Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Frankenstein Week - XL

For our second day of Frankenstein Week we'll head to outer space with Buzz Lightyear of Star Command which was the weekday cartoon series spin off of the popular Toy Story movies and the real version of the fictional cartoon series that the toy character Buzz Lightyear came from in the series of films. In the cartoon several cool villains were introduced but right now we'll focus on the character of the evil paychwork robot XL and to a lesser degree the villains he is associated with NOS482 and the Wire Wolf.
















 Voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait, XL was the original attempt by the LGMs (Little Green Men) to build a robotic Space Ranger, however due to faulty programming the robot was unstable and mostly bipolar. Decommissioned and deactivated the head of the robot was found by the recurring villain Emporer Zurg and reactivated. In an effort to seek revenge on Star Command XL assembled a composite body from various robots and test labs. He was thwarted but returned a total of five times before being readmitted to Star Command as a photocopier.

In his return appearances, XL was teamed with two other villains from the series, the robotic vampire lord NOS482 and the Wire Wolf, a spce ranger who had the misfortune of having been bitten by NOS482 on the moon Canis Lupus which caused him to turn to a robot werewolf whenever exposed to a chunk of the now destroyed moon. The three worked together in the episode "Revenge of the Monsters"... here watch it...

Unfortunately, while a toy was made of NOS482, no toy was ever made of the Wire Wolf or XL, otherwise they'd be sitting on my shelf right now...
When XL was a villain, he had a series of weapons and equipment at hand due to his mismatched parts. Most were secured in his two arms, both of which were different and were used for different tasks, as well as his chassis.


Chassis - Stolen from one of the latest warbots, XL's chassis had the ability to deflect the Rangers' laser attacks due to its armarillium plating. It contained a rocket in the back compartment that allowed XL to fly and stored nets that he used for capturing.


Left Arm - Stolen from a research facility originally used for conducting experiments on objects and performing delicate work. However, XL used it to spew corrosive acid that could easily eat through metal, and because of its ability to extend, XL would use it to grab objects from a long distance.



Right Arm - Probably the most complex and diverse of all his attachments, modified to suit his needs as an arsenal of weapons. It could morph into three guns, each with a different set of abilities. The first gun could shoot bolts of plasma; the second, appearing almost like a machine gun, fired off laser blasts; the third, the largest of the three, looked like a cannon that shot the largest and deadliest plasma bolts. Besides morphing into guns, his arm could also morph into a sawblade, a drill, a studded mace, an egg-beater, a sledgehammer, and a strange sort of drill with metal clampings around it that XR once called a "drill with teeth". His arm could also spark with electricity and send electrical currents at people to stun them. Last, but not least, XL's right arm had a compartment similar to his chassis where he stored nets, and a special modded compartment with three distinctly-labeled buttons: blaster, acid and escape from prison.
Here's the episode, Revenge of the Monsters in three parts...




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