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Transformers. Quite simply the perennial (that's such a cool word. Perennial. Not even sure what it means) 80's cartoon. You could not think of the 80's with out thinking of The Transformers. Giant robots transforming into various vehicles and stuff. A kid's dream. The heroic Autobots, lead by Optimus 'da man' Prime, facing off against the evil Decepticon's, lead by the dastardly Megatron, in a seemingly never ending war.
With the advent of'The Transformers Movie' (one of my favs) this war did appear to end. Set in the future, the Decepticons had Cybertron and the Autobots were on Earth. i think. The Decepticons attacked and HEAPS o' Transformers died. And so began the era of The Transformers with all the spacey-type vehicles. This series, sadly, had almost none of the original Transformers that we all knew and loved. These new boys were still cool tho'. The Autobots now lead by the maverick Rodimus Prime (formerly Hot Rod) and the Decepticons now lead by Galvatron (formrly Megatron)
The toys for both these eras bloody well kicked donkey arse. It was like having 2 toys in one!! A cool as truck or car, that turned into this mega cool robot dude! Beast Wars just sucks.
In 80's cartoon land, The Transformers were King. Transformers theme!! Voltron Possibly the second best Cartoon from the 80's. This excellent cartoon carried on the giant robot vein of cartoons. The first series of this (and possibly most well known and loved) is what can be referred to as 'the Lion series' Basically it had this team of 5 guys (ok. One was a chick) who, in times of trouble, would leap into their giant robotic lions. There was the Black one, the Red one, the Green one, the Blue one and the Yellow one. If the trouble was too big (which it usually was) they all came together to form one giant robot....Voltron!! They formed the torso, the arms and the legs respectively. The toys, oh the toys! Get all 5 (like I did) and you could transform the Lions into your very own Voltron to do battle against evil doers! One of the more high ranking toys from the 80's.
Other series of Voltron had many little space-cruiser type things to form the big V. I think there was a guy one that had like heaps of Land, Sea and Air vehicles. I also think (tho not too sure as we never got this series) that there was a female Voltron.
Transforers was King, Voltron woulda been the Duke. Or some other form of Royalty. The Muppet Show The Muppets. A brilliant variety type show. Done all with puppets. Wild, crazy and just down-right mental antics abounded. Lead by the ever stressing Kermit the Frog (who had a thing going with Miss Piggy) the show began every night with some cool as guest star. With a huge and very memeorable cast of other characters, The Muppets just kept you laughing. Such characters as Gonzo (who had a thing for chickens), the Swedish Chef (the barely understandable chef), Animal (the wild drummer for the band), Fozzie Bear (the laughably unfunny stand-up comic) and just too many more to name. There was a weird guy that did stuff with fish though as I recall. Crazy crazy stufff. And also very very good. There is not a child from the 80's that does not remember, and look fondly upon, The Muppets. The Muppet Show theme! MacGyver Quite simply, MacGyver (and no I'm not too sure I've spelt that right) was Da Man. With flowing mullet, every week Richard Dean-Anderson would thrill us with the exploits of MacGyver. A man who could make an incendiary device with his pocket knife, a ball of gum and his jacket - everyone wanted to be MacGyver.
With his know-how on just about everything under the sun, MacGyver was forever battling evil and doing right. With smatterings of comedy and drama, this was 'must see TV' before that even became a catch phrase. Bring back MacGyver I say! MacGyver theme! Danger Mouse Ok. Danger Mouse was great. Each episode was really broken up into little 5 minute snippets that they screend before something else. Now, just recently I hired out an old video of Danger Mouse. I had no idea how absolutely CRAZY it was. I mean, it was freakin' mental. The writers musta been doing some heavy-duty drugs to come up with the crazy-ass stuff they had on some of those episodes. Mouse-eating bananas that suddenly acquire a taste for frog? (Danger Mouse's arch-nemesis was the evil Baron Greenback. He was a frog)
Trust the British to come up with wacked out shit like this. Dangermouse theme! Inspector Gadget "Go go Gadget roller-skates!" Oh the comedy of errors that was Inspector Gadget. The blundering Inspector Gadget always solving crimes. Well, he got the credit for it. It was really his niece Penny and her dog that did mosy of the work. He pretty much just stood there and said "Go go Gadget solve" or something. He also had the damn coolest car that any crime-solver could wish to have. I know I wanted one. I had a Transforemer that I pretended was his car. Oh, the memories....
Also, Inspector gadget had the coolest damn theme song of any cartoon. So there.
And the live-action movie? Suck-ass. Inspector Gadget theme! |
