The Epic Failure of Bravestarr: How Can Hubris & Research Be Wrong?
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- Опубліковано 16 січ 2019
- In this video, we'll delve into the strange and fascinating history of "BraveStarr," the 1987 animated series created by Larry Houston and Bob Forward for Filmation.
Join us as we explore the world of BraveStarr, Marshal of the Galactic Marshals, and his quest to bring justice to the wild west of space. Meet beloved characters like Tex Hex, the villainous outlaw, and Starr Hawk, BraveStarr's trusty steed with 30/30 vision and equestrian powers. Follow along as BraveStarr wields the powerful Thunder Stick in his fight against injustice.
Despite being a well-known and beloved property, "BraveStarr" was a ratings disaster when it first aired. So what went wrong? We'll explore the hubris and missteps of the show's production, including the decision to air episodes out of order and the lack of focus on market research. We'll also discuss the enduring legacy of "BraveStarr" and its popularity with fans. Whether you're a long-time fan of the series or just curious about this little-known piece of animation history, this video has something for you!
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Wow, I had no idea this was a failure. It was one of my favorite shows growing up.
I watched the cartoon as a kid. I am 41 years I never knew there was a toy line for it.
Neither did I. At some point I noticed that it was basically trying to be as similar to _He-Man_ as possible without being _He-Man._ The character portrayal is stronger, but it runs on the same tropes: secret powers, magic, high tech all mixed together in space, and a bit of morality at the end. Filmation cheaped out AND miscalculated; one they could have recovered from, both not so much.
@@achtsekundenfurz7876 Bravestarr episodes actually cost Filmation more to produce than He-Man & Masters Of The Universe. They didn't cheap out. There was such a thing as the Children's Television Code back then that all animated shows had to adhere to, particularly those with stylised violence, weapons & guns. There had to be a moral or it wouldn't get aired. Nowadays children's television is basically amoral 😂
@@Merchant1521 I'm 44 and I vividly remember wanting the Lazer guns. Did you not watch commercials? Everyone I knew were aware of these toys' existence. The only problem was they were nowhere to be found. No toy stare had them, Toys R Us nor did Lionel Playworld.
@@Merchant1521 You never saw any figures? wow. I didn't have any of the figures but I remember a kid who had a figure of the character Sandstorm.
The biggest fail of Bravestarr: never have your love interest also be your legal adviser; that's just asking for trouble!
Yeah, and why did he make that mistake? She didn't even have a freckled face, so it wasn't as if her character design was the prettiest possible.
I never saw the judge as his love interest, I thought they were good friends. Huh, and here I was, same age and everything, shipping He-Man and Teela and She-Ra and Sea Hawk.
@@BPJD2004The prequel film definitely shows them as love interests
I must admit this is one of the coolest lines: "...Masters of the Universe began to falter due to the inevitable march of time competition and declining interest. Mattel cried out for a thousand heroes to save the day Filmation sent one." Thanks Toy Galaxy!
They should have sent.. The DOOM Slayer
Hi @@hotmatrixx what is DOOM Slayer?
"STRENGTH OF A BEAR, SPEED OF A PUMA, EYES OF A HAWK!" Man, I love this show.
Sarah Jane was my favourite!
Backside of a human
Don’t forget “Ears of the Wolf!!”
Wouldn't nose of the wolf make more sense? Just like dogs wolves are not known for their hearing as much as they are their senses of smell.
"Bravestar honey I can't find the wine opener..."
"... OF A DUCK!"
I used to get mad at my sister for taking Bravestarr and marrying him off (against his will, mind you) to her Barbies since that was the only figure I had that was close to the same size as a Barbie doll. He was quite the ladies' man of the toy box.
He was too good looking, lmao
Meanwhile, Hordak kept abducting Barbie and her friends whenever I was playing with a friend and his sister. The weird part? Hordak was hers (between us, we had almost the entire He-Man/She-Ra and Blackstar cast)
My Bravestarr use to sit on top of my dresser. He was too good for the toy box 😎
Bravestarr and Barbie look like the the show Spike and his crew would watch for updates on bounties. Cowboy Bebop
Shotgun wedding?
Never cared about the toys since they didn't transform or have a Cobra emblem on them, but the cartoon was awesome. 30-30 was the greatest sidekick ever, hands down.
