Official 30-minute Toy Commercials thread

[Zorak Masaki]

According to the episode "Take Two", the Ghostbusters movie (and I assume the sequels) that we know of was a fictional version of the actual story of the Ghostbusters, which means the show is the true canon.

 

[The Overlord]

I think there's a lot of that in Hollywood, too many egos. Don't want to give credit. Others don't care.

I think it is a shame Aykroyd and Ramis were not paying attention to just how cultish and big this franchise was. They and Murray were also too busy on other things. There could've been a universe out there where Ramis himself directed a film. Oh well.

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The thing is the first Ghostbusters film was not a kids film perse, it was more a of general comedy in the mold of Caddyshack with some super natural elements to it, the movie has a few jokes that are not appropriate for kids. However, kids loved the film and Colombia studio decided to cater to kids by making the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Ghostbusters II seems to have been created to profit off the success of the cartoon series. The humor in Ghostbusters II is less inappropriate than the humor in Ghostbusters I. The first Ghostbusters movie was not meant to create a franchise, but the cartoon series and the second film kinda turned it into that. Really its easier to make Ghostbusters suitable for kids than it is for Robocop or Terminator or any other R-rated sci-fi movie in the 80s.

 

[the greenman]

Really its easier to make Ghostbusters suitable for kids than it is for Robocop or Terminator or any other R-rated sci-fi movie in the 80s.

I have some opinions on that, at a later date. . .

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[harry580]

According to the episode "Take Two", the Ghostbusters movie (and I assume the sequels) that we know of was a fictional version of the actual story of the Ghostbusters, which means the show is the true canon.

so, the the ghostbusters movies are the reserve live action remake of the cartoon?

 

[Zorak Masaki]

so, the the ghostbusters movies are the reserve live action remake of the cartoon?

Yeah, they even mention the actors in said episode

"Murray, Ramis, and Aykroyd? Sounds like a law firm"

 

[the greenman]

Thundercats (1985-1989)

Thunder!
Thunder!
Thunder!
Thunder Cats; Hoooooo!

So went the rally call from the Lord of the Thundercats; Lion-O. Any kid of the 1980's era, knows of that one (that and of course; Yo Joe!). Created by writer/inventor Ted 'Tobin' Wolf (RIP 1922-1999) as well as Stanley Weston (developer of the original G.I.JOE) and artist Mike Germakian at Leisure Concepts in 1984, the series explored a sci-fi/fantasy and adventure storyline akin to the popular films of the day. Borrowing heavily from #1 Star Wars and a little from Conan the Barbarian, Superman (1978), Raiders of the Lost Ark, et al.

This show delivered to us an alien race of humanoid cats who derive from a planet called Thundera. During the escape from their dying planet; they encountered the "mutants" (probably my first introduction to that word, outside of Marvel Comics). The "mutants" came from a neighboring planet called Plun-Darr. These "mutants" included humanoid versions of a snake, hyena, vulture, and monkey. In my naive youth, I wondered how an Earthling mummy was on another planet (this one called Third Earth). Until I was older, upon rewatching the DVD sets released around the 2000's, it dawned on me Third Earth was Earth, just in far future generation.

Anyways, Lion-O was Lord of the Thundercats because he was the last living descendant of the king Claudus. The whole wearing shorts and a midriff shirt didn't age well, and let's not mention the whole "Captain Marvel"-esque trope of being a child in an adult body due to a broken escape pod. Though suspension of disbelief was certainly required.

Similar to most anime groups, Thundercats didn't deviate too much, but being American made having its own stamp:
Hero= Lion-O
Smarty pants= Tygra
Muscle= Panthro
Kid= Wily Kit/Wily Kat
Female= Cheetara
Wise Elder= Jaga

All was missing was a rogue antihero 2nd in command. Though other 2nd Wave characters will come later. Also, in the grand tradition of annoying cartoon sidekicks such as Orkin and Slimer, Snarf is along for the ride; probably somewhere in the middle for me. Only because he is essentially meant to be Lion-O's babysitter, so he at least serves a purpose. Also, he actually had some redeeming qualities throughout the series. Apparently he was specifically the creation of Jules Bass.

