Around the time of the first two seasons of ReBoot were airing, a range of different merchandise and promotional tie ins were made available. The majority of this consisted of the toy line, which was produced by the Canadian company Irwin Toys. This toy line was made up of several waves of 5.5 inch action figures and a few vehicles and playsets.
The first wave of action figures had 7 figures of the principal characters; Bob, Dot, Enzo, Megabyte, Hexadecimal, Hack and Slash. While Bob, Dot, and Enzo don't exactly have the best likenesses of their TV counterparts and the amount of articulation varied between figures, these are all fun figures with some great play features and accessories. Bob has various Glitch accessories that attach to his forearm, Dot comes with Cecil, Enzo comes with a zip board that is compatible with Bob, Megabyte has detachable legs, a moving jaw and retractable claws on one hand, Hexadecimal comes with interchangeable masks, and Hack and Slash explode when you press down on them. There was also a limited edition figure of Bob in his Jet Ball outfit from Talent Night that was also released in this wave.
All of the figures in this wave came with a pink 'delete disk' that was compatible with the Bob's Car vehicle. This playset seats two figures (every figure other than Megabyte, Hack, and Slash can be seated inside), has an opening bonnet which contains the disk launcher, a boot that opens revealing an interchangeable vid window (which can be changed to feature either Enzo or Megabyte), and it also has a rumble feature similar to the scene in Medusa Bug when it wouldn't start.
There was also a range of non articulated 3 inch figurines. This range included Bob (standing and on zip board), Dot, Enzo (with and without package), Megabyte (with and without a gun), Hexadecimal, Hack, Slash, Phong, and Frisket. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find decent pictures of these online, but I owned all of these when I was younger, and their likenesses weren't the best asides from Hack, Slash, Frisket, and Phong.
There was also a small range of micro playsets in a similar vein to the Mighty Max playsets released by Mattel/Bluebird in the early to mid 90's. These were in the shape of a character's head, and opened up to reveal the playset and all the figures inside of it. Three of these were produced, Megabyte's Throne Room, Hexadecimal's Lair, and Hack and Slash's Vehicle Bay (the latter being my introduction to the series, as stated in my introductory post at the start of this retrospective). All playsets came with delete disks that could be fired from the detachable disk launchers that came with the playsets. These ones were distinguishable from the ones that came with the action figures since they were green rather than pink.
Three more waves of figures were released by Irwin for the show's second season. The first of these waves had six figures that all come packaged with a small binome figure. The figures in this wave were Bob (with Old Man Pearson) and Dot (with a repainted 3 inch Phong) in their prison guard uniforms from The Tiff, Enzo in his Season 2 '10' outfit (with Mike the TV), Frisket (with a repackaged Cecil), Medusa Bug Infected Megabyte (with Cyrus), and Web Creature Infected Hexadecimal (with Skuzzy). The likenesses of Bob and Enzo are greatly improved from the previous wave, and it's great to have alternative versions of the characters as well as Frisket who hadn't been released in this scale, even if this wave and the next two are incredibly rare in comparison to the first wave.
The next wave was made up of 7 figures, and these ones all changed colour when cooled. Bob appears to be in his outfit from The Great Brain Robbery, Dot is in her wizard outfit from Wizards, Warriors, and a Word from our Sponsor, and Enzo is in his outfit from Racing the Clock. Megabyte, Hexadecimal, Hack, and Slash all have different coloured splatters on them. Again, it's great to have alternative outfits for the heroes, although the colour change feature is more of a gimmick.
The last wave of figures came with a CD Rom that contained trivia on the show and a tour of Mainframe amongst other things. These were all alternative forms of the characters not seen in figure form at that point. Bob is wearing his Mad Max outfit from Bad Bob, Dot is wearing her dress from Talent Night, Enzo is in his Guardian Cadet uniform given to him by Bob in Web World Wars, Frisket is an interesting one since he's taking the form of a 'Hell Hound' which doesn't appear until next season, Megabyte is in his Web Infected form seen in Nullzilla and Gigabyte, and Hack and Slash have their fists replaced with guns. This is an interesting wave of figures, and it's great to see these new versions of the characters represented in figure form.
Another vehicle was released alongside these waves, this one being Dot's Exo Skeleton from Infected. While this was a very cool looking toy, it unfortunately wasn't incredibly sturdy, so it was prone to breaking.
As well as this, there was a small expansion to the Micro Playsets range. Two mini vehicles were produced, an ABC vehicle that fired two missiles and Mouse's Submarine from The Great Brain Robbery that had movable claws. There was also a larger playset of Megatruck from Bad Bob that was 5 playsets in one. Unfortunately, the Mouse's submarine playset features the only figure released of Mouse.
The catalogue pages below show that there were some toys produced that never made it to store shelves. These include a range of micro vehicles, two different plush toys of Frisket in different scales, and a five in one toy of Glitch. Prototypes were definitely produced for these toys, but unfortunately they never made it to market. However, the one existing plush Frisket prototype is known to be in the possession of ReBoot Co Creator Ian Pearson. Another interesting note about these pages is that the Dot in the Binome wave of figures appears to come with a Captain Capacitor Binome instead of the repainted 3 inch Phong that the actual figure came packaged with.
There were also toys produced for various promotions with food companies. Kellogg's had a range of exclusive micro playsets and foil stickers. These playsets were smaller than the Irwin ones, and featured one or two plastic figures and double sided cardboard figures to fill out the cast of characters available. The playsets in this promotion were Megabyte's Throne Room, Hexadecimal's Lair, Bob's Apartment, and Dot's Diner.
In the UK, ReBoot's broadcast on CITV was sponsored by Skips crisps, who did a small range of bendable figures that were free with Skip's Tokens. They also had limited edition donut and pizza flavours which had ReBoot characters on the packets. The UK also had a range of 'Megabyte Biscuits'.
