Silverhawks

. . and welcome to the seventh episode of tunecast

brought to you by the cast radio network i'm

your host dfg on mike and today i'm joined by

kevin professor boss k dog and we are d on less

this week uh... beyond the message me or we were

talking on skype the other night and he has too

many projects going on at once and i mean that's

fine i i i understand that i mean you know i

I originally had him on as a guest. He was really

only supposed to be on one episode as a guest

as far as he wanted the, you know, he kept telling

me about, you know, make sure we cover the Nintendo

cartoons. And he just kind of just ended up being

a regular part of the show. So I think unless

something happens to either one of us or whatever,

I think it's just going to be me and Kevin for

the duration. Yeah. In reality, Dion's mic just

faded out and never came back. Oh, Christ. I

hope he doesn't listen to this. I'm just kidding,

Dion. Oh, we can't hear you now. Dude, you're

not getting a Dell. So what's been going on with

you this week? A lot of stuff been going on this

week. Been working on the whole getting the house

thing. Pretty much, I have it narrowed down to

one. We're just waiting on the bank to OK everything.

So hopefully, I'll be a homeowner in the next

month sometime. So that's exciting. You already

know this, but the Matrix of Leadership set actually

showed up early. It showed up like three or four

days before it was supposed to. So that's sitting

on my table over here. It's absolutely gorgeous.

I actually haven't had a chance. You smug son

of a. That wasn't necessary. Yes, it was keep

talking about it. Keep rubbing it in my face.

You're gonna get those every single time So say

I haven't had a chance. I've been watching so

many Silverhawks. I haven't had a chance to actually

Break it open and start watching it. But hopefully

soon that'll happen What else has been going

on? Let's see Transformers tournaments going

real good over at TFW We kind of break it into

four different regions, and the first round of

the first region is over, so we're on to the

second round. And when this airs, there'll be

two different contests that you could go over

there and vote on, one that'll be ending tonight,

one of this airs, and one that'll be starting

tonight. That's Brawl against First Aid and Sandstorm

against Skids. So basically, we don't have any

of the main characters in this one. We don't

have the Optimists and the Megatrons and stuff

like that. It's all kind of secondary characters,

which makes it kind of fun. And last thing for

this week, I was going to tackle doing Frank

Welker's page over at BehindTheVoiceActors .com,

but instead I've been going through my CDs and

adding bunches and bunches of shows into their

database and the theme songs to them. And you

can actually since this shows about Silverhawks

You can actually go over there at some point

during the show or afterwards check out behind

the voice actors comm Check on Silverhawks. It

has all the main characters pictures up who the

voice actors that have done them It has the theme

song on there, so you can take a look at that

Yes I don't know my wings been all right, but

it's slowly get my life is slowing slowly going

down the fucking toilet I am probably by monday

well before this airs obviously uh... i'll probably

be hundred fifty dollars in the hole in the bank

because fucking ebay automatically deducted their

ebay fees off my fucking bank so as of right

now i'm like seventy six bucks in the hole so

and of course after the weekend goes over with

they they're probably an attack on three days

worth of late that's not good thirty three dollars

a pop no it's not So yeah, other than that we've

had tons of as far as like the podcasting stuff

We've had tons of stuff come out TFG one podcast

was delayed a week Blame Michael Wilson for that.

He had a what unquote conference to go to no

he had a car he had a educational conference

to go to with his wife about how to deal with

uh... i don't even remember but anyway um...

so there was no tfg one last week uh... movie

we can review m wire premiered saturday uh...

with myself steve megatron phillips and steve

snowball sailor from this week in geek uh...

we talked about the back to the future series

uh... i may or may not be doing toy cast episodes

this week of course by this time by the time

this airs they may or may not already be out

uh... Other than that, I mean, just the whole

podcasting thing's taking off. So, yeah, I think

we're gonna get into some episode, or we're gonna

get into the overview history lesson for today's

episode. Do you know what this means? It means

that this damn thing doesn't work at all! Right

first up today is the history lesson for that

the professors here All right nerds. This is

Kevin professor boss K dog and it is indeed time

for another history lesson for episode 7 We actually

go back to 1986 for the great series the Silverhawks

Silverhawks was an American animated television

series developed by Rankin and Bass and distributed

by Laura Marr telepictures in 1986 in a total

65 episodes are made were made The first episode

of this first run syndication aired September

8th, 1986. It was created as a space -bound equivalent

of their previous series, the Thundercats. Rankin

and Bass followed up their successful Thundercats

series with this series about a team of human

heroes in the 29th century who were given metal

bodies and hawk wings to stop organized crime

in the galaxy of Limbo. bionic policeman commander

stargazer recruited the silver hawks heroes who

are partly metal and partly real to fight the

evil monstar an escaped alien mob boss who transforms

into an enormous armor plated creature with the

aid of limbo's moon star launching from their

satellite base hawk haven the silver hawks flew

into battle five days a week for one season all

right let's get on to the rest of the episode

this has been the professor and class is dismissed

one season ha thundercats had two damn it Okay,

now it's time for our general memories. Honestly,

before we even start the arguing between who's

better, Thundercats or Silverhawks, even though

I only watched a few episodes today on YouTube,

I do remember the show and I actually remember

having some of the toys. Yeah, I do remember

having the toys. I never had the Thundercats

toys when I was little, but I do remember having

about five or six of the Silverhawks toys. I

remember I had bluegrass. I had bluegrass too.

That was probably my favorite one. He's all right.

And we'll get to this when we get into the voice

actors part, but it's kind of weird for me to

hear a country version of Lionel. Oh, no. I was

just saying he was probably the favorite of the

toys. Oh, right. Right. But I'm just saying as

far as overall bluegrass, it was weird for me

hearing a country version of Lionel. Yeah. But

it's just, I don't know. Maybe it's because I

don't have the DVD set. I mean, I remember watching

the show, but I don't remember it as fondly as

I do Thundercats. I kind of remember them both

in the same way. I loved both shows when I was

a kid watching them. I don't know, they didn't

have the role play stuff like I did with Thundercats.

I didn't have the claw or the shield or anything

like that, but I had more of the action figures.

So I think I kind of had more of an attachment

to Silverhawks because I played with the toys

more and the shows were kind of equal to me.

So, and they always ran back to back. Yeah, they

did actually. Well, that's well, I mean, we're

gonna get into this later, but they're both Rankin

-Bass productions, so. But they worked it so

every afternoon you could basically watch a half

hour one, half hour the other. So, you know,

that's why kind of all the memories for me are

similar because I was watching them at the same

time, experiencing them all at the same time.

Yep. Yeah. I mean, you know, I was watching earlier

today and... it's a it's a pretty decent show

i mean i'm not saying it's like bad i'm not gonna

bad mouth but i mean i i do like it but it would

be better if like there was more i mean i know

the and we'll get into this later the dvd just

got released what last year yeah actually just

last fall yeah last fall so i mean maybe once

they start releasing more of them maybe i'll

maybe i'll start collecting them Or if people

would like to donate them to Tunecast, donate

them at gcrntunecast .gmail .com. Just so all

the listeners know, if you haven't picked up

on it yet, you're going to pick up on it by the

time we're over. I am the Silverhawks fan out

of the two, and Mike is the Thundercats fan out

of the two. But we both like both of them. I

think that's fair to say. Yeah, well, I mean,

I don't hate it. It's not like that I Didn't

have it's just I haven't seen it in so long and

obviously I have the Thundercats DVDs And I watch

those more and yeah, you know like we just said

the first volume just got released Finally after

so long Late last year, so I mean when I was

watching it again. I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember

this. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool What's weird

for me is I said I'd watched them both as a kid.

I loved them both. And I actually didn't have

a favorite out of either one of them for a long

time until I had the DVD sets for both of them.

