After These Messages....the Slow Death of Saturday Morning Cartoons

Several weeks ago on September 27th, many of my compatriots in the world signified it as the day that Saturday Morning Cartoons died. It passed away quietly to say the least; no one knelt by it's bedside, no one took note of the symptoms. At 11:59am, after the credits rolled and whatever regularly scheduled programming cued up, Saturday Morning Cartoons faded into our collective memories like hypercolor shirts and Home Alone movies. But in all seriousness, what we know as Saturday Morning Cartoons has slowly been dying since the early to mid 90s. With the advent of weekday cartoon programming along with channels dedicated to cartoon programs like The Hub, Fox Family, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Nickelodeon this has been a death long in the making.

Taking a poll, when was the last time any of us got up early to watch a Saturday Morning Cartoon on Network TV? That mean up and present at the time it was being played, not streamed after the fact or TiVo'd and watched later. I bet it's not many, but that's not the main contributing factor to why they are gone now. Over the last 20 years of Saturday Morning Cartoons has become less of a major factor in all of our lives. Since it's inception in the 1960s, Saturday Morning Cartoons grew from it's simple beginnings of Flintstones, Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo. In the 1970s, Hanna Barbera stepped up their game and brought us all a new flood of colourful characters. Then the 1980s explosion of Filmation, Warner Brothers, Rankin Bass and other companies brought us the staples of true nostalgia like He-Man, Thundercats, GI Joe, Transformers and other shows far too numerous to mention in one post alone. Another thing happened in the 1980s, and that was mass marketing of children's programming. That was amplified in the 90s but another thing that happened was the first blow to the sanctity of Saturday Morning Cartoons; September 10th 1990 brought us the Disney Afternoon.

The Disney Afternoon wasn't the first time there was children's programming during the week, but it was the first time there was shows exclusively in the middle of the week that weren't recapped or replayed on the weekend. Also, being the heavy hitter cartoon powerhouse that was Disney, not only did we get great original programming like Gummi Bears, Ducktales, Bonkers, and Darkwing Duck but we also got further adventures of Disney movie blockbusters like Aladdin and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. I'm not sure if Disney has the same power now that it did back then, but I knew kids growing up that if it wasn't Disney; they didn't watch it and didn't care.

Warner Brothers isn't one to take the undeclared cartoon cold war sitting down. 4 days later on September 14th, 1990, Warner Bros presented Tiny Toon Adventures. Tiny Toon Adventures opened the door for Warner Bros to roll out not only other shows like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakzoid, and other shows but for a good portion of the mid-to-late 90s and early 2000s Warner Bros had their own TV station that played cartoons during the weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Joining forces with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer was just about the best way to secure not only a top notch product that would be enjoyed by both kids and adults, but also garner the attention of the media and the awards committee.


Both the Disney Afternoon and the Warner Bros animation block (sorry, not sure if it had it's own designation) had taken it's toll on the to-that-point revered Saturday morning cartoons. Sure there was in-fighting between Disney and Warner Bros; pitting their trademark characters against each other for TV time slot supremacy. In the fray we got a couple of great, gritty and more adult shows from both companies with Batman the Animated Series and Gargoyles. The other channels had their hand in undermining both the Disney and Warner Bros powerhouses and Saturday Morning Cartoons by playing cartoons early in the morning on weekdays.

Let's not forget the onslaught of cable network cartoons, spearheaded by the fine folks over at Nickelodeon / MTV / Viacom as a whole. Shows like Doug, Rugrats, Wild Thornberry's, and other lighter fare appealed to both younger and older viewers while Aeon Flux, Ren and Stimpy, Liquid Television and Beavis and Butthead are the reasons I became a preteen insomniac. They were fresh, different and had more realistic themes along with crazy, grotesque, drug induced frenzy of the late night shows. They revolutionized cartoon viewing by bringing back the essence of old freak out comics of the 70s in animated form, which was great because I've been a fan of R. Crumb, Ralph Bakshi, and Harvey Peakar since I was about 6 years old. You can look at the work of Clasky-Csupo and see a lot of references back to those artists in their work. Nickelodeon has continued to be a big player in the televised cartoon world, most recently with the newest incarnation of the Ninja Turtles.

