Hi guys, I was rewatching yesterday Thundercats ho the movie/saga and noticed that it feels like a big toy commercial. I’m not a Thundercats expert so I apologize if this question sounds stupid to you. At that point were they trying to sell the toys? Was that the purpose of the saga? or was it just to introduce the new Thundercats?
Unlike other episodes, in these ones they introduced and used a lot of characters and vehicles that were made into toys. Was that a coincidence?
No other episodes felt like that. Can some please tell me if that was the case? Was the five parter meant to sell the toys?
Is as if almost the whole LJN catalog made it into the toon.
Even the Berserkers changed their look in these episodes to a more toy accurate version. Also there were a lot of first appearances during these episodes.
Here is the list of toys who made it into the episodes:
- The Thundercats ( Obviously)
- Mumm-Ra
- Slithe
- Monkian
- Jackalman
- Vultureman
- Ratar-O
- Tuskas
- Ro-Bears ( different colors)
- Hachiman
- Capt Shiner
- Snowman
- Hammerhand
- Top Spinner
- Cruncher
- Ram Bam
- Fist pounder
- Thunderclaw
- Thunder Tank
- Nose diver
- Sky Cutter
- Ma-Mutt
- Hovercat
I love this saga, so would love to now more about it.
Was that the reason why this saga came to be?
I thought it was to bring season 1 to a close with a big bang, so to say, while at the same time making viewers want to see more of the new ThunderCats, etc and thus guarantee that season 2 would be a hit too. But I agree a lot of the wave 3 toys made it into these 5 episodes.
I think they did have promoting the toys in mind and it was likely a core decision to heavily feature so many that made it into toys…such as Willa/Nayda did not appear in Ho! The Movie so I wonder why…
Actually on the end credits of the ‘Movie’ VHS version, I believe LJN is credited and it says that the toys are in stores now kinda thing… However I’m not sure if this credit is on the episodic saga DVD version of this story?
Even though as an adult, you can see the blatant 90 minute toy commercial, Ho! The Movie was one excellent ThunderCats adventure I loved as a kid and still love today! 
That’s interesting, I didn’t know that about the credits. I’m gonna have to watch it again and see if they credit LJN at the end in the dvd version.
Thanks for that info man.
I have always loved this movie/saga and the funny thing is that until now I noticed how strongly pushed the toys were in it.
I have been used to this by toons like GI Joe or He-Man but never by Thundercats.
Its pretty widely known that almost every major 80s toy show was in fact a 30ish minute commercial heavily tied to a toy line.
Masters of the Universe
Transformers
G.I. Joe
Thundercats
Filmations Ghostbusters
T.M.N.T
Inhumanoids
Bravestarr
Silverhawks
and a host of others all were developed in connection with a respective toy line, and one of the driving factor for the show was trying to sell toys.
In fact I’ve mentioned a few times how older, more beloved characters in shows were pushed out in later seasons to make way for new characters, and a big driving factor behind that was to be able to put newer toys on peghooks. Shows went about this in different ways (Thundercats phased out screen time for Tygra, Panthro, Cheetara and the Mutants to make more time for Pumyra, Lynx-O, Bengali, and the Lunataks but the didn’t outright eliminate any of those characters. Transformers did. Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, Ironhide and Megatron among others all met their demise in Transformers: The Movie. Most followed the former formula, just making room in episodes for the new characters at the expense of older characters).
But to sum it up, so much of the direction of the 80s shows we know and grew up watching were toy driven.