And I got the DVD set for Thundercats. I got

the one for Silverhawks. And it was not until

I sat down and watched those as an adult that

I started liking Silverhawks more. So, I don't

know what it was as a kid. I liked them both

equal I might have even liked thundercats better

as a kid But as an adult for some reason I can

I can watch more silver hawks episodes Without

wanting to skip any or without wanting to shut

it off than I can for thundercats. I don't know

why That sort of omens would kick those silver

hawks ass and cut their fucks right off. They

can't fly. Oh, yeah, they can not as well Well,

no, not if the sword cuts the wings off. No,

but still I mean the thundercats couldn't fly

as well as the silver hawks I had the feline

or but anyway, all right anyways Right. We're

gonna be talking about the voice actors and the

characters from Silverhawks Take it away professor.

All right, we're gonna we're gonna start just

by talking about the good guys of the show the

heroes if you will First off, obviously the the

number one in command of the whole thing is commander

stargazer. He's kind of like the old Chief of

the whole group. He he mentioned a couple times

in the series that he's like been around for

300 years and this and that He's unique because

he has the the glass eye feature with the little

telescope telescope type of lens that he has

there But he's basically the one in the one in

charge of of the rest of the the five silver

five original silver hawks Yes for you thundercats

fans out there. He's basically a jog of light

is what he is That that survives and doesn't

die shut up And then you have of course the Number

one under him kind of the leader of the group

because star gets are really I mean He does occasionally

leave the base and go on missions and stuff like

that, but usually he stays home Yeah, so basically

the number one in charge of the of the ones that

actually go out of the bases is Quicksilver Who

has the bird companion that's basically present

throughout the whole series named tally hawk

Quicksilver He was he's kind of a cool leader.

He doesn't have a lot of They don't develop his

character as much as they do a lot of the other

ones But he's basically the boss of the of the

main group of silver hawks and I'll let you take

your favorite one Yeah, well, I don't really

think I mean just on Quicksilver a little bit

here he even though he is namely that he doesn't

know i mean just i even though i only watched

a couple episodes he doesn't seem like a leader

type i mean all i mean bluegrass is more you

know he's a pilot he pretty much tells the uh...

he pretty much stays in the uh... in the mirage

and tells the other four you know break off or

blah blah blah or do this or assemble or whatever

else i mean quick solvers basically one of those

false figureheads. They play his leader stuff

down a lot. I mean, they mention that he is the

leader, but there's lots of times where he'll

be going on separate missions or he won't be

involved in the main mission or he'll be doing

this or that or having to be rescued by other

people. So they play it down to the point where

it doesn't seem like there is necessarily a main

leader, even though he is in retrospect. Yeah,

the second in command is your favorite though.

I really don't think I mean I really don't have

a favorite out of all I just like the look of

the costumes, but bluegrass he likes to use his

weapon Slash instrument portrayed in the toy

line as his weapon bird with the name What side

man? Yeah, okay That bird doesn't, at first he

just has the guitar as the weapon and then later

it kind of turns into, it's like a bird slash

guitar when all the rest of the hawks get introduced.

But he's always got the guitar of course. And

like you had mentioned, he's the pilot of the

Mirage and he's the musical. I'm good guy will

get into the musical bad guy later on but you

mean the musical bad girl exactly exactly but

but bluegrass is kind of your cowboy he's always

got that I kind of like how much dialogue they

give him that is in kind of like a cowboy slang

type thing I mean it's basically Lionel with

a country accent I mean Larry Kenny did voice

him yeah and it was kind of weird for me at first

hearing that and really I really didn't notice

it too much uh... until the end of each episode

when he was you know teaching uh... copper kid

stuff on you know how to fray uh... but it's

just weird and then we have steelheart and steel

will who are twins their weapon birds are razor

for will and stronghold for for for emily uh...

uh... was it ever explained i mean i know i'm

kinda getting getting into the show a little

bit but Was it ever explained why their original

hearts would not work? The only thing, the only

time they ever really hint at it is in the origin

episode. And they have, when they're making them

into the Silverhawks, I mean, this is 65 episodes

ago now, so my memory is all of a sudden getting

mashed, but I believe when they were making them

into Silverhawks, their hearts aren't working,

so that's when they had to change it, so they're...

Yeah, they had to basically... give them open

-heart surgery and right but metallic arts and

or something or other but it doesn't actually

ever say why yeah i'm not sure if it is just

because they were twins and there's some you

know that little twin connection wouldn't allow

it to happen that they don't really ever explain

it you're right and then uh... finally from the

original ones is the copper kid who is from the

uh... the mind not planet planet of the minds

Yeah, he's kind of like that I mean he's kind

of like that character that we've had in a lot

of the different shows I mean if you want to

equate him to I mean he's not really the comic

relief character But he's kind of like this the

you know the smaller side character kind of like

a snarf even though It's not that comic like

annoying type thing. Yeah, although his voice

is done all through the vocoder Kind of like

sound waves wasn't transformers. So you kind

of have a unique sound from him yeah and then

I'll let you take the new ones because I know

nothing about the new heroes yeah well basically

we go through most of the first half of season

one just with those five that we've talked about

plus commander stargazer that's all that's present

for basically the first half of this show about

right at the beginning of the second half we

have starting the introduction of a few new figures,

obviously made so that we could sell more toys.

And the first of which is a character named Hotwing.

Basically comes into a situation, there's an

episode where all of the regular Silverhawks

have been captured and there's really nobody

left to help them out. And so Hotwing is summoned

from Earth and makes the trip to Limbo to help

everything out. He is the African American Silverhawk.

uh... and he was a magician when he was on earth

so he has lots little mind tricks that he does

and lots of kind of magic type uh... abilities

and as a silver hawk uh... but he was the first

of the new ones to come in The other three I'll

go just through real quick. There's Flashback

who is a one that comes in a little bit later

and his ability is to travel back in time which

gave a lot of options for him as far as storytelling

where they could have him go back before something

would happen try to fix things. Originally he

goes back to prevent a time when all the Silverhawks

were actually killed. In flashbacks, he's kind

of like a darkish green figure, where Hotwing

was a bronze -ish, orangish color. And then you

have Moonstriker, who basically looks like Quicksilver

with blonde hair. and his ability is he can he

can like his waist has this ability to start

spinning and then he like flies without having

to use the wings like everybody else does and

then there's Condor who is kind of like a Humphrey

Bogart type older character who knew used to

know commander stargazer way back tons of years

ago and then he was acting as kind of a private

eye and he gets summoned and joins the joins

the group so we have hot wing flashback moon

striker and and condor are all the new ones that

are added in the second half of the of the first

of the first and only season uh yes uh i gotta

say the when i first saw this when you just sent

me this script now i saw Hot wing the first thing

it popped into my head was like would you like

barbecue sauce with those? Yeah The names aren't

necessarily the greatest for these guys No, I

will say just real quickly. I I loved hot wing

as a character. I thought he was really cool

I also had his toys. So I like that and his toy

had a well, we'll talk about that later on but

I didn't mind flashback in Condor. Moonstriker

has to be about one of the worst characters in

the entire show. Moonstriker is just horrible.

All the other Silverhawks have the metallic finish

basically over the top of their heads and stuff

like that and he's just got this blonde hair

that's kind of floating out there. He's awful

to look at and his character is really bad in

the show. Because I was watching the very first

episode earlier today on on you move Mon star

he is the leader he is the one that Rides a giant

space squid called sky runner and has a weapon

bird more like a vampire bat named sky shadow

I Liked him better in his non -transformed form.

I liked him better when he didn't speak Yeah,

well, it's basically mum raw like yeah, I mean

I mean that's what it is for a character though

He's so cool to look at as a kid like he's got

the the crazy wild -haired like monster guy Then

he's got this you know this armored spikes coming

out of everywhere He just looks so intimidating

and I just wish they would have got someone else

to do his voice Not that I dislike the guy that

does his voice. We'll get into that a little

bit later I just I just didn't like it with that

character Ah, yes. And just a real quick piggyback

on the bird he has, Sky Shadow. That comes in

actually at a point where they're tired of Tallyhawk,

which is the Silver Hawk's bird, causing all

kinds of havoc. So they capture it and basically

design their own, which they call Sky Shadow.

And he was a pretty cool little guy. You want

to go down the rest of them? Yeah. There was

a lot more bad guys than there was good guys.