Also in the early 1990s we got Cartoon Network. Granted it wasn't till the late 1990s when most of the country got to know it better when their original programming started to garner the attention of both kids and adults. It was the beginning of the end for Saturday Morning Cartoons as we knew it. Cartoon Network branched out for the first time in the late 1990s from it's repertoire of classic Warner Bros and MGM/Universal cartoons and started it's own in-house productions like Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Lab. Another exciting time for animation fans for sure, not only were they shows that all ages clicked with but many of the in-house shows from Cartoon Network still bring back great nostalgia moments with people who aren't active cartoon watchers. Cartoon Network was also instrumental in bringing anime back to American TV in their Toonami animation block that ran every weekday in the afternoon and late nights on the weekends. Other channels followed suit by adding mainstream shows like Pokemon and Digimon to their Saturday Morning line ups, but it may have just been too little too late.

Let us also not forget more adult oriented cartoons in general. Simpsons led the way, which ran strong and unopposed for years till South Park and the never ending glut of cartoons from Seth MacFarlane along with the programming on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. They provided cartoons for us who never really grew up who still loved cartoons but grew tired of the silly simplicity of happy animated characters. They gave us foul mouthed kids, talking action figures, and mildly alcoholic pets that expressed the inner us better than Friends or other sitcoms could. Now these adults (and sometimes unmonitored children) didn't have to get up early for our cartoon fix, sleep in and stay up late because the good stuff comes on later.

From about 2000 up to a few weeks back, Saturday Morning Cartoons on network TV was lackluster to say the least. Better shows have migrated to the bigger cable TV channels like HUB, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and other channels. Occasionally you'd hear some buzz about a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon or other relatively under the radar show, but just as soon as you'd hear about it the show was over and cancelled and those not in the know were reduced to hunting down the show somewhere online. A long, lingering death was the ultimate end of what we all knew as Saturday Morning Cartoons. A few of us noticed but few of us cared, for many of us they've been dead for a long time.


I hope you've enjoyed this haphazard rehash of cartoon history.

Stink Egg Known as Cartoon Networks - Robotomy

by: Ana Bruja-Khayos

As I’m navigating my way through my Netflix account I often find myself watching stuff I’ve never seen before.  Some of the times it is a very good experience but some of the time it is just not a great experience.  Robotomy was one of those series that I vaguely remember seeing ads for back when I had cable but I also remember it being gone just as quickly as it appeared. 
At the time I thought the art style was interesting but it was nothing that I wanted to watch until now.

The first thing that I noticed is that the series was incredibly short.  It was only 10 episodes compared to the standard 13 or 22 episode per season I’m used to seeing.  That got me thinking... ok what do I have to lose?  Put it on the background and is only going to be on for about 4 ½ to 5 hours tops. What could possibly go wrong with this?

Oh boy...

The show follows these two robots that are in robot high school a name.... you know what who cares.  In this world being a heinous evil robot is the norm, while being nice is completely off pudding.  While you follow Thrasher and Blastus through the school you will be shown incredibly odd and at unrelatable situations that simply fall flat and are simply not funny.  As you watch the show you get the sense that just like it’s main characters it was trying too hard to be the next big thing and simply filled the show with stupid unfunny fart jokes, and imagery that only Ah!!! Real Monsters could have pulled off back in the day.  Both the main cast and secondary characters have very 2D personalities like school princess, jock, nerd that have a very cliche fell to them.  After the first 3 episode I simply blurred out the show and it was just moving pictures with noise.

I’m sure someone out there likes the show, but is just not me. If you like it, let me know in the comments. Maybe I’m missing something, where’s the jokes?

