Hey, how come I don't get wings? No, I'm not a Cylon. I only hurts when my flesh peels off.

Silverhawks: Partly metal, partly real. All hero.

February 7, 2000

Welcome back to the Great Cartoon Archive. Glad to have you here as we begin our next journey into the 80s. Where we traveled back to the early years with The Transformers last week, now we travel to a later time, where He-Man, Robotech, and The Transformers left a near-permanent mark on afternoon cartoons. Read on.

The Time: 1986, syndicated TV

The Company: Rankin-Bass/Kenner

The Skinny: By the late 80s, gimmick-based cartoons were the craze. The Transformers were going strong, He-Man was busy changing tights with his sword, Voltron switched up between flying RVs and lions, and there was a cartoon like no other: Thundercats. Rankin-Bass's cartoon about a team of super-powerful alien cats that escape to Earth (or Third Earth) after their planet exploded was wildly popular with kids, and the people in charge decided that another such hit needed to be made. Using the virtually the same staff as Thundercats, Silverhawks> got fast-tracked into development. The story structure was virtually the same, the characters were slightly tweaked, made slightly true to science, and voila!

The Story: It's 2839, and a dangerous criminal called Monstar has escaped from Prison Planet 10 in the Limbo Galaxy. Commander Stargazer, of an interstellar law enforcement organization, has to put him back in the Prison Planet before the master criminal can take over the galaxy. Unfortunately, Monstar has gotten his rogue's gallery of thugs thugs back, and under the light of the Moon Star, Monstar transformers into a super-powerful cyborg Terminator-type creature. So Stargazer needs reinforcements from Earth.

Earth responds by sending a team of five elite crime-fighters: Quicksilver, the leader; SteelWill, the strongman/mechanic of the group; SteelHeart, the strong, beautiful scientist, and brother to SteelWill; Bluegrass, navigator/pilot of the Maraj, and blues musician; and the Copper Kid, a technical genius from the planet of the Mimes (no kidding!). Unfortunately, since organic bodies can't survive interstellar travel, they all have to become cyborgs -- partly metal, partly real, in other words. As a tradeoff for artificial bodies, they get enhanced strength, shoulder lasers, glider wings, and rocket boots. They get sent out, and for several seasons, they battle the likes of Monstar, Melodia, Yes-Man, Molecular Man, and BuzzSaw.

Effects on Popular American Culture: Unfortunately, not that much. Silverhawks was a Thundercats clone, almost too much so. While it had a great character cast, the Limbo Galaxy always seemed a bit small and empty compared to Third Earth. Still, the character designs and gadgets, like musical weapons or high-definition metal armor are reflected in countless comic books and anime series today.

Where are they now?: Silverhawks videos and toys now only exist in garages, video rental stores, and Ebay. Presumably, Monstar and Quicksilver are still duking it out in the Limbo Galaxy, older, but still effectively immortal due to their cybernetic bodies. On the other hand, Bluegrass and Melodia shared a torrid love-hate affair, but finally called it off when Bluegrass tossed out Melodia's antique Garbage collection. Tally-Hawk was eaten on a survival hunt with the Thundercats. SteelWill returned to All-Borg football, and SteelHeart went on to model for famed robot pinup artist Soriyama.

Pictures:

• Quicksilver
• Mumbo Jumbo
• SteelHeart
• Bluegrass
• Quicksilver Transformed
• SteelHeart Transformed
• Monstar

Video:

• Intro:
  
  • small -- 6.1 MB
  • large -- 11.7 MB
• Monstar's Transformation Sequence:
  
  • small -- 3.0 MB
  • large -- 7.3 MB

Older Archives:

• Transformers

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