ThunderCats
About This Episode
We’re pouncing into the world of blazing swords, ancient prophecies, and feline warriors. Whether you grew up watching Lion-O lead the charge on Third Earth or you’re just curious about why this ‘80s classic still roars with fans today, we’ve got you covered. From Mumm-Ra’s spooky transformations to that unforgettable theme song. Get ready to revisit the animated world of the ThunderCats!
(May contain some explicit language.)
Patreon » patreon.com/genxgrownup
Discord » GenXGrownUp.com/discord
Facebook » fb.me/GenXGrownUp
Twitter » GenXGrownUp.com/twitter
Website » GenXGrownUp.com
Podcast » GenXGrownUp.com/pod
Merchandise » GenXGrownUp.com/merch
Theme: “Grown Up” by Beefy » beefyness.com
Apple » itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/genxgrownup-podcast/id1268365641
CastBox » castbox.fm/channel/GenXGrownUp-Podcast-id2943471?country=us
Pocket Casts » pca.st/8iuL
Audible » amz.run/6yhR
TuneIn » tunein.com/radio/GenXGrownUp-Podcast-p1020342/
Spotify » spoti.fi/2TB4LR7
iHeart » www.iheart.com/podcast…
Amazon Music » amzn.to/33IKfEK
Show Notes
- ThunderCats Wiki » bit.ly/4lJFSAc
- ThunderCats Toys Wiki » bit.ly/448J4PK
- 15 Amazing Facts » bit.ly/3GhEeFJ
- 15 Things You NEVER KNEW About ThunderCats » bit.ly/3EDE5fn
- The Untold Truth of ThunderCats » youtu.be/uFtzbL5fKhU?si=JFT0gksDjPavOpGd
- ThunderCats Opening » youtu.be/HcGNqrAtsgg?si=_aLTaqza0zC9PTkJ
- The ThunderCats Sequel Was Dark, Nasty and Way Too Adult » bit.ly/4lOepxu
- Things About Thundercats You Only Notice As An Adult » bit.ly/4jsqOpa
- Email the show » podcast@genxgrownup.com
- Visit us on YouTube » GenXGrownUp.com/yt
TRANSCRIPT
| Jon | Welcome back, Gen X Grown-Up Podcast listener to this, the Backtrack Edition of the Gen X Grown-Up Podcast. I am John. Joining me as always, of course, my buddy Moe. Hey, man. |
| Jon | Of course, it would not be a show without George. |
| Mo | Hey, how’s it going? |
| Jon | How’s it going, George? |
| George | Hey, how’s it going, guys? |
| Jon | In this episode, we’re pouncing into the world of Blazing Swords, Ancient Prophecies, on and feet and Feline Warriors. Whether you grew up watching Lion-O lead the charge on Third Earth or… Whether you grew up watching Lion O lead the charge on 3rd Orth. |
| Jon | Orth? Why can’t I say Earth? One more time. Whether you grew up watching Lion-O lead the charge on third Earth, or you’re just curious about why this 80s classic still roars with fans today, we’ve got you covered. |
| Jon | From Mum-Ra’s spooky transformations to that unforgettable theme song, get ready to revisit the animated world of the Thundercats. |
| Mo | to ah You do a one or two more. |
| Jon | Was that enough puns and kind of turns of phrase in there for you? I heard you laughing at me. and Squeeze some more in there. Yeah, I’ll i’ll try it next time. |
| Mo | I’m sure you’re capable. |
| Jon | Sorry. What a disappoint. |
| George | Just dig through your litter box and we’ll see what comes out. |
| Mo | Oh, oh, |
| Jon | Oh, there it is. Oh, oh. rare there was Claws out with George there. Before we, that’s terrible. Before we get into that, time for some fourth listener email. |
| Mo | God. I’m staying out of this one. |
| Jon | Fourth listener, don’t know, this time around is Christopher G who dropped us a line and the subject line, the cryptic subject line of his email is podcast. All right, could be anything. |
| Mo | Ooh, could mean anything. |
| Jon | All right, we’ll see. It could. Here’s what Christopher had to say. |
| George | Must be about the YouTube channel. |
| Jon | Christopher here. but What, what, what? What happened? |
| George | I said it must be about the YouTube channel. |
| Mo | Yeah. Ooh. |
| Jon | That would really be a twist. ah He says, Christopher here, Gen X from 1973. I have managed over half a year while driving to work, lunch breaks and woodworking on days off to a completed all 431 episode listed on CastBox |
| George | Wow. |
| Mo | Alright. 1.5. one point five Wow. |
| Jon | Wow. |
| Mo | okay. know. |
| Jon | Yeah. ah He says, it’s funny how it still sounds normal at that speed, except for when you play song samples, which sound faster. Makes sense. I have really enjoyed reminiscing about a slower time in life. |
| Jon | Thanks and keep up all the good work. Christopher G. |
| Mo | I was |
| Jon | Wow. |
| George | enjoys reminiscing about slower time in life to one and a half times speed. |
| Jon | at At double speed, he’s ran through it. |
| Mo | i know i thinking of two. Ha, ha, ha, ha. |
| Jon | Right. Well, listen, we live in quicker times now. You have to reminisce, even in fast forward, if you really want to get it all in. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Apparently it’s all edited. |
| Jon | So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Christopher. We’re ah frankly stunned and flattered that you made it through the entire catalog. that’s ah We have heard from folks now and then. they’re like, I’m working my way through it slowly. But he plowed through and did it in six months, basically. Is that half a year? Yeah, half a year. |
| Jon | Thank you for that. Glad you’re enjoying the show. Hope you’re still with us because we have more now. This is one more. You got to keep adding one more. ah Fourth listener, if you would like your email featured here on the show, it is drop dead easy. Just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup.com. We read every single one and most of them, just like Christopher’s, will eventually make the show. |
| Jon | All right. With that good business behind us we’re going to jump into the body of this backtrack all about the Thundercats right after this quick break. |
| Jon | This is an often requested backtrack, actually, talking about the Thundercats. And I think it’s true of of so many of those early cartoons ah that we have talked about. And before we get into talking about it, something i often like to do when we get into series like this you know is do a quick roundtable and discuss what our what’s our relationship to the show. How much did we watch it? What’s our familiarity? |
| Jon | And I’m happy to start. I can tell you, so I was born in 69. And so this is like a 40-year anniversary. We’ll talk about when it came out. That feel like… I, it was afternoon show. |
| Jon | It was a syndicated show that you watch in the afternoons and it wasn’t much. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It wasn’t must see TV for me. It wasn’t something I had to run home and watch, but I think I saw a lot of it, like just collateral damage. It was always on at a friend’s house or was always on right before or right after something else. |
| Jon | And I enjoyed it. Frankly, I have a better respect for it now watching a few episodes leading up to this backtrack, but like I didn’t realize the, the thread of a story that ran through the whole thing. It was pretty good. But even then I’m not well-versed in the world of Thundercats. |
| Jon | So, Mo, what about you? You’re a bit older than I am. what what about What’s your relationship to it? |
| Mo | Yeah. I mean, this came out in 85. So I was a senior in high school at that point. ah Actually, came out late. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | So I was in college, actually, when this actually came out. So, you know, I didn’t watch it. It’s actually as funny because in my um fraternity, it became like a popular must-see afternoon show. Like, |
| Jon | like In college, really? |
| Mo | In college. Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | Oh, okay. |
| Mo | It was like, it was weird. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | It was a soap opera and then there was Thundercats. that The TV the in the room is always had on every day because it came on like, it was like but ah five days a week, right? It came on every day, I believe. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | I think so. yeah |
| Mo | um So, yeah, it was like when the afternoon days, you come back at like 3.30 or 4 or whatever and Thundercats was on TV. So, again, I wound up watching a lot of it. I won’t say again. I’m not like an expert on it by any stretch, but I’m definitely very, very familiar with it. And, you know, there’s definitely some things I thought were odd, but we’ll get into that later. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, I’m holding out hope for the baby here. So George, you’re the youngest of us. You probably had the best chance of seeing a lot of Thundercats because you were four years younger than than Mo. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | What is your relationship to the show? |
| George | Yeah, I mean, I would have been a just finishing up eighth grade when that came out. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | ah Perfect. |
| George | So um it was still a little, I guess, on the young side, but I actually really liked it. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. |
| George | I watched it every day when I would get home after practice. I actually remember setting up my VCR to record episodes because I often got home after the episodes that aired. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | So it was it was a lot of fun. don’t remember how many episodes I had recorded, but I know I had several tapes full of the, like where you could get like eight or nine episodes on one tape if you ah recorded it EP or LP, whatever it was. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. EP Extra Lumpire. |
| Jon | there’s a flashback |
| George | Uh, right. |
| Mo | Yeah, really. |
| George | But, um, yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. Um, I remember, the origin episode, which I rewatched for, uh, this podcast. And i remember a lot of the storylines. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I just remember thinking that it felt very much like just a feline version of He-Man. a lot of characters were very similar story arcs. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | They same archetypes. It was, you know, people going to a planet they didn’t belong on and, |
| Mo | Power sword. |
| George | they’re you know good and bad and the sword that meant everything that had a special power and whatnot so ah exactly yeah yeah and i mean not unlike a lot of the shows back then i mean you had you had thundercats you had he-man you had silver hawks had a similar motif you know a lot of those shows yeah exactly |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | ah Right. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Right. They had their own version of Skeletor a little bit. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. All right. |
| Jon | Little Rocks, mm-hmm. Bravestar, yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay, well, in case you listener, now you click play on this. Maybe you just love us, you don’t know Thundercats, but if you don’t know much about Thundercats, you’re goingnna learn a lot during the course of this backtrack. |