Agree 100%; He-Man's animal sidekick is a pussy in comparison.
* _ba-dum tsssss_ *
Dude I had the 30 30 toy. Even had the removeable 'coal' crystal thing in his bunker. He was awesome.
My two favorite episodes of Bravestarr were:
The Price - It pulled ZERO punches in dealing with the dangers of drug abuse.
Fallen Idol - Even people you look up to (Jingles Morgan) can have a dark side (being wanted for murder).
100% agreed.
I would say Fallen Idol was the best Jingles may have seemed friendly on the surface but the fact he murdered a man in cold blood over losing an exhibition match says a lot about his true self: a man who was arrogant, petty, and vindictive who was used to always winning and getting praise, they could've gone the cliche route revealing Morgan was set up or was spying on Tex Hex and teaming up with Bravestarr or Bravestarr letting him go, but they showed that even though Jingles was his hero, to Bravestarr he was still a murderer, and his duty as a marshall came first but also showing that he chooses to remember the good times they'd had as well as Jingles' fall from grace
Bravestarr was a perfect example of a franchise that was too good to last, due to the fact that the toys were released a year before the show it tied in with came out, and that affected the show's reputation greatly. If anything, it was pretty much what marked the end of not only Filmation, but the end of the 80's toy-driven cartoon era, save for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Real Ghostbusters, which would still run a few years into the 90's.
And yet, Bravestarr is one of those series that could easily get a Netflix reboot. If Voltron and She-Ra can get new shows on Netflix, why can't Bravestarr?
If Bravestarr gets a reboot, then they should do a redesign/makeover on the prairie people and few of the others that were too cringe to look at.
What I liked about Bravestar was that he was a native american and Other than Tonto there were few natives like me that were not only the hero but unlike Tonto Bravestar was the lead. He made the decisions people came to him for help and trusted his judgement.
I was always curious how the Native population felt about this show. But i always appreciated that they at least showed that spiritual figures from the tribes could still be found even far away in the future, thus showing that even cultures that are rooted with the earth need not be tied to it. Always was hoping for a reboot for Bravestarr.
Is Princess Ariel from "Thundarr" also Native American? In my own canon, she is.@@TheCastellan
@@TheCastellan if your scared, go hide and leave this character to be buried. Reboots also gave us a black Nick Fury, a female Starbuck, and a black-latino spider-man.
@@tomservo5007 They were supporting class at best. THEY GAVE HIM A SHOULDER MOUNTED BOW AND ARROW!!!
@@TheCastellan Your opinion on those works is irrelevant to the fact that they were successful reboots. Reboots CAN be done well. Im all up for some of the tribes to get some mainstream influence in media again.
You say failure, but my horse in RDR2 is named Thirty/Thirty. 😎
Thirty/thirty is the best, hands down. Fun fact: He's named after a type of .30cal rifle that whose cartridges contained 30 grains of smokeless gunpowder. I looked it up. Must be a similar build to his laser rifle "Sara Jane".
I like you mister you have a kind face
I always liked Thirty/Thirty. I also love that his mane is totally 80s hair.
@@Baalek1 Hell yeah.
lets see .... asuming the right standing (cough, cough) ¡heey hoooooo Thirty/Thirty ! yeah sounds good to me
Bravestar the TV show failed because of the changing economics of animation in America. It was a valiant last stand for Filmation, and it is still a masterpiece of craft.
I feel it failed cause did not know what they had nor they under how go about things either. They failed the show in my opinion. With all that said it's still a master piece as you said
Bravestarr is one of the cartoons that really deserves a reboot.
Not right now, but later when cartoon reboots stop sucking.
Unfortunately, 4 years on, the sucking is still going on.
Yep they’d definitely make bravestar black 🙄
Dang, the first time I saw anything about BraveStarr it looked terrible. But actually seeing what it was about? Navajo Space Sheriff beats up Zombie outlaw and evil dragon cloud? Sign me up.
it had a dozen mindblowing amazing episodes, about a dozen relatively decent episodes, and 4 dozen unwatchable episodes that were just incredibly awful
@@aaronbuffalo7769 So, a typically decent 80s cartoon then. :D
@@magnusthereddidnithingwrong i guess, Lot of shows had some great eps and a lot of just generic ones. The main problem was they kept screwing up the formats of a lot of great 80s shows, MASK went from GI Joe / The avengers come Transformers to literally Wacky Races , and they gave Inspector gadget a mentally challenged annoying goofball assistant and changed the episode structure drastically, REAL GHOSTBUSTERS they got the network producers to take a stranglehold and make slimer the focus and toned down the horror stories.