So I'm just going to go through about the eight

or nine basic bad guys that you have in the show

and just give you a real quick uh... synopsis

first you have yes man who is basically this

like lizardy snake -like creature that most the

time stayed in uh... monsters little uh... fortress

if you want to call it is headquarters uh...

he was the one that would turn monster from the

beast to uh... the super super duper monster

whatever you want to call it uh... and obviously

he would always say yes a lot in all of his uh...

his lines uh... you had hardware who was basically

the engineer mechanic weapons type person he

was probably about the most valuable villain

uh... in the mob he would create all kinds of

weapons all kind of vehicles gadgets and and

stuff like that so at every time they needed

a plot device hardware would create it then you

have melodia who you know a lot of probably kids

our age at the time that occurs on even though

she was a villain she was a lot Yeah. And this

is the one that we were talking about earlier

when we said the music counterpart to bluegrass,

basically. Yeah, Melodia hates bluegrass. Basically,

you have country music against rock and roll.

Basically, yeah. So bluegrass is your country

music, and Melodia basically is usually screaming

some type of pop -rock style. I gotta say, they

brought in someone new. I mean, the majority

of this cast, like Mondstar, Yes Man, and all

the original Silverhawks and Stargazer, it's

all the original Thundercats cast, with the exception

that Lin Lipton is not in this series. Do you

have like a button for a sound of applause? I

do, but I'm not gonna play it. That was the best

choice they made, was to get rid of Lin Lipton

and bring in somebody else. uh... so we thank

you very much and the other exception of the

character we already talked about which is the

uh... hot wing was a a new voice actor will get

to that in a second yeah uh... and then the other

ones are when hammer uh... molecular which that's

really stupid I'm sorry. That is stupid the way

they... I don't know if that's the way you type

or is that the way it's actually... Sometimes

it's the way it's credited. I don't know why.

Windhammer was the one that could basically control

the weather. He had a big pitchfork, tuning fork

thing that he could basically create storms in

outer space. Molecular was the shapeshifter.

He could take any shape of any other... He could

take a shape of a character. He could take a

shape of a ship. He could take a shape of a box.

I mean, he could turn into anything. Yeah, uh,

Windhammer. Let's see, a weather -making tuning

fork. Give me a fucking break. His scenes were

pretty cool when he used it. I didn't really

necessarily care for Windhammer, but his scenes

when he had the tuning fork and he would strike

it against the ground were pretty intense for

at least when I was a little kid. Well, I didn't

see any ones where he struck it against the ground

since I only watched like two or three of the

first original episodes, but when I was watching

the origin and then, uh, what was the second

episode, um, shit. journey to limbo. He strikes

it against his ship whatever the hell he's riding

and I'm like okay a giant tuning fork is make

weather appear and destroy things yeah. The worst

thing that he ever does with it and he does it

at least twice during the series he might do

it more is when he is stuck and he doesn't have

a ship or he's you know kind of stranded He takes

his tuning fork and says, lightning, carry me

home. And he waves his tuning fork and a lightning

bolt comes down and he rides it back home. Oh,

God. It's probably the worst thing that they

do in the entire series for bad guys. That's

horrible. Then you have Mumbo Jumbo, who's basically

the muscles of the mob. uh... he's a big uh...

i don't know what you want to call me kind of

like a bull ram type character uh... but that

basically the muscle guy poker face who's not

always with the mob lots of times he's off on

his own uh... but he's basically the the way

that they're bringing in like gambling since

it's supposed to be a mob kinda like a earth

mob you know back from the you know early nineteen

hundreds this is their way of bringing the gambling

card playing you know that type of casino role

into the mobs uh... characters And then you have

Time Stopper, who didn't appear as much as the

rest of them. He's kind of a little punk teenager

kid who had a clock on his chest. And when he

clicked it, whoever he wanted, this is kind of

the bizarre part, whoever he wanted to freeze

in time would freeze. But if there was other

bad guys with him that he wanted not to freeze,

they just somehow didn't. So then they could,

you know. do whatever steel things while the

silverhawks couldn't get them because they were

all frozen and what not yeah yeah and uh... the

last one will talk about his buzz saw he's basically

this big uh... oranges gold character that has

uh... buzz saws basically everywhere and he throws

them at people and and cut stuff up yes so that's

uh... the basic uh... bad guys that we have in

the show yeah and as i said before uh... You

basically had and I'm just gonna go down the

list really quick because we've already said

that they're all pretty much the same Bob McFadden

Earl Hammond Larry Kenny and Peter Newman are

all you know the original Thundercats cast Doug

Prius You drive a powder blue Prius Anyway, sorry

Jeff done a moment. It's time but And then the

one that played Melodia was Maggie Wheeler. And

then the one that played Hot Wing and Seymour

was Adolph Caesar. So basically, you have Thundercats

take away Lynn Lipton and Earl Hyman and add

in Maggie Wheeler and Adolph Caesar. And I'll

look later. I don't know what else she's played.

But I did like the voice for her. Oh, you know

her. You know her. She is Janice from Friends.

What? Janice from Friends, and maybe if you watch

Everybody Loves Raymond, Linda from Everybody

Loves Raymond, she's the annoying Janice from

Friends, but this was before that. She actually

credits the Silverhawks for showing her how to

be annoying. But I gotta say, I didn't know who

that was at the beginning. Like you, I was very

impressed with her both as Steelheart and Melodia.

I thought she did a fantastic job, which just

makes - Considering they're two different voices.

Yeah, and if you take Lynn Lipton who did a horrible

job on these females and then Maggie Wheeler

who did an outstanding job on the females in

Silverhawks it's just the gap between them it

makes it seem even more. Since we are talking

about the cast I guess I'll play the clip that

you sent me about the cast. I think that Lee

and all those folks were incredibly busy juggling

the two shows at the same time. You know, when

we were in the booth doing the recording sessions

for Silverhawks, we didn't feel it because really,

you know, we had these hours scheduled every

week and that's just what we did. I think certainly

the writers, the director, the producers, all

those people were having some sleepless nights

because they had a lot of stuff that they had

to get done. We kept things small and it was

something that was just a genius of Arthur Rankin

and Jules Bass. is that not only their creative

genius, but the way they could structure a production

that allowed for a world of flexibility. They

already had fantastic camaraderie and just incredible

kind of back and forth that went on during the

recording sessions. Remember, sir, it's a game

of chance. And your chances are zero if I don't

win tomorrow. You'll see a lot of the same actors

on Silverhawks. Bob McFadden, Earl Ham, and Larry

Kenny. we discovered on thundercats and Peter

Newman with those four guys it wasn't just a

matter of keeping things small and oh we know

how they worked they were just too good to lose

we then discovered this darling Maggie Jacobson

and she was just thoroughly a delight and that

was good bringing in a new actor who could spark

everybody else I had a great time playing Melodia

because she was so out there. Really, she was

probably the first of the great annoying characters

that I went on to play. She unleashed the annoying

in me. It's so much fun to play the villainess

and I've gone on to play the villainess in other

things. It's very liberating. I think to have

a musical villain is a nice idea. screeching

punk rockstar who's a villainous or villain.

Silverhawk's a very different obviously concept,

the partly metal, partly real, off in the galaxy,

but we still wanted to do something extra. Yes,

and I would just like to apologize for the bad

audio clips because Kevin didn't get the whole

feature. Oh, I got the whole feature. I just

broke them up in Eclipse. I thought you would

edit the little ends or the beginnings off of

them. No. But that's basically, you heard a couple

of voices, two of them are basically in the production

part of it and then the other one is, well Peter

Lawrence was the one guy. I don't know who the

female that was in the production is that you're

hearing there but the other female is Maggie

Wheeler or Jacobson, depends on if you're talking

about her before or after she got married. But

just real quick on the voice acting, I gotta

say I loved the voice for Poker Face, which was

Larry Kenny, who you guys know as Lionel. I loved

Poker Face. Every scene that he does, I couldn't

complain about any of his voice acting as Poker

Face. I also loved Yes Man. uh... which i believe

is badminton from yet by the fed i i thought

i i thought yes man was was awesome i know a

lot of people probably were annoyed because of

how often he said yes but yes ma 'am poker faces

bad guys i i really liked well yes ma 'am is

basically slid i mean is basically when he says

yes it's basically slide but a different collection

Is that because I just really like I did too

I mean because I think Bob did McFadden did slide

in the other series as well Yeah, yeah, I didn't

like the voice obviously I've already said I

didn't like the voice from on star which was

Earl Hammond I just thought it didn't fit the

character and I didn't necessarily care for Steel

will but I don't think it was the voice so much

as it was the lines that he was given He is always

given these football cliche Lines like let's

go for the turnover. Let's intercept it. What's

the play? Let's huddle and I just drove because

he looks like a Fucking college football player.

