by Lennon George
Sitting here thinking about what I want to watch today. I thought about He-Man or the Ninjas Turtles. But then a memory came to me and I thought to myself “Yeah, What did happen to BraveStarr?” How many of you remember He-Man's short-lived follow up series? Anybody??? No? Ok well let me give you a brief cartoon history lesson.
Back in the late 80’s Filmation and Group W Productions created a western sci-fi based cartoon series titled BraveStarr. The first episode aired in September of 1987 and it was released with an action figure line made by Mattel who also made the He-Man brand at the time. As most cartoons produced by Filmation and Group W there was always a moral message at the end of each episode. Unfortunately BraveStarr was the last production made by Filmation and Group W. Since being aired the show has become a cult classic among retro cartoon fans and is still being re-broadcast on the Retro Television Network.
The character Tex Hex was the foundation of the BraveStarr series. Tex Hex was created during the development of Filmation’s Ghostbusters series. The character was liked so much he was pulled from Ghostbusters and made the main villain in the new series and BraveStarr was born. BraveStarr is set in the future in a desert planet called "New Texas". New Texas is full of Kerium: a red mineral that is used as fuel. New Texas is home to many, but the natives are the Prairie People they operate the Kerium mines.
Marshal BraveStarr is the main character; he is a Native American who uses the power of “spirit animals”, which gives him unbelievable powers allowing him to do amazing and superhuman things, but only for a brief moment of time. He uses the spirit power of the Hawk’s Eyes to see things like a bird; the ears of the Wolf to hear things most of us could not, the strength of the Bear pretty self-explanatory, but it was more like the strength of 20 bears, and the speed of the Puma which made him exceptionally fast almost like DC hero the Flash.
Along with his sidekick Thirty-Thirty, the cyborg stallion, BraveStarr was kicking butt and taking names all over New Texas. I loved watching this show growing up. I really liked Thirty-Thirty who was insane and his rambunctious attitude was always something I was entertained by. Now the cartoons were great, but the toy line was just as awesome IMO. Check out some of the toys that were available at the time.
I personally was in love with the play set as a kid I thought it was so cool for some reason. (shrugs) You can find out more information about Marshal by watching BraveStarr: The Movie (1988) - it goes into his origin story and more. I have provided a link to Part 1 of the movie below and if you search you can find all nine parts on YouTube. Once you have done that I think you will be trying to find the complete season box set a.s.a.p. Here is a link when you are ready to do so.
I’m going to get some lunch and watch some toons and work on some customs and pig out on junk food. Until next week keep it Going Go Figure.
Jetison to the future by joining us on Facebook! We are under 300 likes from a HUGE Mystery Giveaway!