Outside of the toys, there was a wide range of other merchandise available. For instance, a range of Choose Your Own Adventure books where you guide the characters on an adventure by navigating from section to section. Most of these were original adventures, but there was also one based on the episode 'Racing the Clock'. HTML versions of these books can be played here: http://purplemagpie.0catch.com/reboot/adventure/?fbclid=IwAR1QCwQ9h7XAryph1GN5xE6hmUZmaL5QxuaVDwdVjG5oNgf0HVza3juL4UE.
Two different board games were released (both confusingly called 'Mainframe Game'). The first is more of a strategy game, whereas the other appears to be a more typical kids board game. There was also an LCD handheld game similar to those produced by Tiger Electronics around the same time.
Trading card company Fleer Ultra produced a series of ReBoot Trading Cards which featured stills from the show and information about the characters, and a series of ReBoot Pogs was also produced (ReBoot Pogs is probably the most 90's thing ever).
There was also a ReBoot duvet set, lampshade, colouring book (and crayons), bubble bath, and toothbrushes produced as well as a Bob dressing up costume complete with a creepy looking mask that barely resembles Bob.
There was a lot more merchandise out there than this, but I just thought I'd point out some of the more interesting examples as well as overview the toy line which was the main focus of this post. Some more examples can be found on Haku's ReBoot Museum, which is where I took some of the pictures used in this post: http://haku.co.uk/ReBootMuseum/index.html
Nowadays, this merchandise is interesting to look back on based on how much was released and the variety of different items as well. The toy line was fun although it would have been nice to have seen figures for Mouse and AndrAIa. However, the action figure line ended up remaining dormant until 2001, around the time of the Fourth Season, but that's a story for another day.
Next week: We take a look at the first Imax Ridefilm, 'ReBoot: The Ride'
Here we are, at the finale of the four part arc that ends the second season of ReBoot. We've been heading down this road for quite a while, but now we're finally here. As a season finale, this episode manages to conclude the threat of the Web that's been established previously, but this episode is also potentially the show's biggest turning point so far...
Picking up from the end of the previous episode, the Web Portal is still hovering menacingly over Mainframe, and we see the entirety of the system preparing for war. Binomes are being evacuated to safe areas, Enzo and AndrAIa are manning cannons outside the Principle Office, Dot and Mouse are looking through the Principle Office armoury for something that might come in handy, and Megabyte is overseeing the construction of some kind of weapon. There's also a few Web Spores flying around, but they aren't attacking anything - yet. The CPU's are on standby, but then they are given the command to scramble, and they spring into action.
Bob is contacted by the head of the CPU attack force who informs him that the first line of defence is in position and awaiting his instructions. Bob instructs him that the troops are not to fire at anything until the Web's attack force arrives. Once he signs out, Bob is contacted by Megabyte, telling him to come to Silicon Tor as they have a small problem. It turns out the problem is Phong, who is refusing to ally himself with the virus. Bob reminds Phong that they need Megabyte's help in order to save Mainframe. Megabyte elaborates on the situation, pointing out that while the hardware is nearly complete, they don't currently have the software required to run it since Phong won't download it from the archives. Bob commands Phong to do so, and he signs off. Bob enquires about how the power source for the Hardware is doing, and Megabyte says that 'she's the same as always', revealling that the power source they are referring to is Hexadecimal. Bob tells him to ensure that she stays online before heading off. Just as he leaves, Hexadecimal appears, commenting that she loves the way that Bob and Megabyte work together, and how she feels it would be a shame to split up such a team. Megabyte reminds Hexadecimal that they are working towards a plan of some description. It's ambiguous, but clearly Megabyte intends to betray Bob in some fashion before this is over.
Back at the Principle Office, Mouse is apprehensive about working with Megabyte since she's worked with viruses previously and been double crossed every time. Dot consoles her by saying she feels the same way, but they all have a part to play; Megabyte's building the Hardware with Hexadecimal powering it and Mouse operating it and accessing the codes that will shut the portal. Dot seems relatively convinced that they won't be betrayed since the Web would just destroy them as well as Mainframe if they lost. Dot then comes out to join Mouse sporting a large cannon, and is slightly concerned that it makes her look too butch. Mouse asks Dot to watch her back while she works on the codes with Megabyte, and Dot tells her that's what the gun is for.
Enzo and AndrAIa are observing the Web Portal. AndrAIa contemplates how sad it is that something so beautiful can also be so deadly. Enzo tells her that he's never seen Bob team up with Megabyte or Hexadecimal on a level like this before. AndrAIa is confused about this, since where she's from, you destroy enemies when you encounter them, but here they seem to form alliances. She remarks about how 'You Guardians are too clever for me'. This prompts Enzo to try and come clean about him not actually being a Guardian, but is cut off by Bob's appearance, addressing Enzo as 'Cadet Matrix'. He asks why he's not in uniform, and that it's time he got suited up. Enzo is confused about this, but Bob whispers in his ear, asking him to follow along with him. Bob asks Enzo for his icon, and Bob then downloads Version 1.0 of the Guardian Protocal into Enzo's Icon. He then gives the icon back to Enzo, placing it on his chest. Enzo taps the icon, changing his clothing from his usual attire to a Guardian uniform. Bob informs him that once the war is over, he'll be transferred to the Super Computer to attend the academy and become a full fledged Guardian. Dot contacts Bob to inform him that Megabyte, Mouse, Hexadecimal and her are ready to go. Bob then heads off, but before he does, he tells Enzo that if anything were to happen to him, Enzo would be charged with defending Mainframe in his place.
The Hardware takes to the sky as Mouse begins hacking. Megabyte tells her that he takes it that she'll be able to crack the codes in time, and she tells him that she's not just getting the codes that will shut the portal, but is also hacking into the Web and erasing Mainframe's location, making it impossible for anyone to be able to locate Mainframe from the Web. This greatly pleases Megabyte. The CPU's are waiting in formation while various web spores are flying about. One CPU ends up cracking after getting scared by a spore flying right in front of his vehicle. He blows it up, which alarms the remaining spores. Bob orders the CPUs to prevent the remaining spores from getting back to the portal since they will summon the attack drones if they make it back.