It is AWESOME and one of the most underrated cartoons EVER
It wasn't a Dragon, Stampede was supposed to be some zombie ox ghost thing
that it has one of the darkest episodes ever, drug addiction, theft from family, decent in drug madness, then death. And a message at the dead kids grave. Crazy episode. Thanks for this.
Yes! I still remember that episode, it properly freaked me out.
@@blacksheep9950 very shocking one.
The drug was called Spin .
They had to have a shocking ending in that episode so kids can get the message that drugs are not good.
Sadly, we went from telling kids to stay away from drugs to now "it's recreational!"
@@XiaoFury This show as made back when studios were not reluctant to take risks.
I remember owning a pair of Puma shoes in the 80's and yelling, "SPEED OF THE PUMA" before running as fast as I could to my friends house. 😅
I would LOVE to see a live-action BraveStarr movie or TV show!
A "Live action BraveStarr" character would probably be Chakotay (of ST:VOY) but NOT in space! Well _technically_ in space, but on the surface of a body that's indistinguishable from Texas. ;)
Too many western and galatically diverse opportunities are possible, with the native American theme stay vital to the backstory. And the crux of who BraceStarr is!
"BraceStarr" ? ;)
This week had another very interesting and funny typo, which involved the C key, too. Somebody asked for a "lice action" version of a cartoon, either of BraveStar or the other two "Western, but IN SPACE" comics of the 1980s, _Star Sheriffs_ (the one with the giant robot wit a giant revolver) and _Star Rangers_ (the one with the awesome theme song and the CGI hacking scenes).
But really, BraveStarr has the most live action potential of the three (and neither of them was bad; all three had good production values and came out above average; the sudden competition in the new genre just meant that neither of them paid out the way they would have deserved). While it IS sort of "Another He-Man cartoon without actually being He-Man", the character portrayal of the BraveStarr franchise was lightyears ahead of anything else made by Filmation.
We did. Rex from Napoleon Dynamite. Strength of the Grizzly, Reflexes of the Puma, and wisdom of a man
@@KendrickHarrisKenfinity They could do a Bravestarr movie easily. In fact I would do a crossover with Galaxy Rangers.
I watched Bravestarr when I was younger. I really remember that episode with "that dead kid" at 7:57. He died of an overdose of an LSD-like substance called Spin. If he hadn't guilted his friend (the kid shown nearly fainting when he sees his dead body) into not snitching on him, he might have lived. But that's what got me attracted to the show. It was just a bit heavier than He-Man and She-Rah and there was none of that sugar-coated "never say die" nonsense. It showed that drugs can kill you, it said drugs could kill you, and it really did kill someone. In a kid's show.
Yup - my spouse didn’t get to watch much TV while growing up so I’ve shared many examples about how surprisingly hardcore some of this stuff was. Bravestarr’s “let’s kill a kid with drugs” and *everything* to do with
Inhumanoids were top of the list.
That makes the 2nd 80s kids show I've discovered that had a kid die via overdosing. (The other one is Captian Planet if anyone was wondering.)
I want a Bravestarr revival movie, the time for a native American hero and a robotic transforming horse is now!
Yeah starring Johnny Depp
You're not wrong actually
This, along with a new Turok. Native Americans as main characters are horribly underrepresented in media in general.
@@CommanderBohn Indeed! Strangely enough though, Fox has recently been representing, with the characters of John Proudstar in The Gifted, and Kerry Loudermilk in Legion, so I guess there's just something about the X-Men universe...
Don't let michael bay here that
I just recently rediscovered Bravestarr and never realized he was Native American. The 80s were inclusive before it was cool.
People didn't even think about that stuff in the 80's, the annoying obsession with diversity and inclusion is a recent thing, and a silly one at that too, if you start looking back on movie and series catalogues you discover that variety has always been the spice of life.