Oh, yeah Yeah, even his mass that he puts down

over his face looks more like a face mask and

like on a football helmet than the other character

I gotta say before we go on to the next segment

really quick that when I first watched it this

afternoon It when I first saw monster, I'm like

And I wasn't really looking at it. I was kind

of like looking off to the side I was I was writing

something down or I was doing something like

wait. That's mum raw just with a different lines.

Holy crap Yeah, exactly. Oh, I forgot to mention

this before but the other new character Adolf

Caesar Would just like to mention that he was

asked actually nominated for an Oscar as an actual

actor He appeared in the color purple Unfortunately,

he was with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas on

the set of Tough Guys and he had a heart attack

on stage and died at the age of 52, which was

in 1986. So the Silverhawks role was actually

one of his last roles that actually was produced.

That's kind of sad. Yeah. It's time for the behind

the scenes segment and there are so many listed

here, but we're only going to talk. Talk about

a few I Guess you can go ahead and yeah the the

main writer for the series is a guy named Peter

Lawrence That's the the guy that you'll hear

on various clips throughout this episode He did

at least eight of the episodes when I'm sure

he did he was supervising a lot more Because

he seemed like to be probably the most prominent

and important out of the writing or the writing

team Obviously is produced by Jules Bass and

Arthur Rankin who did a lot of different animated

series throughout throughout the years. And the

supervising producer, the third one, Lee, I don't

know how to say the last name there. Donnaker.

Donnaker. I don't know. That may be the other

voice you're hearing on the DVD special features.

We're not sure. Actually, it should be noted

that Peter Lawrence, the supposedly head writer,

the one that did the most episodes on here, he

was the one that wrote Return to Thundera. The

Five Carter on Thundercats. I just remember that

name, so. Gotcha. And then we also have the same

musical person from Thundercats like you just

mentioned on their connection here, but Bernie

Hoffer did the music on SolarHawks as well. The

main I just want to bring up a couple people

from the animation department because they're

pretty famous Michael Gramekian and Bob Camp

as character designers Bob Camp actually went

on to win I'm sorry to be nominated for two different

Emmys and an Annie award for his animation work

and even though we're not gonna Say any good

things about this show, but for Ren and Stimpy

But the reason I want to bring them up is because

I And just to clarify, that was for Ren and Stimpy.

Yeah. But I think Bob Camp did an excellent job

and, you know, for designing these characters.

I think the characters have a good look to them.

You know, some of them don't have the best voices,

some of them don't have the best lines, but they

all have a pretty good look. I like the... I

mean, obviously the whole point of the premise

of the show is, you know, partly metal, partly

real. What do they do in their off hours? Can

they get out of the metal suits when they're

in the base? What's the deal? I mean, I know

this really has nothing to do with behind the

scenes, but it just occurred to me like, what

kind of sense does that - How do they go to the

bathroom? Exactly, how do they take a piss? I

mean, come on! That part's not partly metal.

And just in case you want some other crude humor,

you can always look up outtakes from Silverhawks

or Thundercats. There's actually clips for both

shows where the voice actors are just going off

and swearing in the middle of their lines and

talking about all kinds of crude humor. So if

that's what you're after, just do a search for

outtakes from Thundercats or Silverhawks. Exactly.

And the one for Silverhawks are harder to find

because you can't actually go onto YouTube and

find them. But if you do a search, like just

a Google search for Silverhawks outtake, there's

one website that you can listen to them straight

from there. The other people from the crew that

I want to mention, this is kind of a unique situation.

I don't know if I've ever seen another cartoon

show that has done this, but they actually brought

in a scientific and a psychological consultant.

to work with the show. I don't know if all of

this was just to make sure that their ending

segments were accurate with their astronomy quizzes,

or if this was supposed to, since it was that

time when parents were going berserk about violence

on TV, I don't know if this was supposed to help

validate their show. I don't know exactly what

they were doing, but I've never seen a scientific

and a psychological consultant both credited

in an animated cartoon. Well, I don't know about

scientific, obviously, because Thundercats isn't

really sci - I mean, I know, you know, Thundercats

was two episodes ago on here on Tooncast, but,

you know, since the two shows are pretty much

directly related since they're both made by the

same company, they did have a psychological expert

on Thundercats as far as, you know, the messages

and stuff like that, but yeah, I don't think

I've ever seen a scientific expert on a cartoon

series. Yeah, I thought that was kind of a unique

feature. Yes, and here is what bit of creator

audio that I have. Silverhawks was Renkabass's

second action -adventure series. People have

asked me over the years, how much were Arthur

and Jules involved in the development of these

stories? And my answer is a thousand percent.

But again, their talent was getting what I consider

a beautiful triangle of myself, Masaki Iizuka,

and then Peter Lawrence. The one thing about

Renkabass is they really like character. Jules

Bias. came up with a partly metal, partly real

thing. He's the leader, Jonathan Quick, his hawk

codename, Quicksilver. We started to develop

this concept called metalloids. So we thought,

okay, if we're gonna do something metal and throw

him in outer space, we still had to have that

human story part that we could bring out. I've

been fighting the mob up here for 300 years,

Sergeant. This isn't the first time they pulled

the old magnetic attraction stunt. It's cops

and robbers in space, but cops and robbers work.

One day we'll be able to send an ordinary person

100 light years into space, gentlemen. Little

by little the designs we had kept going back

and forth between human side, and that's how

they became partly metal, partly real. Shoulder

jets. Operative. Arm jets. Affirmative. So we

showed all of the stations the one -hour special

of Thundercats so they could see what we were

up to and validate the whole adventure and then

said, by the way, there's this thing called Silverhawks.

There's something so illogical about Silverhawks.

And being a cast member, you could kind of bend

all the rules. You could make characters pretty

wild, you know, pretty bizarre. We got our go

for 65 and a half hours of Silverhawks before

the first Thundercats aired. So that was a very

crazy year of continuing with the Thundercats

and launching Silverhawks. Okay, yeah. They got

a go ahead on Silverhawks before the first Thundercats

ever aired. That's fucked up. That shows how

good Silverhawks was by itself. so yeah basically

they're working on both of them at the same time

knowing that they had at least 65 that's fucked

up why was the booing because that's fucked up

why is it fucked up cuz it just is okay we have

anything else we want to say about the behind

-the -scenes stuff no I think I'm good with that

All right, we're going to talk about the music.

We can talk about the themes. There really isn't.

We don't really have that much since Bernard

Hoffer did this show and Thundercats. I did find

the Seymour clip as for demand of the co -host

over there. Yes, yes. I heard you, yes, man.

But I mean, I just don't like it. You mean? You

know what I mean, he says that a lot, but it

doesn't annoy me for some reason, I don't know

why. You know, I know I've been saying a lot

of these characters like Yes Man and Monstar

are basically Mumra and Slyth Light. Seymour

is basically Monkian, but it sounds... he has

more of the... more of the... He drags it out

more at the end than Peter Newman did with Monkian.

I don't think it's Peter Newman though that does

Seymour. I think it's Adolf Caesar. Well, it

sounds Monkian to me. Yeah, I mean, you are right.

