Thunder...thunder...THUNDER...

With Matty Collector's line of Masters of the Universe action figures coming to a close, I'd started putting together a pitch at Maybe Machine Toys for a hypothetical line of action figures done in the same style as MotU, but focusing on another favorite property of the '80s: the Thundercats.

Then I came across this:

In fact, I DON'T need to present a hypothetical toyline because the fine craftsmen at Four Horsemen and Mattel are actually going to be starting up line of those very same figures. This is even better for me because, although I still regret missing out on the MotU line, I'm actually more of a fan of Thundercats, having enjoyed their cartoon more than I did He-Man's. Also, I'd heard some grumblings of collectors of the MotU line about some early fails in Mattycollector's online store and sale strategies. Getting in on the ground floor of a follow-on Thundercats line means that any of those bugs and errors should've been worked out long ago and I can expect some stress-free collecting.

It's pretty obvious what characters I'd like to see/get from this line. Of course the 'Cats themselves and the main villains like Mumm-Ra and the Mutants. But I'm also pretty stoked to see characters like Mandora the Evil-Chaser and Captain Cracker in toy form.

But instead of simply talking about what I assume is going to happen, I figured I'd crank up the Maybe Machine and push an idea that I -hope- they pick up on. While there's no shortage of Thundercats characters to mold into plastic, I'm dreaming of a line that fulfills earlier, unvoiced promises of a wider, linked universe.

Along with the Thundercats, the similarly-modeled Silverhawks and Tigersharks would make an awesome expanded universe of '80s Rankin & Bass cartoon goodness.

For the uninitiated, here's a quick rundown of the three titles:

Thundercats
Once nobles from the planet Thundera, the Thundercats fled the destruction of their homeworld to the mysterious and primitive world of Third Earth. They're followed there by a handful of the same Mutants who had destroyed Thundera, and also encounter the ancient evil from First Earth, Mumm-Ra.




Silverhawks

Four humans (and one alien) are turned into cybernetic space cops and assigned to a distant sector of space where they try to recapture a galaxy's worth of gangsters and bandits, all led by the monstrous crime boss Mon*Star. Oh, and Mon*Star flies around on an armored space squid. You'll want that toy.




Tigersharks

Five human researchers to the planet Water-O utilize an advanced biological conversion tank (the "fish tank") to turn into man/sea-creature hybrids and back again. Although originally arriving on the planet for scientific pursuits, they soon engage the villainous T-Ray and his pirate crew and decide to stay on Water-O to protect the native inhabitants.




Each show follows the same format of five animal-themed characters battling a rogues gallery of enemies. Although there were no official cross-overs or Easter eggs, I'd always imagined they were in a shared universe, although that assumption takes some squinting if you look at it too closely. The 'Hawks and 'Sharks are easy, as they both occur in their own corner of space at some unspecified time in the future when humanity has expanded into the stars. The Thundercats kind of muck it up a bit because their adventures take place on a planet that is very (very) heavily implied to be a future Earth after humanity is gone. Why did they leave? They never say. I'm assuming some great catastrophe between the eras of First Earth and Second Earth.

I'll have to re-watch some episodes of
Thundercats to see if their moon is split in half.

However, humans have made appearances on Third Earth. Mandora the Evil-Chaser, for example, hints at a wider universe where humanity exists on an interplanetary scale. If we allow that humanity left Earth following some great disaster, some unknown amount of time could have passed to allow for human society to evolve in space while Second Earth recovers and becomes the Third Earth the 'Cats land on. I'm pretty sure a character in Silverhawks references his own history in Chicago, but let's not overthink things...

Fun Fact: in the Masters of the Universe mythology, He-Man/Prince Adam's mother is an astronaut from Earth. I don't know the full story of how she got to Eternia, but if there's an historical connection between He-Man and Earth, that means the Masters of the Universe are ALSO part of this shared universe.

And while I'm fishing, I wonder if there are any other cartoon/toylines from the '80s which feature animal-themed characters and blend swords with lasers...

They rode giant bugs that you would wear like a glove
to work their legs. Literally the best toys ever.