The Mostly Forgotten Bionic Six: A Victim of Poor Timing? 

My mom was the casting director for this show. I remember running around the studio as a kid during the recording sessions. I still have tons of original animation cels the animators gave me. Thanks for making this!!!!

Everybody give a thumbs up for a remake of Bionic 6!

We are a family, I fight for them they fight for me. I loved this series. They need to bring it back.

I was totally obsessed with this show, I still think it’s one of the coolest things ever.

Bionic Six was my jam. I blithely went through life thinking it was popular, only to find out (thanks to the internet) that I’m only one of, like, three people who remembers it. Solar indeed.

I watched this as a kid. I remember playing outside and going, "Bionics ON!".

If they ever released an official DVD set with all the episodes in chronological order plus extras like interviews with creators and casts, you damn right I'll be snatching it up. This show may be "forgotten", but it will live on in the heart and mind of THIS "80's kid" who's now middle age.

This was one of the best animated openings of the 80s. The overall animation quality was unparalleled at the time.

The animation of Bionic Six is the thing that kept the show in my head for years. I barely remember the stories but the animation was really good it left an impression.

Holy crap the list of the people who made this is literally everyone who made my childhood

The animation in Bionic Six was freakin' awesome...and that theme song. It was one of my favorite series growing up. So bummed when it ended.

This show was so well-animated that I always wondered whether the episodes were too expensive. Very impressive show.

This one of the few cartoons I wish they could reboot and make better or updated. Like silver hawks. Centurions. And Visionaries . Those have potential.

I loved Bionic Six!!! They brought it back on the SciFy network when I was still in middle school or high school.

Glad to see I am not the only one who remembers this show/toy line (or that can't get that song out of his head...).

Absolutely loved this program when it aired. Wish they would release a complete series DVD set.

I loved Bionic Six. The toys were just like Gi Joes and they started the line with all three female characters getting figures. Which is pretty unheard of in the 80’s. Heck it took Mattel till the very last wave of He-man figures to make the Sorceress. I loved the metal portions and I agree the theme song was fantastic!

This show used to air in Egypt during the 90's, I'm glad it's getting some love.

B6 totally has the right chemistry for a Netflix miniseries

Ah, the 80's, when a spring loaded missle was strong enough to poke an eye from across a room.

Very underrated cartoon, I wish they would’ve made the toy line bigger, it had lots of potential 🤔 Great video Action-1, Producer-1 👍🏽✌🏽

Wow the talent behind this show should've made it as marketable as gi Joe or transformers.

This was one of my favorite animated shows of my youth. The characters were well written, the family dynamic worked well and the animation by Tokyo Movie Shinsha was top notch.

I absolutely loved this show as a kid. One of my favorites of all time. It was way ahead of its time. Action packed, humorous and never shied away from cultural diversity. I'd love to see a proper revival of the series

Bionic six deserves more retro love. Cool toys, nice looking cartoon. I still have my Glove figure intact because it’s die cast.

They had a good cartoon and theme song.

“The guy who killed Optimus Prime, after Hasbro called in the hit” 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

I LOVED the Bionic Six! Even as a kid I appreciated the quality animation and I always wanted the toys but could never find them. It is past time this show was officially released on DVD or better yet, Blu ray and we need modern Bionic Six toys. Thanks for the video.

Dan, thanks for doing this video. As a kid I LOVED this cartoon. Would wake up early on school days just to watch it. The theme song isn't quite on the level of Ducktails but damn is it catchy.

My younger brother and i had almost the entire product line. That paint chipping was CRAZY... I had to turn the volume of this vid off just now because of some unresolved emotions. My dad threw out my entire 1970's to late 80's toy collection after I moved out of the homestead. About 70 Percent of the toys that you have talked about on this channel...I once owned. I feel ill just thinking about the thousands of dollars of ultra rare toys that were tossed. And just to add to the pain. I was wondering to myself last week "when will the bionic six be featured on this channel?" 😥

This was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid! I wish they would release it on DVD so I could watch it with my kids.

I loved watching this show. I was 17 when it came out. About time it got some love( Bionics on!!)