About the Show
Seeing how bad the show was got me thinking what happened here.  How did this get made and why.  It turns out the show was created after a long losing streak of rejected production ideas.  The show was in and off production for a few years due to changing management, and finally was finished in 2009 pushed out to be aired in 2010. Needless to say it didn’t go well. The show only lasted a measly 4 months on the air before it was cancelled.  The show is the shortest running Cartoon Network original series along with the least episodes ever made by them.  The show was so bad it was finally also completely removed from the CN website around 2011 as a listed show.  I’ve rarely seen any network do that.  Talk about sweeping it under the rug.

What really made me sad is that this show was directed by Christy Karacas who is known for his other project Superjail.  I love Superjail.  All in all you can’t win them all and this is one of those shows best left forgotten.

Final Thoughts
Only watch if you are severely intoxicated and looking to kill brain cells.  Best recommendation is to skip it completely. 

Storm Hawk Toys by Irwin Toys

About the Storm Hawks
In 2007 to 2009, the world was introduced to a set of six inexperienced young sky riders preparing to follow the footsteps of the original “Storm Hawks” in the world of Atmos. Their world is based on floating sections of land that are known as “Terras” wish are each protected by a leading Sky Night and Squadron against the cruelty of Master Cyclonis and the Cyclonians. They are a re-emerging evil trying to pull their entire world under a dark rule under the Cyclonian Empire.  Our heros are faced with many challenges due to their young age and new social experiences, all while learning their new abilities and capabilities through their experiences as team.  Their adventures leads them to a path of grave danger, and an introduction to a wide array of new and interesting characters that will battle them and aid them in the quest to defeat Cyclonis. 

Storm Hawks Team (Radar, Stork, Aerrow, Piper, Finn, and
Junko).

About the Characters:

Storm Hawks:

Aerrow :  Is the leader and Sky Night of the Storm Hawks group.  Always with a positive attitude in the worst situations and willing to take large risk in order to beat Master Cyclonis. His spirit maintains the group together through good and bad times.  (Race: Human)

Piper:  Second in Command.  She deals with Navigation, Battle Tactics and an self taught Crystal Master. She is the brains of the group. She maintains her girly traits yet she's tough and down to earth. ( Race: Human)

Junko:  He deals with  Flight Engineering and Heavy Ballistics (Muscle of the Team).  He is very proud of his race and culture.  Sub Conscious about his height and strength, he still manages to really put in some heavy muscles when the team needs it all while keeping a very sweet and caring personality.(Race:Wallop)

Stork: While he’s very paranoid he is an expert at navigating, and maintaining their main carrier ship the Condor.  He is their Carrier Pilot and an expert with Atmos mythology. His one weakness is to have his Love the Condor being dented, altered or destroyed. (Race: Merb)

Finn : He is the Wingman and Sharp Shooter for the team.  Having an incredibly cocky and ignorant personality he can be a charming part of the team. (Race:Human)

Radar : Is the Mission Specialist and Mechanic for the team.  The first time you see him he just look like your standard group pet, but shortly after you learn he is as efficient as the other members of the team except that he doesn't talk.  The show they never specifies his race, but for what ever reason chickens are always falling in love with him.  Strange!!! (Race Unknown).

Cyclonian Top Soldiers (Ravus, Dark Ace, and Snipe).

Cyclonians:

Master Cyclonis:  Grand Leader of Cyclonia and Crystal Master Sorcerers. She might look like your standard emo teen girl, but she has a very ruthless personality that is feared by even the strongest members of the Atmos.

Dark Ace:  Lead warrior for the Cyclonian empire, also known as the Master Cyclonis right hand man.  Has an incredibly over bloated ego like your standard bad guy.  Once thought to be unbeatable, now is facing a constant streak of failure that is making his world turned upside down.

Ravus & Snipe:  Both of the siblings are top warriors of Cyclonis, but each one has their own specialty.  Ravus uses her deadly violin music to accomplish neat but dirty task that Master Cyclonis may have in motion.  Snipe is not very bright but he does compensate in brutal strength.