The CPU's chase after the spores, and manage to take most of them out asides from two. While they're able to corner both of them, the last one is able to piggy back off of the other and reach the portal. Soon after, the attack spores make their way to Mainframe. Bob says that it's now a whole new ballgame, and they need to close the portal. Eventually, the CPU's get overwhelmed by the amount of spores, so Bob commands Megabyte to provide some support. Megabyte then contacts his lieutenant, and orders him to launch all their forces to support the CPU's.
Eventually, Mouse is able to successfully hack into their codes, and Hexadecimal has fully charged the Hardware just as Bob lands on the platform. Megabyte then begins putting his plan into action by slicing Dot's gun in half. Bob begins to command Glitch to do something, but he's prevented from doing so by Megabyte grabbing him and covering his mouth with one arm. He uses his free hand to take Glitch from Bob, crushing it and ordering his subordinate to press a large red button which causes a small capsule to ascend to the platform. Megabyte throws Bob inside, and the doors seal shut as soon as he enters.
Bob shouts at Megabyte, telling him he won't get away with this. Megabyte brushes this off and continues with his operation, ordering Herr Doktor to launch the capsule. However, Mouse stops him from doing so. With her sword at the ready, she stands between Megabyte and the button, threatening to attack if he comes any closer. However, she ends up getting knocked back by Hexadecimal, who appears from behind. Megabyte gives Bob an incredibly menacing look before pressing the button, launching the capsule into the Web. Once the capsule enters the portal, Megabyte presses another button that activates the Hardware. The large cannon takes aim at the portal and fires, causing it to disappear.
With Bob now gone, Dot picks up Glitch. She has no time to lament his loss, however, since Hexadecimal begins approaching her, ready to kill. Luckily, Dot is saved by Mouse firing some kind of beam at Hexadecimal's face, weakening her temporarily. Mouse and Dot then flee in Mouse's ship. Megabyte then orders his forces to destroy the remaining spores and then attack the CPU's. Hexadecimal then begins to recharge the weapon, pointing at the Principle Office.
Obviously, this is the darkest the show has got so far. You might be asking yourself 'How on Earth did the showrunners manage to get away with taking things this far with BSNP on their backs?'. Well, there is a reason why the show was able to get this dark that I haven't mentioned so far based on something that happens in this episode, which is also why I've neglected to name the tanks used by Megabyte's forces until now.
In the Principle Office, we see several CPU's celebrating, unaware of what's happened to Bob and what's going to happen to their remaining attack force. We then cut to Binky and Algy (the latter of whom was voiced by Co Creator Gavin Blair), the British Fighter Pilot Binomes who've made a few appearances so far. They're pursuing a spore that then gets destroyed by two of Megabyte's tanks. Once the spore has been destroyed, the tanks begin to shoot at Binky and Algy's vehicle. Binky turns to Algy and says 'It's the ABC's! They've turned on us!', with Algy replying 'Treacherous Dogs!'.
So Megabyte's tanks are named ABC's (which stands for 'Armoured Binome Carrier'), named after the network that was airing ReBoot in the US who's broadcasting standards division 'BSNP' heavily restricted the kind of content that ended up in the show. At some point during the production of Season 2, ABC was purchased by Disney, who then subsequently cancelled all children's shows on the network that were being produced externally, of which ReBoot was one of the casualties. Knowing that the show was going to be cancelled regardless, Gavin, Ian, and Phil decided to ignore BSNP and just do what they wanted to do. Of course, they couldn't take things too far, but they had enough freedom to shake off the shackles placed upon them by BSNP, resulting in the darker, slightly more complex storylines.
Back at the Principle Office, Algy contacts Phong, telling him that the ABC's are attacking them before being cut to static. Phong tries to contact Bob, only for Dot to tell him that Bob won't be able to hear him. When Phong asks what happened to Bob, Dot simply says that it's bad, very bad. Dot then bends down to Enzo, and hands him Glitch. As she does so, AndrAIa moves her hands to her mouth in shock. Upon being handed Glitch, Enzo lets out a loud 'NOOOOOOOOO!'.
Megabyte and Hexadecimal then contact the Principle Office via VidWindow, telling those inside that everything they did was for nothing, and as they speak, their CPU's are being shot out of the sky. He commands that Phong drops all the Principle Office defences, welcoming everyone to Megaframe. Phong, however, declares that they will fight Megabyte to the last. Megabyte then says that since they've lost their Guardian, nothing can stand in their way, and Mainframe is now his for the taking. AndrAIa corrects him, saying that they do have a Guardian. Enzo places Glitch onto his arm, and in a mirror of the show's opening credits, says 'Two Viruses Take Over My Home?! I don't think so!' as him, Dot, and AndrAIa pose and the show's logo drops down with the words 'End Prog?' in the bottom corner of the screen.
Seeing as how there was no telling if the show was ever going to come back after this episode, it was a pretty bold move for them to potentially end the entire show like this; Bob is lost in the Web, potentially dead, Megabyte and Hexadecimal are in a position to take over with only Enzo, a young boy with no prior training, standing in their path. Thankfully, the show didn't end up ending here, but at the time this episode aired in early 1996, the show's creators had no idea if they would ever get to make any more ReBoot.
As for this episode as a whole, it's a really good episode, the culmination point of everything we've had earlier in the season. I'll get onto it later in this entry when I talk about the season as a whole, but overall, the build up leading up to this episode within the show is pretty interesting to watch, and it's a great pay off to everything we've had from Nullzilla.
At least half of this episode is taken up by the battle with The Web, this menace that's invaded Mainframe and threatens to destroy it unless our heroes can get rid of it. The battle sequence is full of adrenaline, mainly being fought by the CPU's and the ABC's, but the main cast gets involved as well. It's great seeing Bob act as a more serious commander type. While Bob is normally more laid back and cracking jokes, this episode has him play it more seriously because, of course, there's no jokes to be made within the face of potential Armageddon.