It is Adolf Caesar, but it just sounds like Monkian

though. I agree. The music for Silverhawks, I

mean, it's supposed to be somewhat like a rock

music background. Obviously, you have the melody

against bluegrass, so you have a little rock

and country thrown in there. But it's supposed

to be as current as they could with the music

so that they could obviously get the kids and

stuff like that. I will concede on this one fact

that the music, not the overall music in Thundercats,

but the individual themes for the characters

and the vehicles and stuff like that was a little

bit better in Thundercats. cats because I remember

like we talked about this in that episode when

when thundercats when the music would start playing

it would get you pumped up and the music here

like you knew what was coming but it did it wasn't

like it didn't get you pumped up as much as it

didn't thundercats there was no real like thundercats

you had like with um Like with Lionel calling

them, you obviously had the theme, the overall

show theme, and then each character had an individual

theme, the vehicles had themes. I'm sorry, the

Thunder Tank would kick the Mirage's ass. Oh,

I agree. The vehicles on Thundercast were better

than the vehicles on Silverhawks. Here's the

Mirage theme, just a few seconds of it. Yeah,

um, can you say Voltron copycat? I mean, yeah,

I mean, it does try to get you pumped up. It

just doesn't do as good of a job as the Thundercats.

I mean, the overall music, like that... that

then and then uh... you know that's cool and

that can kind of get me pumped up but since i

heard the voiceover with it and like you know

dinotherms connect i mean it's basically voltron

it's basically a copycat of voltron uh... in

a way i mean they don't do everything that i

mean it's more just saying like buckle up and

and stuff like that they're not really connecting

anything you're doing anything like that i'm

saying like in the beginning when he was just

saying power up this power up that it's yeah

it's just It's different words, but it's just

like Voltron. It does remind me of a couple of

things that did annoy me with the Silverhawks.

It's kind of going a tiny bit off topic, but

when they did do that, after they'd be in the

Mirage and they would basically... They had like

the same one -word commands that they used the

entire series. You know, like, release, and then

they'd wing it so they'd all put their wings

out, and then like cluster so they'd all grab

together, scatter. I mean, that kind of annoyed

me. The music does get better in Silverhawks

the further you get into the series. The first

couple episodes there's a lot of quiet times

or times where like the music and the voice volumes

aren't quite right. I don't know if that was

just the DVDs but it seems like as we get further

into the series the music gets a lot better and

it's a lot more like ever -present so there's

not like these dead moments like you get in the

first two or three episodes. Although I give

Thundercats credit for all the music being better

than basically Silverhawks, I won't give it credit

for the theme song. I do have to say the theme

song for Silverhawks, although very close, I

do have to put it a little tiny bit ahead of

Thundercats. The only problem I have with the

theme song, it sounds like a very, very bad 80s

band did it. I mean, extremely bad with the Silverhawks.

It's like, what the hell? Basically I think this

I think this type of show that was all geared

towards You know the age boys that it was geared

towards there are the theme songs are all very

similar if you take GI Joe Thundercats Silverhawks

He -Man and Transformers their theme songs are

all very similar. I mean not like similar. I'm

not doubting that Like I you know I've talked

a couple times about ranking all the songs together

And I actually put all those right next to each

other I can't like distinguish one as being too

much better than the other But just looking back

on my CD. I do have Silverhawks one spot ahead

of Thundercats Bastard I'm sorry we want to say

anything else about the music because I mean

it's basically this I mean Bernard Hoffer I mean

he did awesome stuff on Thundercats and the music

in this other than the theme the vocal part of

the theme Is is awesome, but I really don't everything

no, I mean, it's pretty similar. So yeah, yeah,

it's pretty much thundercats light Up next is

oh, yeah, the actual show. Holy crap. I almost

forgot again Keep forgetting about the actual

show. Yes What show is this this thundercats?

That's what it should be Yeah, you know, you

don't have it you don't have any control over

the boo button So, I guess, do you want me to

take it away or do you want to? You can take

the first one. Alright. The Fictitious Galaxy

of Limbo in which the series takes place apparently

has had atmosphere, has had an atmosphere, huh?

Apparently it has an atmosphere even though it's

outer space. Oh, okay. I was going to say that.

I was like, what? Eric just speak in space and

operate open -air vehicles, and Windhammer's

powers work even when he is not on his actual

planet. There is also gravity. Characters not

flying tend to fall downward relative to whatever

vehicle, satellite, or other platform which they

lost footing. Apparently, because Silver Hawk

is a fantastical children's cartoon, it was not

Held to high standards of realism yet provided

correct space facts at the end of each episode

apparently meant for the same audience Yeah,

so they're gonna they're gonna trick you into

thinking all kinds of bad stuff during the episode

like there's gravity in space And then they're

gonna correct you at the end This goes to show

you how much better thundercats is then they

know not even close But yeah, I always thought

that was weird watching the show. I mean, you

kind of figured that's a cartoon, so the characters

got to fall on stuff like that. But you're like,

wait a second, how are they falling in space

and stuff like that? But it worked. Yep. It worked.

The other thing unique about the Silverhawk shows,

they had two things that I think made it unique.

And the first one is that every single episode,

before it played the theme song, before it gave

you the intro, it would give you a preview of

today's episode. And I thought that was kind

of cool. I mean, you don't see it in a lot of

episodes, but that way you kind of knew what

you were watching for. You knew which characters

you were going to be looking for. And even especially

when it gets into the later part of the first

season, when in the preview, it would preview

one of these new Silverhawks that you'd never

seen. before and then all of a sudden you're

like, ooh, I gotta watch this episode. And I

think we have an example of one of those. Do

we? I don't even know. I only brought up a couple

of the audio stuff, so. Ooh. I have the creators,

the today, and the toys. So that's it. Oh, we

need more than that. I should have an example

of a preview, an example of a PSA. Let me see.

Talk more about the preview. OK. But basically,

what the preview did, it kind of gave you that

feel of. I'm kinda like that old cop show Dick

Tracy private investigator where you kind of

like hear like the the premise of a mystery or

like of a of some type of cop show back in like

the early you know nineteen hundreds that's kind

of like the feel that you got in this whole shows

kind of a Dick Tracy meets Star Trek Star Wars

type thing. You smug son of a... Had to find

a way to jump myself in there. I do have the

audio now. I will play the preview. The silver

hawks have captured poker face, but time stoppers

brings him from the penal planet Just in time

for mon stars great meteor race Can the silver

hawks stop the racing meteors before they hurtle

across the galaxy and smash Hawk Haven to smithereens

in today's episode of silver hawks And I must

correct you this is not the only show that did

that thundercats did it too thundercats did it

first and thundercats did it better i don't i

don't even remember from i just watched sixty

five of us of thundercats i don't remember him

doing it one time it's a must not have been but

not about it it's up with me very well and only

two weeks ago i watched and as far as pss every

cartoon you know yeah i wasn't saying that i

don't know i know i'm i mean i know you were

saying that just this one but i mean every cartoon

in the eighties had pss yeah uh... What made

this one different, though, is the way they kind

of did it. Instead of just being a general PSA,

they kind of had like a quiz that worked into

it. Yeah. Which it never actually added up all

the points from each episode each day, but whatever.

No. Nice flying, kid. Take her in on the solar

system. OK, now head for the third planet out

from the sun, the blue and white one. A quick

quiz. Which planet is this? Earth. You're right,

kid. Earth. That was too easy, though. Only one

point. Go in closer now. Let's get a better look

at Earth. Earth is a blue planet because three

-quarters of its surface is covered by liquid.

Now for two points. What liquid is it? Here's

sharp today kid water two more points You know

kid earth is very unique It's the only planet

in our solar system where conditions are right

for supporting one important thing And I'll give

you ten points if you can tell me what it is

That's right kid life you see earth is the only

planet we know of so far where life exists take

ten points That's 13 points for today. Not bad

kid kid kid Yep, earth's a mighty pretty sight

from up here in So, yeah, that's the actual PSA

And I just got chastised and you know during

Skype during this record If I don't play a certain

thing, yeah epic fail, I don't think so uh...

here it's that i believe this is the talk about

the p s a i think it is not sure it's over how

to very different obviously concept the party

metal party real often the galaxy but we still

wanted to do something extra so we create these

little epilogues where they'd be science lessons

today learning something very important about

the plan We had our darling little copper kid

was the one who were taking these quizzes with

bluegrass at the end of each episode. Great score,

kid. And scoring points if you got it right.

