Friday, March 9, 2012

Vintage Cartoons

Not a usual Friday around here, but I had this post already rolling around in the mind attic so here it goes.

Vintage Cartoons
I was an 80's child and I loved all the classic cartoons. Clearly "The Transformers" was my favorite, but there were so many others. Here is a selection from that era, maybe you will know some of them.

M.A.S.K
The Mobile Armored Strike Kommand cartoon featured pretty wild vehicles that morphed into attack craft as well as pilot that would put on masks which themselves had special powers! This one was so cool:
Vintage IROC Camaro toy with pilot:
M.A.S.K battled V.E.N.O.M (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem) and it was a fun show.

Silverhawks
Bionic fighters against whatever evil comes along in the show, the Silverhawks were reasonably entertaining. Led by Quicksilver and flanked by such interesting bionic hawks as Col. Bluegrass who played a sonic guitar and sported a cowboy hat. Picture:
Vintage Quicksilver toy:
Too funny.

Centurions
One of my favorite growing up! The Centurions were based out in space at their own station and were transported anywhere needed to fight Doc Terror and his plans on Earth. The three centurions, featuring Ace McCloud, had a huge array of weapons and systems they could call upon to use. Old picture:
Ace McCloud toy with equipment:
Nice.

Grendizer
My personal all time favorite, Grendizer was the ultimate in Japanese mecha anime. Great story, great music, and bad ass robots. What else could you want?:
"Grendizer GOOOO!"

Oh, the memories.

Have a good night.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dig it! Orion Quest!!!

GawainsGhost said...

Well, I'm a little older than you, more of a child of the late 60s and 70s. My favorite TV shows back then were Batman, the Green Hornet and Star Treck. But for cartoons on Saturday morning, it was Fat Albert and the Harlem Globetrotters.

You know, when I was 13, in the 7th grade, I was walking home from junior high. There was this old 50s style diner called Pierce's. It had a soda bar and everthing, was a real blast from the past. So I figured I would stop by and grab a soda.

I walked in and there were these five really big guys sitting at the soda bar, chowing down on burgers and fries. There was only one stool left at the corner of the bar, so I sat down. "May I have a root beer float, please?"

The big guy next to me turned and asked, "How's it going, kid?" I turned, looked up him and stared. He looked familiar.

"Are you Meadowlark Lemon?" It was THE Harlem Globetrotters! The original Harlem Globetrotters, all five of them, eating burgers at Pierce's restaraunt. Yep, they had an exhibition game at the university that night. "Hey, I watch your cartoon every Saturday!"

They all gave me a high-five and even bought me a burger. I got to chow down with the best of the best. I kept asking them, how do you do this, how do you do that? And they just laughed and said, "Practice."

After we finished eating, they all shook my hand and left. I should have gotten their autographs, but I didn't think of it. I was in too much awe. I mean, these were the Harlem Globetrotters, and how often do you get to eat a burger with them?

You really ought to look up some old clips of the Harlem Globetrotters on YouTube, GYC. I'm telling you, those guys could do things with a basketball that ordinary humans cannot.

GawainsGhost said...

Well, I'm a little older than you, more of a child of the late 60s and 70s. My favorite TV shows back then were Batman, the Green Hornet and Star Treck. But for cartoons on Saturday morning, it was Fat Albert and the Harlem Globetrotters.

You know, when I was 13, in the 7th grade, I was walking home from junior high. There was this old 50s style diner called Pierce's. It had a soda bar and everthing, was a real blast from the past. So I figured I would stop by and grab a soda.

I walked in and there were these five really big guys sitting at the soda bar, chowing down on burgers and fries. There was only one stool left at the corner of the bar, so I sat down. "May I have a root beer float, please?"

The big guy next to me turned and asked, "How's it going, kid?" I turned, looked up him and stared. He looked familiar.

"Are you Meadowlark Lemon?" It was THE Harlem Globetrotters! The original Harlem Globetrotters, all five of them, eating burgers at Pierce's restaraunt. Yep, they had an exhibition game at the university that night. "Hey, I watch your cartoon every Saturday!"

They all gave me a high-five and even bought me a burger. I got to chow down with the best of the best. I kept asking them, how do you do this, how do you do that? And they just laughed and said, "Practice."

After we finished eating, they all shook my hand and left. I should have gotten their autographs, but I didn't think of it. I was in too much awe. I mean, these were the Harlem Globetrotters, and how often do you get to eat a burger with them?

You really ought to look up some old clips of the Harlem Globetrotters on YouTube, GYC. I'm telling you, those guys could do things with a basketball that ordinary humans cannot.

GawainsGhost said...

I don't know why that double posted.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Was worth a double post! Great story Gawains, thanks for adding it.

GawainsGhost said...

Yes, well, it's true. Freaked me out too. I mean, I was just a little kid. I just stopped by Pierce's for a root beer float. In your wildest imagination, would you ever dream that the Harlem Globetrotters would be there? Seriously. Talk about the most incredible coincidence ever.

Anyway, yeah, this area, the lower Rio Grande Valley, is a stange but interesting place. Back in the day, mid-1900s, it was the citrus capital of the world. In fact, in Weslaco, at the Chamber of Commerce, there's still a picture of the original Texsun orange tree.

I don't know if you ever heard of Texsun orange juice, but back then it was big, really big. At that time, the Texsun orange tree was the largest citrus plant in existence.

This area then was also the spinach capital of the world. Sugar cane, corn, wheat, sorgum, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, this was a major agricultural community. The ruby red grapefruit was discovered here. Yep, this farmer in Mission was experimenting with hybrids, and in this orchard he came across one tree that was ruby red, not yellow. And from that one tree came orchards of ruby red grapefruit. He used to send a crate to the White House every month.

Of course, all of that came to a rather abrupt end in the early 80s, when a series of severe freezes wiped out the citrus crops. Coupled with the S&L debacle and the Texas real estate meltdown, this area was economically depressed for almost 20 years.

Then it re-emerged as a major commercial hub for international trade with Mexico. Outlet malls, stip malls, commercial banks and buildings started springing up from out of nowhere. In fact, La Plaza Mall, in McAllen next to the airport, is one of the largest malls in the country. The Dillard's there is No. 1 in sales nation wide. So is the KFC on the corner of the parking lot. They're planning on adding a second story to La Plaza Mall in the next year. That's how big it's become.

Few people know this, but every piece of leather sold by Harley Davidson anywhere in the world--jackets, pants, chaps, gloves, boots, whatever--is manufactured at the leather factory in Pharr, right behind the RGV Harley dealership. So this area still counts for something.

The RGV has transormed radically since we first moved down here in 69, from a major agricultural community to a major commercial zone. It's been interesting to say the least.

When I was a kid, I called this place Never-Never Land, because nothing ever happened here. It was just miles and miles and miles of cropland, interspersed with small towns. Today those small towns have developed into cities, tripled in population. There's still some cropland left, but not much. Now it's all commercial development.

Sad, really. I used to hate this place, because it was so boring. Yet back then the RGV was a lazy, hazy hippie hideaway. These guys, these radicals, with their long hair and tie-dyed t-shirts, would come down here to escape the fast pace of the big cities. I could relate with these guys. Who do you think it was who turned me on to the Stones and Black Sabbath?

Those were the days. Looking back, I hated it then, but those were the formative years of my life.

Budd said...

that camero also flew. Awesome!

Don't forget Go Bots!

Anonymous said...

You guys remember robotech? My all time fav

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