This episode also has a few great quiet, subtle moments between the characters. I particularly love the scene where Dot and Mouse are talking while preparing for the battle about their mistrust of viruses and how they have no choice but to work alongside them. After their initial adversarial relationship to each other in Gigabyte, it's great to see them bonding and establishing a strong friendship.
Megabyte in this episode is also excellent. Early on in the episode, it's established that he has a plan to betray his alliance with Bob, but going into the episode, we're expected to believe that everything will be okay. Bob will put a stop to whatever Megabyte's planning to do, and the Web will be gone, and everything will potentially be back to normal once the episode ends. However, the complete opposite happens and Megabyte is able to best Bob and is now in a good position to take over Mainframe.
Megabyte's scheme is also pretty clever. We've established that Megabyte is intelligent in previous episodes, so of course, he knows that the Web will destroy him if Mainframe gets destroyed. This means he has to work with Bob in order to get rid of this threat. However, Megabyte also takes advantage of this threat, seeing it as an opportunity to get rid of Bob once and for all after the several times Bob has put an end to his schemes in previous episodes.
It's hard to tell if Bob was aware that Megabyte was planning something, or if it was just a precaution in case something might happen, but he puts a fallback in place in case anything were to happen to him; Enzo. Of course, his intention was for Enzo to go to the academy once the threat was over, but he said that if anything were to happen to him, that Enzo would be the one responsible for defending Mainframe in his absence. I'll go into this more in a later episode, but this results in some interesting developments for Enzo and his lack of preparation for defending Mainframe.
Bob's fate also does wonders for the show. Sure, Bob is a great character, but removing him from the show not only gives the other characters the chance to get the spotlight, but also puts their fates into perspective. As a character, Bob is the dependable hero who the other characters are able to rely on in order to save the day (although Dot is capable of this as well), but with him gone, who's going to fill that void? Also, what's to say a similar fate won't befall Dot? Or Enzo? Or Mouse?
Now for my thoughts on this season as a whole. Overall, this season is a massive step up from the previous season, which is done mainly through the improvements to the storytelling. While I enjoyed the previous season, I did find a fair few of the stories were lacklustre. This season, we've got much higher stakes and a greater sense of continuity between episodes as opposed to pushing the reset button at the end of every episode.
Speaking of the continuity, the way this season is structured is really clever. The opening episode, Infected, shows that Megabyte is a genuine force to be reckoned with when he takes matters into his own hands rather than allowing his minions to do the dirty work for him. The episode also reveals that Megabyte and Hexadecimal have some kind of family link, although we don't learn what that link is exactly until later. We previously got some hints of this last season, but we get the full extent of it in this episode. High Code is mostly filler since The Codemasters never show up again, but it is the first episode to mention The Web. It doesn't explain what it is, but it establishes it's existence prior to it's mention in 'Painted Windows' that it's going out of control and invading systems. Likewise, in High Code, Enzo is building his Air Kart which is fully built by the time of 'Bad Bob'.
When Games Collide is another filler episode, but it does feature Bob telling Enzo about the Super Computer, something that Dot scolds him for at the start of Bad Bob. The ending of Bad Bob is quite significant, as well, since Megabyte, sick of Bob always ruining his schemes is prepared to kill Bob then and there, but is prevented from doing so by the presence of the entire CPU infantry. He flees, but it's clear that Megabyte has not taken his latest defeat lightly, and the next time him and Bob face each other, it might not end so smoothly, which is of course, what happens when the two next meet in Web World Wars (technically, they encountered each other in Gigabyte, but Megabyte was acting towards the Web Creature's agenda rather than his own). Enzo is also forbidden from entering games in this episode, which becomes one of the key plot points in AndrAIa, which introduces both AndrAIa as a character and the back story that Dot and Enzo's father was responsible for the destruction of Mainframe's Twin City and the deletion of the majority of Sprites in the system.
Painted Windows also helps to set up the finale arc through placing Hexadecimal in Mike the TV's care, something which is a key part of Nullzilla since it was Mike the TV that allowed the Web Creature to enter by shattering Hexadecimal's looking glass. Likewise, Bad Bob, Painted Windows, and AndrAIa put everything in place ready for the start of the finale arc.
The finale arc itself does a great job of rounding out the season. The first two episodes have issues that are caused by a mysterious creature, and our heroes have to resolve them, only for hints at the end of each one showing that this creature is still out there, doing something. We also learn what Megabyte meant when he referred to Hexadecimal as 'family'; they are brother and sister, and Megabyte refers to his pet null Nibbles as 'father', although we aren't too sure what exactly he meant by that. Trust No One then ends on a relatively big cliffhanger that fully sets up the big finale, Web World Wars. The show also tackles more sinister ideas. One of these being The Web, a domain with more organic like beings compared to what we've seen before, and another big one being that the Guardians aren't 100% good either, being prepared to destroy entire systems for 'the greater good'.
This time around, Bob finds himself having to find alternative ways to resolve the episode's plots since Glitch is either somehow incapacitated or he's up against a foe that Glitch has no power over. Even when he has Glitch, he's not using it as frequently as he has done in the past. This makes him more interesting as a character as it shows us he has the skills needed to be a Guardian and doesn't need to rely on Glitch as a crutch to save the day.
Dot sadly doesn't get as much focus as she did last season. However, she's still as great as she was last season, and she has plenty of great moments across these episodes. I really like the fact that she has authority of the CPU defence force, showing that she has a position of significant power within Mainframe, and she's always somewhat involved within the plots of episodes (other than Trust No One where she's comatose for the majority of the episode).
This time, Enzo is getting a little more involved in the plots of episodes. This starts in High Code when he finds out the identity of Talon, and instinctively goes to find Bob in order to tell him this. Likewise, he gets involved in the plot of Bad Bob, and he's the driving force behind the plot of AndrAIa. However, for the most part, he's more of a background character. His most interesting development comes at the end of the episode with Bob upgrading him to a Guardian. Not much has come of this yet, but we'll cover that more when we look at Season 3.