IMHO, the toyline was pretty good, with the normal 5 points of articulation. Though they were a little larger than I would prefer. To start they did start with a complete set of the regular cast of characters (heroes and villains), I just didn't like they paired up characters likes Wily Kit and Wily Kat with Cheetara and Tigra (though I believe Lion-O was sometimes paired with Snarf). Both Lion-O and Mumm-Ra featured light up eyes by way of a battery pack plug similar to a cigarette lighter, which made their eyes light up and a 'Battle-matic' feature with a small lever on the back to give a kinda chop action to one arm. I know I had a Lion-O figure and one other of the villains (I think Slithe), but can't really recall any others. I think I was too into multiple stuff at the time.

Other than, artist Mike Germakian, Actor/Impressionist Jim Meskimen was the chief character designer for the line on not only the original series, some Silver hawks stuff, the 2011 reboot, and the much dubious Thundercats Roar. I listened to a podcast where he revealed he also did voice work on The Comic Strip show that featured Tiger Sharks.

Other than main writer on the series Leonard Starr (who basically wrote the series Bible); the writing staff was compromised of Bob Haney (1926-2004) (practically the 3rd or 4th MVP of DC Comics), writer/cartoonist William Overgard, Peter Lawrence, Marv Wolfman, Romeo Muller (the only major holdover from Rankin-Bass holiday specials), Howard Post, Chris Trengove, and Stephen Perry RIP (1954-2010).

The animation was the closest you could get to real American-made anime, predating Bionic Six and of course Avatar: the Last Airbender. This happened about because they used artists from Pacific Animation Corporation (who were filling in from Studio Ghibli) Rankin Bass really did an excellent job. In hindsight, it's pretty clear the same people who did The Last Unicorn and the animated The Hobbit worked on Thundercats. You could even look at S-S-Slithe (as he's described on his box) and Gollum and see the similarities of the artists.

I am always impressed with V.A.'s who can tackle a truckload of characters on a project and can deftly navigate whoever they're doing with such distinction, you'd be hard pressed to think it was only a select few actors. This team stuck with a core group for the first few years, who IMHO felt so much like radio performances. Larry Kenny and some of the others seemed to have taken the William Shatner school for stacatto voice acting. Lynne Lipton was Cheetara & Wily Kit, and many other female characters. She channeled her warrior woman with a little Hepburn, but her space cop with a little John Wayne. Earl Hammond did Mumm-Ra very well; talking about keeping spittle in his mouth in accordance to the depiction of him in the series. Earle Hyman (Grandpa Huxtable from the Cosby Show) voiced Panthro perfectly.

Larry Kenney/LION-O:

Kenney on Earl Hammond/Mumm-Ra:

The 2 Earls at work (NSFW):

3 original actors and 1 from 2011 reboot:

Mumm-Ra is probably my favorite villain of the cartoons I grew up on. He was simply spooky in his decrepit form, and he was not to be fooled with at all. Even though his minion mutants often tried to outsmart him, (particularly Slithe being practically his 2nd in command), on occasion Mumm-Ra would put them in their place. He was mostly calculating and almost seemed unstoppable, but of course the writers couldn't allow that.

Much like HASBRO did, LJN planned a new wave of characters after the initial successful launch in 1985. On the cartoon front, after already hitting the 65 episode mark, they planned for more with not one, but two, major miniseries akin to what HASBRO did with Transformers and G.I.Joe by producing films. Both aired as tv movies, and later consisting of 5 Parts each. "ThunderCats Ho!" aired October of 1986 and "Mumm-Ra Lives!" September of 1987 kicking off season 2. Though they would repeat the trope of the miniseries two more times before series end.

