Ah yes, The Thundercats. Have you seen anyone in a Thundercats t-shirt lately? They're everywhere. Now back in the day I was a huge fan of the Thundercats and so were a lot of people. It definitely transcended gender and age groups. The premise was sharp; exiled cat-like humans, their home world destroyed, forced to build a new life for themselves on an alien planet (called Third Earth). Their leader is actually a little boy in a grown man's body. The mechanic had cool nunchukus. The nostalgic factor when you hear the theme song is off the chart.
I remember my favorite toy from the series was the thundertank. I would always play with it outside, bury it under the sand and have it dig it's way out just like the cartoon. Unfortunately that would crap it up with all the sand and dirt. Good times... I still miss my thundertank. I've searched high and low and I have no idea what happened to it. My hunch is that my mom gave it away at some point, perhaps shipped it off to the Philippines or something like that.
The action figures were pretty cool too. Large and substantial, they could really fill a child's fist. All of the figures had some sort of specific "Battle-Matic" action. Also their eyes would light up with the power ring. How soon before you lost your Thundercats power ring?
However despite all the coolness, there was a campy lameness to the series as well. Just take a look at the main villain, Mumm-Ra. This dude was supposed to be a bad-ass sorcerer, but do you remember what his main weakness was? He was terrified of his own reflection. How lame was that! I remember that almost every battle would end with Mumm-Ra pissing his pants after seeing himself and reverting into his mummy-in-a-bathrobe form. Done in by his reflection in a puddle of water, or the Sword of Omens, or some other shiny surface. Liono should have just walked around with a mirror on his chest and that would be the end of it, then just bring on those creepy Lunatacs.
Which also brings me to the other thing that bothered me about the show. The Sword of Omens. It was a pretty sweet weapon. Sight-beyond-sight was a cool ability. But why did Liono have to call on the Thundercats every single episode? Was it so they could play the theme song over and over? After a while you started to think that Liono couldn't take care of himself in a fight, had to call on the Snarf to fight his battles.
Ok, so despite all that, I still think Thundercats was one of my favorite cartoon series of the late eighties. There were still many aspects that made the series cool. But whether this is good or bad, Thundercats is coming back as a Warner Brothers CGI flick in 2010. It was too popular not to come back in some recycled form. Maybe I'll be able to get a new thundertank if a new one is designed for the movie?
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