'80s Cartoon Thread

[Monk]

This is a thread for those old enough to remember the Golden Age of Cartoons in the '80s with cheesy episodes clearly designed to sell toys (and yes toys of the '80s were the best) with thin coatings of morality and lessons of the day. And just so you can remember the greatness of the '80s cartoons, here is a link (www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTwwbS1IXNo) to 1 of 6 Youtube segments of just cartoon openings.

So I am just going to list some of my favorite childhood classics:

Transformers
Quite possibly the greatest thing which came out of the '80s and it has had a legacy like no other '80s cartoon. Basic plot: good robots vs. bad robots. But they were not just robot, they were Robots in Disguise!

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light
A post-apocalyptic science fantasy show about knights who turned into holographic animals. And the most surprising thing about this show, is that even with its 13 episodes, it actually holds up quite well in terms of characters, plot, and story.

Thundercats
Thunder...thunder...thundercats...HOOOOOOO!

Dino-Riders
It may not be terribly well known, but it was about humans and aliens who landed in prehistoric earth and through telepathy and brainwashing, harnessed and fought on dinosaurs. It also had incredible toy commercials too.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
This is a classic, but it still is a bit painful to watch now.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
As a kid, he was awesome and cool, but now he is just homoerotic.

[appacatbus]

BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!!!

[Lt. Dan]

Fortunately for me they were still running looney tunes cartoons quite frequently in the 80s. I really didn't watch any of the 'new' stuff back then.
Looney Tunes = awesome.

[The Blue Chibi]

Eh, the Smurfs rule. Especially in French ~ they were so much more disrespectful. XD

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs

[attonbitus]

I don't know what to add, other than that's a great summary. There were a lot of toy related cartoons though.

Visionaries was actually canceled because the toys didn't sell well.

[Earth King Sunny]

I consider both the 80's and the 90's the golden age of animation, but yeh the 80's were fun because there was a lot of creativity...
like if there was a character named Skotor from the planet Phizz they not only had to make an action figure but also find an odd reason to bring Skotor into the series.

[Monk]

Yeah, the '80s cartoon characters/toys had some of the weirdest and corniest names. Like in Gobots, the leader of the good robots (the Guardians) went by the name of Leader-1, while the villianous motorocycle transforming robot was Cy-Kill.

attonbitus said:

I don't know what to add, other than that's a great summary. There were a lot of toy related cartoons though.

Visionaries was actually canceled because the toys didn't sell well.

It saddens me that the Visionaries toys did not sell well, but I am somewhat glad, because you can find the new corny toys/characters they had planned for later, including a knight whose helmet had moose antlers. And so I am glad that the series died before new characters would have been added to clutter the relatively small cast of characters. I think that out of all the extinct '80s cartoons, Visionaries probably has the greatest potential for a good modern update. Thankfully though, there is YouTube, which has all the Visionaries episodes. And it has been released on DVD in the UK, but it has not yet been released in the US.

[Kunoichi24]

Ah, yes. I remember the Smurfs and TMNT (the original). I loved those shows!
I can't remember the names of some of the toons I watched. Probably cuz i was just so young then!

[Monk]

Which is why I recommend watching the cartoon openings in the link that I provided. I forgot so many of the shows that I used to watch until I was reminded by that, and then even afterwards I remembered ones that this person forgot to include.

[Sheogorath]

He-Man, Ninja Turtles, and Transformers were what me and my brother watched. I always liked Inspector Gadget, though.

[Kunoichi24]

Oh yeah! Inspector Gadget was another one!
Monk, yeah, I guess I'll have to. XD

Edit: I just watched all 7 (yes, there are 7) of the intro vids and I *karma*ed you, Monk! Thank you for giving the link, so I can remember all the cartoons I used to watch as a kid. I can't list them all, cuz there are too many! But there were some intros of toons that I haven't seen since the 80's!!

That guy also made a few intro vids for 90's toons and one for 00's toons. I'm going to watch them another time.