The difference with this series and other shows of the era, they let the writers have a little extra power than the actual Toy Company.

To keep up with the times, LJN did collaborate with MARVEL comics for a comic run, this one under the Star Comics imprint. The series lasted 23 issues from 1985-1988, and the UK version lasted even longer. I do remember partaking in skimming through some of those comics; once again, I couldn't tell you much about them at this age.

BTW, on the realism note, interestingly Tobin "Ted" Wolf invented something of a night light and combat action figures. On another note Wolf was a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. This is particularly notable because in that war fought an Black American Army Tank Battalion dubbed the Black Panthers. Probably purely coincidentally he named the character Panthro voiced by a Black actor and happened to be the mechanic to build the 'Thundertank'. Also, on researching this I just remembered my mom took me to Thundercats Live, she got me a cheap plastic sword of omens, I think they gave them away to all the kids.

Co-composer Bernard Hoffer on Theme:

Original storyboard artist drops OG storyboards for anyone interested:
Thundercats "Lion-O" & "Mumm-Ra" commercial (1985)
ThunderCats LIVE at Madison Square Garden AD - 1987
For those interested additional concept art is here: https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-animation-1/art-of-thundercats-1985

WRITING: Probably one of best writing staffs of the era. Nice mix of some often literary talent, folks that made the rounds of television, and theatrical animation, to comic book writers. They didn't rely on just the same villains, and when they did they developed them.
ANIMATION: Not necessarily the greatest, but no complaints whatsoever. I think because I am to familiar with the style, but in the time of airing as a child found it incredible. For the time period, it was excellent to say the least.
CONTINUITY: Excellent. They often brought back characters and they used devices to setup in later episodes. For instance the Time Capsule setup a time travel experience.

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[Fone Bone]

LJN's toyline was truly amazing. One for the ages (okay maybe not Stinger). The merch complimented the show but rarely did inserted merch feel forced. Some vehicles sure. But most of the other non-Mutant villains felt very organic. I would argue Safari Joe is one of the greatest villains of the 1980's simply because he's so memorable despite only appearing a couple of times. On some level he's as great as Mumm-Ra.

 

[the greenman]

LJN's toyline was truly amazing. One for the ages (okay maybe not Stinger). The merch complimented the show but rarely did inserted merch feel forced. Some vehicles sure. But most of the other non-Mutant villains felt very organic. I would argue Safari Joe is one of the greatest villains of the 1980's simply because he's so memorable despite only appearing a couple of times. On some level he's as great as Mumm-Ra.

I'm completely unfamiliar with that one. Any references to stuff?

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[Fone Bone]

I'm completely unfamiliar with that one. Any references to stuff?

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Safari Joe does it again!

Safari Joe

Safari Joe is a ruthless intergalactic bounty hunter. He is a malicious gamesman who scours the galaxies in search for formidable preys to hunt. After successfully hunting Big Cats, Sky Cats and Aqua Cats, he came to Third Earth to hunt the most dangerous prey of all; the ThunderCats . He...

thundercats-ho.fandom.com

 

[the greenman]

Safari Joe does it again!

Safari Joe

Safari Joe is a ruthless intergalactic bounty hunter. He is a malicious gamesman who scours the galaxies in search for formidable preys to hunt. After successfully hunting Big Cats, Sky Cats and Aqua Cats, he came to Third Earth to hunt the most dangerous prey of all; the ThunderCats . He...

thundercats-ho.fandom.com

No, I remember that Kraven ripoff. I was referring to Stinger toy line

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[Fone Bone]

No, I remember that Kraven ripoff. I was referring to Stinger toy line

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Stinger was a ThunderCats figure not based on a character from the show. The toy was notoriously poorly made. As far as I know you cannot find the figure loose with its wings intact. Every single figure in existence had them snap off at one point.

If Super7 is smart, they'll put Stinger on the Ultimates. With rubber wings.