I always thought he was black (african)
Just look at Star Trek, or Star Trek Voyager from the 90s and how inclusive it was, before it was cool. Today Star Trek fans are blamed to be racist, even if they did all that before it was forced. And just because they want to have the old shows back, which are inclusive, but well
Shows have always been inclusive 's just that nobody got cocky about it and rubbed it in other peoples face to show off what great people they are...
Dude I'm Native American and that was never why I liked it. It was just a good show. Nothing more or less. Only well written characters without the virtue signaling.
I loved the art, designs and theme of Bravestarr. The show had such potential. Oh how I wish some other company would pick this licence up and produce a new more adult version. Maybe even a live action movie.
Shouting "Power of the bear bear bear!!" in the playground is a golden memory. Never had any of the toys, but loved the cartoon so much.
I remember watching Bravestar in the early 90's (I'm from Mexico) and I really like it that the main character is a Native American, and also the dubbing was really good.
In other topic, here in Mexico joke about Bravestar and a folk-country music band named Bronco, because the singer, Lupe Esparza, looks identical to Bravestar.
😲 now i see it, he does look like bravestar.
Same here. I liked Brave Star too.
Amilcar Lopez he's the chocolate sheriff
TV azteca
GALAXY RANGERS!! Man, I loved the intro for that show. But yeah, I was just old enough to not be into toys anymore when Bravestarr came out. Although, I had a friend my age who used to yell "Strength of the bear!" every time he moved or lifted something.
I actually still have one of those action figures. Press a button on his back and he quick-draws a pistol.
A Upright walking Horse will a Laser Cannon .....Best Sidekick Ever
Bravestarr is one of the best and most creative series of the 80s. It really is that good... scripts are unbelievably solid. Filmations were just getting better and better...
I have a T-shirt with a bunch of great 80s characters on it and 100% of the time people ogle it, they say “who’s this cowboy”. And then I remember that I was the only kid I knew who liked John Bravestar.
I had the laser pistol, (the the infrared one) the only Toy I remember getting from the whole line
He was my favorite character for awhile when I was a kid. Loved that show. Actually started watching it again out of curiosity.
Yeah really a shame they screwed up the toys, because the show was pretty good for saturday mornings.
@@lokilxix So true. I watched it when I was a kid and liked what I saw but it was a 1 season wonder because from a marketing standpoint it was already dead when the cartoon started. If they had launched the toys and cartoon together it could have been as big as He-Man.
Too bad it's John Bravestar
Filmation folded partially because of that lousy Snow White movie they tried to make that wasn't released until the 90's. Really a shame since they had at least a couple other shows in the pipeline that were taken to the wayside to fast track that movie. At least, as per my understanding.
The real shame is that Bravestarr was their best series. The writing was solid, they had the best animation the studio ever produced. They were able to go darker than they ever could with He-Man. They had an anti-drug episode that KILLED a kid. Not to mention Charlie Adler was part of the cast.
Filmation had two murderers. The first was syndication. As Disney and WB got into the act with Disney Afternoon and Fox Kids it squeezed out long time players. Ruby & Spears and even HB didn't last much longer. The second was Nintendo. The NES devastated the toy market. And brought a swift end to many kids action figure buying days. Without the toys sales, shows like Bravestarr didn't last long enough to find an audience.
Certainly ballsy for a American cartoon to do that at the time.
There were so many anti-drug messages in cartoons around then, but most of them were of the "Drugs are bad, mm'kay?" variety. I remember when they mentioned them in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Scooby would turn to the camera and say "Drugs? Yuck." That was the usual level of urgency they had. But Bravestarr and Galaxy High School both managed to make compelling episodes.
Plus, I LOVED Bravestarr's obligatory A Christmas Carol episode. It was all about Tex and his origin story. I mean, sure, some episodes were standard 80's cartoon fare, but quite a bit of them had something poignant to say. At least, at the time.
@@mightyfilm Remember the episode of the late 80's Mighty Mouse produced by Ralph Bakshi where in 1 episode Mighty Mouse sniffing a bouquet of flowers was mistaken for him snorting a drug? Good times.