As mentioned before, Megabyte this season really comes out of his shell, becoming a more active threat as opposed to just barking orders and rarely getting his hands dirty. We see that he is intelligent enough to know when he's beaten, but he knows how to take the advantage of a situation like in Web World Wars. Hexadecimal gets her finest hour this season in Painted Windows, where she manages to succeed where Megabyte failed in 'Infected' by reformatting Mainframe into her own warped image.
We also get a couple of new additions to the main cast this season. The return of Mouse adds another awesome woman character to a cast that's mainly comprised of men, and it's great to have someone who's a bit more morally ambiguous but still has their heart in the right place. The other big addition to the cast is AndrAIa, who hasn't done too much outside of her initial appearance, but will definitely be getting more to do next season.
Overall, in spite of getting cancelled by ABC, ReBoot's second season was still a success, at least on YTV in it's home country of Canada. The show's relative success also caught the attention of Hasbro, who contracted Mainframe to make a show based on the newest wave of their Transformers toy line known as 'Beast Wars: Transformers'. While this was predominantly a work for hire gig with the show being handled by writers Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward, Mainframe still heavily collaborated with the people at Hasbro in order to make the show. In spite of the show initially receiving backlash from Transformers fans regarding how different it was to the original (i.e. WHY DO THEY TURN INTO ANIMALS INSTEAD OF VEHICLES?! OPTIMUS PRIME IS A TRUCK, NOT A MONKEY! YOU HEAR THAT, HASBRO?! TRUKK NOT MUNKY!!! etc), the show eventually managed to win over fans by tying into preexisting Transformers lore and became one of the most beloved entries in the franchise over it's three season run from 1996 to 1998.
At some point during 1996, Mainframe received funding from YTV to make a third season of ReBoot. Contacting former head of children's television at ABC and one of the show's biggest allies Dan DiDio (who would later go on to become the head of DC comics), the show runners and DiDio got together in order to come up with the storyline for the show's third season. Without BSNP on their backs, they now had the freedom to take the show in any direction they wished...
Next week: We take a short break from looking over the series and take a look at some of the merchandise that was produced for the show's first two seasons.
While the show definitely had a relatively strong fanbase at the time (particularly in Canada), nowadays, ReBoot is somewhat a more obscure, cult show. However, back in the day, it was able to gain a couple of noteworthy fans. Actor Joe Mantegna's daughter was a fan at a young age (which surprised Bob's voice actor Michael Benyaer when he worked with the actor in 1996's Underworld, not to be confused with the 2003 vampire film) and former US President Bill Clinton was apparently a fan. However, the most interesting of these was X Files star Gillian Anderson.
At the time, Anderson was married to one of Mainframe Entertainment's production designers. Upon hearing that she was a fan of the show, Mainframe invited her for a tour of their production studio. Since The X Files was filmed in Vancouver anyway, it wasn't an issue for her to find time in her schedule to visit. A lot of the team working at Mainframe were fans of the show, so obviously there were several X Files posters dotted around the building. Upon passing one, Gillian would get out a pen and sign it. One animator asked her for a photo, and she proceeded to sit on his lap to get into position for the photo. While she was there, the showrunners asked her if she'd be interested in appearing in an episode, which she definitely was. As a result, Gavin, Ian, and Phil were tasked with finding a way to get Mulder and Scully into Mainframe, and the end result is the penultimate episode of the four part season finale arc.
Starting with a typical shot of the Principle Office, the camera then transports us all the way down to Mainframe's underbelly, stopping at the back alley of Al's. Al's Waiter is taking out the trash, but then we cut to the point of view of an unseen being, who is Al's Waiter from above. When he's least expecting it, whatever this being is makes it's way towards him and we cut to the title card for this episode, written in a green X Files esque font. We then see his unconscious body getting dragged away.
We then see Mouse enter Dot's Diner. Bob is already seated inside, and he invites Mouse to sit with him. Bob then orders two drinks from Cecil, but this just causes Cecil to rant about how he's in charge of the place while Dot is away. Bob asks Mouse what she's still doing in Mainframe, and she says she's got a couple of things to take care of before she leaves. A couple of CPU's then enter, telling their commander who is already seated inside that there's been another abduction, and that this time it's Al's Waiter. This then leads to a subtle joke where the commander says 'What?!' in a similar vein to Al himself. Bob isn't aware of these abductions, and the commander is about to fill him in when Enzo arrives to say that Dot's missing. This is confirmed by Ms Brody, Enzo's teacher, who says that since Dot failed to pick Enzo and AndrAIa from school, she felt the need to escort them home because of the abductions. The commander then tells Bob that there's been a string of disappearances down at Level 31, with Al's Waiter being the latest abductee. Cecil chips in to say that Dot was due to have a meeting with Al, so Bob heads off to find her, asking Mouse to escort Enzo and AndrAIa to the Principle Office. Soon after Bob leaves, she tasks Ms Brody and the CPU's to escort them instead since she has some unfinished business to attend to.
Bob enters the diner and starts to interrogate a waiter. The waiter tells him that Dot was due to meet Al but never showed up, but doesn't know any more than this. Bob's investigating gets the attention of two binomes, CGI agents Fax Modem and Data Nully. They say that Phong hired them to investigate the disappearances on Level 31. Meanwhile, outside, Mike the TV is investigating the area for the purposes of a news report on the abductions. We see that Mouse is observing Mike and his crew, and she contacts someone called Turbo on her communicator. As she's talking to him, Number 5 walks through the alleyway, and she signs off, telling this mysterious character that it appears she's found another victim.
Back inside Al's, Modem and Nully are telling Bob that they suspect Mouse is behind these abductions. Modem suspects this because he believes that Mouse is a web creature based on her fangs. He then tells Bob the story of his sister getting abducted by a web creature as a child. Bob, without trying to seem insensitive, tells him that he'll be claiming to have seen the user next. Modem, however, believes that The User is a lie fabricated by The Guardians to keep people in check, and they control the Games in order to promote the User myth.