 

[the greenman]

Stinger was a ThunderCats figure not based on a character from the show. The toy was notoriously poorly made. As far as I know you cannot find the figure loose with its wings intact. Every single figure in existence had them snap off at one point.

If Super7 is smart, they'll put Stinger on the Ultimates. With rubber wings.

Oh, now I know. Yeah well, we are gracious in these days, that McFarlane toys, Neca, and Super 7 are at least doing a second go around on these figures. I don't remember which figure it was, but my buddy brought one of the Wily Kit or Wily Kat figures. Not really all that mobile.

EDIT: This here

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[the greenman]

Robocop (1988)
This is one of the few movie tie-ins.

First things first, yes this thread is dedicated to cartoon series that are essentially 30-minute adverts; primarily those that were based on a new or continuing toy line. Way back in the 1980's, in the US the MPAA voluntarily started a new rating in-between PG & R (that being PG-13). However, some of the PG-rated films and R-rated films of the time made oodles of money, on top of the fact they were highly popular, which by association gave them household cred. So Studio executives set out to bank on that popularity, regardless of what, or where it came out of (within reason).

By the time RoboCop: the animated series hit the airwaves, we already had something like 'Real Ghostbusters' finding success on television (which was based on a PG rated film). However, that gave Orion Pictures the gumption to give the go-ahead to do 'Rambo: The Force of Freedom' cartoon series, which was based on the R-rated Stallone films in 1986. Certainly not children's entertainment though. Now if a studio like Orion can do it once (with your run-of-the-mill R-rated action film); well why wouldn't they do it again? Nevermind that this particular one, being RoboCop, originally received an X rating from the MPAA.

Well, let's not isolate poor RoboCop though. Studios/networks gave thumbs up to animated adaptations for Police Academy, Swamp Thing, The Toxic Avenger, Highlander, Little Shop of Horrors, Beetlejuice, Conan the Barbarian, and even a B movie classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. That's just a few I can remember. Believe it or not, some actually got toylines that never actually got out to stores.

The top ten cancelled toys of our childhood I I Plaidstallions.com

A laundry list of sadly cancelled toy lines from the 1970s and 80s including Thundarr, Logan's Run, Monster Squad and more

www.plaidstallions.com

On RoboCop, I was just a little too young when the film came out in theaters. My introduction to the character pretty much came from the Arcade video game. I think this was a one-and-done purchase of the action figure. I had no others than just RoboCop. I cannot remember if I could take off the helmet. I do remember the cheap plastic metallic sheen fading overtime. To my memories, I can't remember if it was part of the 'RoboCop and the Ultra Police' (seeing how there were no such characters on the show that I could remember) toyline for the cartoons or not. This one was brought to us by Hollywood's favorite toy company KENNER (Star Wars and Ghostbusters). In hindsight when I finally saw the film on VHS, I later thought it ultra violent. I often wish David Cronenberg would do a remake. Don't think he could capture the humor. BTW, much like Marvel's deal with HASBRO, they did cross pollinate with a single magazine.

The series wasn't anything great. While the writing staff was pretty well-talented, they could have concentrated more of the nature of the original film. For instance the satire; something like the Tick would come along soon in the 90's. That cartoon kinda captured a lot of the hammy humor aligned with the film. COPS barely competed with this show much either, IMHO, as in it was a little better. Stan Lee as head story editor, even with guys like Marv Wolfman, Rich Fogel (DCAU ALUM), and snagging a Transformers G1 writer Michael Charles Hill, John Shirley, Donald F. Glut couldn't save it. Honestly, the series suffered from it trying to make RoboCop a superhero with low rent copy cat ED-209 kinda robots. They did bring in other tropes, but just not enough.

South Korean animation studios AKOM handled the art and animation on this. While you had DCAU ALUMNI like Boyd Kirkland and Frank Paur, Will Meugniot (more on him later), and X-Men producer Larry Houston brought some alright designs, though it was noticably a little lackluster.