| Jon | ah The show, ah animated series, obviously, follows the adventures of a team of heroes, cat-like humanoid aliens, who end up on a planet called Third Earth. |
| Mo | see |
| Jon | I want to talk about Third Earth a little bit later when we get to that part. ah The plot begins with a dying planet, Thundera, their home world, explodes. Like, they’re they’re in a ship, and they’re looking at blow up on the screen, forcing the Thundercats, who are basically like… |
| Jon | like nobility, like they’re the, the archduke and King and Prince and whatever of Thundera. |
| Mo | It seems like, yeah. |
| Jon | So, you know, they saved the 1%. Good for you, Thundera, I guess. And they’re fleeing their home world, looking for a home. And in the course of that, they, they go into hibernation land on third earth. We can get into all of that, but, |
| Jon | This series came about during a really interesting time that spawned shows like this. In fact, that you mentioned, George, your your Masters of Universe and stuff like that, because of a change in rules about what could be on kids’ TV. |
| George | or was, were you pitching to me? |
| Jon | ah |
| George | I didn’t do the deregulation stuff. |
| Jon | i was Oh, you didn’t. You didn’t. |
| George | No, no. |
| Jon | Oh, oh, I’m sorry. |
| Mo | I could talk about it. |
| George | I think you type, I think you typed that in when we were first looking at the card. |
| Jon | I thought you did. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Oh, maybe I did. right, let me back out and I’ll talk about deregulation. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | I could talk about the two. I know about that one. So. |
| Jon | Okay, well, let me let me spin that around so that I can get it into you then, Mo. I thought you did that. um I must have written that. Okay. I don’t know where I said that, but um okay. Three, two. |
| Jon | And Thundercats came and Thundercats kind of came along and was able to be created in much the same way. Like George was saying a second ago about how, you know, He-Man and Silverhawks and all these came around. |
| Jon | But they happened in a time when deregulation was affecting what could be on kids TV. Right, Mo? |
| Mo | Oh, yeah, it was funny because basically there was a group called Action for Children’s Television, you know, ACT. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | um And they basically said that this show is nothing but a half hour commercial every day to sell toys, which |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. |
| Mo | I’m sure, i mean I’m not going to say it’s not what they wanted to do. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | um And I know that they try to kind of gloss over that or sugarcoat it by saying, oh no, there’s these educational parts and every episode teaches these great qualities and da, da, da, |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Even to the point where I know that they even did like a school syllabus thing where you tell your students to watch the show and hear the talk about the lessons that you learn. And it I mean, they they definitely went heavy into it, but i mean, come on, this it was a toy sell. is i mean, you know, that’s that’s pretty obvious. |
| Jon | Yeah, and it’s true that just like with He-Man, I think there’s a lot of mentions of He-Man in here in Masters the Universe, but just like that, there were little moral lessons in there about, you know, being truthful to your friends and being helpful to people and understanding other cultures. |
| Mo | loyalty and yeah yeah |
| Jon | Yeah, loyalty, all that was kind of in there. But ultimately, it was a big toy ad. It was because, and we’ll talk in a few segments, there were tons of toys that were created around it. |
| Jon | And it’s because kids get to come home, watch the show, and go, I want that toy. I want a Lion-O. I want a toy from that. |
| Mo | yeah Yeah, how they eventually ruled was that they said, no, the show could go on. The only condition is that they couldn’t have commercials for their own toys during the show. |
| Jon | Yeah. We’ll put them in every other show, just not this one. |
| Mo | Every other show has it. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, the show before and just after, but just not during this show will it be there. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | So, yeah, it was interesting. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | All right. Let’s jump into the creator and get into that. I don’t know who that… Did you do that that stuff, George? |
| George | I did a lot of that stuff. Yeah. |
| Jon | Okay. All right. Maybe you can jump into some of this for us. |
| George | So did you say somebody was going to pitch me into it or I need to get into it? |
| Jon | I can’t. |
| Mo | like could picture I’ll do it. I could I could take I get I was last one to talk. |
| George | Okay. |
| Jon | Oh, you just wrapped it up and you jump in. |
| George | Okay. |
| Mo | So I’ll do that one. |
| Jon | Okay. I’ll get to you. Cool. Cool. |
| Mo | Let me think about this. So, yeah, like you said, it it was and it wasn’t kind of advertising, but. um |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. It’s okay. |
| Mo | But George, you know something about the history, like how we created this, right? |
| George | Yeah, so I did research, as we often do, for these types of podcasts, and the guy who created it, his name is ah Ted Wolf, Tobin Wolf, Theodore Wolf. Wolf is the last name, which I always found funny. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | It’s a wolf creating a cat show, but either way… |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | He’s the guy who came up with the idea and created, and I’m sure he was probably influenced by other things being created around at the time, like we’ve already talked about. |
| Mo | I didn’t catch that. |
| George | But what I found interesting was the show was actually animated in Japan, um but it was produced, written, and voiced in the United States, which… |
| Mo | Yeah, that’s weird. |
| Jon | so |
| George | I mean, that’s not unheard of, but it was a little different model for that early thing. I mean, I, when I started rewatching some of the episodes, my son walked in the room and he was like, wow, this looks like a really crappy, really old anime. |
| George | And I’m like, well, yeah, I mean, 40 years, Japan. |
| Mo | you |
| Jon | You’re not wrong. Yep. |
| George | Yeah, that’s, that’s very true. |
| Jon | ye |
| George | That’s where it was done. And, um it’s, it was created, um by that guy, but it was distributed by a really familiar group for John. |
| Jon | Yeah, yeah. So I love my Christmas stop-motion animation and all this stuff. Rankin Bass. So Jules Rankin and whatever Bass, his first name was. But ah their company, their parent company, Telepictures, was responsible for this. And I remember i remember seeing in Thundercats that would come up and I’d go, ooh, Rudolph, ooh, the Santa Claus things, you know. |
| Jon | But they were, I think, well, some people don’t know about Rankin Bass. And they had animated Christmas specials and other specials, too. They had… a lot of things beyond just the stop motion, but they were a big, I will call it kids shows, animated shows of any kind, whether it be stop motion or whether they’d be a drawn animation like this. Now later they would merge with Lorimar. |
| Jon | You’re probably, you’re probably seeing the logo. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | It draws out the rainbow Lorimar ding at the end of it. |
| Mo | so |
| Jon | ah They merged together. That was later ah in February of 86, it’s it’s one of those there were like a handful of these animation uh or actually production companies that made animation like that and rankin bass was the one that put out thundercats and i always it always kind of made me smile when i saw it and go oh i know those guys even though i didn’t know them or anything it was that neat |
| George | right Yeah, it’s you know kind of like you see Chuck Jones on something and you’re a fan of Tom and Jerry, right? |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I mean, yeah, when you when you see that kind of stuff, yeah, it’s like, oh, that’s blah, blah, blah. |
| Jon | right yeah ah right good point yep i know him it’s comfortable |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | i For me, um I saw the animated series like I talked about earlier after school, but the big part of this for me that was… |
| Jon | Hmm? |
| George | I think i a little bit more successful than the He-Man front. And I’m sure people are right in and kind of contradict me here, but I think the comic book series that was created um by star comics, which was Marvel’s subsidiary at the time ah in 1985, I think that their comic book series did a little bit better than the He-Man comic book series for me, at least I enjoyed the comics a little bit more. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | I still have my number one, um ah in my collection from back then. Now, they also published comics with other imprinters later on. |
| Jon | Ooh. Hmm. |
| George | DC, through one of their subsidiaries, picked up and did some comics later on, and I think there’s even been a third indie publisher. I forget which one that’s done some of the more recent comic books, but A lot of these shows depended upon toys, toys, toys, like we’ve talked about, but we often don’t discuss the fact that that wasn’t their only entry into the childhood mindset. It was the cartoon, the toys, but also the comic books, which were incredibly popular in the mid eighty s |
| Mo | yeah I don’t remember ever reading the comic books. Were they like, ah hate to say this, were they drawn like for kids or were they drawn more for like the teenagers, which a lot of the comic books were kind of gearing towards those days? |
| George | ah So this is the mid eighty s This is basically the bronze or copper age, however you want to call it. there There is no delineation between adult and kids comics. All comics are pretty much drawn the same at this point. |
| Jon | all for kids. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | there’s, there’s Marvel and DC are the really only two. And like, so in this case you had, um I think, what was the name of that company? |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | I think it was, uh, star. Yeah. Star comics was the subsidiary of Marvel. So they still had to do everything quote the Marvel way, because they were just a, they were just an imprint or a property of Marvel. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. |
| George | And, nobody, there weren’t really too many independent comics. Like the only successful independent comic book I can remember from that era were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah, I see the same one. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | They did their own thing and they were heavily adult drawn and influenced and written. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Right. Right. |