And no one gave a crap about the episode where Mighty Mouse dreamed he was married to Pearl, and they had a son that clearly was the result of Pearl cheating on Mighty with The Cow. No one even talks about that.
First fictional crush right there. Marshall Bravestarr, you've had my heart all this time and I never knew it.
I remember watching BraveStar when I was a kid. I even had some of the toys. Honestly, I didn't even realize it was a commercial failure until I watched this video. But when you're 5 years old, you don't really pay attention to sales figures. Now that I think of it, I bet the reason I owned those toys was because they were in a discount bid when my parents purchased them.
Thanks to this cartoon, I always wanted Puma shoes as a kid, so I could have "Speed of the Puma."
Damn now I want puma shoes again 😂
Yep me too. Speed of the puma!
😆
😊
Mmm... I buy a pair of *KangaROOS* but never touch the rim.
Dude it was awesome. God I love that horse. The horses’s gun had a NAME.
Thirty-Thirty and his Kerium powered blunderbuss Sarah Jane
....The horses name is a gun....
Funny, since the horse is named after a gun...
I loved this show! I had 30/30 but not Brave Star. Loved the mounts on this 80’s shows.
Yeah man, in spanish he name was Sara Juana and since we were kids sometimes we said Mari Juana and our mothers told us not to say that ever again
I liked Bravestarr as a kid. I’m not a hardcore fan but it was a solid cartoon. I never knew Filmation went out of business shortly thereafter. I’m a fan of their animation style. And I’m going back to the 70’s with ‘Fat Albert’. It always looked good to me. But they’re animation of He-Man/She-Ra knocked it out the park. That’s why it surprises me they went out of business within 6yrs of He-Man.
I love all the "oopses" when discussing the toys going in stores without media exposure
I was born into the 90s so I never caught the premier. But my mom found a vhs of bravestar at a goodwill store and bought it for my brother and I. Even though it was only 2 episodes long it's mythology definitely left an remarkable impression on me till now. I glad to know the fan base is alive and well, thank you for making this video!
Loved Bravestarr....never watched the cartoon but on one Christmas my parents got me every figure. Wish I still had them. I loved those toys.
My parents did the same thing!
I also liked the toys, and never saw any cartoon of it. There’s nothing hard to grasp about “western in space”, it didn’t need a cartoon.
BraveStarr seems like one of those things that you’d look over as a kid, only to rediscover it years later and be disappointed that you didn’t get into it in its’ prime.
I missed out on a lot of great shows in my youth.
I loved the cartoon and the toys and I never understood why it wasn't more popular. They were big and good quality!
I remember bravestar. That horse still looks awesome. I remember thinking, "hey this is great quality, how come they didn't do another series."
Definitely had visuals that were so great for the time. It was surprising.
YOU DID MY REQUEST OF A BRAVESTARR EPISODE!! I friggin love this channel!! Now do Dino Riders or Super Naturals!
Fighting crime in a future time!
Crap, I forgot they already did a History of COPS video.
Roll Call!!
He did C.O.P.S. like 2 years ago
C.O.P.S was the shit back then.
I loved BraveStar as a kid being Native American. I loved the figures too
You know what I want to know
This was a quality toy line. As a kid I had Bravestarr, Thirty-thirty (w/ Sarah Jane), and Bravestatr City. It was a crazy Saloon town that could transform into a fort! It is a shame that this series and toy line didn’t take off. I believe it deserved better. It had some great gimmicks.
Watched Bravestar and Silver Hawks when i was a kid. From the dates you give i guess i remember these shows from when i was 2 or 3. Thats crazy.
Here in Australia in the 1980s, Mattel had a newsletter/fan club called "Commander M" that promoted MOTU and Hot Wheels to its subscribers. I vividly remember it teasing the arrival of BraveStarr with silhouetted artwork, figure sneak peaks and, eventually, fully illustrated text stories explaining the world and the characters. I was immediately hooked and ravenous for the toys when they were released, drawing from those newsletters when playing games. Which is my long-winded way of saying you're so right about mass-media franchises, and Mattel was so, so wrong to jump early without the series. Thankfully I had those newsletters...
I loved Bravestarr as a kid. I really liked the diversity and themes that underpinned the story and universe.