This conversation is cut short by Mike the TV doing a brief news report on the abduction of Number 5. Once the report ends, Mike walks away, but unknown to him, his crew have all been abducted by the unseen being. Once he realises this, he flees from the creature, but this is in vein as the creature ends up attacking him, but we see the silhouette of whatever it is fly away without abducting him.
Everyone within the diner can hear the noise the creature is making. Bob, Modem and Nully all leave the diner. Modem and Nully discover Mouse kneeling over the unconscious Mike the TV. They immediately point their guns at her, and Bob soon catches up with them. Mouse assures Bob that it isn't what it looks like, but it doesn't look good for her. She's able to distract Modem and Nully long enough to slice their guns in half, and momentarily allows Bob to lower his guard by asking him to trust her and then kissing him before running off. Bob is able to pin a tracker from Glitch on the bottom of Mouse's boot, and then takes off in pursuit of her, leaving Modem and Nully to watch over Mike. Shortly after Bob leaves, Mike regains consciousness, saying that the creature bit him then left, ranting about how the light saved him.
Bob tracks Mouse to a long abandoned warehouse. He contacts Phong and tells him that he's found where the creature's hiding. He has identified it as a Web Creature, but it isn't Mouse based on the fact that it's shedding it's skin. He also suspects that the creature is abducting Sprites and Binomes for nourishment.
As Mouse also wanders through the warehouse, she contacts Turbo to inform him that she's found the creature's hideout, and she's going to rescue the Mainframers. Turbo tells her to forget the Mainframers, and just worry about getting proof of the creature. She presses on anyway, eventually reaching a large room filled with organic cocoons that have binomes encased inside of them. She eventually comes across one with Dot encased inside, and immediately frees her before freeing the others. This immediately wakes up the creature, who bursts through a wall and manages to grab Dot with it's tentacles.
Just before the creature can consume Dot, Bob arrives along with Modem and Nully, who shine their flashlights on the creature. This incapacitates it, causing it to drop Dot. Mouse then contacts Turbo with proof of the creature. We then cut to a dark room where this mysterious Turbo is sitting with several other figures shrouded in darkness. One of these tells Turbo that they need to act now since this creature is a Class M with portal forming abilities, meaning it is capable of invading the entire net.
One interesting thing to note about this sequence is that, asides from Turbo, the other Guardians are all reused models of other characters since there was little point creating new character models who were barely going to get any screen time. The fact that the Guardian office is shrouded in darkness mostly hides this (although you can see in the screenshot above that the Guardian sitting closest to Turbo is clearly Dot's model with added Guardian gauntlets and a keytool), but it also adds to the mood of the scene.
Bob isn't too happy about what Mouse has just done, since the Guardian protocol for dealing with Web Creatures is to destroy the system. Bob inspects the communicator that Mouse was provided with by the Guardians and discovers that there's a bomb inside of it. The Guardians activate the bomb, and Turbo asks to be alone since him and Bob go back a long way. Once he's alone, he's able to delay the detonation to allow Bob more time to dispose of it.
Bob quickly zips through the city in order to reach a safe distance where the detonation won't destroy Mainframe. When the bomb detonates, the sky goes black and several tears form together to make a giant one. However, Bob is nowhere to be seen, and Phong cannot reach him on the vid window.
The tear's appearance gives the Web Creature the strength requires to resist the bright lights and break free. Phong tries to contact Bob again, and eventually succeeds. It turns out that the explosion affected Bob's ability to communicate temporarily. When Phong informs him that the Web Creature has escaped, he's incredibly distressed by this since the creature could form a portal to the Web. However, there's no time to stop it as the creature flies straight at the tear, causing it to form into a giant sphere which is somewhere between pink and red and has a surreal ever changing pattern. Bob contacts Phong, telling him to prepare for war.
So far this season, we've had definite hints of darkness sprinkled throughout. This was more prevalent in the previous two episodes, but it was still relatively subtle hinting at something dark through the mysterious creature that has made it's way into Mainframe. This episode dives straight into the darkness, something that is going to retain in the show for the most part for the remainder of it's run. This episode, much like the two before it, has stakes that are bigger than a lot of what we've had so far in the show with bigger threats. Two weeks back, we had Nullzilla threatening to destroy all of Mainframe through it's chaotic nature. Last week, we had an amalgamation of Megabyte and Hexadecimal nearly gaining enough power to access the super computer. This week, the threat is the creature that caused all this havoc to begin with.
More importantly, we know exactly what it is; it's a creature from the Web, the mysterious realm that was first mentioned in High Code that by the time of Painted Windows supposedly went out of control and began invading systems. The way that the creature is built up in this episode is done incredibly well. Initially, we don't see it at all, we just see through it's eyes to build up tension of what's going to happen as well as seeing it's silhouette. When we finally see the creature near the end of the episode, it's pretty terrifying. The creature has clearly grown a lot since it's appearance in Nullzilla, and now has an incredibly large jaw. Following the events of last episode, it's been abducting Sprites and Binomes alike and draining their energy for nourishment, which I imagine is how it's managed to grow so much in a short space of time. What's worse is, while our heroes were able to save all the abductees, they didn't stop the creature, it managed to form a portal to the Web, allowing it to invade Mainframe. Something which they will need to put a stop to next time around.
We also get to learn what Mouse's purpose was in Mainframe last episode. Since the Guardians are based in the Super Computer which is where the creature was before it came out of Hexadecimal's looking glass, the Guardians were definitely aware of it's existence. Knowing the threat that it posed to the entire Net, they hired Mouse to track it down for them and prove it's existence before taking action. This puts the Guardian's morality within somewhat of a grey area. Sure, they 'mend and defend' The Net, but what ends will they go to achieve that goal? This episode, it turns out that it's nuking systems for the sake of the rest of the net. It's also interesting to briefly see the head of the Guardians, known as Turbo. He's barely seen, but he definitely makes a lasting impression based on what we do see of him. We know that, while he doesn't necessarily want to destroy Mainframe, he knows that there's no other choice but to do so. He also has some kind of history with Bob, this leads to him allowing Bob the time to get rid of the bomb.