| George | um But everything else was all, I would say, preteen to middle teen. That’s what the target audience was. |
| Jon | okay Mm-hmm. |
| George | So yeah, they didn’t really, They really do anything adult wise. It was like, I can think of like one or two DC comics that I would have thought were adult, like sun devils, but, um but yeah, Thundercats, it was just a straight, just like the he-man, just like GI i Joe, just like anything else. |
| Mo | Okay. Mm-hmm. |
| George | It was just a straight youth pointed comic book, I would guess. |
| Mo | okay |
| Jon | Yeah. Now, I know in the next segment, we’re going to talk about all the characters and kind of our, I think probably this is one of those series where you probably have a character or two that you really relate to or you know. |
| Jon | But I went back like you and I watched the and the pilot and actually the first five or six episodes, I think, of the first season to get a feel of it. And mentioned at the top of the show, I have a little better respect for it now with an adult eye looking at it. |
| Jon | And the thing that I thought was a really clever thing they did now in the pilot, we mentioned they’re leaving the planet blows up and they’re there. |
| Mo | Right. Yeah. |
| Jon | They they have found a planet they think they can they can live on and it’s but they have to go into cryo sleep to do it. And when they do, everybody gets in these pods except Jaga, who is kind of like he later becomes the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the Thundercats. |
| Mo | right |
| Jon | Everybody gets in these pods. And then when they land and they all wake up, everybody is just like they were when they went in except Lion-O because he was like the young prince who was destined to be the leader of the Thundercats. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | But when he came out of cryo, he’d age like 20 years i instead of 15. He’s like, you know, 20 or 30 years old. He’s a grown man, but he’s still a boy inside. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And, the way they use his age or false age to kind of go oh, well, he is a man. He is the king of the Thundercats. But remember, he’s still learning lessons. And the viewers, us kids, we could, he was like our eyes into the show. he He was a grown man doing kid things because he didn’t know how to be an adult yet. |
| Jon | Just like we as kids didn’t know how to be adults yet. So we kind of, how would you react kind of thing. And I thought that was an interesting way to, position the show so that, yeah, you’re going to have heroes you like, but this one guy is really a kid who’s acting like an adult, like we need to be eventually. |
| Mo | the The only thing I found really strange about that was that there were two other kids that went to the cryosleep and they didn’t age, you know? |
| Jon | and Right. They were fine. |
| Mo | we So i was like, okay, maybe his was defective. I don’t know. And I have to ask this question. |
| George | I yeah, I think that’s something that kind of I don’t think they said it in the episode, but I think they might have hinted at it in the comics that there was something wrong with his tube. |
| Mo | Oh, that’s why he got older. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | So here’s the question I have to ask. |
| George | I think. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | Were they nude in the beginning of that first pilot? |
| Jon | I mean, they had fur. |
| George | Not in their society’s eyes. |
| Jon | but I picture the cats movie for a little while ago, little uncanny Valley, but you know, why, why wear clothes? If you’re a cat, you got fur, you don’t need that. But yeah, they did give them clothes. So that then in the series, they had clothes. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | That was interesting. Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | yeah they that was the thing that the the leader who had got them all off the planet he he did this magical thing and tossed it to him and clothes appeared around them and they got their weapons that they were going to be using which i was like okay so i guess they didn’t have weapons previously either they just clawed each other to death maybe |
| Mo | Yeah. but qui them Yeah. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Jon | Right. He’s like… abracadrobe and it’s like we’re going to give you a weapon based on your particular skills and you get a javelin you and i was thinking ninja turtles like oh because don’t the ninja turtles their weapons kind of are mirrors of their personalities just like you kind of think yeah so i’ve they kind of did that here too so i we’re kind of bleeding into talking about the characters so uh let’s take a quick break and when we get back we’re going to run through the most notable characters the series that ran for years talk about the characters and our memories of them stick around |
| George | A |
| George | little bit, yeah. |
| Jon | We have already kind of dabbled in this a little bit, but in this segment, we’re going to get into all of the different, well, many, there’s too many characters do all, but many of the different primary characters ah from the Thundercats. And one we already kind of talked about a little bit, though, is Lion-O. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, thankfully I had. Oh, George is froze. |
| Jon | Uh-oh. |
| George | I’m still here. |
| Jon | You still hear us, George? |
| Mo | still here? |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | OK, your video froze. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | your Your video is just frozen. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | OK, so I’ll keep going. |
| Jon | You’re fine. |
| George | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah, you’re |
| Mo | So, yeah, luckily i got the easy character to start with. So thank you for that, guys. |
| Jon | okay. |
| Mo | ah but So Lionel, I mean, he’s the main character, obviously. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Mo | And like you said, he kind of was the the one that the kids are supposed to relate to the most, right? And the one to be the most. |
| Jon | ah I think so. |
| Mo | Because, you know he was still very much a child in in his head. |
| Jon | Probably. |
| Mo | or say, not child, but young. You know like adolescent in his head. |
| Jon | I feel like it 15 or 16 maybe when he went in. |
| Mo | But, yeah, yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. It’s a feeling I got. |
| Mo | But you know he you know gets this amazing Sword of Omens, which can do pretty much whatever they needed to do for that particular episode. |
| Jon | ah Right. |
| George | Right, yeah. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | yeah ah But the main power is obviously it it’s kind of like a dagger shaped and you know he does his whole thunder, with thunder, thunder, and it just grows to be a huge sword. He can see across distances and it sends a signal up to wake up everybody. |
| Jon | Sight beyond sight. |
| Mo | But like said, he’s… Again, like the whole suspended animation. So he’s an adult. So I think they had to do that, obviously, for him to be the leader. Right. I mean, I guess they couldn’t think of like having a child as a leader. |
| Mo | So it was a ah he was an interesting character. It was just like said, that whole my head always had that weird kind of couldn’t quite get my head around what he’s supposed to be. Like, is he a kid? Is he an adult? |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | you know, is a the other character hitting it on him or not? Does he just not see that because he’s a kid? |
| Jon | And is that creepy or not? |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Right? |
| Mo | Is it creepy or not? Because he is just a child in his head. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Mo | But, you again, he was one of the main characters. But so what about the next one, George? Was it Panthro? |
| George | Yeah, Panthro. So this was ah played by Earl Hyman. Now, you guys might recognize him. He was ah Cliff Huxtable’s father character on the Cosby show. |
| George | So he was the grandfather to the kids. |
| Mo | Oh, OK. |
| George | um and But it’s the same guy. He did the voice for this. I always associate him like, we’re I’m going to draw a lot of parallels with He-Man, but this was like this show’s man-at-arms kind of character. |
| Mo | Oh, right. |
| George | So he was… |
| Mo | Yeah, where you’re going that. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yes, right. |
| Mo | Yes. |
| George | Basically like the mentor, the conscience, the guide to the lead character who would sometimes want to go off emotionally, ah you know, half cocked, so to speak. And Lion-O, like you said, yes, he was a kid in an adult’s body. |
| George | I think that was done on purpose. Now, I know it felt weird to you guys because you were a little bit older, but me being a little bit younger… I think it helps the younger person put themselves in the place of the hero because it’s a young character to start who becomes this big, bold hero. |
| Jon | I can definitely see that, yeah. |
| George | What kid watching that show doesn’t want to be that? That’s what I think the Lion-O character was supposed to represent. |
| Mo | Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| George | But he needs a mentor, a character that we’re go to talk about a little bit later that we kind of mentioned earlier. has already died on the trip who can’t be that character. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | So Panthro kind of jumps in and takes over that role quite a bit. And i mean, there’s there’s a whole group in this inner circle. They were all um essentially the ruling class on ah their home planet. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | um And they even talk about that a little bit in the first episode. You know, he brought all these people out that were basically members of the government kind of entity there. |
| Mo | Yeah. always thought it was amazing how, know, it seems like they landed on this planet that doesn’t have a lot of technology, but he manages to build pretty much whatever he needs just by taking apart your ship for the most part. Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, right. |
| George | he’s man at arms. That’s, that’s what his whole thing is. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It’s… It’s a Gilligan’s Island. You’re like, you just tear it apart the minnow to create your entire civilization, yeah. |
| George | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | ah Well, there’s probably the third primary character, well, there’s about four primary characters, I guess, but Tigra was ah played by Peter Newman or voiced by Peter Newman, I should say. And he’s actually, I guess if Lion-O had not grown older and ready to take command, Tigra was the second in command. |
