Most watched Cartoons of the 1980’s
Nostalgia, Television — By trench on August 28, 2008 at 3:00 am | 129 VisitorsThese were the cartoon’s I’d rush home to watch after school. I’d take the T.V. Guide and highlight all the shows and times so I wouldn’t miss them. Personally, I feel I had the privilege of growing up in the greatest decade of animated television. I can’t see any of the cartoons of this generation coming close to the stuff we had back in our day.
G.I. Joe
“A Real American Hero” It was America vs. The COBRA Organization. The most memorable character for me was Cobra Commander. That eerie laugh of his is unforgettable and recognizable anywhere. The infamous Dreadnocks from the swamps were pretty cool as well and I think it was Zartan who could blend in with the swamp?? Let’s not forget Golobulus and the Cobra La faction. Golobulus’s flying bodyguard Nemesis Enforcer was a beast! He kicked major tail until he met up with Sgt. Slaughter who I thought was overrated! lol. Other favorites of mine included Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Roadblock, Gung-Ho, Mercer, Tunnel Rat, Destro, and all COBRA’s Viper teams. Ninja looking soldiers were just too damn cool!
Transformers
“More than Meets the Eye” Who did not love the Transformers growing up in the 80’s? Optimus Prime, Soundwave, Bumblebee, Starscream, and Grimlock were my favorites. I can’t forget the excitement I had when the Prime authorized the creation of the Dinobots to add muscle to their faction. Who were your favorites?
Thundercats
“Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats! Hooooooo!” The best part any episode was Lion-O wielding the Sword of Omens while requesting for “Sight Beyond Sight”. haha. WilyKat and WilyKit were my favorites besides Lion-O. Always wanted one of those floating surfboards they traveled on. I actually thought Snarf was kinda annoying and Mumm-Ra was generic.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
“By the Power of Greyskull, I have the POWER!” This cartoon is a classic. I was such a huge fan of this series that I owned most of the He-Man toys including a huge replica of Castle Greyskull and all the power punch action figures. Yes, saving Eternia from the evil Skeletor was pretty damn cool. Battlecat was awesome too!
Voltron the Lions. Voltron the Cars.
“Form feet and legs, form arms and body, and I’ll form the head”. I watched both series pretty religiously growing up and did own the die-cast Voltron the Lions toy. My best friend in elementary school owned the “vehicle” version of Voltron which was pretty hard to come by and I always envied him for that. I recall more of the Lions because they were more mainstream and had just five team members. The huge black lion which formed the torso and head, the green and red lions which formed the arms, and the blue and yellow lions which formed the legs. The only thing I remember about the cars were that the robot consisted of three teams. Air, Sea, and Land. Despite the lack of in-depth knowledge of either series I know I watched a ton of episodes and loved Voltron to death.
Honorable Mentions:
SilverHawks, Bionic Six, and Robotech
Tags: cartoons, i_love_the_80s, Nostalgia
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20 Comments
I *totally* agree! I loved GI Joe, Transformers, and Thundercats. Enjoyed He-man too, but Thundercats was the one I tried to watch every day after school. :)
Thanks for the blast down memory lane! Are any of these available on DVD?
@Brian Fitzpatrick – Thundercats was definitely a classic. Silverhawks came right after Thundercats and many of the same voices from the Thundercats played Silverhawk roles. All I remember from Silverhawks was Bluegrass. The cowboy. lmao
I watched and loved almost all of those: G.I. Joe (what can I say, I was a tomboy), Transformers, Thundercats (HOOOOO!!!), He-man (and She-ra!!) and Bionic Six. I can’t say I remember the others though but I’m sure I watched them as I loved my cartoons!
@fragileheart – She Ra! Princess of POWER? LOL. Did you watch Jem and the Holograms too? hehe.
Thundercats and Voltron [Lions] were my faves..
Ultra Magnus was my favorite Transformer. Man, I was totally pissed when Hot Rod was given the leadership position when Prime died. The show that probably had the greatest impact on me was G-Force — known in Japan as Gatchaman. That was the show that first got me into Japanese animation. When Robotech the Macross Saga came out — I was hooked. Been watching anime ever since.
@Polaris671 – Weren’t you the owner of the Voltron the cars diecast? G-Force was cool, but I never really got into it.
@trench – Yup. That was me. My cousin gave me during my first trip to Japan way back in the 1st grade. I don’t think it qualifies as die cast given that it was primarily plastic, whereas the Voltron Lions was a die cast due to its mostly metal composition. I loved the Vehicle Voltron mainly because in the cartoons it took the helicopter blades at its shoulders and either threw them or used them to form its sword. A big plus was that I didn’t know anybody else who had it. Looking at it in retrospect, it was totally off size-wise. Its feet were vans and its head was a space shuttle. The space shuttle was about 1/3 the size of the vans. Show me a van that size! But as a kid it didn’t matter.
My favs:
Robotech (Macross)
Tranzor-Z
Transformers
G.I.Joe
Voltron
She-Ra: Princess of Power (lol)
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@Film-Book dot Com – She Ra huh. What about Jem and the Holagrams. dont lie!! I watched some smurfs, snorks, and shirt tails as well. Just keep that to yourself though. hehe
Those are all so masculine. I didn’t watch any of those. I only liked Looney Tunes or sitcoms.
@ScreenwritingforHollywood – haha. I guess they are masculine. What about Jem and the Holograms, Smurfs, Shirt Tails, and Gummi Bears?
I watched all of these cartoons and I love all of them. I can even sing the theme songs for each cartoon. Hehe :D
Btw, I also watched Centurions and Visionaries dunno if you’re familiar with those. :)
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@Jaypee – Oh yeah, I can sing these theme songs as well. I was thinking about posting them here.
i forgot thundercats theme songs.
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@Jaypee – I have most of the themes downloaded. Thinking about adding them to this post.
@ScreenwritingforHollywood – You be surprised at just how many girls I knew who watched these shows.
Wow, I totally loved those same cartoons too.
I don’t really remember SilverHawks or Bionic Six. But I also loved Robotech.
Growing up I used to love the older cartoons too, like Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny. I still LOVE Tom and Jerry. Those are the best, but not the newer versions out recently, they aren’t as good as the originals.
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@Weezy333 – all the remakes are wack. I hate the new GI Joe, Transformers, etc.. Its not the same!
i was totally into all the cartoons you’ve mentioned! i thought they were MUCH MORE exciting than the ones targeted for girls my age. i never dug watching shows that didn’t involve fight scenes or heroism for some reason. and jem hardly cut it for me. i DO miss gargamel and azrael though (friggin weasels)!
[being a girl in the 80s was hella boring; my barbie dolls didn't turn into robots that could blast bad barbie dolls out of the universe! i didn't find any amusement in sitting there serving tea to my stuffed animals, brushing doll hair all day, or making my ponies HOP about (since their legs were stuck in one position).]
and i agree with weezy… the ‘toons nowadays don’t compare for me.
The toons now cant touch the 80’s toons at all. Our generation of childrens television ruled! haha