TBH, luckily ORION didn't chase after the animators for PC standards. There were a couple times the art and designs came off as risque. Columbia went after the animation crew on 'Real Ghostbusters' over Jeanine's appearance a few times. This one, the criminal elements were, um Adult Swim level.

VA Robert Bockstael on RoboCop:

What a pleasant surprise that the VA's actually did pretty good passable impressions of some of the film cast. Robert Bockstael had a good similarity to Peter Weller, though he would not return for 'RoboCop: Alpha Commander' which I missed. For that one they got another Canadian actor in David Sobolov. That one focused on futurism as they did a lot in the 90's ; just look at Phantom 2040, Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, Batman Beyond, Aeon Flux, Spider-Man 2099, and Xyber 9. Len Carlson (RIP 1937-2006) doing Boddicker and other villains. I am not old enough to be seriously crushing on Nancy Allen, but following her career in genre films (my first was a televised version of Carrie); it was definitely a pleasure watching her over the years. So, to get Susan Roman, who worked on the Heavy Metal film, as well as Sailor Moon, X-Men: TAS, and Starcom, was just another plus for this one. Btw, the series made a few nods to confirm Lewis was deemed attractive.

The series only received 12 episodes as part of the Marvel Action Universe block on Sunday mornings which; consisted of RoboCop, Dino Riders, and reruns of both Spider-Man (1981) & Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. The producers (particularly Margaret Loesch, but probably Will Meugniot) wisely spent the money for the final episode of this show on a pilot called 'Pryde of the X-Men'. I remember the show on Sundays cause I mostly missed some episodes as my Mom took me to Church. My introduction to RoboCop was actually the Arcade video game that was out around the same time. Coincidentally, I would play the game with my friend from Church on the way there


WRITING: There was a mix of professional writers on this, often chosen by studio heads and psychologists on standby. However, my complaints involved a similar complaint about Hollywood unable to churn out Hulk or Superman films. #1 don't worry about fascist RoboCop, because the main villain was the Corporation, so that ideology doesn't quite fit. #2 Even though it was children's entertainment, they should have did what Hollywood did with Dirty Harry in the sequel 'Magnum Force'

Spoiler

a team of crooked cops

.

ANIMATION: Honestly the animation style left much to be desired. It's funny cause I'm not sure if the clunkiness in the animation was deliberate; I highly doubt it. The designs were also modified to how 'Spectacular Spider-Man' came out looking like Playmobil characters in a way. Growing up, I didn't have the sense to disregard it.

CONTINUITY: none really. Honestly, other than the original film, didn't really need much in that department.

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[The Overlord]

I think RoboCop is harder to turn into a Sat morning cartoon than Ghostbusters, while the original Ghostbusters movie had moments that were inappropriate for kids, almost everything in the first RoboCop film was inappropriate for kids.

The violence was raw and visceral in RoboCop and both films that attempted to make it PG-13 failed. It's not a big surprise that Ghostbusters worked as a Sat morning cartoon and RoboCop didn't.

 

[Zorak Masaki]

The Robocop cartoon works better if you put it as part of the Robocop multiverse (there are several incarnations of the character, almost all of which have their own continuity). As it is, this is hardly in canon anyway since several characters who had important parts in the movie arent in the cartoon.

 

[Pooky]

I know people either mock or wag their finger at the Robocop cartoon for being based on such a graphically violent, somewhat bleak/nihilistic and kind of sordid movie, and I get it, but at the same time I can't entirely blame them. The concept and look of Robocop was pure catnip for 80s and 90s kids, a kind of apotheosis of almost everything kids had liked over the preceding 40 years...including R-Rated movies.

I have (somewhere still, I think) some of the Robocop comics that were released around the time of the second movie, and one of them has a letter from a kid who was sad to be turned away from the cinema; "didn't you make this for kids?" they asked. So there was some audience confusion.