I was 6 when Bionic 6 hit the airwaves, and the mid 80's were indeed a hotbed of toy activity. I would be the problem child of the family, the first adopted son, Angry-1.

I remember a few years back at my place of work, one of my co-workers and i was reminiscing about 80s cartoons (nostalgia goggles firmly on). We talked about bionic six as well. A few weeks later he came to me with a couple of DVD-RWs with 80 cartoons on it, and Bionic Six was included. God I was so happy. I really thought i was never going to see it ever again.

I loved Bionic Six back in the day. One of my favorite shows at the time. I totally used to picture myself being one of the characters, but I never imagined myself as one of the family. I used to imagine myself as one of their friends that would hang out with them and just happen to have bionic powers as well. Although, I always used to have trouble figuring out what specific bionic power my character would have. Each of the other characters had all the more typical bionic powers all covered, so I just imagined myself having the bionic power of “a shit load of guns”. Like I’d imagine myself being able to pull random guns seemingly out of thin air. When playing with the toys, I remember using an extra GI Joe figure to be as myself and then the storylines would be like “Hey, guys what are you all up to? Oh, you know, just hanging out and playing baseball. Oh no! It’s Dr. Scarab and his henchmen.” Then my guy would like obliterate the bad guys with twin machine guns and bazookas. To this day, I still don’t know what my bionic power should be. Maybe like being able to jump really high and throw wrenches at bad guy’s nuts.

They so need to release this show on blu ray/digital.

Bionic Six was pretty big in the Middle East and one of the very rare animated shows that was subtitled in Arabic, instead of being dubbed. Its presence lasted well into the mid 90s, so it really sucks to hear it didn't do so well stateside.

Have you ever thought on doing retrospectives on '80s cartoons that never saw any action figures for whatever reason, like The Raccoons, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Ulysees, 31, Rude Dog and the Dweebs Etc. "The Unfigureables" you could call it :D

I knew that the "Bionic Six" had something about it that made it stand out to me, but I didn't realize that it was so loaded with all those talented people!!! A truly AWESOME show.

Bionic Six was an amazing cartoon. It had incredible animation with a really impressive intro, not to mention the catchy theme song. The subject matter of the cartoon was also fairly mature which I always felt kept the show more interesting. I also loved the figures and have them all now. Some collectors don't like them as the paint on the metal easily chips, but I remember as a kid holding them they felt realistically like half human, half robot. Very weighty.

I friggin loved this show! Great animation, intro and characters!

Since I discovered your channel a month ago I've wanted a History of Bionic Six. Lucky for me I didn't have to wait 30 years for this. Thanks Team!

😮 I freaking LOVED this cartoon back in the day!!!!! The only thing that annoyed me (even though I was 11) and that I quickly noticed and had wished that the animators had fixed was when they flashed back to the origin of the rest of the family becoming Bionic. The episode showed that Bionic-1 had been operating as a lone agent for some time before the rest of the family got their life saving procedure ...but for some reason ...Bionic-1 already had a number 6 on his uniform. Lmao. I used to record and pause the episodes so that I could look at the bracelet/gauntlet thing they wore and I would draw and cut one out of a paper plate to wear around my wrist and use the ring that came with my Lion-O (after I figured out you could slide the bigger part off that you stuck into the figure's back and just wear the ring) to pretend I was the newest member of the family. Ah ...memories. I know that these cartoons back in the day are often mocked and people go on about how they were just 30 minute toy commercials and were only good as long as the toy line was good BUT ...I can honestly say that I never saw the toys. I never saw the toy commercials. In fact, watching that one in this video is the first time I've ever seen that particular commercial or any Bionic-6 toy commercial! I remember seeing the toys in a teeny ...tiny corner of a Christmas toy catalog but it was when the show had already been running. I was getting other stuff but figured they'd be around to get the next year but by the next Christmas I was turning 12 and I'd grown out of toys for gifts and moved on to video games. LOL As a kid, I didn't watch the cartoons for the toys because most of the toys sucked (like Transforners ...I had a few but it annoyed me how they barely moved when transformed with their legs often stuck together and also how the sizes were different between the vehicles when compared with how they should've been in real life. I understand why now but back then it felt stupid). I watched cartoons for the creative ideas that were being used. I know they were meant to sell toys but I would've been happy with just the cartoons. To me, the toys were a bonus but not really neccessary. I'm actually more excited about finding the toys NOW then I was back then and I really wish I'd asked for more of them and kept them in better shape than I did. 😪

Loved this show! Thank you for this. I remember running around the woods with the neighborhood kids - slamming our fists into our wrists like they did on the show.