The Raptors:  Is a team of mercenaries for hire that mainly work for the Cyclonian empire.  They mainly roam in groups of 4 to 5 members, and tend to like missions in warmer weather.

Cyclonians Soldiers (Talens): They are suppose to be elite Cyclonian soldiers but the Storm Hawks tend to kick their butts very easily.

Merck Raiders:  Is their version of notorious pirates but in the sky.  These guys are so bad, even the Cyclonian army fears them.




About the Show and Production:

The show itself has two full season totaling fifty-two episodes.  The first ten to fifteen episodes seem like your standard introduction episodes, but they really start putting things together to an amazing storyline in the later part of the season by linking the stories of the past with the present, and building allies along the way that will help the new Storm Hawks in an epic battle at the end of the series.  For a 3D animated television series, they truly have great camera work that gives a sense that they are in the sky flying.  They are also doing these shots while at times having air battles with a large amount of characters per shot which makes it more fun and exciting to watch than your standard “1 on 1” battle.  Now... a word of caution, this is a show you can’t simply skip to the end because it will make no sense if you do.  The show at the end tops with an amazing climax that can easily produce another season or two.  I hope someday hey decided to revive the series.  It was truly amazing.  Sadly here in the US, only about thirty out of the fifty-three episodes aired before they pulled it off the air on Cartoon Network, but it’s ok that’s what DVD, Streaming Services, and online resources are for. LOL

A lot of people might not know this, but the Storm Hawks show was very popular and  it won four awards and was nominated five times at the Canadian “Gemini Awards” and the “Leo Awards” (2008-2009) for titles such as Best animated Program or Series, Original Score, Screenwriting, Best Director and Storyboards.  

The show had several companies involved in its production. For Storm Hawks Productions, this was their only project.  Nerd Corp Entertainment Ca. worked on the production of the Storm Hawks show and also on the production of Hot Wheel “Battle Force 5”, Dragon Boosters, The League of Super Evil, Rated A for Awesome, and recently Monster High “Escape from Skull Shores”. Finally, YTV who has an ungodly long list of production expirience and video properties they have distributed world wide (http://www.imdb.com/company/co0058689/).























Books and Comics:

The series also produced one book called Storm Hawks “Best Friends Forever” through scholastic Readers that was mainly aimed at the tween and teen demographic.


As far as I know only one comic book issues was ever release for the Storm Hawks, and there isn’t a lot known about it.  It was a Special Edition comic book done by the Canadian publishing company called DMF Comics Inc.  It feature three stories including the origins of the Dark Ace which are partially shown in the intro of the show, and Pin Up Art section drawn by some of the great talents of animation and comics.  I seen a couple of pages out of the book on-line and I personally wasn’t impressed by the book or the pin ups. So this is something I probably would not recommend to anybody. 

About The Toys:

Storm Hawks 4 inch and 6 inch figures with vehicles. 

It’s been awhile since a toy company has tried to stay true to the spirit of a show  and I believe Spin Masters really did a great job on this one.  I will warn you the packaging on these are big. While the sculpts on the characters could use a little work, they still hold the charm of the show that any fan would love to have and to own.  Sadly just like many other toy series, you will not find any of the female characters since they were never produce.  So have fun making your own. :D

4 “ inch figures

The four inch figures are very fun to handle. They all come with different weapons, and they are very posable. Some of the weapons have secondary functions like items that go over swords, arrows that shoot, and some of them connect together to make a larger weapon.  A word of caution, these are toys that are meant to be lightly played with. These toys are being held together by small thin plastic peg.  So is easy to break off.

Aerrow:
Package: Around 7” inch width, 7” height, and around 1 ½’ inches.
Pieces:  4 inch figures of Aerrow, 2 small wing swords, 2 small transparent blue sleeves that fit over the sword, and 1 small two inch Radar figure.

