Trivia / Sky Commanders

• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: In the Robot Chicken parody of Sky Commanders, Rex Cling ends up stuck in the middle of the cable because he's overweight. However, anyone who's watched the show knows that he can at least attempt to use the "Hot Wire!" technology to escape or even avoid his predicament.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Sky Commanders was made a year after Centurions, was aimed at the same demographic, and was a product of the same toy company, Kenner; Centurions was produced by Ruby-Spears, while this show was created by their cousins at Hanna-Barbera. Therefore, it's not surprising that the two shows' appeals and characters are not that different in the normal sense these companies used similar formulas. Both series were HB/RS' attempts to get into Merchandise-Driven action shows.
  • In turn some concepts (along with voice actors Charlie Adler and Paul Eiding) later gave inspiration into SWAT Kats. Compare some of the vehicles and the respective episodes where the heroes travel underground.
  • The toyline owes plenty to M.A.S.K., another Kenner action figure franchise. Both lines featured tiny figures that were packaged with gimmicky vehicles (a concept that Kenner used again for 1990's short-lived Shadow Strikers, and yet again for 1996's Vor-Tech: Undercover Conversion Squad). This example is separate because the respective cartoons are only similar in the same vein that most 1980s action cartoons were.
• Recycled Soundtrack:
  • Most of the musical cues are typical Hanna Barbera soundtracks.
  • Most egregiously, the instrumental track of the song "Turn on the Night" by Steve McClintlock was repurposed and slightly remixed as the intro theme of this show. The original song would later be further recycled for the soundtrack of Death Chase in 1988.
• Referenced by...: Robot Chicken parodied Sky Commanders in a skit starring a snarky, overweight Sky Commander.
  Rex Cling: "SKY COMMANDING YOUR MOM!"
• Out of Order: The first episode shows Yuri Androv, the Soviet, as a member of the Sky Commanders. However, he isn't introduced as a full member until the third episode.
• What Could Have Been: Kenner planned to release more toys in 1988, including some of the monsters, but they were never made because the line didn't sell.

---