| Jon | He was basically the right-hand man to Lion-O. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And whereas Panthro was the muscle and the warrior and the conscience, Tigra, who these but basically we didn’t mention Lion-O looks like a lion. Panthro looks like a panther. Tigra looks like a tiger. |
| Jon | You know, it’s kind of anthropomorphic tiger. |
| Mo | What a coincidence. |
| Jon | you know, these cats where Panthro is more of the military guy, the the engineer. Tigra is like ah <unk>s like a scientist. He’s an architect. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | More about stealth, you know, because Panthro is like big. He’s a beefy guy. And Tigra is a little bit smaller and he uses his brain a little more. And probably… Maybe even after before Lionel, I always associated most with Tiger. I liked him because I didn’t want to fight either. i was the nerdy dork and I would much rather use my brain to figure stuff out. and I thought he was just really cool. Plus, Tiger Stripes looks all look awesome, too. |
| Jon | So he was probably the character that I most empathized with and thought about and wanted to see when it wasn’t a scene. I’m like, where’s Tiger? Where’s Tiger? He was the one that I wanted to see. Now, there were there was the three main guys, but there was one, well, one grown female character, right, Mo? |
| Mo | Oh, yeah, that was Chitara, which, again, by name, Cheetah, you know, so, again, major coincidence that their planet named them like that, but the, the it was voiced by lyn ah Lynn Lipton, who, I guess she actually did a whole bunch of voice acting back then, but she |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah, all these guys did. |
| Mo | Yeah, and her character, again, as being the only adult female, and again, this is the 80s, mid-80s, so she was definitely like the voice of reason, right? She was like the one that always said, because one of her powers that she also had like precognition that she could kind of see how things were going to happen, and so she was always one the that pulled them back a little bit and calmed them down. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Although, know, she did have that staff, and she was, you know, pretty much a badass when they fought, and I see like the later series, they actually made her more so that warrior type. They kind of, I guess, got away from the ah more, I don’t know what call it, ethereal mental kind of character, more of a physical character. |
| Mo | But again, she was there. Yeah, she had super speed. ah She could tell what in danger. i forget what other powers we have. But again, she was like the one that had, may or may not have had a fling with Lino. We’re not sure. So I know the comp. |
| Jon | She flirted with him. |
| Mo | Yeah, I think in the comic books, he actually did get married or something. i’m not sure to who, but maybe George, you know better than me. Yeah. |
| George | Yeah, I don’t remember that part. |
| Jon | Oh, maybe it’s best we don’t know about that part. |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | Yeah, really? |
| Jon | It’s still creepy. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | He’s still a little kid. Yeah. I always, Chitara was cool in that, in that she, they wrote her well in that she both, she’s this kind of the conscience. She’s the morality a little bit of, of the Thundercats. And, and also because she has this precognition, what better skill for someone who’s the conscience is to kind of know. And when she fought, like she would jump out of the way before something happened. She had that kind of immediate kind of, I don’t Just like some superhero that can predict almost like a bullet time, but not bullet time. |
| Jon | She knew where somebody was going to be. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Jon | She used that in weaponry, but she also used that not just to combat, but to, um, to keep them guided and morally kind of grounded. And so, uh, almost, ah i guess you could call her a motherly figure though. |
| Jon | She was not matronly in appearance. She was more like taking care of them and making sure they were doing the right thing where knucklehead guys maybe wouldn’t, but I don’t know. |
| Mo | Hmm. Hmm. |
| Jon | Now, George, I’m jealous of you that you get to talk about probably the cutest character on the show and the one that his inclusion was quite odd. |
| Mo | oh |
| George | Yeah, I mean, Snarf is the Aunt Bee of the Thundercats. |
| Jon | hmm. Yep. darn |
| George | he ah He mothers and protects and worries over Lion-O from minute one of the episode. |
| Jon | who |
| George | ah He is the nursemaid, so to speak. |
| Jon | yep |
| George | He’s always worried. um He’s also, when we get to talking about the toys, he’s the only character gets a certain kind of toy treatment amongst the entire line, which I found |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | unusual and i guess it made sense but i kind of wondered like why didn’t you do the rest of them like that but anyway uh snarf also had that thing where you see it sometimes done in uh in cartoons where the character’s name is a word that they often say in their speech pattern and that’s what you know like every day snarf snarf he would just it |
| Jon | yeah |
| Mo | Oh my god, yeah. |
| George | It was silly. It was comical. It was done to make little kids laugh. That was the entire reason for the character. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| George | And I think it was effective on that level. I think people who were a little bit older certainly would probably hate that character a lot. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | He would be their Jar Jar Binks, so to speak. |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | um But I think he served a purpose in the show. And yeah, he was he was important to Lion-O for sure. |
| Jon | Certainly, yeah. He’s kind of scrappy-dewey for me, to be quite honest. he’s he’s |
| George | yeah |
| Jon | He’s the bad actor all the time. And he’s the one who is, don’t mean he’s doing bad things, but he he doesn’t behave like you would want a good acting child to behave. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | but i know he’s not a child. He actually was like a nursemaid. i know But he was always like, oh, Snarf is left out. Big surprise. looked it like he He doesn’t have any grace about him. |
| George | right |
| Jon | He’s always kind of, he Snarf, he’s never included. I’m so, woe is me. He’s just so… annoying in that but I think maybe that’s like that’s meant to be this this dichotomy between here’s how you should act here’s how snarf acts like so ah someone else would show grace and he would just go I’m scared and I’m not I’m not focusing on stuff and he was just kind of a yeah I didn’t care for him but he was cute |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | One of the things id I’d forgotten until I saw the episode again, that basically his purpose was to take care of Lionel, right? that was his That was his reason for being there, right? |
| Jon | yeah yeah mm-hmm |
| George | Yeah, that’s |
| Mo | That was his whole purpose in life, was which i don’t know why, because they never listened to him anyway. Like he just pretty much, you know, but yeah. |
| Jon | like a pet right true yeah |
| George | Well, but they didn’t listen to him from the time when they got to Third Earth. Before Third Earth, they left him to protect Lionel when the battle happened, if you remember right, because Lionel was still a child at that point. |
| Mo | Oh, right, we’re right, right. |
| George | Once Lionel, once his body grows into adulthood, the nursemaid character isn’t important to him, but he’s still mentally a child. So the nursemaid character is still important in that aspect. |
| Jon | yeah |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | So I think that’s why. |
| Jon | And I think he’s feeling that rejection a bit too. Like, I’m not as important as I used to be. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | And that’s why he’s a little insecure. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | ah Now, we also had some bad guys, which a few notable bad guys. So ah Jackalman is one that jumps out at me. Now, I think we mentioned Lion-O was performed by Larry Kinney. |
| Jon | Coincidentally, Larry Kinney also performs Jackalman. There’s a lot of double and triple duty going on in this voice cast, which reminds me of like the Star Trek animated series, like James Doohan would do 20 voices and Majel Barrett would do 20 voices, whoever was the creature of the week. |
| Jon | ah But he was one of the… And is it so odd that I, is it so important that these mutants had to follow them all the way across light years? Did they also go and suspend an animation just because as soon as they landed on third earth, here’s a ship full of bad guys that also came from Thundera also. |
| George | I mean, they’re mutants. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Maybe they didn’t have to go into suspended animation. They’re mutated. Maybe that’s kind of the point. we know We don’t really know. |
| Jon | oh okay. |
| George | They might not have been subject to age. |
| Jon | They could just do it. |
| George | They might have just been, like, setting that one time frame evil the whole time. I think… |
| Jon | No. |
| George | you You have to give the good guys somebody to fight against. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | If you’re not going to give them the environment like you do in Thundar the Barbarian, you’re going to have to give them the evil nemesis. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | And Jackalman is one of the first ones we see. ah |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | i don’t think he’s a terribly important character, but he is one of the, I would say Slither. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | What’s his Slithero? I think he was more important than Jackalman. |
| Jon | Yeah, Sly, Slither, whatever. Yeah, he’s yeah kind of a froggy, snakey guy. |
| George | Sly. Yeah. slythe Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | It was part of like a looks like a three stooges of of bad guys, these different ones. |
| George | Exactly. |
| Jon | And Jackalman’s the one that just just resonated with me. I thought about that. Yeah, well, but really, the main bad guy did not come from Thundera. The main bad guy was actually a resident of Third Earth, and he gets immediately involved in this interchange. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah, that was Mumbara or Mumbara. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Mo | I’m not sure how you just use the hyphen in there. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Mo | Voiced by Earl Hammond. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | And that was it it was an interesting choice for a villain because they basically made a villain that they can never really beat easily because he’s immortal. ah That was part of his gig that, you know even if they killed him, he would come back in the pyramid. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Sure. |