Finn:
Package: Around 7” inch width, 7” height, and around 1 ½’ inches.
Pieces:  4 inch figure of Finn, 1 bow, and 1arrow.

Junko:
Package: Around 7” inch width, 7” height, and around 1 ½’ inches.
Pieces:  4 inch figure of Junko with knuckle busters attached to the body, and 2 small clear green orb sleeves that go over his fist.

Stork: (kind of rare)
Package: Around 7” inch width, 7” height, and around 1 ½’ inches.
Pieces:  4 inch figure of Stork with a giant steampunk gun.  The gun in made of one gray gun, a small black net, and 3 small missiles that attach to the end of the gun.

Dark Ace: (kind of rare)
Package: Around 7” inch width, 7” height, and around 1 ½’ inches.
Pieces:  4 inch Dark Ace, 1 long sword, and 1 long clear red sleeve that sheves over the word.

Snipe: (extremely rare)
Package: Around 7” inch width, 7” height, and around 1 ½’ inches.
Pieces: 4 inch Snipe, comes with 2 red and silver axes.  


Vehicles:


Condor Battle Cruiser by Spin Master
Packaging Size: Roughly 18 inches by 12 inches and a 4.5 inches width.
Pieces: Main ship, and three launching light weight type skimmer planes of Aarrow with Radar, Junko and Finn. Instructor manual.
Color: Orange, Brown, and Blue.  
Accompany Figures: All 4 inch figures.
Toy Features: Regular playing options that allow you to place 4 inch figures in secret compartments and created fighting adventures on top of the Condors Deck.  Second feature of the condor is that it allows you to launch lightweight skimmer planes from the deck with quick reload options. The Condor comes with a back handle that allows the user to enjoy this feature.



Storm Hawk Sky Riders by Spin Master

Aerrow's Skimmer III Ultra
Packaging Size: Roughly one 11 inches by 11.5 inches with a width of almost 3 inches.
Pieces: 1 motorcycle, 6 wings, and a miniature figure of radar that sits on the side card of the bike.
Color: Light blue, mid blue, red, and silver.
Accompany Figure: 4 Inch Aerrow Figure.
Toy Features:  The skimmer gives the user a great chance to play with is as both a motorcycle and as a plane. Wings pop off with a snap of a button.  


Dark Ace's Talon Switchblade Elite
Packaging Size: Roughly one 11 inches by 11.5 inches with a width of almost 3 inches.
Pieces: 1 motorcycle, and 6 wings.
Color: Maroon Color with dimed golden details.
Accompany Figure: 4 Inch Dark Ace Figure.
Toy Features:  The skimmer gives the user a great chance to play with is as both a motorcycle and as a plane. Wings pop off with a snap of a button.  



6” Deluxe Figures

Aerrow
Packaging Size: 7.5 inches by 12 inches and around 3 inches width.
Pieces: Only Arrow. Swords are attached to his hands.
Color: Browns, blue, silver and blue.
Toy Features: Fairly posable figures with Twist and Whirl Sword Action.  Action figure has a button on its back that lights up both the swords at the base when it’s pushed.  The package also comes with a DVD (content unknown). Batteries are included in the figure.

Dark Ace
Packaging Size: 7.5 inches by 12 inches and around 3 inches width.
Pieces:  Only Dark Ace. Swords are attached to his hands.
Color: Brownish grey, black, and red.
Toy Features: Fairly posable figures with Swirling Battle Action from the sword.  Action figure has a button on its back that lights up on the base of the red sword. The package also comes with a DVD (content unknown). Batteries are included in the figure.

Junko
Packaging Size: 7.5 inches by 12 inches and around 3 inches width.
Pieces: Junko figures, with a small ball in the shape of a bird.  Variant 1 - has a neon green ball. Variant 2 has a the ball painted like a white and blue bird.
Color: Browns, blue, silver, blue with neon green glove.
Toy Features: Fairly posable figure with Knuckle-Busters Punch and Blast.  If you are facing the figure, its right arm is a light transparent neon green color that glows if you press on his hand.    Left hand allows you to launch the small bird ball from his hand.  The package also comes with a DVD (content unknown).