Now Rambo...that, while also popular with kids, was real square peg/round hole time. But perhaps we'll get there later.

 

[the greenman]

Dino-Riders (1988)

-Opening Narration Voice Over-

(After years of peaceful existence on the distant planet Valoria, Questar and his people were forced into battle. The power of their S.T.E.P. crystal ripped a hole in the fabric of time, sending them backward to prehistoric Earth. Unaware that at the same moment, the evil emperor Krulos was plotting to capture the S.T.E.P. crystal with his own grotesque Rulon forces. And so the battle continues in a new place and time.)

Next to SECTAURS, this one has to be the most Toyetic cartoon ever made in the 1980's. Characters are clearly and simply designed to sell a toy made to emphasize the heroes and the villains. No deep story telling at all. And, much like SECTAURS, you can almost hear the ad executives hark 'kids love bugs and dinosaurs'. One clue to the condescending way this cartoon was produced is with giving it a finite amount of episodes; because they couldn't dive deep, (won't even try too hard to get anything worthwhile with the characters or storyline for that matter) they essentially gave it a miniseries. Full disclosure, G.I. Joe got that same treatment.

For a quick rundown overview for this, as it was not a wildly popular show even till this day:

The Valorians were peaceful humanoids (possibly human beings that emigrated to another inhabitable planet) who lived on the planet Valoria until they were invaded by the Rulons (a collective of monstrous looking aliens who happen to resemble crocodile, snakes, and other insect vermin). Leader of his people, Questar and his group escaped the Rulon invasion by utilizing a spaceship equipped with the "Space Time Energy Projector" (S.T.E.P.). As we find out the escape went one step beyond . . Sorry I had to.

This series was developed by the husband and wife team of Gerry and Carla Conway. Both were pretty good writers for Marvel and DC comics on their own. Upon rewatch I had a few questions. The Valorians have these devices called AMP ("Amplified Mental Projector") necklaces, helping with psychic communications to each other or the dinosaurs. No clear answer on their origin; at least on the cartoon perhaps in the comics? Why was that S.T.E.P. set for a few million years, and for that matter how far in the future were they anyway? This reminds me of that TV series 'Andromeda' in a way. Was there a connection between the Rulons and the dinosaurs at all? The Rulons did have these brain-washing devices ready for the dinosaurs.

I think this series was unique in that the majority of episodes were written by women. Not speaking down on that; it's just that in hindsight the episodes came off like Little House on the Prairie. Even though this was Earth in the Mesozoic age, the sentiment felt like Laura Ingalls recording her lifestyle on the frontier of early America. Rustling dinosaurs instead of cattle and horses. I'll return to writers later. Though they could've used some more female characters. Then again, toy companies knew better. When it really comes down to it, because it comes as a job that is seemingly done just for the kids (little or not) getting deep story tell wasn't worth it. Designed to keep the little ones occupied a short time until the sugar rush wears off in them from their candy or cereal.

On this series, I certainly remember the toys. I mean as a young boy I was not going to turn away a dinosaur toy, especially if it were equipped with some form of weapons armed only by imagination. I do believe this was one of the final stages of my early adolescent impulse buys. I also remember these being cheap in price for some reason. As mentioned, the '80's were replete with toys nearly every couple of months. The toys, I don't recall specifics, only that I know I probably had one of the heroes and only that one.

I definitely do remember this series and, much like RoboCop, I probably missed an episode here and there upon original airing. Unlike RoboCop, this series had the privilege of not only getting a complete order of 13 episodes, but got an extra episode on VHS release titled 'Dino-Riders: Ice Age Adventure' in 1990, and I confess here I never saw it up until preparing for this review. There were 3 issues of the original Dino-Riders comic book from Marvel released coinciding with the release of the series. Once again, I missed reading this one too.