| Mo | Like eventually his body would come back. |
| George | hmm. |
| Mo | He was… You get the impression, was he, I think I heard somewhere that he might have been like the only actual human on the show. Like originally, because he was like originally a person at some point. |
| Jon | He’s some kind of mummy, clearly. |
| George | Yeah, at some point. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | But again, they made like definitely he was the big bad. It seems like anything bad that happened somehow was around him. Somehow he was their Skeletor, right? Everything somehow he was involved in one way or the other. |
| Mo | He had like immortal, like he had um mystical powers. And he also seemed to be able to kind of bring like the mutants and all these other people together to kind of try to plot and plan. |
| Jon | And I was thought it was really interesting. And I remember this very well is that he was the shriveled old. |
| Mo | hmm. |
| Jon | He basically was a mummy. He was the curse of the mummy. Right. But he summoned whatever this arc arcane power and he could morph into lots of things. |
| George | Right. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | He could just be whatever the hell he wanted to be. He could be a giant beast or he could be a swarm of locusts or he could be whatever. But they all kind of many of the said early on, at least many of the things he was were things you already associate with mummies from mummy movies. You know, those, course, scarabs and stuff like that. |
| Jon | So, yeah, whatever he was, you beat that. He just scampers about with his tail between his legs back and regenerates and he can next episode. He’s back being some other asshole. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, it was also interesting. He seemed to actually have like access to like technology and stuff that wasn’t really readily available to everybody else. like he Because he got pulled he pulled in all sorts of stuff. |
| Jon | Yeah, that was weird. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | It it was an interesting kind of glomeration of like magic and technology and all this other stuff that he would do. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah, and if he is the ultimate bad guy, probably the ultimate good guy on this was the guy who you thought you’d seen the end of in the pilot, but he kind of got to keep on coming back. |
| George | Yeah, that you’re talking about Jaguar, the Jaguar leader guy who was really basically the Obi-Wan Kenobi force ghost of Thundercats. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | he but he was |
| George | I mean, he just keeps coming back and he’s even got the blue glow around him and everything. |
| Mo | you |
| George | I half expected him to pull out a lightsaber and get sued into exist non-existence by George Lucas at some point. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. |
| George | ah He was… ah So Jaga is the guy who we talked about earlier. He gets all of the leadership clan off of the planet, sets them on their way. Then during the battle, he gets injured and wounded and he knows he’s going to die. |
| George | So he’s like, we all age a little bit in these pods. So my injury, I’m going to die for it anyway. |
| Jon | yep |
| George | So I’m just going to stay out of the pods to make sure the ship, which is kind of damaged goes through. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Herot move. |
| George | And don’t forget when they first left the planet, they weren’t the only ship. There were like eight or nine ships around them that the mutants blew up. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | There was a big space battle. |
| George | So there was like a guard and escort. |
| Jon | Right, right. |
| Mo | Yeah. right |
| George | Yeah. So there were going to be more Thundercats. It’s just the mutants took care of that shit right away. ah |
| Jon | They thinned out the cast for us. |
| George | I think, ah Yeah, Jaga ends up becoming the group’s overall mentor, like he was in the very first episode. |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | And of course, he always appears to Lion-O at times of need and whatnot. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | i I found his character… even as a young person back then, i kept rolling my eyes every time his character would come on the screen that I remember. |
| George | He just felt like, here we go again. He’s going to tell him the right thing to do and blah, blah, blah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | And even as a precocious, like 14, 15 year old, I just wanted sometimes Lion-O to just go off the fucking hinges and start killing everybody with the sword and stuff. |
| Jon | Get out of my head, Jaga. |
| George | I |
| George | But yeah, ah Jaga keeps everybody on the straight and narrow. It’s kind of funny. We’ve talked about somebody being the voice of reason with every single one of the characters, Tigra, Chitara, Panthro. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | ah All of those characters had that… you start to realize that it’s because Lion-O is the child who’s unpredictable and is the most susceptible to just doing stuff on the whim, off the cuff, emotional kind of reactions. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | All these other characters are there to kind of rein him in, so to speak, to help him grow to maturity. |
| Mo | yeah They’re all raising him, basically. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | They are. Yeah, collectively. Yeah, and Snarf is not happy about it, frankly. and |
| George | No. |
| Jon | you know |
| George | No. |
| Jon | I thought it was interesting that both Jaga, who’s kind of like the Obi-Wan, and then Mumra, who is the bad guy, voiced by the same guy. |
| George | Sure. |
| Mo | yeah. |
| Jon | thats ah was Speaking of voiced by the same character, we also had two minor characters that… almost They were basically there to get in trouble and have to be saved a lot. So they had two kids. They were but actually siblings, brother and sister, called Wiley Kit and Wiley Cat. |
| Jon | They were voiced voiced by Lynn Lipton and Peter Newman, again, doing double duty. And they were just, I guess they were, were they children of any of the cats we knew? don’t really clarify that. |
| Mo | I don’t think so. |
| Jon | They were just kids that also part of the royalty. They were just part of it. |
| George | I feel like they were like they were around the palace as Lion-O’s friends. like He was a kid, too, so they were like his buddies. |
| Jon | Maybe, yeah. |
| George | Maybe they had some royal blood in them, but they never really allude to it that I can remember. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | I think they were just always there to let Lion-O hold on to his childhood a little bit, because they didn’t age properly. |
| Jon | From a story structure, that’s why they were there, you say. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | Yeah, yeah. |
| George | Yeah. They stayed that youth group. And like you said, they always got in trouble. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | They always needed to be rescued. They always, you mumra tying them up or whatever. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | yeah, eight That’s really, they’re they’re a plot device. That’s really all they are. They’re not even a good as plot device as, say, like the Wonder Twins from Super Friends. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. |
| Jon | Right. Janet Zainab. |
| Mo | Shape of a bucket of water. |
| George | They’re just, yeah, they’re just like, okay, let’s hit the big red button reset. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | What is Wily Kit and Wily Cat going to do this week that’s going to get everybody into trouble? |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. You know, there’s a couple more. We’re talking about characters here, but I want to talk briefly about, I feel like Third Earth itself is kind of a character and it’s kind of nebulous. |
| Jon | One of the things that I found most interesting in going back and rewatching some of this is I didn’t appreciate… that there was a through line of this cartoon. It wasn’t just, it was a lot of episode and monster of the, of the week or day or whatever it was, but there was this story. In fact, if you watch the first six or seven, like I did, |
| Jon | First they crash and then they, they build the, the, the thundercat car or whatever it’s carl called out of yeah the tank out of parts of the ship. |
| Mo | The tank, yeah. |
| Jon | And now they have that. And, and now they meet the, these, these teddy bear, teddy ruxpin creatures. And then they’re going they’re helped them build their society back and whatever. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | There’s a through line going through it. But one part of the story that maybe it would be revealed to me if I watched it religiously was, They call this Third Earth. And there is, as you said, Mo, Mumra ostensibly was a human at some point and became mummified. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | There are pyramids. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | I’m like, they look like our pyramids. Is this a… And maybe, like, George, in your comic book world, is this maybe like a Earth 744 or whatever? Is a different numbered Earth? Or is it the past or the future? What did you guys take out of what Third Earth was supposed to be in relation to us? |
| Mo | ah i mean, I figured it was like some sort of post-apocalyptic Earth. |
| Jon | Hmm, okay. |
| Mo | that That was my take on it. um You know, I keep thinking like Herculoids or something like that from the earlier day. You know, it’s like something happened, wiped out people. And this is like things are starting to rebuild at this point. and That’s the way I kind of took it. I’m not sure if that was exactly correct or not, but that’s what I thought. |
| Jon | no |
| George | Yeah, it’s Earth. There’s no question about that. I mean, they they don’t call it Earth and say it’s the third planet from the sun and it’s blue without it being fucking Earth. |
| Jon | That’s right! |
| George | You have to give young people some context that they’ll at least be able to understand and latch onto. And I think that’s they were just doing the cheap route. I personally always thought that this was Thundar’s Earth about 10 million years after his time. |
| Jon | Oh, after Thundar. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Okay, sure. |
| George | Yeah, so i don’t a it doesn’t matter. |
| Jon | all right. |