You got it right for six points. What we wanted

to do was come up with a contest. that the kids

could take the quiz along with Copper Kid, and

then write in, call in their station, give their

answers, and come up with prizes or rewards along

the way. And logistically, it was just too hard

to put together. Can you imagine doing it now?

Hey kids, go to the website, take the test. It

would just have been so much easier. Talk about

an epic fail. What? If they were going to try

to do that today. It would work today because

I could actually have them take the quiz and

do it in real time But like I said the logistics

of trying to do that on a cable show without

the internet I did notice watching all 65 of

these episodes that the questions did get increasingly

harder The first couple episodes you you you

watch through it And they're the easiest questions

in the world basically just covering like the

nine planets and stuff like that But they get

they get kind of complex as you go through there

was definitely some towards the end that I wouldn't

have known Apparently copper kid is a genius

though because he knew every single one the planet

of the mimes. They don't talk much They just

read that not one time did they let him get one

wrong? Although although one time he was bluegrass

did say So that was kind of an interesting moment

But I just thought it was kind of a different

take on a PSA to have it kind of like a quiz

I I got to admit watching all 65 episodes that

got old watching those at the end. I started

to skip some of them But you know at least they

were trying to be a little bit more unique than

like the the basic he -man gi joe mold that everyone

else was using uh... now you can't really say

basic i mean not everybody was using that because

thundercats worked it into the story instead

having something afterwards yeah yeah yeah that's

what i'm saying these same people ranking of

bass ranking of bass were basically trying to

be unique with both of them that they were doing

trying to make it not so like all the other ones

that are doing them out there i mean every other

cartoon was made you seem like they did the same

thing was like three minutes at the end grab

a character transformers did a g i jill did a

he man did it so we see is to one try to work

it into the show one prince former is actually

i was really i was watching them the other day

because i'm preparing for the last three episodes

of june one podcast they actually copied g i

jill i mean i know that they were you know done

at the same time with the same company but You

had power glide on on one PSA and at the end

and knowing is half the battle. Oh my god Yeah

Just to work in this last part about the the

tone and some of our favorite moments or episodes

or whatnot Like I was saying before the tone.

It's kind of like an outer space on touchables

uh... kind of this gangster b movie undercurrent

kind of going through the whole thing especially

with like see more the taxi driver and stuff

like that but it definitely had like this mobster

untouchable type feel in outer space which i

kind of thought was a cool combination cousin

you didn't see that a lot would be only on this

i guess quick silver uh... i'd just couple things

about i'd like to the i'd like the uh... Some

of the things they did like they had kind of

like a Star Wars Cantina thing where they went

to the planet I'm gonna forget what the planet

was called But there was a certain planet where

it was basically just a bar with like the same

villains It was always the same three villains

that were in the bar. No matter what episode

featured it One was like this big blimp type

thing that would deflate and go flying around.

Another one looked like a go -bot, and I can't

remember what the third one looked like. Well,

it's some type of animal, but it kind of felt

like that Star Wars cantina going into it, which

I kind of thought was a nice little nod. We already

talked about I don't like the football theme

from Steel Will and Steel Heart, but I will say

my favorite two episodes are, I don't know the

name of the one, but the one is... It's kind

of funny, Monstar brings all his mob together,

at least the main ones, and he's like... We've

just been failing every episode. I mean, it doesn't

say episode, but it's just like, we've been failing

all the time. And it does like a real quick recap

of, we failed in this episode, we failed in that

episode, we didn't do this right. So I thought

it was kind of funny. And they're like, so we

need to finally get it together and do something

right. And I thought that was kind of a play

on the fact that all the episodes are basically

very similar with the same type of plot that

doesn't work. And I thought it was kind of cool

that they worked that into one of the episodes.

And if you only have a chance to watch two episodes

even though I'm not a big fan of the first couple

episodes because they're slow and they don't

have as much music in them if you could only

watch two I would watch the well if you could

watch three I'd watch the first two and I watched

the very last one the last one is entitled air

show and it's excellent you get all the silver

hawks, not only the original ones, you get all

the added in ones. They're all in it. It's not

like some of them are just not present in that

episode. All the bad guys are in it. And just

the way they did it, it's like they knew this

was the last episode. So you had like a scene

where Stargazer would take Quicksilver aside

and be like, you're the best number two I could

ever hope for and blah, blah, blah. And it just

kind of had this overtone that everybody knew

this was the last episode, even though at the

end I was a little ticked off because nobody

won. Like if it's the last episode at least beat

monster once and for all or let all the silver

ox go down He does hate the show. He wants the

silver ox to fail thundercats rule No, I just

if it's it if it's the last episode do something

have one side win But it was a really good last

episode. So if you get a chance check it out.

It's called air show Yeah, oh Well, I got one

thing with the recurring themes from it We talked

about how Yes Man always says yes. We talked

a little bit about Seymour and he actually has

a line that he always says, and now I'm just

going blank, but he always says, what does he

say, don't you know or? He has like the same

line that he says at the end of all of his of

all of his clips. And then of course the other

recurring theme is Monstar's transformation when

he goes from kind of like the Mumra thing where

he goes from the monster Monstar to the spiky

headed. I wish they had two different names for

it but when he goes from one of himself to the

other and yes man always kind of does the transformation.

So you see that basically not in every single

episode but in probably 95%. Yeah and here's

the stupid transformation. you Yeah Monstar's

theme or the transformation is fine when he's

talking, but there's too much freaking music

and I don't You know what it reminds me of at

the beginning when it just does those first couple

beats it reminds me of the that character that

looks like It's not count count shoot. He reminds

me of this transformation with the count of I

don't know, it's not Transylvania or whatever,

but there's like a Disney type movie or cartoon

where this like whatever Disney character turns

into like a Dracula. Is it Count Dracula? It's

not Count Dracula, that's a freaking serial.

Is it Count Chocula? Maybe it is Count Dracula.

No, it's Count Dracula though, or it's something

like it's a Disney show and when he does the

transformation into his vampire, that's exactly

what the beginning of Monstars theme sounds like.

I don't know. I'll have to... Repeat that sometime

later in it. Yeah Research is few and far between

It's time for the legacy segment What's the quote

that you have? Well, in doing some cartoon research

over the years, I've gathered a couple books.

Jeff Lenberg and Hal Erikson, they both have

encyclopedias of cartoons that they've written.

And Hal Erikson actually has a big section for

the Silverhawks. But I just want to give his

kind of his review of it, so it's not just the

two of us. This is another voice saying something.

And he's basically saying that it was, no, don't

get mad. He's saying it's the same low -level

animation and over -emphatic voice work of the

Thundercats. But with improvements, stronger

individual characterizations and better handled

action sequences. Stronger handled characterizations?

What the fuck is wrong with them? And better

handled action sequences, which I do agree with

that part. OK, you know. I just had to throw

that quote in because I knew it would piss you

off. Yeah, you bastard. But seriously, better

characterization? Come on. I know that. I know

that some of the characters in Thundercats were

under -characterized, but for Christ's sake,

they give no characterization to Quicksilver

who's supposed to be the leader of the Silverhawks.

One person. They basically wrote off the twins

as jocks and you know the jock and the cheerleader

Yeah, copper kid is just like a little eight

-year -old tagging along Come on you will get

more into that in a little bit. I got something

else to respond to that, but I'm gonna save it

for a minute um and obviously like we've said

in a lot of them you can judge how successful

a show is by how many times it gets a Reference

or if it does get referenced at all and and you

know The only reference is South Park. No, I'm

just saying, but I mean, if it's referenced in

pop culture, it's done something. Obviously,

it doesn't have the references that Transformers

or G .I. Joe or even Thundercats has, but it

does show up in South Park, so that does count

for something, where Copper Kid appears in episode

10 of season 11. How many seasons of South Park

has there been? There's been like 11 or 12. Okay.

