Thundercats have gone to DVD! I am VERY excited about this; Thundercats was my #1 favourite show - X-Men and GI JOE round out the top 3. My brother got me Series 1 Vol. 2 for Christmas. He meant to get my Vol. 1, it doesn't matter too much - I hope to get it soon.

SO EXCITED.

For those who don't know the show, here's a quick synopsis.

The cast [image from L->R] of Tygra, Lion-O, Panthro, Wiley-Kit, Cheetara, Wiley-Kat and of course Lion-O's nursemaid Snarf [bottom] made for the perfect team of heroes.

After their planet was invaded by an empire of lizard and jackal creatures, they sought out another livable planet to start a new Thundercat race (Iffy concept since Cheetara and Wiley-Kit were the only females, and Wiley was a kitten.. but how many 10 year old's are gonna care about such pesky "details").

With the help of the Sword of Omens, Thundercats must face off against the "mutants", who have followed our heroes to Third Earth. It won't be an easy battle, because the mutants have a powerful new leader: Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!

Luckily they were usually able to defeat each evil effort within the 20-minute episode allotment given from the networks.

Sweet eh?...OK not quite, but you'd have to be 10 years old to really get jazzed on this. We all wanted to be Lion-O with his strength, integrity and massive 6-pack. Never mind that he can be a total boob by following floating fairies to traps, leaving the Sword of Omens in the forest, or bringing nurse Snarf to battle (who subsequently always gets caught and becomes a hostage to the mutants). Who cares - Lion-O had a cool sword and radiant red mane! Actually, my favourite was Cheetara, who was lightning fast and agile. She also had a wicked expandable staff to kick some mutant butt.

I remember when they sometimes had 5-episode storylines, one for each day of the week. The anticipation was wicked. I remember the later shows when they found their long lost cousins - one was a cousin to Tygra named Linx-o who ROCKED. Nevermind how it was a ratings-boosting tactic to bring in a bunch of new characters, it was something new and exciting!

My only fear when I start watching the shows is realizing how cheezy and low quality the shows were. Similar realization happened when I was excited to play a game called "Archon"* on a Commodore 64.

Thundercats was my morning TV show before school - around the same era when I watched Ghostbusters, Astroboy, Dennis the Menace, among others. They were mostly the older syndicated shows, and not the latest shows you'd see on Saturday like X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Darkwing Duck and Fun House.

Can't wait for Thundercats Season 2, which should include the 5-part Thundercats movie!

If you watched Saturday morning TV shows in the past 25 years and want a walk down memory lane, check out the shows aired on Saturday from the 80s and 90s.

-RE


*Archon was video chess game with a twist; in order to take over a square occupied by your opponent, you must fight the piece on the square. When I found a emulator I was so excited, lasting less then 2 mins after downloading it. It was basically blocks on screen moving in strict up/down/left/right patterns and firing flashing pixels at each other. OUCH.