| George | It’s Earth, there’s pyramids, there’s some other stuff, there’s a lot of overgrown shit, and there’s a mummy. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | So maybe Mumra destroyed everybody else and he’s the only one that’s left and he’s just happy that people landed on the place for him to mess with again. |
| Jon | Yeah. Well, i mean, Mumra wanted to conquer the universe, so maybe destroying Earth was best he could do, and now he’s adding it again. |
| George | right |
| Jon | don’t know. |
| George | I feel like he was the god character from Star Trek V that he could never leave, but he wanted to conquer the whole universe. |
| Jon | And |
| Jon | Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think before we get out of this segment, we should talk about the theme song. Thunder, thunder, thunder, thunder cats. |
| Mo | sure that… |
| Jon | It’s catchy and it’s it’s memorable. and but And yet I couldn’t sing you a lot of it, but when you hear it, man, you start to kind of do the little, I see them running through the jungle and doing their flips and everything. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | And and the imagery of like the weird, with the the sword of omens, it changes its hilt and puts it around his eyes. And then they, you know. |
| George | Yep. |
| Jon | it’s basically a music video about the Thundercats you got to watch every time you tuned into the Thundercats. It told you what you need to know about the series if you hadn’t seen the beginning. |
| George | So it’s time to talk about merchandising. And you guys know I love sales and making money, so it only makes sense that I would do the most research in this part of the podcast. |
| Jon | Hmm. Toys. |
| George | um the There were tons of merchandise out there for the Thundercats. And even still today, there’s a lot produced in the way of t-shirts and hats and stuff. And John, I know, can talk about that a little bit later. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| George | But the The primary reason for any of these damn cartoons in the 80s to exist is to sell toys. And ah this particular toy line was created by a company called LJN Toys, which stands for Louis J. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Okay. Huh. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. Yeah. |
| George | Norman. Now, the guy who founded this company is Jack Friedman. |
| Mo | okay |
| Jon | Why you know that? |
| George | So Louis J. |
| Mo | huh |
| George | Norman is the reverse of Norman J. Lewis, which was a toy company that Freeman had worked for previously when he got rich. And so he named his company after that. |
| Jon | Gotcha. Take that. |
| George | Yeah. Um, they did a lot of different stuff. They worked with ah Nintendo for a while. They did some Gremlin stuff, Indiana Jones, Terminator, Dune. They did a whole bunch of different stuff, but, um, |
| Jon | I remember LJN. Yeah. |
| George | Yeah, well, they had that really interesting um logo that I really liked. its and you know not to You talked about the Lorimar logo of the rainbow letters and everything. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | LJN was their initials with the rainbow coming out from left to right in a semicircle. |
| Jon | Right. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | Um, but yeah, they were around from 1970 to 1995. So they had this franchise for quite a while and they did three series of toys for this four year, uh, comic or cartoon rather that was on TV. |
| Mo | you |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Uh, the first series came out and it had eight figures in it. Now, ah The eight figures in that series is called the ah eight back series, because on the back of the car, there were the eight pictures of the different characters, the Lion-O, Tigra, Panthro, Chitara, Mumra, Slythe, Munkanen, Jackalman, John’s character. |
| Jon | Oh, right, right. Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. |
| George | And ah those were the main characters. They also came out with some vehicles in that series. |
| Jon | Oh, nice. |
| George | So they had a thunder tank, right? |
| Jon | Nice. |
| George | Because you got to have a thunder tank. |
| Jon | Yep. The Penthero built. |
| Mo | Yeah, we’re going to take you. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | A skycutter, because cats gotta fly. |
| Mo | know. |
| George | A nosediver, which I think was the bad guy’s ship. |
| Jon | Yeah. and |
| George | um Then they had… what they list as other toys. They have one called the Astral Moat Monster. |
| Mo | um |
| George | I don’t remember where this was at, but I want to see that episode of whatever that Astral Moat Monster was in. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | i want to go find out that episode. It looks like basically ah blue and pink Godzilla with primary blue as the main color. |
| Jon | ah Okay. |
| Jon | Oh, you got Mo’s attention. |
| George | um Right? Yeah. They did also have the Sword of Omens, which, you know, that’s kind of a no-brainer. |
| Mo | Yeah. Did they? |
| Jon | Sure. |
| George | It’s a bigger sword. It’s not like a little toy one for the figures to hold, though. It’s like one for a kid to wield. |
| Jon | Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That you could look through. |
| George | um |
| Jon | I remember a friend of mine had it. |
| George | Yeah, right. |
| Jon | You could look through the hilt. Although I didn’t get sight beyond sight. |
| George | The hilt was curved up. |
| Jon | I just, yep, yep. |
| George | Yeah, no. Yeah. But I think the notable item from series one, and this is something that we talked about in a recent podcast when we talked about kids’ transportation, ah they had a big wheel for the Thundercats. |
| Mo | say |
| Jon | Specific. Really? |
| Mo | Really? |
| George | Yeah, they had a big wheel pedal bike. It had like the red and the gray and the blue inside the tire wheel. And i mean, it’s a very interesting character. |
| George | Of course, on the very front of it, it has a ah ah lion head shooting off of the handlebars. |
| Mo | No. |
| Jon | The logo. Right. |
| Mo | ah |
| Jon | Yeah. Right. |
| George | Yeah, so very cool stuff. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| George | They had a lot of a lot of neat ones. I don’t I guess nobody here owned one, I’m assuming. |
| Mo | no |
| Jon | nu Not that. I remember playing with the sword, though, because if I remember right, I think one well certainly one at one point I saw lit up, like the the center, the little eye would light up. There’s a little battery in it. |
| George | right |
| Jon | and And remember in the cartoon, it always looked weird because he’d whip out the sword as a little teensy dagger until he high-yotted it and made it super long. |
| George | mean |
| Jon | But I think it like extended. like It had like a collapsible… like ah like an old lightsaber would do, you know, the the slightly smaller interiors and you could make it extended and make it longer. Never had the the big wheel though. |
| Mo | That’s pretty cool. |
| George | yeah they had a lot of cool stuff in there |
| Mo | So just like curiosity, I was wondering like what a original Lion-O figure would go for today. |
| Jon | One of these eight backs. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, in in good condition, like rent condition, just what do you think someone would pay for that? |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | ah given that they did a limited run on these things it was the first series uh it’s eight back and it’s the only series with eight backs because the next series have different backs i’m gonna guess in mint condition 1200 |
| Jon | Wow. I was going to go like 250. |
| Mo | Try 12,000. |
| Jon | What? |
| George | Oh, wow. |
| Jon | Well, 250 is right out. |
| George | I got the 12 part right. |
| Mo | Yeah, that was like. |
| Jon | 250 wouldn’t cover the shipping. |
| Mo | That’s what somebody somebody in eBay right now is selling it for that much money. So let’s assume he doesn’t get that much, even 10. |
| Jon | Damn. |
| Mo | If he’s selling for 12, he’s probably hoping for 10. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | But that’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? |
| Jon | Damn it. Yeah. |
| George | Well, I mean, and, you know, just to put a little bit of extra in there in case you’re looking to buy that one for $12,000, John, they did come with a fold-out mini catalog that had all the toys on it. |
| Jon | that There you go. |
| Mo | No. |
| Jon | but |
| George | And I know you love that from all your My Arcade stuff. |
| Jon | I do. That’s right. |
| George | So $12,000 gets you a catalog of these toys. |
| Jon | Yeah. Well, I like to, I like to check off what I want. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Well, then I would need the other seven is my problem and I can’t afford that. |
| Mo | Yeah, you, if you’re 12,000, you, John, if you buy us at 12,000 and open it, I will hit you. |
| Jon | Don’t worry. You’re in zero danger of me buying that for 12,000. So rest assured. |
| George | Well, they did come out with a couple of more series. So we’ll just run through those real quick. They had a series two, which had the same, um, the same main figures, but then it expanded on it. |
| Jon | okay |
| George | So it’s got the Lion-O through Chitara line, but then on the hero side, it also added Tuska warrior, Hachiman, and Snowman of Hook Mountain, which is basically a gorilla. ah The villains got a Mumra, Slithe, Monkey Man, Jackal Man, the main guys, but then it got Ritaro, Groon, the Destroyer, and Vulture Man, because you got to have Vulture Man, right? |
| Jon | He’s a Yeti, man. He’s a They just kept introducing these anthropomorphic animals again into the series. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | that’s They would just base it on some animals. Like, what do we need? We need a bad guy. We haven’t done lizard yet. Lizard man. They would just make one. |
| Mo | Lizard man, you know, gecko man, you know. |
| Jon | Yeah, exactly. Yep. Gecko man. |
| George | So if you can, you know, you can do the numbers on everything, but essentially there were 14 of the main characters. So it’s called a 14 back in this case for series two. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Okay. Okay. |
| Jon | Yep. Sure. |
| George | um They did have some extra characters though. They had some companion characters and this is where we finally get a Wily Kit, a Wily Cat, a Snarf. |
| Jon | Oh, good. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | Oh. |
| George | Mumra, no, no, he wasn’t. |
| Jon | Snarf wasn’t until series two, snarf, snarf. |
| George | ah Mumra had a Mom-Mutt. which is devil dog. |
| Jon | What? |
| George | He’s like a bulldog with like a spiked red collar, really weird looking character. ah They also introduced a line of berserkers and i I’m assuming berserkers are bad guys. I don’t remember from the show, but hammerhead cruncher top spinner and Ram Bam. |
| Jon | Those are characters made to be toys, period. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | Right? |
