Thundarr the Barbarian 40 years old today

[LordMikel]

I meant to post earlier today. But 40 years ago, on October 4, 1980. Thundarr the Barbarian made its debut.

thundarrcartoon01.jpg

[Ramsay Snow]

That was a badass show for its time.

[Kirby101]

Gerber, Toth and Kirby. Quite the creative team.

[numberthirty]

That was a badass show for its time.

For any time.

That intro alone was better than the body of most shows.

[Toreador]

Now this could use a reboot

[Riv86672]

That intro alone was better than the body of most shows.

Heck yeah it was. Runaway planet indeed!

[Surf]

Oddly enough the Thundarr character was the weakest part of the show. The name Ookla still resonates with me same as it did back in the day, shoutout to the greatest Chewbacca clone ever.

[Gaastra]

Mego after passing on star wars and spending tons of money on hi tech toys that bombed needed a hit in 1980 and had thundarr rights! They had to choose from thundarr or another show to make toys and save the company!

They choose the other show--

[IMG][/IMG]

They went out of business soon after!

More ironic he-man would be a huge hit right after also!

Thunder was huge in ratings but the head of the channel wanted a cartoon based on a prime time tv show on saturday mornings and killed the high rating thundar to put it on!

Here is what it was killed for!



It lasted one season! Poor thundarr got a double wammy!

[Güicho]

That was not my fan art, just linking too the awesome.
Thundarr was a Ruby-Spears Productions not Hanna Barbera, still people love to include them with the Hanna Barbera created Adventure Heroes.

The great Kirby designed concept is just so much it's own thing , personally I'd rather see them stand out and exist in their own universe rather than lumped in a HB specific Adventure Universe, which really had it's house style.









I think WB has in fact since acquired (= swallowed up) the rights to Thundarr though, and may have released the DVDs under their label, hence many might assume they go together with the Hanna Barbera acquired properties. They don't.

In the end Thundarr is another of those great licences WB and by extension DC is just siting on instead of producing something with it.
WB as Producer$ is such a huge behemoth, they have so many properties already in the pipeline this may mean nothing to them. it's probably near the bottom of things to develop in the huge pile they own.

Concept delivered.

[Güicho]

More from Kirby:




Then streamlined by Toth for animation


For DC/WB who swallowed up this license, (Kamandi notwithstanding) ) Thundarr is another moved to the bottom of a pile of other great license they just sit on, without a clue how to approach them for revival.
Meanwhile the moving up pokyman gen who will be running the show, likley have no idea or care it even exists.
Inevitably someone's going to crank out a post apocalyptic barbaric earth, where science is indistinguishable from magic, fantasy sci-fi movie.
And the young heads at DC/WB will explode, going that's so great why didn't we come up with or have something like that!

[j9ac9k]

This was my favorite cartoon for a time! In my head I always think of Ooklah as "Ooklah-the-Mok" as though it were his name.

[hulahulk]

Ariel was such a hottie. And the Sunsword was such an awesome weapon, as much so as a lightsaber