William Stout gets all the credit as essentially the toy designer on Dino-Riders (mostly on the main feature; the dinosaurs). While Steven E. Gordon is credited as a director and character designer. Comics artist Frank Brunner and some DCAU ALUMNI Boyd Kirkland, Frank Paur, Andy Kim, and Paul Gruwell all participated. BTW, Jean MacCurdy was in charge of this right before she was big cheese at WB shaping the DCAU.

Steven E. Gordon:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0rjhxs8aBBNwfzspVUEqD9pfSyawyJgTXGTWW2R1Az9pVh3KowsCfUfMfuyuUiRHDl&id=241476712559054

I will say this, one can tell the VA'S seemed to enjoy themselves on this one. You can hear they were relishing in delight to deliver some of their lines, especially the villains (looking at Welker). Corny as it is from an adult perspective, to hear it as a kid, they made it a clear delineation that you knew who the bad guys and good guys were. The most famous name of the cast would be actor (once child actor on this) Stephen Dorff. Really only memorable for portraying Deacon Frost in the first Blade film, but I remember him first from a horror film called 'The Gate' when he was a kid. He was around 13 when he did that in '87 so he may have done that in concert with Dino-Riders depending how much he was in either project. Frank Welker, Peter Cullen, Charlie Adler, Cam Clarke, and Dan Gilvezan, all pretty much ran all of the vocals on this particular project. Some folks were recruited over from an older project of producer/director Steve Hahn's, that being 'Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'. VA's Joe Colligan and Noelle North worked on it, as well as some of the animation crew.

Dino-Riders certainly left a legacy. This may have inspired future entertainment aspects such as the Dinosaurs live action TV series, the success of Jurassic Park, and certainly the character of Rex in Toy Story.

Flint Dille on what it was like in 80's:

Buzz Dixon on the same:

Writers on writing TV Animation:

Toys and cartoons:


WRITING: I noticed that quite a few of the writers were female on this show (which kinda surprised me why there's only one female character; at least in the first iteration). Then again, it's to sell toys to mostly boys. The writing was a little bit cornball for the villains, highly one dimensional, and by that the stakes were kinda low. Staff writers included Kayte Kuch, Sheryl Scarborough, Christy Marx, Paul Kirchner (who apparently wrote up back stories for Tyco Toylines), Alan Swayze, Larry Parr, and the dinosaur master himself Donald F. Glut.

ANIMATION: Kinda . . . Meh. However, it served it's purpose. I do have respect for Steven Gordon's work on the dinosaurs, as well as his character designs in general. To be quite honest with you, I am a fan of that 'Starchaser' film, Steve Hahn directed, and this makes for a good companion piece. This show was animated by both AKOM and Steve Hahn's company HANHO HEUNG-UP Co., Ltd. (Both being South Korean animation companies). Perhaps the mix of the two melded better, cause I had little to complain about for this series.

CONTINUITY: As I stated before, the first several episodes almost seemed to be designed like a miniseries (just stretching out to 13 episodes). You even have a kinda obvious break showcase; an introduction of new characters these ones being the Commandos, just to attract the G.I.Joe crowd. Normally that would be for Wave 2 or 3. If it was a longer series with 65 episodes, the Ice Age spinoff would've been a movie for the regular series.

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[veu]

Are RoboCop and Dino Riders officially Marvel cartoons? are they part of the Marvel franchise?

 

[the greenman]

Are RoboCop and Dino Riders officially Marvel cartoons? are they part of the Marvel franchise?

No, they were back then. It was a block sponsored by MARVEL because they produced the comics for the toys.

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[the greenman]

Super Friends: the Legendary Super Powers Show/The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1984-1985)

In lieu of doing some reviews for "Spider-Man" (1981) or "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" which were also part of the Marvel Action Universe block (Seeing how neither had a legitimate toyline anyway, except maybe if you want to count the 'Secret Wars' line from MATTEL), I figured it would be best to review the most popular superhero toyline of the 80's; DC's Super Powers.