But just the fact that it shows up is kind of

a good credit to the show. Yeah, I guess. And

then the action figures. The Silverhawks action

figure collection based on the animated series

was produced by Kenner and first released in

1987. LJN, the makers of the Thundercats figures,

originally were to produce the Silverhawks figures

but decided to pass on the project at the last

minute. You dumb fucks. Thank God though. Each

figure was packaged with a companion bird and

similar to the popular superpowers collection

at an action feature of some type. The second

series of figures is harder to find than the

first with ultrasonic quicksilver being the most

difficult. The moon star with laser lance, copper

kid with laser discs, and the copper racer vehicle

were not produced but were shown in the 1988

Kenner toy catalog. The series One Hawk Haven

Fortress was never produced either due to high

production costs it would incur. Figures for

many characters including Melodia and Poker Face

were never made. What?! Yeah, unfortunately.

You dumb Kenner bastards. Even though I like

them for their starting lineup figures, which

is completely off topic because they're baseball

stuff, how can you not fucking make Malo to you?

You dumb fucks. Or Pokerface. Pokerface would

be an excellent figure. But I do have to say

that thank God Kenner did it and not LJN. Because

I have some of the Thundercats and I have the

Silverhawks. I have actually sitting up here

on my computer since this is the theme this week.

I have Quicksilver and Monstar with both of their

birds. But I also have... hot wing bluegrass

and copper kid and the silverhawks figures were

much better than the thundercats figures yeah

they were more glossy they were almost like metal

yeah they're very very flashy and you also had

what they're talking about with these uh... had

an action feature one of them you squeeze the

legs of the arms and wings pop up you had another

one where you squeeze the legs and like he would

do a three sixty spin like each one had something

different that you could click and it would like

this i think uh... bluegrass is guitar bird You

click something and it like shot out. But each

one had something. When you're a kid, that's

the stuff that you're all about. And that's what

separated Transformers toys from, you know, G

.I. Joe or He -Man and kind of separated these

from those a little bit. That's why these were

somewhat more successful than Thundercats because

they did stuff, which is always good in an action

figure. If it does something extra, at least

when you're a kid, it's cool. blah, blah, blah.

What? You don't think that's cool when you're

a kid? No, I think it's cool, but I think it's

unfair to compare them to other lines where the

other lines, even though they didn't have, you

know, they didn't always have an action feature,

but the other lines were just as good. No, I'm

not saying they were. I'm just saying if I was

a kid and I'm standing in a toy store and I have

my chance. You're going to want them all. Well,

I'm going to want them all. But if I had to choose

between one that doesn't do something and one

that does do something, I'm usually picking the

one that does do something. Size -wise, they're

bigger than G .I. Joe figures. They're smaller

than the Thundercats figures. So they're kind

of in between there. And monstar did have a feature

where I just remembered when you pushed his legs

It flipped his head from the first version to

the transformation version So that was kind of

a cool little feature cool. And here is a segment

about the toys Toyetic is an inside term for

a fantasy from a show that we think really translates

well to toy play. I want my own bird. A bird

as evil and mean as I am. Silverhawks was very

toyetic because of the fantasy of flight and

the ability to then transform that into winged

characters that you could play out them flying

around. My smoke jet failed. I'll have to duck

below the casino. The combination of robotic

and human also worked great for that because

you could do very toy -etic looking characters

that were really distinctive on shelf. There

was so much interest from a variety of toy companies

that obviously the big guys, they knew that this

should happen up front. But a lot of the characters

that we came up with were kind of toy friendly

anyway. There was a very strong group called

Action for Children's Television. and powerful

lobby group, and they were getting a lot of press

accusing. American television was just turning

into wall -to -wall commercials. The whole battle

between toy companies and all the shows, extended

commercials for toys and so on and so forth,

was really heating up. So being a little leery

of Kinner coming to the table, all of our concerns

were dissipated, I would say, within the first

few weeks of working with them. It was a big

time for the boys' action industry, Transformers,

G .I. Joe. Masters of the Universe was a real

strong period for that part of the industry.

Great guy by the name of Tom McGrath became our

direct liaison. We were able to explain to him...

what was important to us, what we needed to make

that series work. The whole fantasy was partly

metal, partly real. So we caught them, first

of all, with the very neat vacuum -metalized

look, very shiny figures. Kids would see that

on the shelf and it would stand out on the shelf

and be like, wow, those are cool, look at the

metal on those. Quicksilver, the lead hero, his

wings, you could put his arms down, he'd squeeze

the legs and his wings would pop open. And kids

would sit there over and over again. It's pretty

exciting to have my little character flapping

her wings in the toy store. Click. Wings up.

Put it down. Click. Wings up. Put it down. The

sound that they made when you press the button,

they went... They made that great sound. Never

got tired of it. We had our brilliant tally -hawk,

right, that would be sold alongside Quicksilver.

and he was very integral to the show. But then

Carter said, hey, you guys, can we have a bird

with each of the main characters? But we thought

about it. And when you really sit down, it's

like, oh my god, the screen is just going to

be these birds. We probably gave them more ideas

than they wanted, but there was a very good exchange.

The people at Rankin -Bass were pretty open to

our ideas. We tried to add some ideas that we

thought would be both good for entertainment

and for toys, some of which they used, some of

which they didn't. We worked pretty well together.

My pitch to him was, listen, if I can't make

it work in a story, the show's not going to go

anywhere, and you're not going to get any exposure.

And that's the end of it. Yeah. OK. Hmm. They

are right, though. When they were doing all those,

they did have an episode where it was basically

a ton of birds. Monstar replicated. uh... sky

shadow which is his his vulture redbird uh...

they they cloned him like a million times and

in order to to defeat that they created birds

for each one of the at that point was just the

five uh... silverhawk so that's where each one

kind of got its own bird and that was not until

after it was like episode thirty six or thirty

eight somewhere in that range so wasn't for a

while but they eventually did it and we should

say that it is on uh... well let's see uh...

several other pieces of merchandise were released

in the nineteen eighties including board game

puzzles plastic pencil pat what the fuck i have

to bring that up though i have to bring it up

i read that what the hell and i have my jaw drop

because i actually had it all for one year one

year getting ready for school you know you always

go pick out your school supplies and i got the

the silver hawks pencil pouch that year for the

school you know that's what i was gonna carry

around my pen and pencils in a silver hawks pencil

pouch and when i saw that on online i was like

you gotta be kidding me i probably still have

it somewhere don't know where And then the DVD

release volume one season one volume one is out.

It was released October 14th of last year There

is no date for volume two at this time So it's

probably highly unlikely Because the sales probably

weren't that great for the first volume. Oh shut

up. Okay the first volume. Let's let's calm down

the first October 14 2008 that was barely not

even a year ago so the second volume will probably

be coming out sometime before the end of this

year or next spring uh... on the ball all is

i'm saying is look at shout factory and look

at the twenty -fifth anniversary brother look

at shout factory uh... well i know it's fine

it's one of others find whatever but look at

shout factory in transformers the complete first

season twenty -fifth anniversary edition came

out uh... june june sixteenth the second season

volume one is coming out september first or 15th

I forget which date so they already knew they

were gonna do them all yeah but it's only two

or three months difference come I'm just saying

working over a year in general normally seasons

don't immediately come out they usually wait

six months to a year before they release the

next volume. And it also depends on DVD sales

if X volume is, and the reason why I know this

is because this is completely off topic, but

the Zeta Project Season 1 was released a little

while ago, and as of right now, because of poor

sales on that release, they are not, they have

no plans to release the next season. So yeah,

Silverhawks, this was probably sucked for it

because Thunder. You're basing that on absolutely

nothing. You're talking out of your ass. Ass.

Hold on. The first volume, just so everybody

knows, the first volume has 32 episodes out of

the 65. It's four discs. You got Quicksilver

on the first one, Copper Kit on the second one,

Bluegrass on the third one. And the fourth disc

is actually a two -sided disc. One has the final

eight episodes that are included on this volume.

