Gundam is a legendary mecha series that's often regarded as one of the best manga and anime franchises ever created. Since its debut in 1979, Gundam has gone from strength to strength, spawning an entire genre and numerous spin-off series while becoming a global phenomenon with its shows and toys being sold in many countries. However, Gundam wasn't always the revered international series it is today -- and nowhere was this made clearer than with the infamous Doozy Bots.
The American anime scene in 1991 was completely different from what it is today. Long before anime was available via easily accessed streaming platforms and simulcasts, the only way American fans could watch anime was to hope a series was localized. However, this often meant big changes with a new story being placed over the existing animation. The best example of this is 1985's Robotech, which combined Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA into one series with a whole new plot.
The studio behind the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Sunrise, tried to pitch Gundam to the American market but didn't simply dub the original series. Instead, in 1991 it created a pilot called Doozy Bots. This episode took old Gundam designs and placed them in a new animated series with an original story. This particular tale focuses on Professor Doozy, an eccentric man who built a group of powerful robots. But when these robots go rogue, the professor is forced to stop them before they can create an army and steal all the world's fun.
Teaming up with five of his students -- Max, Polly, Scossie, Wipe-Down and Cole -- the professor uses a new invention on them, putting their brains into the bodies of tiny robots. These robots are called Guncannon, Guntank, Re-GZ, GM, and amusingly, Gundam. The quintet is dubbed the Doozy Bots, and they head out to fight the evil robots and bring peace to the world in a series of comedic adventures.
Interestingly, the robots in Doozy Bots don't use the legendary Gundam designs many fans are familiar with. Instead, they use the super-deformed robot designs of RX-78-2 Gundam, RX-77-2 Guncannon, RX-75-4 Guntank, RGZ-91 Re-GZ and RGM-79 GM from the Mobile Suit SD Gundam series. This version started out as a series of short comics in Bandai's Model News Magazine before expanding into capsule toys, OVAs and short films. By the time Doozy Bots was created, seven SD Gundam animations had been released. The series was highly popular in Japan, with SD Gundam toys and merchandise regularly outselling the mainline Gundam franchise.
However, the Doozy Bots pilot wasn't picked up and is considered lost media today. Only a short promotional trailer explaining the show has surfaced online, being reposted by many sources over the years. After this failed attempt, Sunrise dropped the idea entirely. It is easy to see why, as it's clear that the studio didn't fully understand what the American market wanted from its cartoons. In fact, watching the trailer without context feels like a parody of 1980s American cartoons due to how over-the-top it is.
When Mobile Suit Gundam Wing premiered on Toonami in 2000, Sunrise thankfully opted to dub the series rather than reimagine it, allowing viewers to get a taste of the Gundam franchise and fall in love with it. This allowed Gundam to finally make strong inroads into the American market.
While Doozy Bots might seem utterly ludicrous today, it shows how much the international anime market has changed. No longer do series have to totally change themselves to enter the American market, with more anime than ever being imported via a subtitled or dubbed release. Hopefully, the Doozy Bots material will resurfaces one day, if only so this interesting historical curiosity can be enjoyed by Gundam fans and ephemera lovers alike.
