Fully Charged Friday – The Future of the Show and the Toys

If you’re a fan of Mega Man: Fully Charged, then there’s some unfortunate news. If, on the other hand, you’ve long since hated the show for the simple act of existing, then this will probably have you dancing in the streets.

Earlier this week, Protodude reported that a bit of news managed to sneak by back in October (via Toy Hype USA) from a Q&A with Jakks Pacific’s SVP of Marketing, Craig Drobis. When asked about the lack of any new figures shown at San Diego Comic-Con and the future of the 5” scale line, he had this to say:

At this point there are no additional waves in production.  This is one of my favorite lines at Jakks with how well all the figures came out.  Our design and development team did a great job on this line.  However, the Sales of the launch toys and waves haven’t justified us continuing on to the next waves at this time.  We do have the Mega Man X Megabuster which is new for this fall and should be coming to GameStop very soon.  We are very excited about that addition and we will continue to develop game based Mega Man items going forward.

Weird that a toy line based on a Canadian-produced cartoon yet never appeared on Canadian shelves (none that I ever saw, anyway) wouldn’t see many sales.

Protodude goes on to note that Amazon posted listings all the way back in December 2018 for 6” Cut Man, Wood Man, Elec Man, and Blaze Power Mega Man, as well as 7” deluxe Guts Man, Fire Man, and Sgt. Night. There were reportedly other figures and playsets that were unannounced and unseen, but will now go unreleased.

As for the cartoon itself, news doesn’t exactly get much better. The season finale of Mega Man: Fully Charged aired in the United States some eight months ago, and nothing has officially been said about the future of the program.

Unofficially, on the other hand, is another story.

Earlier today, Protodude reported that sources who understandably wish to remain anonymous have stated that, for all intents and purposes, a second season was happening. Pre-production of the second season had begun halfway through development of the first, all the scripts were done, and concept art for new characters was being made. There was just one thing.

Season 2 was never officially greenlit.

“Our producer let us know that they were at a bit of a standstill, but S2 was “99% greenlit” they just need a couple final papers signed,” said one source. By the time Season 1 was winding down, they were still sitting at that 99%, and people began getting anxious.

Where that final percentage point came in was reportedly a dispute between Dentsu Entertainment, the co-producer and distributor of the show, and DHX:

“What was taking the ‘greenlight’ so long to happen was because of the way DHX wanted to structure the second season,” said one of our sources. “Season 2 was going to consist of 26 episodes running for 11 minutes each. It was going to be a smaller season with a focus on quality over quantity. Dentsu had the second season budgeted out and were ready to fund it… but DHX wanted to do something a little different with that budget. That didn’t sit well with Dentsu.”

As explained by our sources, Dentsu Entertainment (co-producer and distributor of Fully Charged) wanted to air season 1 and season 2 back-to-back in Japan as one long, 78 episode show. Dentsu specifically budgeted Fully Charged for that very purpose. However, DHX was adamant that they wanted to “put the budget of the last 4 or 6 episodes of season 2 into creating online content to promote the show.”

Instead of a full 26 episode second season, DHX wanted a smaller season with the freedom and budget to create a series of 2-3 minute short skits featuring “a day in the life of a Robot Master” or fun little music videos. These skits would have been published exclusively through WildBrain’s YouTube channels, which make up a large part of their bushiness.

Neither side was willing to give ground to the other, and DHX is said to not have been in a position to fund the entire venture themselves. And not helping matters much was Cartoon Network… well, being Cartoon Network. “We were all pretty peeved at the lack of promotion from Cartoon Network’s side, not to mention the horrible 6:30AM, SUNDAY MORNING, timeslot. It was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Our audience literally wasn’t there.”

Should a Season 2 occur (of which the sources remain doubtful), it seems that while the groundwork has been established, production would fall to a different team.

But hey, at least they’re still releasing new Toyplay episodes on their YouTube channel.

I just hit some of the highlights of the article here, but if you want more details and info, be sure to check out Protodude’s full write-up over on Rockman Corner.

With that, he closes by noting that there is still some interest within Wildbrain (the new name of the former DHX Media), and if you are as well, you can show your support in the following ways:

1. Legally watch episodes through your cable provider on-demand service, the Cartoon Network App, or Cartoon Network online.

2. Buy the toys

3. Subscribe to the official Mega Man Fully Charged YouTube channel

4. Watch the new toy play episodes

5. Write to WildBrain on Twitter and Facebook

Granted, 1 and maybe 2 don’t really work as well if you’re outside the US, but at least the rest should be doable.

And that’s where we are for now. Fingers crossed that something works out.

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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