Loved that show, the animation was great! Bionic 6 and the Galaxy Rangers were my favorite of that era. Never saw any of the toys anywhere tho.

Absolutely loved Bionic Six. I have a bootleg of the series and still have episodes on random vhs I still have from taping it growing up. Had almost All the toys and am currently re collecting them. The plastic/die cast, hefty figures were stellar in my book. And that Intro....so good. I talk about it often on my show as well. Great vid!!

I absolutely loved this toy line as a kid. The see-through plastic portion of each character to signify each of their bionic specialties and their die-cast metal body was insanely cool.

I grew up with this cartoon. For the time it was beautifully drawn and you felt that honest to god effort was put into it. Also, I'd love to see you cover "Defenders of the Earth" as well. :)

Fondly remember Bionic Six, especially the light up parts on the action figures. It's funny how we remember certain animated shows that we watched as kids thinking they were a big deal only to find out the series lasted one season if that.

One step closer to my dream of this channel covering _Peter Pan and The Pirates_

I loved the Bionic 6 and I still know the song lyrics by heart till this day. Awesome cartoon but a a wrong time along with Jayce and the Wheel Warriors with so much endless toons at the time. Gotta love the 80's!!

I grew up in the 80s and was unaware of Bionic Six until the age of youtube. It's now my favorite 80s cartoon and a damn shame it never got any kind of official release.

Bionic 6's intro is a sight to see. The animation is amazing, especially on that final explosion.

It's about DANG time. And by the way, 'Carolina Blue' is the color of the greatest team ever, The North Carolina Tar Heels. By the way, how are you going to have 65 episodes and no DVD release? Up next, 13 of the greatest episodes in the history Saturday morning cartoons, 'The Mighty Orbots'!!!

Just because no one has said this yet here : "HAIL SCARAB"

Loved the show, waiting or the DVD release, one day.

One of my favorite series of toys. I did a Doc Scarab cosplay for RetroCon a few years ago.

There is a reason my RU-vid name is what it is... ...just sayin'.

This was one of my favorite series when I was a kid. I remember the brain food episode and the first time I was introduced to a quad runner.

I miss this show! Bloody HELL, you lot never cease to make me feel simultaneously old... And happily nostalgic.

Loved me some Bionic 6. Could be a interesting reboot.

I remembered this show, but information about it was so sparce in the early days of the Internet I thought I had dreamed it up

One of my all-time favorite cartoon episodes of any show was the Bionic Six episode where the bad guys try to use a portal to escape into a dimension of all super villains but end up in a dimension of all super heroes. When they are caught robbing a bank (or something) the community is overjoyed that they actually have something to do and start a catch and release program for the villains with each hero lining up to take a turn to do their job. If I remember right, the Bionic Six saved the day by merging the two dimensions and rescuing the bad guys.

I remember this show! My older brother and I used to love it. Brings back memories of the glorious ‘80s cartoon era.

Loved Bionic Six... Especially the opening theme. I've been looking for a great copy/HD of the theme. But can't fine one.

Has Dan the Man done Mighty Orbots yet?! That and Bionic Six were at the very top of my favorite underappreciated 80s action cartoons!

Thank you for doing this. It was such an awesome anime at the time and still looks amazing. I hope this gives it the start of a revival.

I never clicked a video so fast. I loved those guys

Love this show! Still, know all the words to the theme song! So underrated for its time.

