Hi guys,
Earlier today, MannyC spoke to me about the possibility of me coming up with a piece for the “Site History” page, talking about how the site came into being, and about the team members who’ve worked on it. I’ve been tinkering around with something, and have a version here which I thought you guys might like to look at! 
A couple of points just before I post it up:
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The hardest part of creating this piece was being diplomatic about our feelings about other ThunderCats sites. By which I mean, everyone here knows that one of the things that lead to the creation of our site was the feeling that there was no one TCats site to equal www.he-man.org in size and scope, and that, whilst there are several great TCats sites out there, there was no one site you could point to and say was comprehensive. Now obviously this would be an unwise thing to now say publicly!
LMK what you guys think of what I’ve come up with. -
Yep, I realise it is very long - what can I say, I don’t do short, LOL!
I can have a go at editing it down if you guys would like, although some of the length is working to the brief that MannyC gave me, i.e. mentioning team members past and present, and the evolution of the site. Again, please LMK what you think!
OK, here’s the first version I’ve come up with:
SITE HISTORY
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Verdana]A product of fan passion and the realisation of dreams, it is perhaps rather ironic that this site came into being almost by chance. In the summer of 2005, Warner Brothers released ThunderCats: Season 1 Part 1 on DVD, reawakening interest in the series across the globe. Inspired by this, on the forums of [/FONT][U][FONT=Verdana]www.he-man.org[/FONT][/U][FONT=Verdana] (a website devoted to that other 1980s property, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, but which serves as a central online meeting place for fans and collectors of many other cartoons and toylines), people began enquiring as to the best ThunderCats websites to visit. Needless to say, over the years there have been many fine sites devoted to everyone’s favourite felines, some of which are now deceased but many of which are still active, full of great content, and enormously popular. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Verdana]Buoyed by the popularity and success of these sites, and fuelled with passion for the series, several individuals who posted in that (now famous) [/FONT][U][FONT=Verdana]www.he-man.org[/FONT][/U][FONT=Verdana] thread spoke publicly of their desire to pool their resources and skills to create a site large in scope, designed to house extensive information and materials from all of the many incarnations of the ThunderCats, from the toys to the cartoons to the comics, and beyond! For several of the team, the opportunity to work on such a site was the realisation of a lifelong dream. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Verdana]Kick-starting the project was Manny, who first provided the team with the empty webspace on which to build their dreams. Over the course of the next several months, Manny would also envision, design and build the core look of the site, and work tirelessly on webpages to ensure that everyone’s vision was made reality. The rest of the team consisted of Neil, a.k.a. Blackiecats, well known on the forums of [/FONT][U][FONT=Verdana]www.he-man.org[/FONT][/U][FONT=Verdana] for his love of ThunderCats and who had previously put together a website providing a comprehensive look at the LJN ThunderCats toyline, Manny Rodriguez a.k.a. MannysCollectibles, who had impressed everyone with his extensive collection of ThunderCats toys and passion for the show, Chris a.k.a. He-Fan, a devoted ThunderCats fan for almost 20 years, and Tim a.k.a. Voice Guy, whose passion for the property (and in particular the cartoons) was evident to anyone he spoke to. The team was further enhanced when fan favourite artist Celesta Johnston-Krantz graciously accepted requests for her to join the team, Celesta being well-known to thousands of ThunderCats fans for her awe-inspiring depictions of the ‘Cats on her website, [/FONT][U][FONT=Verdana]www.thundercatsillustrated.net[/FONT][/U][FONT=Verdana], and also through appearing as part of the special fan feature on the Season 1 Part 1 DVD set. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Verdana]After discussion amongst the team, [/FONT][U][FONT=Verdana]www.thundercatslair.org[/FONT][/U][FONT=Verdana] was chosen as the name for the new site. The site’s forums opened almost immediately, on August 20th 2005, and then the site was launched properly on December 10th of that same year. Two new additions to the team by this time were Mark, a.k.a. Grizzlor, another passionate ThunderFan with an extensive collection of ThunderCats animation art, and Martin, a.k.a. Wacky Martin, who joined the team to add his extensive writing and research skills to the site, and particularly the planned Encyclopedia section. Unfortunately, due to constraints on his time, it became necessary for Tim (Voice Guy) to leave the site, but not without making a sizeable contribution to the direction of the Cartoon Section. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Verdana]The most recent addition of personnel came in May 2006 when artist Kyle, a.k.a. kzlambert, was invited to join the team working on the site. Kyle had been planning to create a ThunderCats Encyclopedia website, but upon discovering [/FONT][U][FONT=Verdana]www.thundercatslair.org[/FONT][/U][FONT=Verdana] decided that the site would be the perfect place to build the Encyclopedia he envisioned. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Verdana]And so this site continues to grow, and continues to provide an outlet for the passion of a dedicated group of ThunderCats fans for a property that has made a huge difference to their lives. Most importantly, this site exists for the many thousands of ThunderCats fans out there, without whom this site would not be – to all of you, [/FONT][U][FONT=Verdana]www.thundercatslair.org[/FONT][/U][FONT=Verdana] says a resounding “Thank You!” [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Verdana]ThunderCats – Hoooooooooooooooo!! [/FONT][/FONT]
Like I say, I hope that that’s OK, and I’m reasonably pleased with it - LMK what you think!
Take care, everyone, and speak to you soon!