When I was a kid I was part of "The Commander M Club" which focused exclusively on He-Man - I even won Stinkor and Moss-Man figures at two separate points ... making me wonder if I was the only kid entering the competitions, or indeed, in the entire club - and then one day, He-Man was no more and it had unapologetically replaced with BraveStarr. I didn't like it one bit, and I assume there was no cartoon because I was in Australia, and the cartoon would take its sweet time to get here from America. When I eventually *did* see the cartoon, I was pleasantly surprised and actually liked it, but the action figures were around $12, which was ludicrious for the mid-late 1980s.
Eventually I recieved a letter announcing the next issue would be the last, and the closing of The Commander M Club. The letter thanked me for my loyalty and support (or something), and even though I was a little disheartened, I knew that it had to to happen eventually.
Regarding the three shows, Bravestarr was definitely the one I knew the most, because it had a TALKING HALF ROBOT HORSE. Saber Rider kind of scared me as a kid when the bad guys would "vaporize" back to their own dimension when they got killed. Galaxy Rangers I have very little recollection of watching, if I ever did, but checking out the first episode just now, man, that show looked pretty dang good for 1986!
This was in rotation on Canadian T.V. along with Thundercats and Silverhawks. Anything to pass the time before Oprah came on... don't judge me!
I remember silver hawlks but cant find anyone else that does.
@@talasblue4450 I recorded the theme song on cassette and memorized it. I wish I was joking.
I had a silver Hawks lunch box lol
Consider yourself thoroughly judged.
I love Silverhawks and the action figure.. you squeeze the legs together and the body will spin like a tornado...
So glad you're covering this! This is one of the least-appreciated shows of my childhood!
I LOVED BraveStar! I was 5x or 6x at the time, but I tried to watch it daily! I remember getting the Burger King toys and going to K Mart for the retail figures. My 1x year older brother and I both LOVED the series! I only recently discovered it lasted only 1x season...
is it weird that i liked Bravestar toys WAY MORE than he-man?... after G.I. Joe I didn't want my toys to look deformed... so .... loved that cowboy theme as well!!!!!!
Sabre Rider was my fave!!! Bring it back! Bring it back!!
no. leave it where it is, in our hearts where no greedy reboot can harm it.
Another one of my favorites. This was such a great series. It's always disappointing when you see shows of lesser quality make it, and better shows like this one get kicked to the curb.
I remember my Dad laughing at and mocking Bravestar when I was a kid watching it: "C*ck of the elephant! Balls of the rhino!" etc
Your father is a man of culture. I salute him.
You should be proud of him. Send him our regards.
@@franciscogerardohernandezr4788 I am. And if I ever end up becoming half the man he is, then I'll be happy.
I'll be sure to pass on your regards to the living legend that is my Dad.
No, that's Skinstarr, Bravestarr's brother. He works at the Space Chippendale's. I can understand the confusion though.
I assumed some joke like that was going to be made somewhere
XD
I had always wondered why that cool show vanished away as suddenly as it had appeared. I'm glad I found out now as an adult. The child I was in the eighties would not have understood the nuances of marketing campaigns that undid it. I would have been vocally angry back then...
Yes I've heard of Bravestarr. Loved the cartoon. Really good episodes. The two that stand out are "The Price" and "Fallen Idol".
And there was no talking horse in Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs
Fallen Idol was the first episode I ever saw during the original broadcast run. Which to me is a good one to start out to show this wasn't going to be your "typical" kids cartoon show. Sadly, I would end up living that scenario not once but twice in my life (not involving some overpaid Pro-Athlete but "local" people I looked up too/interacted with). So that was a good life lesson for 11 year old me at the time.
All these episodes are excellent, well written and presented!
Tex Hex has to be one of the most developed characters I've ever seen. They not only spent several episodes on his backstory they gave him a depth not many villain characters have. Showing that he was not bad for shits and giggles but he was pretty much forced to by Stampede. For a show with agonizing repeating animation and not so great eps and that PSA at the end of each one that sometimes missed the mark. I remember Tex Hex above all.
Tex Hex was indeed far more different than Skeletor and Hordak ever was, despite that those other two are still cool villains. But they show that Tex Hex was not always so evil before and started off as someone long before he went to New Texas, and was in love with someone once before he became ambitious for kerium. He deserved much better, and if there was a reboot of Bravestarr someday, I hope they don't mess it up and give him the development he deserves.