I LOVED this cartoon! I watched it when it first aired on UHF, then on early SciFi channel. I eventually bought it in it's entirity on bootleg recording, and FAITHFULLY wait for it to be put out on DVD/Bluray! If they released the truly obscure Mighty Orbots (also from the legendary Dezaki studio) they must release it at some point. Ah, I love being 38!

Yes, I also had this theme song in my head since the 80s. The whole "bionics ON!" shout stuck with me.

I've heard of everything. And I've NEVER heard of this. ...Well played, Toy Galaxy.

I was hoping to hear that theme song again. Maybe it’s best for my prospects of sleeping tonight that I didn’t. I would be Number-1 because I’m good at maths. And not great at puns.

I still remember the theme song!!! We had great cartoons during this time. This would make a great movie.

One of your best vids yet. Man I didn't know that's what happened to Bionic 6. A show with a pedigree too big to fail brought down by a situation it had nothing to do with. Every now and again that theme song pops into my head too, and the bionic transformation seen... still awesome! BIONICS... ON!

Bionic 6 is good still to me.Death of Optimus prime had me hurt for years.

What about the fact that the bionic six transformation was similar to Gatchaman? You remember Eagle Riders, G-Force, Battle of the planets.

I used to get up a 6am just to watch this show. Seriously. Very underappreciated gem.

Bionic Six was amazing. One of my many childhood toy crazes.

Lol when he said 'AMADEUS' is what thinking about the 80's rock song 'Rock me Amadeus'

I enjoyed it when it came out.

I loved the Bionic 6! It was very unique at the time with amazing animation and interesting characters. I even remember that toy commercial. I went out to buy Bionic 1 as soon as I could.

I have searched the internet periodically trying to find the Bionic six on dvd hoping they will release it. I always end up disappointed. We need this series on dvd!!!

I remember this as being a particularly well done commer... er cartoon. I also remember being vaguely disturbed by the idea that all the kids were bionic and what that implied.

Yes, the excellent theme song is far more memorable than the cartoon. Why is there no garage punk band called Rude Dog and the Dweebs? Functional Alcoholic 1 ready for action! As long as it doesn’t involve driving, fighting, carrying anything, giving directions, taking directions, sitting, walking or paying attention.

There's no doubt about the intro being ridiculously catchy. It's been about 30 years since I last watched the show, but a couple of minutes ago my brain went "BIONIC BIONIC SIX~" out of nowhere. Which is why I stopped what I was doing and listened to the song again and how I ended up here.

Awesome video!! So well researched and put together! Nice to see this great show (and yes, theme song!) get some love! Thanks for making it!

I have loved action figures and cartoons my entire life, and I consider myself well-versed in the toys and animation of the 80s. That being said, I have never (NEVER, mind you) even heard of this franchise, let alone seen the toys or the cartoon. It almost feels like I'm living in an alternate timeline when stuff like this happens...

i loved that show.

I loved this show. I would run into the house right off of the school bus so that I could catch the last half of the episode.

I vaguely remember this show since it's been over 30 years. I was about 8 years old when watching.

My name might be Alcohol-1. 😆

The cartoon was great, but in my area (western NC), it was shown in the early morning, so most folks missed it, and the toys weren't really around.....the toys were day-glo, the diecast made them heavy and unwieldy, and they just didn't look good.....I don't think I ever saw a hero on a shelf, only the really ugly bad-guys...

The obscure But undeniably awesome 👏🏼 Bionic Six ! They will always have a special place in my action figure toy collection . The fact that they are so obscure makes me appreciate the show and action figure line all the more. To all you Bionic Six fans -🙌🏼you have great taste in toons n figures ! Bionics On 🤛🏼!!!!

I was reminded of Bionic Six in the last month, the fact you did this video is very good timing for me. Thank you.

This came on real early like 6am🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃

I'd say you'd be Collector 1, Dan!

dude. this one hit me like a nostalgia freight train! I had all but forgotten about this show/toy line, but as soon as I started watching, it all came flooding back! holy smokes! I was even obsessed with this brand when I was a teensy kiddo!

One of my all time favorite cartoons. I wish someone would pick it up again. It would make an awesome movie series.

Fantastic Four vs Bionic Six