October 12th, 2009
Lil Formers #167: Centurions
Centurions was one of my fav shows in the 80s. I still love this opening. Bill Woodson narration(from Superfriends), plus Jack Kirby & Gil Kane designs(heard of them?), plus Sunrise animation(Gundam) equals AWESOME SAUCE.
When I was a kid I had Jake Rockwell + Detonator, and Hacker. I don’t know what happened to them over the years but they’re totally gone…HOWEVER! A friend of mine gave me a near complete Jake Rockwell + Detonator + Wild Weasel for a gift recently. So cool.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:54 am
Dude! I remember Centurions!
That show is pure awesome!
October 12th, 2009 at 3:14 am
i remember this now..they showed this on reruns on toonami YEARS ago..haha. i was sad they didnt have toys of these in the 90’s.. =[
October 12th, 2009 at 3:24 am
Man. That was awesome!
October 12th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Yay! I’m too young to get this joke…
October 12th, 2009 at 3:40 am
I remember that hot chick. Oh..how I miss her! Ooooh
October 12th, 2009 at 5:05 am
Oh man! I remember I used to have a couple Centurions t-shirts when I was in elementary school.
October 12th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Yay more Centurions, I was talking to my friend about doing a Centurions theme for next halloween. (this years batman)
October 12th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Now I’m going to have to start searching the internets again!
There was a live action thing - short lived - which was similar. It was done by the same guy who later did Babylon 5.
And here it is - Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M678PVOf5F0
The similarities are obvious - this is the intro.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I think this is my favorite strip of yours ever. My husband and I still watch Centurions (found someone selling DVDs of the Boomerang reruns on Ebay years ago). And we do an RPG of it too, because we’re nerds.
Power Xtreme!
October 12th, 2009 at 9:10 am
this show rocked!! when TFs and G:I Joe weren’t being broadcasted back in the early 90’s I watched this. pure awesome!!
October 12th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Power Extreme! It’s been too long. Too long.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:36 am
in the near future, doc terror and his cyborg companion hacker, unleash their forces to conquer earth and only one team can stop them…
October 12th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Yeah Centurions was freaky awesome!! .I always felt Centurions edned leaving too many things open and just when the wolrd around centurions had started getting interesting (showing up there was a certain social prejudice agaisnt cyborgs that lead the brith of doc terror-what NAME FOR a VILLAIN!!)
October 12th, 2009 at 11:28 am
I loved this show. I used to have the Ace McCloud figure.
Baron. Didn’t Doc Terror become a cyborg because his lab machines fell on him crushing the [left?] side of his body because Hacker had a tantrum because he couldn’t be turned back into a human?
October 12th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
That was an awesome show. I want more lil’turions.
October 12th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I remenber this cartoon^^
I hope the cartoon ave a live movie.
without Michael bay direction XD
October 12th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Sweet Matt! Awesome show. Hilarious Panel! Can I make a request for next week? I will be entering Basic Training for the Army on Monday the 19th. Would it be possible for an early lil’formers on Sunday? If not, no big deal. Have a great six months! I look forward to the archives!
October 12th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Hooray! Power Extreme!
October 12th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I’m… too young to get the joke. So I don’t understand why everyone keeps saying ‘Power Extreme!’
October 12th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
@Jarkes:
It’s sort of their catchphrase. The say “Power Extreme!” when their weapons systems get beamed down for their space station.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
It was also the tagline for the toys, if I recall correctly. The cartoon just finished another airing on Boomerang (not showing it now, for some reason), and I have two issues of the DC Comics somewhere around here. Ace was my favorite. Never had the toys.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
I still have the guy in the green armor somewhere, I gave him to my son to play with and the arm came off, but he still likes the guy because he is so big.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Yeah I’m too young a kid to know who the centurions are but my brother probably watched it
October 13th, 2009 at 12:02 am
My parents bought them for us. I got Ace, and my sisters got Max and Jake.
I always thought Jake was the lamest. I don’t know why.
I remember wondering how those holes in the suits worked without hurting them (as in this comic). It probably contributed to one or two of my kinks.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:11 am
The Venture Brothers did a great parody of the Centurions, in the season 3 finale. This was great as well.
October 13th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Ah the Centurions, a very merchandise-cetric show if there ever was one.
I remember a humorous article that examined a very contrived plot involving Doc Terror’s daughter posing as some scientist that was in charge of a device that the head mook just ended up breaking in and stealing… from her… for her
…yeah. Wish I could find it.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Nice….POWER EXTREME!!!
October 13th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
A second comic featuring the Centurions! Was wondering if we’d ever see them again. I remember Jake as my favourite since he always had the most badass weapons… although he must have got a hernia carrying all that stuff
@MarauderDeuce: Captain Power… wasn’t that where you fired the toys at the TV show and scored points? Now that was a concept ahead of its time!