Bravestarr came along when Filmation was already 9 years deep into recycling a lot of the same animation that was used in shows like Blackstar. I don't know if they thought kids just wouldn't notice, but I remember being able to instantly recognize any Filmation show just from a couple of common shots. Disney had already fractured the standard licensing mold with Duck Tales in 1987, and went a more premium route with tie-ins like a solid platformer from Konami. Disney even made Duck Tales at a loss and a couple of years later Stephen Spielberg thinks to himself, "I wonder if I could make a cartoon at a loss, too?" and then we get Tiny Toons and all the other crazy features that came out of Amblin in the early 90s competing with the 'Disney Afternoon'.
Since you're getting into some of the more obscure syndicated shows, I've been trying my hardest to think of this one show that featured a kid who had a triangular boomerang/trimarang with razor sharp edges. But if I try to google 'trimarang' I just get images of sailboats.
I think that's the kid sidekick from Galtar and the Golden Lance.
many of these shows where toy comercials only, so it didnt matter if the show was popular or not... dinosaucers was very popular and still got canned after one season, even he man bit the dust for no reason but yeah the animation was subpar at best
Filmation production values were indeed quite cheap; they went farther than Hanna-Barbera did, for sure. But I remember both Blackstar and Bravestarr, and several other Filmation properties: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Tarzan, and kept up with syndication enough to catch more series I didn't as a kid, like Star Trek being rerun on Nickelodeon. I was too young, I reckon, to care about Filmation's lack, and didn't realize at the time that Duck Tales was quite special.
And see, Don Bluth is one of my father's cousins (I double-checked, Dad's not just pulling my leg). Tiny Toons and Animaniacs (not to mention Freakazoid) I think were popular with my high school and college buddies because they were not as tripey and idiotic in script (because of lack of animation) and had scripts teens and young adults could appreciate.
Seriously, I've gone back to cartoons I loved as a kid but realized the characters yammered so much to explain want the animation wasn't really showing, or were just vapid in their simplicity. I was dismayed to learn Marv Wolfman (a comic book writer known for his work with DC at that time) agreed to writing a kid-dumb script for the second part of the Return of Optimus Prime, but encouraged to realize that Joe "J. Michael" Stracynski refused to do so, especially when he wrote for The Real Ghostbusters.
As a Latino Male, it was great having a hero on a cartoon in the 80s that looked more like “me.”
And I remember the love interest on the show being the judge (a kid cartoon crush) was awesome because in retrospect, this was an animated interracial relationship. Which was also cool because I went to predominantly white elementary school and I didn’t feel odd for liking a girl in my class. (Seeeeee it had more moral ethics than we knew about.)
I actually preferred the story on this show way more than even Transformers and almost as much as GI Joe. I remember the story being a little deeper than those (though it could be my child mind romanticizing my memory).
Now- I would like to recommend you covering Bionic 6! That was another show full of diversity and the animation was STELLAR!! (And theme by Hiam Saban and Shuki Levi!!)
Anyway- great review! You guys always keep my interest. I’m a filmmaker and producer and stay busy, but ALWAYS make time for your uploads!!
Bionic 6 for the win! Loved the family dynamic, even on missions!
_The Incredibles_ always makes me think of it.
All these years and i didn't even relise he was Native American, way cool
Today that show would be shunned from creation "A native American portrayed in a wild west themed world? That's kind of racist."
@@Tom-sc2vu that and/or "A non-white lead? SJWs are forcing diversity on us!"
As Filipino kids, we thought Thirty-Thirty was one of our mythological characters that was cleverly snuck in as a "take that".
I still have a Bravestarr action figure from back then. It's prominent on my shelf of action figures. Last year I met Pat Freley (he played Bravestarr) at a con in Pennsylvania and he said I was the only one to ask for the Bravestarr photo. Most people were there to talk Ninja Turtles. I felt sad because it was my favorite show as a kid. When I told him as such he said he's happy that the series was still important to me now, thirty years later, as it was when I was seven. He then talked for five minutes about the creation of Marshall Bravestarr and some plots they conceived but never got to put into production. It's a shame because some of the ideas were pretty cool. I hope that whomever owns the Bravestarr property can successfully relaunch it because I believe it can be a hit today. Meeting Freley was one of the best meets i've had the pleasure of at a Con.