| George | That’s it. |
| Jon | Where the other ones are like, we need a bad guy. |
| Mo | I |
| Jon | we Let’s make up an animal. This one was like, well, we need a toy. What kind of toy you want to make? ah Something that rams? Ram man. Done. There we go. |
| Mo | ah remember it’s doing the research on this too like the animators would actually like they would come up with ideas for toys and then they’d have to somehow fit them into the ah cartoon somehow like whether it’s it may be the most ah reach kind of thing but it would somehow be in there |
| Jon | Yeah, I’m sure. surprised me a lick. |
| George | Yeah, that’s the way |
| George | That’s the way all of these things worked, right? That was the whole thing that kind of, you know, killed shows like He-Man because they just kept coming up with stupid characters. |
| Jon | More and more. |
| George | Now I’m going to skip the vehicles for just a second because they did introduce some new vehicles on there. ah But I’ll go to the other group. So there’s Cat’s Lair, Mumra’s Tomb Fortress, which makes sense. |
| Jon | Nice. |
| George | You’re going to get the two castles. |
| Jon | Play set, sure. |
| George | ah You get a mummy version of Mumra. So not just the big super creature, but the shriveled mummy guy. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. I’d like that one. |
| George | um |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | And then what I listed as the Series 2 notable character, you get a plush version of Snarf. So a soft, cuddly Snarf. |
| Mo | ah That makes more sense, actually. |
| Jon | ah Oh. Oh. |
| George | Yeah, and I kind of wondered, like, why wouldn’t you have done that for some of the main characters, like the Lion-O or Chitauri? |
| Jon | Everyone loves Snarf, Snarf, Snarf. |
| George | You know, they could have been plushes as well, but Snarf, of course, he lends himself to that. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. and Was he a bigger one? |
| George | But now I’m going to go back… |
| Jon | Like a big stuffed teddy bear? Or was he just scale? |
| George | He was pretty good size. |
| Jon | I’m guessing he was ah |
| George | He was like, you think you know, it’s a kid that’s going to hold it, right? |
| Jon | yeah Yeah, that’s what i was thinking. |
| George | So it’s not giant, but ah yeah, it was a good size for snuggling when you’re going down for your nap or whatever. |
| Jon | Yeah. so That’s good. |
| Mo | just |
| Jon | oh Oh. |
| George | oh I’m going to go back to the vehicle. |
| Mo | well |
| Jon | Snarf loves you, Snarf Snarf. |
| George | So you get you get a Thunderclaw and a Hovercat kept vehicle this time. |
| Jon | okay |
| George | But maybe the best vehicle name I’ve heard, even in the G.I. Joe line, and I probably should have listed this as a series too notable, but… Mutant Fist Pounder. |
| Mo | Oh, my God. |
| Jon | Oh, my. All |
| Mo | oh. oh |
| Jon | right. We just earned our explicit rating for this episode. |
| Mo | i Yeah, I have questions. |
| George | Oh my goodness. |
| Jon | Goodness gracious. |
| George | I… And… |
| Jon | Snarf. Don’t fist pound snarf. |
| George | Don’t fist bounce. |
| Mo | Oh, my God. Mutant Fisp. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | What? What? |
| George | I don’t know. |
| Mo | What was that? |
| George | it’s… it’s |
| Jon | Moe, don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. |
| George | think about like, um, kind of like a vehicleized version of a Voltron. It’s like literally on wheels, but it’s got these two, like, I don’t know how to describe these two fists that come off from the side that, yeah, go up and down. |
| Jon | A big and, yeah. |
| Mo | Oh, I see it. It’s like the front. I’m not going to say it. You know, it’s, huh. |
| Jon | the That can, for lack of a better word, pound you. |
| George | We’re doing the motions. Yeah, exactly. It’s, it’s very, very strange. |
| Mo | i fucking safe so |
| Jon | You know, like cats would drive, of course. |
| George | Yeah. |
| George | Right. Like cats would drive. Exactly. |
| Mo | you know it’s huh |
| George | ah So then we get series three series three adds another group of characters. It ends up being called the 22 back series because the new characters equal out to 22 backs. |
| Jon | Oh, no. |
| George | But some of the series three reissue characters, because I think the company was winding down the toy line a little bit. They got slapped with the 14 back cards. Right. |
| Jon | Oh, kind of um a mix of stuff. |
| George | So Lion-O, who had a 14-back, there are two versions of him out there for Series 3. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| George | There’s Series 3, and there’s 22-back Series 3. |
| Jon | Variants. Mm-hmm. |
| George | ah it’s kind of hard to figure them out until you flip them over. So if you’re out there on eBay, make sure you look at that back to know which one of those you’re getting. |
| Jon | Sneaky. |
| George | Because sometimes when you’re selling your Thundercat, if you’re trying to sell it as a Series 3 Thundercat for some reason, but it’s got a 14 back, somebody might yell at you and say, no, that’s a Series 2, but it really is a Series 3. |
| Jon | yeah |
| Mo | oh |
| George | um So some of the new ones they have in the Hero line now, Bengali, Pum-Ra. |
| Jon | He’s a Bengal. He’s got to be a Bengal, right? A Bengal probably, yeah. |
| George | Yep, Pum-Ra, Linkso, guess who we finally get as the last hero in this series? |
| Jon | Jaga? Did get Jaga? |
| George | Yep, we get a Jaga. |
| Jon | Finally! |
| Mo | Oh, |
| Jon | Finally! |
| George | ah The added ones for the villain side, Mungor, Captain Shiner. |
| Jon | you got popped in the eye. |
| George | Hold on |
| Mo | it gets better. |
| George | The racist version, Captain in Cracker. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | Oh, goodness gracious. |
| George | who was a robot apparently and Safari Joe. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | So of course he’s going to be hunting the Thundercats. He’s Safari Joe, right? |
| Jon | Yeah, of course. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | He needs his trophies. Uh, you get some more vehicles. |
| Jon | Another human, maybe. Oh, okay. |
| George | Yeah, he was, he was definitely a human character. I don’t know where he came from, but yeah. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | Um, you get Lunar Lasher, Thunderwings and and Stilt Runner for the vehicles. Stilt Runner is kind of like an AT-AT or which one’s the small one, Moe? it AT-ST or AT-AT? |
| Mo | eighty eighty |
| Jon | Well, the two-legged one is, the yeah at yeah yeah, ATSD. |
| George | AT-AT. The two-legged one. Yeah. um They also did some sabers, but these look more to me like vests. So I’m thinking kind of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers kind of saber thing where it’s something that is worn around the other character. |
| Mo | she |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | um like a chest protector kind of thing and then the others um you get a thunder wings lion you get a luna lasher mumra which i don’t know mumra switch genders and grew eyelash i’m not really sure there’s two characters okay fair enough uh stinger driller and and don’t want to say this one either tongue asaurus |
| Mo | you there’s No, there’s two characters. |
| Jon | Oh, okay. |
| Mo | To go with the other one. |
| Jon | What is it? |
| Mo | What the heck? |
| Mo | know, looking this one up. |
| Jon | It’s the battle for the ages. Fist pounder versus tongue of Soros. |
| Mo | Oh, my God. |
| Jon | ah |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Snarf doesn’t want to watch snarf. Snarf. |
| Mo | Oh, my God, look at a picture of it. Oh, geez. |
| George | Oh, yeah. It’s like a giant alligator head and the tongue extends out from it. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | it’s It was actually the the largest figure, quote, ah created. |
| Jon | All right. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | It was very close to the size of the um of the tank. So the second largest figure toy created in the line, but the largest figure. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | you |
| George | so |
| Jon | Oh, I’ll lick you this time. |
| Mo | Well. |
| George | And then they had some unproduced toys prototypes. |
| Jon | Thundercats. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | well Somebody’s trying to sell it for almost four grand. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | So yeah, I guess it was a very limited edition. |
| Jon | Tongue-a-saurus? Really? |
| Jon | Well, once again, you’re in no danger of me purchasing a tongue-a-saurus, Moe. |
| Mo | He already owns one. |
| Jon | So don’t worry about that. |
| George | I wonder how many D cell batteries that thing took. |
| Jon | wow |
| Jon | I didn’t. Wow. That took me that whole other path. |
| Mo | oh Oh, big time. |
| Jon | Well, before we go down to that path too far. So of course they were selling the primary, all these action figures, but they were also licensing it out to other people doing other things. Right. |
| Jon | ah You know, i’m a big collector of, of kids records, right? Like the kid stuff, vinyl LP. There were, there were book and record sets. There were pajamas. There were jigsaw puzzles, the slide puzzles. |
| Jon | At least two board games I could find. most Milton Bradley did one, which Milton Bradley did every board game. |
| George | What? |
| Jon | There was another one by a company called Peter Pan Playthings. never heard of them, but I looked at the board game and it has like a, it has like a, like a spinner. Like you’re trying to align the characters, like on each level of the spinner, there’s a different picture. |
| Jon | Like you’re lining up the head and the torso and the legs to kind of mix and match the characters. |
| George | Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | ah It was hard to see in this little picture, but color forms, of course. I remember my cousin had the Thundercats, the color forms, you know, the, like the, the static cling on the board things. |
| Mo | Oh yeah, I remember those. used love those. |
| Jon | TV trays, of course, that you could you know sit and eat your Hunger Man dinner from. ah Coloring books. All manner of stuff. that Everything that pretty much, again, we’ll go back to the He-Man analogy. |
| Jon | If there was a He-Man version of it, there was probably a Thundercats version of it. They traveled in the same lanes and they put out a lot of the same stuff. |
| George | Yep. |
| Jon | And to this day, as you said, they still make stuff. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | You can still go back and find a lot of that stuff. When I’m at conventions, you’re walking through the aisles and you see Thundercat everything and fan made Thundercat stuff. They continue to be popular just like they were then. |
