Droids and stuff

This guy "Shadowboro" has posted a few hundred (or thousand) videos to YouTube. Like every episode of Captain Planet, Droids, Ewoks, Scooby's Laff-A-Lympics, and all kinds of old television shows in varying quality.

I'm mostly interested in the old Droids cartoon, mainly because the uncut originals have never been released on DVD and unless you had cable, these have gone unseen since 1986.



For those of you not lucky enough to have been 5 or 6 when these aired, this is the first part of the first episode. The series was divided into three arcs, each of which have unique villains and heroes with the two droids R2-D2 and C-3PO as the only unifying elements. I'm getting through these as quickly as possible in case someone sends YouTube a cease-and-desist-- after all, this is copyrighted stuff on here.

While it's more a Star Wars-y blog post, I put it here because for me this was a really big influence on, well, everything. I got up early every week to watch this show. I taped several episodes. The characters from the first arc are on my short list of most-desired figure updates in Hasbro's action figure line. I know it's a goofy little show, but it's an rare first non-Ewok glimpse into the worlds of Star Wars outside the film during the rise of the Empire.

I haven't seen most of these for at least 20 years. As such, I've got a little distance between me and them, but I have to say I'm actually really enjoying them all. The animation is pretty great, and if you compare the show to the Snorks or other 1980s programs, I think it looks pretty amazing. While R2-D2 and C-3PO may not float your boat, I can say I haven't been quite as giddy as I have been in ages-- it's a real treat to see these again. The reason I'm telling you this, whomever you may be, is that there's a whole galaxy of stuff out there that, for some reason or another, is still available for the viewing.

It really is amazing to see what has aged well and what hasn't. (For example, season 2 of Transformers? Not so great.) Dare you see how well your favorite cartoons have aged?