A toy package showing the vehicles.
Vor-Tech: Undercover Conversion Squad was an animated television series produced by Universal Cartoon Studios which aired as part of Claster Television's syndicated Power Block in the 90s, along with Beast Wars, reruns of ReBoot, and G.I. Joe Extreme.
It featured a group of secret agents led by Hudson Roarke. Their mission is to Save the World from Lord Matrix, Hudson’s older brother, infecting the world with a techno-infectious plague.
Any similarities to the mid-80s toy line M.A.S.K. are not coincidental; see Recycled Premise for more details.
Tropes:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: One episode featured Bio-Mechs hijacking a alternative energy centrifuge powerplant thing to steal its energy.
- Arm Cannon: Having a BFGs seems to come standard with Bio-Mechs.
- Avengers Assemble: Several episodes feature a scene where Hudson Roarke calls the other Tech agents to deal with the episode's problem, followed by vignettes of them abruptly leaving their daytime job, in a fashion very similar to M.A.S.K..
- Ax-Crazy: The Bio-Mech Hardfire defaults to violent solutions for any problems and is prone to giggling fits while fighting.
- Combat Tentacles: The prominent yellow "fingers" on the Bio-Mech's gauntlets double as these.
- Defector from Decadence: Team Pet Caliban was a robotic Bio-Mech dog until he switched to the Techs and was reverted into an organic dog.
- Expository Theme Tune: The full opening
(which was rarely shown due to commercial breaks and the lengthy Power Block promo at the end incentivizing stations to compress the intro) starts with a narration from Hudson Roarke explaining what the Bio-Mechs are and the Tech's mission to fight them. - Flying Car: Vor-Technology enabled vehicles often transformed in order to fly.
- Game Face: Bio-Mechs transform when things get serious.
- Good Is Not Soft: In "The Hunger", Hudson Roarke makes the suprisingly ruthless order that, if they can't convince the de-empowered Frostbite to do a Heel–Face Turn, they can at least eliminate her while she is no longer a threat.
- Heroic Build: Apart from Brad, all the male members of the team are muscular, Mac, Rick and Tate more so than Hudson.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: In "The Hunger", Frostbite absorbs a lethal amount of radiation while attempting to steal an experimental military device, and while randomly shifting between her Bio-Mech form and human identity decides to quit the Bio-Mechs. Rick Rhodes sees an opportunity to appeal to her better nature and tries to convince her to switch sides throughout the episode. While the attempts ultimately fail and Dana Harding reverts into being Frostbite, the episode ends with Rick satisfied with the thought he possibly planted the seed for a Heel–Face Turn.
- In Medias Res: While "Initiation" focuses on the Vor-Tech team's recruitment of their new member, former taxi driver Miranda, it's made clear early on that the fight between them and the Bio-Mechs have been happening for some time before the series starts.
- Merchandise-Driven: Just like the show that inspired it. In this case, the creators took an existing toy line and crafted a whole new story around it.
- Never Say "Die": Averted in "The Hunger" in that the death of Frostbite father's is discussed in definitive terms, but a line in the episode mangles a common idiom in this manner:"And like they say, the only good Bio-Mech is a long gone Bio-Mech."
- Not Brainwashed: In "The Hunger", it's revealed Frostbite became a Bio-Mech not because she was taken over by The Corruption but because she fell into a deep depression after the death of her father and desired power beyond human limit.
- Recycled Premise: The initial set of toys were recycled from Kenner's M.A.S.K. line. (According to one of the writers, the brand was created by Kenner's owner Hasbro as a way to reuse the M.A.S.K. toy molds (as the then-recent Jim Carrey movie apparently made using the M.A.S.K. name not viable; ironically, Kenner also created the tie-in toys for said film).
- Sentient Vehicle: The Sonic Stinger gets a computer installed into it, giving it a personality and the ability to talk and move independently.
- Sibling Rivalry: Hudson Roarke and Lord Matrix.
- Slave Mooks: The Bio-Mechs.
- Transformation Trinket: Much like M.A.S.K., the Transforming vehicles need masks to work.
- Transhuman Treachery: The Techno-infectious plague inches its way to The Corruption this way.
- Truce Zone: Hudson meets with his brother at a neutral location at times.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Via a Viral Transformation to Bio-Mech.
- Voice Changeling: In addition to being able to imitate someone's appearance, the Bio-Mechs can perfectly imitate the target individual's voice.
