I have received some very exciting pictures of a Fistpounder from the line Rough Riders by LJN. The funny thing is that this was never made and never reached full production however I have proof from a source that it was indeed intended for porduction.The date stamp is 1981 which leads me to believe that Thundercats was being developed as early as that year.
On a side note we need help identifying the scorpion looking toy. It was apparently part of the ThunderCats line as well. If anybody has any thoughts as to what it may resemble from the cartoon please post on this thread.
Its much more likely that LJN had developed the toy for their own purposes, never got around to using it, then decided to include it into the thundercats line. Once it was part of the plans for the toyline early after the release of the first series of toys, it became useful to use in the cartoon. Thundercats, the toyline, wouldn’t have been in development in 1981. LJN wouldn’t have had a licensing agreement at that point. The prototypes for the toys debuted at Toyfair in NY in February of 1985. The first 65 episode season of the cartoon debuted on American TV, in syndication in the fall of 1985.
The Fist Pounder was included in Thundercats Ho! for merchandising potential…gotta have the evil thundertank and do the big sales push somewhere in the series. Kind of like how the berserkers in episode (4?) were different than those who re-appear in Thundercats Ho! and were based on the toys. Thundercats Ho! Was really about marketing toys…the “new” vehicles: Hovercat and Thunderclaw…the fist pounder…introducing the new thundercats…Networks that bought the first season for syndication were given Thundercats Ho! and told to air it as a primetime movie once (asked to air between 6pm and 10pm) and to, I am quoting directly here, “promote the hell out of it”.
I think there is also some misinformation that came up with the time in which the cartoon was being completed. The idea is out there that the cartoon series was completed in 1983 and held over until being released. I think this is due to the timeline of when people were working on the show. Voices were recorded before animation was completed, so there is a good chance that thats where the information was coming from. Like certain aspects were finished up earlier, but production on animation wasn’t ready until later. Telepictures wasn’t sitting on a completed run of 65 episodes for two years according to any the information I have here. This is all internal stuff that went from Telexpictures to television stations who were carrying the show (Manny, I know you have thumbed through this stuff, but others here have never seen this paperwork). I have paperwork dated August 16, 1984. The first paragraph in this letter says: “Production of THUNDERCATS is now in full swing and ANIMATION has begun on the first two half-hours which will comprise our ‘SPECIAL’ program. This program will contain approximately five minutes of added animation to fill out an hour time slot”. This was a reference to the “pilot” version of exodus-the one hour version.
Allright guys I jsut got off the phone with my source and it turns out that the Fistpounder was a sample used for Toy Fair and was made from an existing base from a Rough Rider which explains the date 1981
Then it looks like Andrew was right. LJN took this toy out of its “Rough Riders” line, renamed it the Fistpounder for the ThunderCats toyline, and introduced it in “ThunderCats, Ho!” as a new Mutant war wagon. Clever move, I must admit. :bengali:
they may have re-used part of it, then built a new “body” to put on top of an old “frame”. I am really unsure of the specifics on this piece. I think I know the source the images are coming from unless its someone different than the rest of these recent finds. He is acting as a broker for persons owning and in many cases those who designed these original pieces, so he may not always have all of the histories right on everything, but he certain has turned up some cool stuff recently.
Its definitely cool to see more of this stuff popping up recently.
This fist-pounder rough riders toy was an unproduced toy that was featured in the LJN Spring 1987 Toy Dealer catalog. There is also a rough riders toy for the thundertank and the feliner. The tag paragraph selling the toy are as follows;
ROUGH RIDER ASST.
The adventure continues…with ThunderCats Rough Riders vehicles. Two Good Vehicles - The Feliner with automatic flapping wings and the Thundertank featuring powerful pounding claws. There’s also an Evil Mutant Vehicle, the Fistpounder, with earth-shaking mechanical fists. Each vehicle has super high-traction tires and power to spare.
Just to clarify, I spoke with my client this week and he confirmed that both Mutant Fistpounder and the green insect were indeed both done for Thundercats.
He has the Feliner, and is keeping this in his collection. The Fistpounder is the catalog photo, and the one used at Toy Fair. While he did not recall the name of the green scorpion… he said it was done for Thundercats as well… possibly another Bad guy?
Watch for more original artwork to be auctioned off next week. We’re bringing out the best of the best… so be sure to come and join the auction fun!
Hi Jordan, Is there any possibility the owner might take pics of his Feliner for us to showcase on this site? I’d love to see pics, as this will be the closest we will get to seeing it. Would you possibly ask him for us? If he wants to remain anonymous that’s cool
