Han, Leia etc. he created “Star Wars Droids”. I have little to almost no memory of that show, but I do remember another equally weird Lucas creation, the “Ewoks” cartoons. I think I did own two of its episodes on VHS. So it would seem that Lucas was basically creating animated shows of the secondary characters only. 
Weird isn’t it. I like R2-D2 and C-3PO…in fact C-3PO was the first Star Wars figure I ever owned…but do I really want to see a show on all their adventures? No. Maybe one episode would be okay but not a full season.
It’s kind of like if Rankin Bass had decided to make a show about Snarf’s adventures before becoming Lion-O’s nurse maid.
When you have awesome A-List characters like Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Lando and Darth Vader why try and let B and C list characters have their own show?
In fairness to Ewoks it was a far superior show with a better writing team. '‘Ash’'a is an excellent episode that still brings a tear to my eye every time I watch it. Oddly enough I watched a bit of ‘‘Home is Where the Shrieks are’’ this morning.
Also Mungo Baobab and Admiral Screed were kind of cool characters.
Check out this old commercial for the Droids toy line:
Those vehicles were awesome. Oddly enough, aside from the opening credits the A-Wing barely appears in the cartoon. From what I seen I didn’t notice the Side Gunner in the cartoon.