Finn
Packaging Size: 7.5 inches by 12 inches and around 3 inches width.
Pieces: Finn figures comes with his crossbow, and one light blue arrow.
Color: Browns, blue, and silver.
Toy Features: Fairly posable figure with Trigger Action.  That’s pretty much it. LOL The package also comes with a DVD (content unknown).

More pictures of the toys on our Flicker Account. Chekc them out :D
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragingnerdgasm/sets/72157630577403322/
Custom Piper 6 inch toy pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragingnerdgasm/sets/72157630577415134/

Article By: Ana Bruja-Khayos

Adventure Time toys

Many of us are Adventure Time fans and when it was announced at NYTF (that's New York Toy Fair for those that aren't hip to the groove) that Jazwares was named the primary production company for everything Adventure Time related, I was slightly concerned to say the least. Jazwares was a very familiar company for me because they supplied my former employer, KB Toys, with a ton of poorly constructed toys based off of properties such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog and numerous defective electronic toys and room decor. But how badly could they screw up such simplistic designs as Finn and Jake? My questions were answered one fateful Monday morning during a toy run with my wife.

It really hadn't been much of an exciting morning to say the least. Three Walmarts and 2 Targets later we found ourselves at Toys R Us's doorstep and my wallet still had all the money in it that I left the house with. I really must thank my wife for putting up with my man-child impulses, I have been going to toy stores all my life and it's a habit I don't see going away anytime soon. Browsing the toy aisle with much dismay I came across the 2 foot long section of Adventure Time toys, which had been empty for most of the month till today. There on the pegs were the 5 inch Finn and Jake and Finn's sword of mighty, the shelf below had the 7 inch plushies and the shelf below that had the 10 inch Finn with changing expressions. My eyes got big like a kid on Christmas morning as my wife and I squealed for joy and grabbed the 5 inch figures and the 10 inch toy. Running for the registers, I couldn't wait to open these and display them proudly on my shelves at home.
                                             
The first knee jerk reaction came just before checkout when I remembered reading on the 4chan/toy message boards that fellow collectors felt the figures could have been done better. I couldn't remember what exactly was the issue, but I'm a consumer and anything I feel isn't made right can go straight back to the store as long as I hold on to that precious receipt. The second knee jerk reaction came while looking at 5 inch Jake and 10 inch Finn and thinking why not just get the Finn and Jake that are in scale with each other. My wife said she'd pick up the 10 inch Finn as long as I got the 5 inch set, at that point I couldn't say no to that offer. Besides, they look totally awesome and Jake shape-shifts all the time so my concern with scale went completely out the window.
                                            
                                            
Here's where the sobering realization that these figures were as poorly made as everything else Jazwares makes, has made or will ever make. Opening the figures in the car, I notice the knee and hip joints for both figures have been painted over. Not just a slight over spray, but intentionally painted over like someone didn't tell the child labor not to do that. Also, while the rubber arms translate well for Finn and his sword they don't work out so well for Jake's big fist attachment. The whole figure falls over. And while the first couple of times it's very comical, it becomes frustrating after a while. Secondly, for what you pay for ($9.99 or in my case $7.49 since they were on sale) you kind of feel like you are getting ripped off. The figures are hollow plastic and look great in the package but feel like a happy meal prize in your hand. And lastly, just with mild posing the paint starts to chip off. I'd hate to see how long these toys last in a 5-7 year old's hands. You probably wouldn't get out of the parking lot without having to turn around to exchange or return the figures.

If I had to grade these toys on a report card, they'd get a solid D. My summary, keep them in the package folks. They look wonderful until your breach that veil of cardboard and plastic and I have a strange feeling they won't be in production for long.