Arguably the greatest time to be a kid!

 

I originally came up with this idea as a plug-in segment for our podcast, but the more that I worked on it the more I thought about how cool it would be as a blog post with photos and everything. Like a lot of nerds my age, my inner geek originated for my love of certain Saturday morning cartoons of the 80s. As an adult, these cartoons still hold a special place in my heart…but there are so many things I didn’t know about them when I was younger. So, without further ado, here are some interesting facts about my top 5 favorite cartoons of the 80s (in no particular order).

He-Man

The He-Man toys were designed and created before there was ever a cartoon series. The idea of the He-Man toys was a combination of Mattel’s missed opportunity to make the Star Wars toy line in 1976, as well as a failed attempt to make Conan toys. Mattel entered an agreement in 1981 to create toys for the Conan movie, however scrapped the deal when learning the film was given an R rating for nudity, sexual situations and graphic violence.

Before being named “Masters of the Universe”, the toy collection was originally going to be called “Lords of Power”. However, that name was scrapped as it was thought to sound too religious is nature.

Aside from being the first major toy based cartoon, He-Man was also the first toy based movie: 1987 film Masters of the Universe (still one of my all-time favorite movies…judge me all you want). Despite popular belief, bad acting is not the main reason the film didn’t do well. Box office viewers were confused by He-Man’s identity. The film story was based on the mini-comics (included with the original toys) where He-Man was a barbarian warrior with no secret identity, not Prince Adam’s story from the cartoon series (hence why Orko and Cringer are missing from the movie)

Voltron

According to statistics published in tie-in data books, Voltron clocks in at close to 200 feet tall. This makes the towering titan larger than the Statue of Liberty, and puts the mech in the upper tiers of the largest giant robots to ever grace anime, beating out the likes of pretty much every incarnation of Gundam ever. Whoever said size doesn’t matter clearly never met Voltron.

When Voltron hit screens in 1984, the show became an overnight sensation, cementing itself as one of the most popular properties among children. But Voltron wasn’t the only show on television following the adventures of giant transforming robots; in fact…

Transformers

…Transformers proved to be Voltron’s biggest rival, with the two shows regularly battling it out for ratings supremacy. But while these two shows fought tooth and nail with each other, one of these shows’ biggest stars had no problem aiding the enemy.

Voice actor Peter Cullen is most famous for lending his pipes to Transformers, voicing main character Optimus Prime. But while Cullen was busy ordering the Autobots to roll out, he pulled double duty, providing both the opening narration to Voltron: Defender Of The Universe and voicing the likes of Coran and King Alfor. Despite the bitter rivalry between Voltron and Transformers behind the scenes, Cullen continued to lend his voice to both shows without issue.

Thundercats

In 1985, cartoons like the ones mentioned earlier, were getting criticism for being too violent and existing only to sell toys. In an effort to avoid that scrutiny, Telepictures took out print ads to promote the virtuous nature the Thundercats series would have. “ThunderCats has all the action and adventure your children love,” the copy read. “But it also has something else … lessons about respect, friendship, truth, honesty, and justice.” To make good on that promise, the producers actually hired a psychologist to review every script to ensure a strong moral lesson with each episode.

Even though we still have no gotten a live action Thundercats movie that we all want, there was live arena show which co-starred Gumby. The traveling stage production combined several properties together. Gumby and Pokey were the show’s hosts and helped move the show along…while on skates.

TMNT

Similar to a lot of cartoons at the time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was not a cartoon first. The 1987 cartoon series was actually loosely based off a much darker and more violent comic series by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird that began in 1984. Eastman and Laird being huge fans of the Daredevil comics used as much inspiration from the blind lawyer ninja as possible. Splinters name for example is a nod to the Daredevil supporting character Stick. Also, the Foot Clan was written as a nod to The Hand, which was an organization of assassins introduced by Frank Miller in 1981 during his tenure writing the Daredevil comics.

Needless to say, a lot had to change to make the turtles “kid friendly” on Saturday mornings. Foot Soldiers were made to be robots to make the cartoon seem less violent. April O’Neil went from scientist to reporter damsel in distress. Hell, just about every ‘iconic’ thing you can think of about TMNT was added later on to promote the cartoon and help sell toys. The color-coded masks, the distinctive personalities (Leonardo the leader, Donatello the tech expert, etc.), the catch phrases (‘heroes in a half shell,’ ‘turtle power’), and even the obsession with pizza.

Your Closing Here: