The Inhumanoids Were Pretty Fucked Up

I've mentioned the satanic panic of the 80's and 90's here before (and probably will again). As if being a kid was scary enough, go ahead and add in most adults telling you the devil was literally everywhere. Yeah, great. Looking back as an adult, it was all pretty silly in retrospect. Though in some cases I can kinda see where they were coming from. The Inhumanoids by Hasbro... yeah... they kinda had a point. 

The toy line was mostly composed of nightmarish monsters. The requisite cartoon? Pure hell on Earth animated by Sunbow. It's almost as if the creators watched The Evil Dead and asked "what of Ash had awesome armor?". In theory (I accidentally spelled that thewory and I'm not sure that was wrong in this case), it's all perfect for toys and a cartoon. Good guys in super cool armor with super cool weapons and vehicles fighting monsters. Throw in the fact that some monsters are there to help the good guys and everything sounds perfect. 

Somewhere along the line, somebody decided kids didn't shit their pants often enough.

Battle Armor Cobra Commander

Cobra Commander is a unique character. By all appearances he's a coward who's nothing without his underlings. Though, once he donned his Battle Armor all bets were off and his badassness started showing through. Prior seasons he was evil and ruthless, sure, but once anything got serious he was sniveling. Once Serpentor came around, he was reduced to lackey and kinda in a non-sensible way. The underlings felt like he was no longer worthy to lead Cobra, so they made Serpentor to be the ultimate leader. Ok, I'm down (even though you had Destro right there), but they kept him around and still called him Cobra Commander. Shouldn't his title have changed? Though after the events of the movie and his return to glory, Cobra Commander got hardcore. I'd like to think his new costume at that point was part of his 'New Year, New Me' regime. I know I've always liked it better than his other outfits. Just looks awesome, you know?

Hey now this is crazy, but Transformers Series 2 maybe?

I've mentioned before how I sometimes wonder how things would have been if Takara had been more successful with Diakron. Well, that's not the only 'what if' that crosses my mind occasionally. DiC took over making GI JOE cartoons post GI JOE the movie with what's commonly referred to as GI JOE Series 2.  Sometimes I wonder, what if DiC made Transformers cartoons post 'The Rebirth'?

The Rebirth's art isn't too far off from a DiC production.

Think of the possibilities. Instead of Season 5 with repackaged reruns, we could have had new adventures. Pretenders, Micromasters, Actionmasters... yeah. What if instead of the repackaged reruns we got as Transformers Generation 2... we got a whole new show? All those awesome Generation 2 original molds and characters... yeah, and one could wager better toy sales. As good as Beast Wars was, this could have led to a different DiC produced beast era. Which, being a cheaper production could have featured more characters. Not to mention, I wonder if would have been received better by those who hated Beast Wars? Obviously not those who didn't like the change, but I did witness several G1 purists like BW II and BW NEO more since it was more like a traditional TF show.

M.A.S.K was a DiC production that was compared to Transformers.

Part of thinking about this possibility would include possible cast changes. I'm sure not all voice actors would have worked on the DiC produced shows. Budget reasons, voice directors, or maybe just conflicting schedules. What if we got a different sounding Optimus in 1989? Imagine the debates over who was better. Or Vince DiCola and Stan Bush are regular Transformers convention guests, what about all that funky DiC music? What if those musicians performed live? Sometimes fans complain about regular convention guests, well I'd assume this would have created a deep pool of talent to invite out. Not to mention, just about I mentioned imagining the debates. People already debate which show is better, what if there was 2 G1 shows by way of a series 2?

What if these guys were on local TV?

Sure, I can 'what if' all day and probably would if given the freedom. It's one of those things that just make me wonder why it didn't happen. Why didn't Transformers get a DiC cartoon and got repackaged reruns instead? What was the business behind those decisions? Would it have been a success or a massive failure? I don't know. Nobody does, it never happened. Sadly so, because I would have loved it.

GI JOE Japanese theme

This weekend the final Official JoeCon is happening and it's a shame to see another official convention go. I went to one in 2007 and thought it was great as well as my involvement in Toylanta which was originally known as Joelanta (and still maintains the original convention within the show itself) makes me really appreciate the fan base and the franchise. While not as hardcore of a GI Joe fan as others, my love for it is strong and I always hope for it's return to glory. I've always appreciated the shared Sunbow animated Universe and while the traditional GI JOE theme without a doubt is classic, there's something special about the Japanese intro music isn't there?

Robotix intro

Damnation, that's a catchy theme.  

Battle Beasts Commercial

Lord I love Battle Beasts, as a child I didn't know of their connection to Transformers until I got older, but they still were some of my favorite toys to play with. This commercial is what sold me on them originally in the 3rd grade and it was that awesome animation that really won me over. Their appearance in Headmasters was fun and all, but man I wish they had gotten their own show in the classic Sunbow Hasbro days.