This episode also puts Mouse in an interesting position. Last time, we were made aware that Mouse was up to something at the end of the episode, but we weren't sure what that purpose was. At first, we're lead to believe that she's responsible for the abductions, possibly even taking the form of the creature. While that isn't the case, it provides us with a red herring to make us believe that it is up until we find out that it isn't.
The credited 'writer' for this episode and the next one was Mark Leiren Young, someone who last year became quite a controversial figure within the ReBoot community. I won't go too deeply into it here since it ties into a post that I'm going to be writing at the end of this retrospective, but seeing as it somewhat relates to these two episodes, I'll give a brief run down before going into full details when we reach that point. As well as writing the worst episode of last year's 'sequel' series 'ReBoot: The Guardian Code' (which is saying something, given the overall quality of that show), Mark wrote a series of blog posts about his time writing that episode, then went back to write some posts on this episode and the next one. Said posts consisted of lots of backpatting where he took credit for things such as creating Turbo, coming up with the idea of the Guardians being morally ambiguous and something in the next episode that's going to come up. This is definitely not the case since the 'story by' credit has four other people in the credits alongside MLY, three of those being the show's showrunners. While he may have contributed some minor ideas to these episodes, he had little to nothing to do with the overall story of these episodes, and Gavin Blair disputes his claims heavily.
We also get the 'death' of Bob this episode. When the bomb detonates, we're initially lead to believe that Bob is dead. However, it's quickly revealed that this wasn't the case, relieving the audience as well as the characters who were lead to believe that the show's main character was dead, if only for a moment. This is great since it gives us the impression that no one is necessarily safe in this universe anymore.
Of course, one of the most memorable aspects of the episode is it's X Files references. This is achieved not just through the appearance of binome stand ins for Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, but through the episode's mirroring of a typical 'monster of the week' episode of The X Files. The starting sequence of the episode with Al's Waiter being abducted by the Web Creature is rather reminiscent of cold openings in your typical X Files episode which show one of the episode's guest characters being attacked or killed by that episode's monster before we meet our main characters after the credits. Since we've already had the opening credits, we then cut to our main characters after the title card. The theme of the characters investigating a web creature is also a fairly X Files esque element since that show's premise is about investigating supernatural creatures.
While Gillian Anderson was more than happy to come and play Data Nully, her X Files co-star David Duchovny was not interested and declined the creator's request to appear. Because of this, they got Scott McNeil (who has been voicing Hack since Nullzilla, replacing previous voice actor Phil Hayes) to do a cruel parody of Duchovny's performance in the show. McNeil had never seen The X Files prior to this, and upon watching the show for research, he said that the performance was 'nothing', so he performed the role accordingly. His performance as Fax Modem managed to win him the parts of multiple characters on Mainframe's follow up series, Beast Wars: Transformers.
This is one of the strongest episodes of the season with a great amount of mystery, intrigue and horror as well as some high stakes and a fun parody of what was one of the biggest shows on TV at the time. It also does a great job of setting up the following episode of the show. All we can be certain of is that there's going to be a war, and it's possible that not everyone will make it out alive...
Next week: Bob is forced to team up with Megabyte and Hexadecimal to combat The Web in 'Web World Wars'
Last episode started the story arc that is going to close out this season. While it had it's beginning, middle, and end, it also left things open that are going to play out in this episode. For one, the creature that came out of Hex's looking glass is still out there, and at the end of the previous episode, it infected Megabyte in a similar way to how it infected Hexadecimal at the beginning of the episode. This episode isn't quite as good as it's predecessor, but it does a pretty good job of continuing the story set up in Nullzilla.
We begin this episode where we left off last week with Kits Sector in ruins after the heroes battle with Nullzilla. A yellow vehicle picks up the robot from the previous episode, taking him away from the sector and knocking over three buildings in the process. A builder binome contacts Dot to tell her that despite a few setbacks, they’re on track to repair the sector.
Meanwhile, Bob is overseeing Hexadecimal. He tells Phong that she’s weak due to the Nulls draining her energy, but she’ll recover. The conversation then turns to whatever attacked her, and Phong tells Bob that he hasn’t been able to pick up on its signal. Based on the fact that it went after Hex, Bob theorises that maybe whatever got her preys on viruses. Phong predicts that since it went after Hexadecimal, it’s next target would be...
Hexadecimal seemingly finishes Phong's sentence with one word, 'Megabyte'. Bob agrees with her, but it turns out she was alerting Bob to the fact that the infected Megabyte is with them right now. He pushes Bob aside and attempts to merge with Hexadecimal. Bob uses Glitch to fire an energy beam at Megabyte, knocking him away into a nearby wall. He then sends Glitch to start up his car. However, Megabyte gets up very quickly, and begins making his way over to Bob and Hexadecimal. Hex is able to momentarily slow him down with what’s left of her powers. Just before he reaches the two, Megabyte is picked up by a giant claw being piloted by Dot, giving Bob and Hex time to get to Bob's car and escape. Megabyte begins infecting the claw part of Dot's vehicle, but she detaches the claw before he can infect the whole vehicle.
Bob interrogates Hexadecimal about how she was merging with Megabyte, and she reveals that Megabyte is her brother. This perplexes Bob, since the two are always trying to destroy each other, but Hex reveals that it’s just sibling rivalry. If the two were to merge, Hex tells Bob the end result would be 'the next generation'. Dot then contacts Bob to tell him that she was unable to contain Megabyte, but this communication is cut short by Megabyte jumping on the hood of Bob's car, knocking off the windshield before grabbing Hex and jumping off. Once the two reach ground level, they merge into one virus.