The second side has the special features, which

although better than the special features on

the first, not the second, third, all that of

Thundercats. It's better than the special features

on the very first volume of Thundercats with

that crappy Will Wheaton bullshit. But it has

two special features. One is stupid. One's an

exclusive sneak peek at DC Universe's Wonder

Woman. I don't know why. And the second one is...

partly metal, partly real, remembering the Silverhawks,

the origin and evolution of the Silverhawks,

gallery of characters, and action figures, which

is basically the clips that we've been listening

to over the course of the show with the people

that we've already mentioned. So that's really

the only special feature, so that's kind of the

bad part about the disc. But they do play very

well. The graphics are obviously 10 ,000 times

better than YouTube graphics. So it's not a bad

buy. It's relatively cheap. I think it's only

like between $15 and $20 or something. like that

$25 at the very very most but you should pick

it up. Yes and it should be noted that it is

not ranked on the IGN top 100. I do want to say

something about that though. I want to say I

honestly feel this and I'm not just trying to

say this because I actually love Thundercats

and I love Silverhawks. I think the only thing

that was going to determine which one was more

successful was which was the first one released.

I really think that if Silverhawks would have

been released first and then Thundercats it would

have been exactly the same but vice versa. I

love them both but I think it just was a thing

that this one came out so then the other one

looked like it was Copycat and the other one

so if it would have been flipped I think we would

have had Silverhawks with the two seasons, Thundercats

with the one season and all that. I love both

shows. No way, it'd never happen. I think that's

how it would have happened. No, it wouldn't have.

Yeah. No, it wouldn't have. Because Thundercats

had more stories. But anyway, yes, it did. Just

because it was more episodes. Well, yeah, but

that still had more stories anyway. OK, I got

to do it now. I got to do it now. I got to give

you my reasons why Silverhawks is a better show.

Go ahead. OK. Number one, you can't argue with

this. Number one. It's better because it has

Maggie Wheeler instead of Lynn Lipton. You gotta

say that that's a bonus. You gotta say that's

a good thing. Alright, number two, action figures

that were produced because of it are better.

Okay, now I will agree that the action figures

for Silverhawks... And that Maggie Wheeler is

better than Lynn Lipton. Well, not in this context,

but yeah, whatever. Anyway, as far as the action

figures, yes they were... Other than Transformers

and He -Man... You know, the Silverhawks figures

were much cooler looking. They were basically

almost metal. They were shiny. They were really

cool. But, you know. But actually, I'll tell

you the one reason why I like Silverhawks better.

Those other two are kind of just comical. But

the main reason, like I said, I love them both.

They're two of my probably... five or six favorite

shows of all time as far as cartoons go. They're

right next to each other. The thing that separates

Silverhawks for me is the bad guys. And this

is what I mean by that. Both series have decent

good guys. I'll give you the exception of Quicksilver.

If you take bluegrass and the rest of them stargaze

and all that I mean thundercats might have had

slightly better good guys But they both had decent

good guys, but the bad guys on thundercats were

bad I didn't they're you know slide and monkey

and and jackal man and vulture man under taro

I mean I just didn't care for them as much and

when you look at the bad guys in this one You

got you know poker face and yes, man and Melody

a mumbo jumbo all these different characters

were fantastic I mean the way that they developed

and was fantastic I thought the bad guys were

far superior in Silverhawks than they were in

Thundercats. That's my reason. Okay, now question.

What would have happened if you switched Mumrah

and Monstar? If you switched them shows. Would

the bad guys in Thundercats be better with Monstar?

Or would they be still as bad? Or would the bad

guys in Silverhawks be better in worse with mom

raw i think if that would happen you would be

on my side of the same silver hox is a better

show now i don't think so as well that's better

monster looks cooler monsters two versions look

more intimidating and look cooler monster or

but mom right is the better And the way they

did the voice and the way they did the animation

with it, everything they did about Mumra was

better. But if you take Slythe and all them and

compare them against Poker Face and Melody and

all that, there's no contest that the characters

are just much more rich as far as bad guys go

in Silverhawks. blah, blah, blah. You have to

agree with me. You like your cartoons. You've

got to admit that Poker Face, Melodia, and Yes

Man and all that were much more rich of characters

than Slithe. Yes Man is nothing but a copy of

Slithe. Oh, it's much better. No, it's not. OK,

so who is Melodia and Joker Face? Joker Face,

yeah. You're really confusing your... it was

poker face and and uh... melodia no they were

original but i mean as soon as i heard yes ma

'am the first thing i thought of was slide from

thundercats that was so weird because i didn't

get that the whole show i never i never heard

that part alright i don't know why but you gotta

admit the bad guys on silverhawks are better

no they weren't oh my god we gotta put up another

poll oh yes this is yeah i'll be bringing that

up uh... in the closing about the poll uh...

here's what the creators have to say about silver

hearts no yeah i'd like to think that you could

do it again i really would certainly it's feature

film material or to our home video animated release

get your service and you know that i think it'd

be a lot of fun to do a new so far from monstros

got quick silver prepared to launch i think the

vacuum analyzed look is something that's very

unique and very cool. I would play that up even

more than we did back then. I would think that

Silverhawks would have a life today. The good

versus evil aspect of superhero cartoons are

pretty consistent, so I would think Silverhawks

could fly again. Yep, Earth's a mighty pretty

sight from up here in... All is that this is

a drunk 80s metal band singing that that part

Okay, how about this question though, which I?

If we were to see both Thundercats and Silverhawks

turned into some type of live -action CGI Movie

or extended show you got to admit that Silverhawks

has more potential Than than what they would

they would murder. Okay now as far as Thundercats

as long as they can get Larry Kenny and whatever

original voice actors are still alive to do the

voices and as long as the effects on the sword

of omens are Just as good as it was in the show.

It'd be fine. I Just think they'd make it the

look bad. I think that the characters would look

bad I don't think they'd do a good job making

the Thundercats into Live action or CGI characters.

I think they would do a horrible. I mean, it's

not that's not right Well, I mean the CGI stuff

you could take I don't understand why they couldn't

take from the models of the cartoon if you were

gonna do it CGI I Would think they could I just

have a feeling that they would I just have a

feeling they would do a bad job I don't know

why and then Silverhawks if it was done live

-action, especially if it was done live -action

You would have to have metal suits that look

just I mean they would have you Well, I mean

in both cases you would have to go back to the

cartoons and take They probably have both of

them so much more in thundercast. But yeah So

yeah, I guess we're going to I'm not sure if

Steve is gonna put in some ads in between this

and the closing But this is the last segment

that we're gonna talk about today So either up

next you will hear some ads or just the closing

several actuals what the fuck ever This is Stan

Bush and you're listening to All Things Transformers

with TFG1 Mike and Steve Megatron. Tune in every

two weeks for all your Transformers needs. Are

you a fan of Transformers? Yes. Then be sure

to visit PredaconEmpire .com Your resource for

Transformers media and more. Also be sure to

check out our podcast, All Things Transformers

and the TFG One podcast. I'm Steve slash Megatron

inviting you to come join the fun on the shows

and the forums. So be sure to visit PredaconEmpire

.com for all your Transformers needs. Enter now.

Coming this week on GeekCastRadio .com. Yes,

I am Megatron, leader of PredaconEmpire .com.

Yes, later this week, there will be another Movie

Week in Review, and it will feature the Naked

Guns series, as well as the TFG1 Podcast, Episode

22, and of course this Tooncast. And quite possibly,

something from the lunch table or headshot. Toon

Toycast may also be available. So, stay tuned

to kinkashradio .com or face my wrath. Yes. For

this episode of tune cast. Thank God, please

join us next time when we will be discussing

What are we gonna be discussing next time? I'm

not really sure. Let's see Let's see how many

listeners can get that hint. Let's say I'm just

saying if that doesn't get you excited about

next week's show There's something wrong with

it. The only problem with next week's show is

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so The third, you can see our forum topics over

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would like to mention something about last week's

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Don't vote what you feel. Vote yes, because I

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if you guys leave us feedback. Oh, exactly. Also,

I would like to mention that I do have a voicemail

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so uh... yeah yeah okay anyway uh... for now

i am tf2 and mike with uh... kevin professor

of oscata yes and the moral words of optimus

prime transform and roll out and then of course

we have Porky to close the show