Anna Daniels
A toyline hit store shelves and a show was created afterwards to help sell the merchandise: That’s the typical backstory of almost any 1980s cartoon. In the case of Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, however, the toys didn’t sell well and had almost no storyline to help make them more marketable. According to writer J. Michael Straczynski, the show needed to “hijack” what he considered a “dopey concept” and make it into an adventure viewers would find engaging. He did not succeed.
The story goes that Jayce’s father, a renowned galactic scientist named Audric, was attempting to create plant life that could end hunger, when solar radiation hit his experiments and changed them into the evil Monster Minds. Jayce’s Lightning League — the good guys, naturally — fight against them in a wide variety of toyetic vehicles.
Jayce ran for 65 episodes. Though the cartoon is decent enough, it didn’t move toys, and the finale leaves the plot unresolved. According to Straczynski, there was supposed to be a movie to resolve the show’s story, one which he had written, but iffy toy sales prevented it from being produced. Perhaps a shorter second season could have done the trick and brought Jayce’s journey to a close.
Written by: Looper
