I only really thought about this recently after revisiting the DVD’s. I was really young when the original series first aired, but it occurred to me that there were a few quite abstract memories that stuck in my head from first seeing it in the late 80’s. Although mine aren’t the most obvious things, but being so young, certain elements stuck with me.
Mutant Skycutter - You might find it odd, but this is my favourite vehicle! It somehow really captured my imagination as a kid. I’ve always loved the look and sound of it. Monkian’s Shield - There was just something very captivating about his original shield, the design of it and how it shot energy from the mouth, shame there wasn’t a toy version of this. The ThunderKitten’s weapon pellets - Maybe an odd choice, but the magic capsules they used stuck with me, I found them fascinating. Jaga giving out clothing in Exodus - Mainly for the animation, the sparkling, red protective clothing Jaga holds just had a very mystical quality to it.
What elements of the show stayed with you from watching it originally?
It may sound weird, but Lion-Os hair. At the time when I was a child mine was sort of curly and long so I always related to it. I also always remember thinking Panthro was awesome due to the nun-chucks and martial arts skills.
These scenes I remembered most of all; the thunderstorm in the beginning and the way the lightning hits the tree, Grune forging his battle club and him running across the Cats’ Lair moat.
Actually the first TCats episode that I ever saw wasn’t “Exodus” but it was “Mongor”. I had rented a mixed cartoon video cassette and “Mongor” was one of the cartoons in it and that’s how I got exposed to the TCats.
I was (and still am) in awe of the character of Mongor. I thought that he was the baddest villain ever. Even more meaner than Mumm-ra. He was no-nonsense to the point and had almost defeated all the TCats single-handedly without even breaking so much as a sweat. Back then I was already familiar with “He-Man” cartoons and was really tired of the flimsy and comical Skeletor. Mongor was probably the only cartoon character that really scared me at that time so images of Mongor always remained with me.
There were some little scenes that lingered in my mind for years, such as Lynx-o getting blind or Chilla freezing Pumyra on their first encounter. I also remember feeling, not quite scared but kinda disturbed with scenes that had too much red in them like the explosion of Thundera or the freeze frame shots of a terrified Lion-O such as this:
I never thought about it at the time, but looking back now that I’m in my thirties, the animation itself had a huge effect on me. At the time there was very little else like it. It had what we now know to be an 80’s Manga/Japanese animation feel to it, but at the time I just remember being captivated. I taped the pilot episode and watched it over and over and over again. Every morning before school I had to have it on! Drove my mum spare! lol! The animation was just so ahead of its time, and even now you can look back and it holds up (especially the pilot and Ho! The movie etc, not the middle first season episodes where they were obviously on a serious budget, I mean the terror of hammerhand, what the hell was going on with the berserkers???)
i love the original series but to me it didnt get really good till bout 15 to 20 eps into it cause the storylines got better the action and the animation got much better as well. to me i love the charachters and the music is also a strong presence in the series as well much like alot of other 80s toons during that time.
Another memory I have of the old show is seeing the commercial bumpers. The ThunderCat symbol and the ThunderCats logo were the only canditates to make the bumpers believeable, but I’m perfectly fine with that. The bumper music was pretty fun to hear, as well as the late Earl Hammond (Jaga, Mumm-Ra, Vultureman) announcing the bumpers.
Man, I wish I was alive when the OS was on! I didn’t even know of this show’s existence until about 2009-2010. Now I can’t imagine NOT knowing about it. I guess my favorite OS memory is Tygra’s part in Lion-O’s trials. I really liked that episode.
Even though I did watch the OS (They even dubbed it in my mother-tongue before I migrated!!), I never watched it from beginning to end. Didn’t even watch the trials. But I do remember going all :eek: when Panthro announced that Mumm-Ra has found the SoP and then cut-shot to Mumm-Ra holding SoP with that rictus grin on his face.
The freakin anointment trials. I swear me and my brothers played those episodes out until we were in high school (maybe even after that, don’t judge me!!). Now that I think about it, the music is probably what made that memory so hard to get rid of. So wishing each character had his/her own them in the new series!
In Greece the first season was broadcast subtitled in 1988 and I still quite remember it on our black and white telly.
But what I remember most is the first twelve episodes on VHS tapes dubbed Greek from early 1991. I must have watched them more than 100 times each, seriously.
Around late 1991 the entire series was finally shown with subtitles and lasted three years but I wasn’t very fond of the new ThunderCats and the Loonatics, as no wave 3 toys ever came here.
I was very young back then but let me just add my friend, that i remember being broad casted late in the afternoon and announced as ‘Καρτούν για Μεγάλους!!’ ‘Cartoon for Adults’'…Thanks for the trip down to memory lane…