| George | i I think I see more Thundercat t-shirts than I do He-Man t-shirts. I think their logo just looks better. |
| Mo | I think you do too. |
| Jon | Maybe so. Yeah. Well, the Thundercats are just so damn cool. They’re cats. |
| George | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | They’re Panthers and tigers. I just, and the logo. I mean, even it’s it’s like a Batman seal, that logo, that red cat head. |
| George | Yeah. |
| George | Well, because they used it that way, right? |
| Jon | oh |
| Mo | It’s cool. |
| George | The Sword of Omens would shoot that out and that would alert all the other Thundercats. |
| Mo | Oh, you did the bat signal. |
| Jon | It was. It was. It was the bat signal. |
| Mo | right Yeah. |
| Jon | It was it was it was the cat signal or whatever. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Their eyes would glow. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Okay. When we get back, one more segment. We’re going to talk a little bit hanan to talk about since the Thundercats went off the air nearly 40 years ago. |
| Jon | It continues to be something that is prevalent in pop culture and its legacy continues. We’ll talk about that right after this. It was almost. |
| Mo | I could get into this one and just talk about like |
| Jon | Okay. That was almost a segue. |
| George | to have to run through this one quick. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | We’re already at a hour one. |
| Mo | Yeah, it should be fast. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | Let me just jump into this one. |
| Jon | Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. |
| Mo | So we think of Thundercats, I did not realize this, that it I mean, I knew it ran for a long time. It was four seasons, but they had 130 episodes in the original run. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Because it ran daily, probably, right? |
| Mo | Yeah, that’s. |
| Jon | lot of lot of shows. |
| George | Well, that first season, yeah, that first season had the majority of it. |
| Jon | yeahre Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | yeah But then again, like they had a couple of revivals, but even with those, though, I mean, just it just blows my mind, like 130 episodes, because I know you have to have a certain number to go syndicated, right? |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | You have to have like, was it 26 or 50 something to so even go syndication. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | At least, I think it’s two seasons, 50-something maybe, usually. |
| Mo | Yeah. But they went well beyond that and kept going. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Again, i’ was surprised how long it went. |
| Jon | That’s right. Well, there was the two revivals that you mentioned. There was one in 2011, and that was a series just called Thundercats. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | They were going to have 52 revivals |
| Jon | A 52 episode. What the hell? Okay. They were initially going to have a 52 episode long first season, but after 26, got the axe. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It got canceled after season one. And then they had a second revival called Thundercats roar. Same fate. was a cartoon network in 2020. It’s a, have you ever seen it? |
| Jon | It’s very, very cartoon network and cartoony. |
| Mo | Mm-mm. |
| Jon | Like rather than being human figures, they’re like, think Powerpuff Girls. |
| George | Oh, no. |
| Jon | Like they’re very squat. |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | Ooh. |
| Jon | It’s a very different thing. Very cartoony. |
| Mo | Ooh. |
| Jon | It’s more comedic. um The premise is similar to the original. They escape Thundera, blah, blah, blah, blah. blah All the villains and everything, but only one season then it got canceled. So that was it. |
| Mo | Yeah, it was funny that, you know, that, ah of course, Family Guy did a episode where they had Thundercats on it. They Chitara. |
| George | Oh, sure. |
| Jon | Why not? |
| Mo | And, you know, they got the original voice actress to do it. |
| Jon | Of course. Yeah. Really? |
| George | Oh, nice. |
| Jon | Oh, good. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Get him a paycheck. There you go. |
| Mo | Yeah, what I’m saying. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | That was pretty cool. |
| George | You know, there was also, they did a ah video game on Thundercats. They were trying to hit all the kid marketing areas. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah, that’s wow. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | It was called Thundercats Lost Eye of Thundera. Makes sense, right? |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Published in 87, so during the main series run. |
| Jon | Yeah. Okay. |
| George | Amstrad, CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST John, Amiga, which I don’t know how you and I didn’t find a pirated copy of this thing when we were into our Amigas. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Wow. |
| Jon | Ooh. |
| Mo | Woo. |
| Jon | I don’t remember ever seeing it. |
| Mo | Me? Okay. Uh… |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | How cool is that? have no idea. |
| George | I know I got to go find one now to emulate it and see how it does. |
| Jon | Right? |
| Jon | I’m sure it’s easy to find, right? You could probably play it in a browser these days, most likely somewhere. |
| Jon | Well, if you could pick up the the zombie thing. |
| Mo | me okay |
| Jon | Do you know about that? And then I can pick it up for the outro. |
| Mo | ah |
| Jon | So CMON is the company. |
| Mo | I. |
| Jon | Zombicide is is a big zombie board game thing. |
| Mo | OK. |
| Mo | OK. OK. so |
| Jon | don’t want to say tabletop. don’t if just board game. could be cards and board game whatever, but it’s a tabletop game. |
| Mo | okay |
| Mo | okay five for They also had this tabletop game called… Thundercats was like the Zombified franchise. I’m not that familiar with it, but it came out… |
| Jon | Zombicide. Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| Mo | Zombicide, yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, it’s a huge zombie thing. |
| Mo | It came out in 2022, and they had like these three special boxes that let you play as Thundercats as well as some of the mutants and heroes in it, which, again, it just kind of shows that just, you know There obviously had to be a market, otherwise they would not bothered, right? |
| Mo | There has to be a huge interest in a game from 2022 to even think about doing that for nostalgia. |
| George | Sure. |
| Jon | Right, right. Continued interest. Yep. |
| Mo | I know if I played that game, I totally would have bought it. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. eight We could continue to talk about Thundercats. or so We could dive in into individual episodes. We’re not the Thundercats podcast, but there’s plenty to see, and it’s easily viewable still today. |
| Jon | Before I let you guys go, going to put you under the gun. Favorite character in the Thundercats universe, Moe, go. |
| Mo | Oh, geez. ah Probably had to be Panthro just because he built crap. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | And I just thought that was cool. You know, I said the rest of my line, I’m like, yeah, whatever. But he was when I see like got stuff done. So that’s why he’s liked him as a character. |
| Jon | Okay. Yeah, I kind of hinted. Mine was kind of Tigra. He was the scientist. He was kind of, you know, I kind of liked him and he just looked cool because he was a cat. He reminded me of Tony the Tiger. I liked him a lot. George, how about you? That’s |
| George | I gotta go with Tungasaurus, man. |
| Jon | not a character. |
| Mo | It should be. |
| Jon | That’s a, that’s an accessory. |
| George | hey They made a damn figure! yeah That’s a hell of an accessory. I want to know how many decels. |
| Jon | it is |
| George | I’m still looking for that. |
| Mo | Oh, jeez. |
| George | Now, I… |
| Jon | Oh, my goodness. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | You better have a battery of the month club at Radio Shack. |
| Mo | oh |
| George | Right? I mean… i would yeah I would say Panthro. Like I said earlier, he was he was voiced by somebody in the Cosby show later on. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | whatnot I don’t know if I would have even associated that at that age, but his voice, I just really liked the deep, rich tones. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Very warm. Very rich. |
| George | Had a ju James Earl Jones kind of feel to it. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Agreed. |
| George | And I liked the fact that he was the warrior who could also build weapons and stuff. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | He was definitely Man-at-Arms. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | And Man-at-Arms was kind of my favorite character in the He-Man universe. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | So… |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | it was easy to relate to that character for me, but Tungasaurus is a real close second. |
| Mo | Very cool. |
| Jon | It’s funny that none of us chose Lion-O. ah It’s funny that none of us chose Lion-O. Like, it’s it’s the obvious choice. |
| George | Eh. |
| Jon | It’s kind of everybody knows him, but the other guys were very more specific. |
| Mo | it |
| Jon | He was more of a generalist. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, Lion-O, so… All right, that’s going to wrap it up for a look back at the Thundercats. |
| Mo | handle. |
| Jon | Fourth listener, did you watch it? Do you still watch it? Do you enjoy it? Let us know. Fire off a note to us at podcast.genxgrownup.com. We’d love to hear from you. yeah Before we leave, I want to thank another brand new supporter over at Patreon, Donovan Resch. |
| Jon | Man, Donovan, thank you so much. |
| Mo | handle |
| Jon | Donovan headed over to patreon.com slash genxgrownup. He knows that what we do, we do it, give it out for free here on the podcast, on YouTube, on the website. But if you want to support it, make sure we keep doing it. |
| Jon | Do what Donovan did. Head over there. Open up your wallet. Open up your heart. Patreon.com slash GenX. grown up For as little as a dollar a month. That’s all it takes to become a member. And we’re so grateful for all of you that do. |
| Jon | That’s going to wrap it up for this edition of The Backtrack. Don’t worry, though. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with another one Next week is the standard edition of our show. Until then, I am John. George, thank you so much for being here, man. |
| George | Yes, sir. |
| Jon | Mo, you know I appreciate you. |
| Mo | Always fun, man. |
| Jon | Fourth listener, it’s you. We all three appreciate most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye. |
| George | See you guys. |
| Mo | Take care, |
(Visited 74 times, 1 visits today)
About The Author
