ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

HERCULOIDS: The First family of planet QUASAR documentary


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"The Herculoids" was a Saturday-morning animated-cartoon television series from Hanna~Barbera Productions.

The show was created and designed by the talented artist Alex Toth.

It debuted on September 9, 1967 on the CBS Television Network with a total of 18-episodes.

In 1981, 11 new episodes were produced.

On the planet Amzot reside the human-looking Zandor, his wife Tara, and young son Dorno. The family lives a Tarzan-like existence in the jungles of Amzot.

The family has a group of super-powered alien pets that live with them known as the Herculoids.

Zok is a winged dragon capable of flight, even into outer space.

Zok can shoot laser beams from his eyes and the tip of his tail. Zok also breathes fire and possesses a "Nega Beam" which can neutralize some forms of energy.

Igoo is a large and immensely strong rock-like ape. His rock-like skin makes him nearly invulnerable.

Tundro is a 10-legged, 4-horned rhinoceros/Triceratops.
Tundro can fire explosive energy rocks from his cannon-like horn. His armor-plating makes him exceptionally invulnerable and powerful. He can revolve his head at blinding speed which allows him to drill into almost any surface.
His legs can extend him upwards and he can leap great distances.

Gloop & Gleep a two protoplasmic blob-like creatures.
They can each absorb and deflect all types of energy blasts.
They can act as shields and can take on various forms and shapes as required.

Every episode would see Zandor and his family team up with their pets in order to battle some nefarious villain.
Sometimes the evildoers were invaders to Amzot; while other times the foe was a native of the planet.

Along the way the Herculoids would fight space pirates, Mech pods, Beaked people, Mole Men, giant insects, Android people, super-powered microorganisms, Time creatures, giant ants, swamp monster, mud/lava creature, crystalline entity, destructo bots, metal apes.

When the series was revived in 1981 for eleven episodes the planet's name was changed from Amzot to Quasar without explanation.

The terrific artist Alex Toth created and designed some marvelous looking animated shows for TV over the years such as "Space Ghost."

"The Herculoids" was one more of his interesting ideas.

For a refreshing change of pace, our heroes are not super-powered humans but they are alien looking creatures.

Alex Toth's art, along with the energetic and action packed stories made Herculoids an entertaining cartoon show back in the day and now.

[trekriffic]

This and “Space Ghost” were not two of my favorite cartoon shows growing up.

[Pow]

I enjoyed Herculoids because of the concept of having alien creatures as superheroes instead of the usual man-in-tights superhero figure (Space Ghost) that merely mimicked DC & Marvel comic books.

As one reviewer pointed out, "The Herculoids was one of the most ambitious and least derivative of Hanna-Barbera's Saturday morning superhero efforts of the 1960s."

It deserves a reboot using the phenomenal CGI visual effects we now have available. The scripting could be made much more sophisticated, of course, than it was when it was a cartoon show for kids.

[scotpens]