The new virus is a hulking beast with a giant claw on one arm, taking elements of both Megabyte's and Hexadecimal's respective colour palettes. Bob contacts a Phong to inform him of what just happened, and tells him that he’s going down to communicate with the virus since he feels that it might be a Benin virus. Bob asks him to identify himself, and he tells Bob that he has become Gigabyte, 'destroyer of systems'. He attacks Bob, and Bob retaliates with an attack from Glitch. This doesn’t work since Gigabyte is a Class 5 virus, meaning he absorbs energy. Gigabyte then slashes Bob's back, damaging his armour. Bob has no choice but to flee, so he grabs a zip board and flies away.
Bob then checks back in with Phong. He tells him that Gigabyte is at least as strong as Megabyte but hasn’t used any of Hexadecimal's powers yet. Phong speculates that this is due to the transformation making him weak, as he would have already opened a portal to the net if he had access to Hexadecimal's power. He tells Bob that they need to stop him before this can happen. Bob tells Phong to power down the city and that he’s going to call in for help before signing off.
Bob then sends out a net wide alert to call for assistance, but as soon as he’s finished, Dot flies in shooting at Gigabyte. However, her attacks have no effect other than giving him more strength. Gigabyte attacks her vehicle, causing it to crash. Bob helps Dot out, and the two flee on zip boards.
Their escape soon gets cut short as the power down of the city affects their zip boards as well. They end up at the end of an alley with Gigabyte blocking their escape. Feeling as if they are doomed, Bob tries to tell Dot something but is cut off by her saying 'I know'. Gigabyte demands that Bob hands over Glitch, but Bob sends Glitch away. Gigabyte then decides to settle with using Bob and Dot for energy, but just as he’s about to swipe at Bob, a sword wielded by an unseen force severs Gigabyte's arm, sending it to the floor. This is when we see that Mouse has returned.
While Gigabyte reattaches his arm, Bob, Dot, and Mouse manage to escape to Mouse's ship (simply called 'Ship'). Bob is confused as to how Mouse arrived so quickly since he’d only sent out the distress signal a nano ago. Mouse says that she was already on her way, which displeases Dot since she almost deleted Enzo last time she was in Mainframe. Once they reach the Principle Office, Phong is reluctant to lower the shields as he doesn’t want Mouse to enter. Bob tries to argue his case for her since she just saved them from Gigabyte, but Mouse hacks through the defences anyway, allowing them to enter the Principle Office.
Inside, they come up with a plan to stop Gigabyte. The plan is for Mouse and Dot to catch a tear from the energy sea to overload Gigabyte with power while Bob keeps Gigabyte away from the Principle Office. Bob lures Gigabyte to Floating Point Park with the help of Hack and Slash, and Phong detaches that sector to keep him further away.
Meanwhile, Dot keeps the ship steady while Mouse uses a PlayStation controller to catch a tear. Just as she’s able to secure it, an overload of power knocks Mouse off her platform, sending her falling down to the energy sea. Luckily Dot is able to catch her before she hits the water. Mouse is impressed with Dots flying, and the two make their way towards the Principle Office.
Back on Floating Point, Gigabyte drains Hack's energy, and a distraught Slash punches Gigabyte so hard that he goes flying back to Mainframe. With Hack's energy, Gigabyte now has the ability to fly. He begins to absorb the energy from the Principle Office shield, but Phong takes the shield down before he can absorb it all. Eventually, Dot and Mouse are able to make their way back to the Principle Office and they drop the tear on Gigabyte. Bob uses this to split Gigabyte, and he splits into three separate portals - Megabyte, Hexadecimal, and a mysterious black portal. While this seems like a victory, Bob suspects that there’s something rotten in the heart of Mainframe as we zoom into a gauntlet on Mouse's wrist revealing a blinking red light.
This is probably the weakest episode of the four episodes that make up the four part finale to this season. It's not that this episode is bad, it's just not as strong as the other three episodes. However, there is plenty to like about this episode. It's great that this episode starts right after the previous one, and much like Nullzilla, this episode has it's beginning, middle and end with a few threads left open to be followed up on in the next episode.
Mouse makes her long awaited return in this episode after her one episode stint last season. As I said in my entry on 'The Great Brain Robbery', Mouse was the most interesting part of that episode. She was a character who operated within a more morally grey area compared to everyone else we'd seen at that point, and this is something that remains in this episode. While she's helping our heroes, she invites herself into the Principle Office with her hacking skills in spite of Phong's refusal to allow her entry. She also has another purpose in Mainframe, something that we're not 100% sure of, but if the end of the episode is anything to go by, it can't be good.
Much like in other episodes, Bob finds himself needing to use means other than Glitch to resolve the episode's conflict. Glitch has no affect on Gigabyte asides from providing him with more energy, meaning he needs to use his wits in order to best this new threat. It's also great to see him working with Hack and Slash again much like he did in Bad Bob.
Much like in Infected, the powered down Mainframe makes for a visually stunning colour palette that fits in with the tone of the episode. The darker looking sky has a sinister looking tinge to it that creates some fantastic imagery throughout the episode.
Dot's arc this episode is pretty interesting. It revolves around her learning to work with and trust Mouse, someone she isn't too fond of after she nearly deleted her younger brother. After being incredibly vocal about how she distrusts Mouse, she finds herself forced to work alongside her. By the episode's end, the two characters find a newfound respect for each other
The concept of a fusion of Megabyte and Hexadecimal is an interesting one, as is the reveal of the family link between the two. Gigabyte's design is very cool as well, combining elements of Megabyte's design with subtle hints of Hexadecimals and a mixture of their respective colour palettes. However, Gigabyte doesn't quite live up to his promise as he just comes across as a rampaging brute and isn't as interesting as Megabyte and Hexadecimal are individually.
In spite of that, this is a great continuation to the story that started in the previous episode. However, while Gigabyte has been dealt with, it's clear that this isn't the end of this story. For one, whatever attacked Megabyte and Hexadecimal is still out there, we still have no idea what it is or what it's purpose is, and Mouse may or may not have some connection to the creature...
Next week: CGI Agents Fax Modem and Data Nully assist Bob in tracking down the creature in 'Trust No One'