October 13th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
thats quite funny. why give a swedish prime minister a weapon like that anyway? and he probaly forgot to say power blah blah blah
October 13th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
To this day the only thing I can think of when I see Max Ray is Tom Selleck and Magnum PI…
October 13th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
DEFINATLY A LOT OF halloween props
you are definatly influencing a few costumes this year Matt.
happy 3o days of evil pumpkins
^__^
awesome
@all of the YOUNG’UNS back in the day when our violence was LAW
and no one came back from the dead in the cartoons . and there were actual tech designs that kicked ASS
The THUNDERTANK , COBRA H.I.S.S. tank , ( all the silverhawks toyline ) destro’s MAMBA helecopter and Captain power the original home virtual reality game WOOT .
you know , THE SAME THINGS that Brian Singer ( writer / director for XMEN 1-2 ) grew up with
JAGANAR
October 13th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
@Endocrom:
You know what else was merchandise-driven? The original Transformers. Well, okay, all Transformers is merchandise-driven, but the original show sacrificed logical plot for “Buy these cool new toys!” In fact, the story editors even admitted that they emphasized “action over plot.” And let’s not forget the contradictory “Origins of Transformers…” …Wait, didn’t we go over that part in the Skids strip? …Yeah, we did. XD
October 13th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I’m probably going to be accused of blasphemy for the above comment… XD
October 14th, 2009 at 1:11 am
I remember Centurions. Good show. Who was the 4th guy added later in the series?
October 14th, 2009 at 8:43 am
@NANASHI ERU
wactching Centurions on boomerang ^__^
i have to say “His name was Robert Paulsen”
…. Meatloaf Aday
tho it was Robert when he was out of fight-club.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Oh, I knew I heard that voice from somwhere..
Super Friends!!! We have some of those old cartoons on *gasp* VHS!!!
We called them the “stupid friends” because the hall of doom is flying away in the sky and Superman is like “We’ll catch them next time!” and we’re like “YOU CAN FLY YOU IDIOT!!”
October 14th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
@Nanashi Eru:
The original Centurions:
-Jake Rockwell(Land)
-Ace McCloud (Air)
-Max Ray (water)
New Centurions:
-Rex Charger (Energy)
-John Thunder (Infiltration)
October 14th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
I remember the show, I get the joke but you guys always do better. What gives this time. It wasn’t very good.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:01 am
hey matt :
um does this mean that SKYVAULT tactical & support has been outsourced O_o
maybe thats why this happend ???
October 16th, 2009 at 1:26 am
@Jarkes:
Well, I never said Transformers wasn’t merchandise driven. It’s not like highlander, there CAN be more than one.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:29 am
The only (ONLY) toy I never had was Doc Terror. To this day, I have a trunk filled with these guys and all the different assault systems and… and… <3
October 17th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Many, you’re lucky. I was only able to find out about them in the 90’s due to reruns on cartoon network. By then they weren’t making toys anymore.
But hey, where’s the remake for this? Transformers, G.I.Joe, He-Man, hell, even Thundercats have at some point been looked into for a contemporary series, when are we gonna get some new Centurions?
Never was a fan of villains (I did like the troops they used though) but I loved the heroes. Why not make the baddies all cylon-ey? Give it a Warren Ellis makeover like GI Joe Resolute.
Check out my site, gives tips on how to get people into comics.
October 18th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Centurions rule!
October 18th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I seem to be the only one in my group of friends that remembers this, still awesome strip, would really like to see a revitalised version of this
November 12th, 2009 at 7:31 am
i must say Matt, i was getting pretty bored of ur recent Un-Formers strips… but really loved this one! this show was was very unique (and much better than Captain Power!). i always wanted a Jake+Hornet toy!
November 20th, 2009 at 4:48 am
OMYGOSH! Poor Rainfeldt! XD (That’s currently the Swedish Prime minister) Why is it always us? XD
December 1st, 2009 at 12:55 am
Centurions are like the lego of Action Figures
December 1st, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Ooch, that’s gotta smart.
I only ever saw the earlier series ; I never even knew till quite recently (gods bless the internet!) that they later picked up some new weapons systems and a couple of extra recruits.
As for the toys, I had Ace (with Skyknight) and Max (with Cruiser and Tidal Blast). Might actually still have them in the basement, actually.
Although I also had a lot of fun building my own weapons systems for the old LEGO Technic figures (the taller, more articulated ones). With the peg-holes in the legs, they were ideal for mimicking the Centurions’ exoframes!
March 24th, 2010 at 6:05 am
По-моему, не стоит заморачиваться на эту тему.