This review is based on that later version of The Super Friends, because in accordance to this thread Super Powers was developed by DC Comics alongside KENNER (now owned by HASBRO) to tie-in with the original Super Powers toys. These were, in hindsight, the absolute best thing to come out of the 1980's for comic book merch. They were perfectly articulated/sculpted to capture comic accurate designs (without getting overly cartoonish). Especially when they were giving us characters that practically had no good reason to be a toy like the Parademons. I personally had more than a few of these, Batman, Superman, Flash, Brainiac, Lex Luthor, Joker and these were all in the first two WAVES. I enjoyed the idea they had action features like Flash and Aqua Man with movable legs and Joker with a huge mallet to smack someone.

It was a privilege to learn that comic book artists Jack Kirby and José Luis García-López helped in the design process. For the Fourth World characters, I would be kinda upset if Jack 'The King' Kirby wasn't on board for this. I mean he was basically reduced to character designer for stuff like Thundarr the Barbarian. JLGL was practically everywhere with his artwork on DC stuff like coloring books, and other merch. The updated designs were directly inspired from the (then current) comics like John Byrne 'Man of Steel' Brainiac and Lex Luthor with his battle suit or Batman looking like he was ripped off the pages from Neal Adams books. DC gave the figures additional mini comics packaged with them.

On the VA front most of the players stuck around except Wonder Woman who started with Shannon Farnon then transferred over to Connie Cawlfeld and BJ Ward. Amazing how Frank Welker could do both Darkseid and Mr. Mxyzptlk. The OG 60's Batman himself, Adam West, returned to voice him here, as well as Casey Kasem returning from the Filmation show to voice the boy wonder. Rumor has it WB reached out to Linda Carter to voice WW/Diana Prince, which honestly wasn't a good idea IMHO simply because Carter came off as only being meant for her beauty and physicality.

Jack Angel (RIP 1930-2021):

Wonder Twins:

Darkseid voices sound is interrupted by background noise:

It's clearly evident this brand of Super Friends was what directly lead the way to the DCAU beginning with BTAS. Many articles have been written about the Super Powers episode "The Fear" being both a backdoor Pilot to BTAS, and the series itself as an archtype for Justice League animated series later. The Dr. Destiny episode was kinda a remake of 'The Fear'. Then DC comics would later take a page from the episode "Death of Superman" for an epic newsworthy crossover event and IMHO borrowing the idea from Star Trek: the Wrath of Khan. Much like the event, the episode was an all hands on deck episode with all of the JLA appearing. In hindsight it was also fortunate that the crew left the tropes of Superfiends behind by using newbie Cyborg. I believe DC wanted to steer away from the lawsuit they had with Tony Isabella (and perhaps some critical controversy) with Black Vulcan.

Tony Isabella on the creation of Black Vulcan and idea theft

Black Vulcan didn't look familiar to DC.

aiptcomics.com

Jean MacCurdy, Andrea Romano, Alan Burnett, Rich Fogel all would continue with WB and helping form the DCAU.

DC allowed McFarlane toys to update the Super Powers line, this time with um. . . about the same ole thing. Except the real draw is presenting characters the original line never got to.

WRITING: Narrator William Woodson was left behind as of Galactic Guardians. . . which more than likely showed the maturation of the writers. Again, at this point it's easy to see how the DCAU came together. In hindsight it was also fortunate that the artists from DC and these animation writers made strides to perfect their show. The Hannah-Barbera created sidekicks and the cheesy Scooby Doo team-ups had to be left behind as well.

ANIMATION: While not perfect or nothing, these two seasons were certainly a step up from the old Filmation days, while also honoring it in ways.

CONTINUITY: Around the time Super Powers came out, it seemed DC was letting go of the kiddie aspect. Though it's left kinda ambiguous, the creators believed from the 1970's Superfiends series on through Galactic Guardians and even a couple of Scooby Doo movies with Batman and Robin to be all in canon.

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