Turbo Teen and cartoon that gave most kids nightmares. What happens if Ranma ½ and David Cronenberg somehow made a happy little Cartoon.

[thisithis]

I know this show came out before Ranma ½, but Ranma ½ was clearly better in every way. That transformation of that kid turning into a car still gives me nightmares. And I'm not kidding about the Ranma ½ comparisons when the main character Alex gets hot he turns into a car and when he gets cold he turns back. According to Warner Brothers the owners of Hanna-Barbera, it seems that Hanna-Barbera lost all the footage and all the EPs, even though there are tons of bootlegs of all of season one at any comic convention and not forgetting YouTube. I just think Warner Brothers just doesn't want to bring back this nightmare-fuel cartoon that was made in 1984.

 

[Pooky]

Personally cannot imagine being scared or traumatised by this. Can only imagine finding it either hilarious, awesome or some kind of mixture of the two.

 

[Mejo]

To think that this was Pamela Hayden's first voice role.

 

[Silverstar]

Personally cannot imagine being scared or traumatised by this. Can only imagine finding it either hilarious, awesome or some kind of mixture of the two.

Same. I was 15 in 1984, so I wasn't scared by Turbo Teen. I was amused by it in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 "I can't believe this actually got made!" sort of way. I kept thinking, "So his internal organs turn into car parts? How does that work??".

Also, not to nitpick, but Turbo Teen was produced by Ruby-Spears, not Hanna-Barbera, though to be fair, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears worked for HB before leaving to start their own studio, so it's easy to confuse the two.

 

[TnAdct1]

I know this show came out before Ranma ½, but Ranma ½ was clearly better in every way. That transformation of that kid turning into a car still gives me nightmares. And I'm not kidding about the Ranma ½ comparisons when the main character Alex gets hot he turns into a car and when he gets cold he turns back. According to Warner Brothers the owners of Hanna-Barbera, it seems that Hanna-Barbera lost all the footage and all the EPs, even though there are tons of bootlegs of all of season one at any comic convention and not forgetting YouTube. I just think Warner Brothers just doesn't want to bring back this nightmare-fuel cartoon that was made in 1984.

...and if one clip online is any indication, there's at least one episode where they have to deal with music rights.

 

[Magmaster12]

Funny to think this show debuted the same month the first episode of Transformers came out.

I once had a conversation about how nearly all Ruby Spears/ Hana Barabra cartoons of the era were rip-offs/copies but I'm not too sure how they would have been able to beat Hasbro to the punch.

This shows legacy is currently a joke in a Happy Harry cartoon parodying Watchmen and a very brutal and graphic Robot Chicken sketch.

 

[Rick Jones]

Same. I was 15 in 1984, so I wasn't scared by Turbo Teen. I was amused by it in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 "I can't believe this actually got made!" sort of way. I kept thinking, "So his internal organs turn into car parts? How does that work??".

I loved it when I was a preschool kid watching reruns of it on the Cartoon Express. At that time, it was my random exposure to anime being imported to America like Akira or Goku Midnight Eye that was providing my nightmare fuel.

 

[stephane dumas]

Personally cannot imagine being scared or traumatised by this. Can only imagine finding it either hilarious, awesome or some kind of mixture of the two.

Indeed, the 1967-70 Spider-man episodes supervised by Ralph Bakshi like season 2 "Cold Storage" where Spidey awaken in a dystopian future after being put in a freeze room and season 3 "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension" (who was a recycled plotline from Rocket Robin Hood episode "Dementia Five") was more scarier than Turbo-teen.

 

[Silverstar]

I loved it when I was a preschool kid watching reruns of it on the Cartoon Express.

I didn't know Turbo Teen ever aired on the USA Cartoon Express. I learned something today.

Turbo Teen is one of those bizarre oddities residing on the fringe of the cartoon experience; one of those things that if you saw it once, you'll never forget it, but it's so strange and obscure you often find yourself wondering "Was that real??" until it suddenly turns up in some weird place, confirming that no, you didn't just imagine it. Another example is a character from 1979's The Super Globetrotters (NBC): Globie "Sweet Lou" Dunbar's Super Globetrotters persona was Gizmo Man; his power? He possessed a colossal Afro which served as a gateway to Hammerspace, he had all sorts of gadgets, tools and accessories stored inside his giant 'fro for seemingly any occasion.

For years I wondered whether this was something I actually saw or just a weird fever dream I had as a kid, then Gizmo Man's giant Afro power was lampooned in the second season finale of Comedy Central's Upright Citizens' Brigade, "Pro Thunderball", so I see I wasn't the only person who remembered this.

 

[Zorak Masaki]

The late 70s/early 80s had some WEIRD concepts for cartoons, let's just put it that way. Even the stuff based off of established IPs had craziness (see also Videoman from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends).

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

There is a live action show called Van-Pires which has a similar premise to Turbo Teen, about teenagers turning into CGI cars to fight evil car vampires and a talking toilet lead by Truckula. One of the Who did the music for it.

Yes, it’s real, and it was distributed by 4Kids’ Summit Media Group.