Just for the record, I loved the Bravestarr T .V. show as a kid. I would like to watch it again, and now I know how. Thanks.
Bravestar was awesome. Right there on the second level of great 80s cartoons with Thundercats. It needs a revival
i don't think a native americam caracter will fly in todays SJW world, i mean they took out the feather head dress from mr game n watch from smash bros ultimate.
@@riseofloganxlogan4230 Wouldn't "todays SJW world," embrace a minority main character, isn't that the whole point?
@@HAGZ0483 only if said character is a minority in name only, if they were to act anything close to a stereotype then the REEEing would be instantaneous
@@Pariahwulfen Slight correction, they would in fact want the character to act very stereotypical, only in the sense of being stereotypically "proud" and resentful towards "The Man" which of course would have to be a white guy villain.
thundercats got a reboot and got crushed under poor writing, recicled gerneric plots and the format of the show itself being so outdated that hurt.
the pilot episode was good but all the rest was just a mess
I still have my lazer gun and an actual Marshal BraveStarr figure...moooostly intact. Thank you Dan for covering this one and it was good getting this touch of history.
In the extremely rural area, where I grew up, Bravestar was liked by many kids, me included, but the few local stores didn't have any of the toys that you mentioned
I still have all these toys, the figures, the play set, the gun, everything from brave star, I even have all the episodes recorded on vhs, I loved BraveStar thanks for this episode it took me back
Thank you from the bottom of my inner child's heart
I loved the bravestar figure he was really tall and he had removable HAT!
I never had one but i remember them being big and sturdy. You could have clubbed a man to death with one.
I still have mine. All accessories still on him.
Wow! This is one I forgot about. I could only see this show when I visited my grandmother. She could get the channel to watch it on.
"Strength of a bear, eyes of a hawk, speed of a puma" are part of my vocabulary to this day...!
Best Sci-fi space westerns ever.
BraveStarr & Firefly.
What about Cowboy Bebop?
@@andrewdevine3920 i couldn't get into it, but i can definitely see how it would be on a lot of people's favourite List as well.
It certainly was the most literal space western.
What? No love for Galaxy Rangers? :(
Love Preacher too: literal angels doing coke! Don't remember the kid OD'ing though
This validates my Thirty-Thirty tattoo.. It does.
Show me your tattoo, please...
TBH, that´s a subpar tattoo, the linework is partially wobbly. Have a look at mine for comparison:
img4.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/thirtyseitefi69zdsbalyu9j.jpg
PS: Still a pleasure to see another one with a 30/30 tattoo...we´re not so many, you know...^^
...my backpiece: www.independent-tattoo.de/images/galerie_index/4.jpg
@@chrisf1604 tbh, Stuart's actually evokes nostalgic memories of 30/30 due to his tattoo being a much closer resemblance. yours are not poor quality but perhaps a bit too 'enhanced' to immediately recognize the source inspiration. all that matters is you're happy with them - hell, you're clearly proud of them.
I have vague, but fond memories of this cartoon. I liked Galaxy Rangers far better. (GA had the better theme song, too.) Thanks for providing all the history; I actually didn't even know there had been a toy line until more recent times, though I suppose I should have guessed, given its predecessors in He-Man and She-ra.
I loved Bravestar when I was a kid. I watched the show after school. I didn't even realize there was a toy line to go along with it... until now.
I never know that bravestarr had a toyline...... The show was really popular in China, though.
I have a Bravestar figure. It has real quick-draw action .
And it was also pretty big here in South Africa too
Even in the philippines, man!!! I love my childhood
Frankly i didn't know what Bravestar was until i saw it one night on my local tv station about 5 years ago. Ive seen more episodes since than and Frankly its a good kids show. If i known it existed as a kid. I probably would have loved it.
I vaguely remember seeing this cartoon on cable a few times in my childhood. It looked totally cool and different from many others but unfortunately I haven’t seen most of the really good episodes. Thank you for this history recap! Amazing character and great stories! I will definitely look this series up again soon! I always enjoy watching your videos on different cartoons and toy lines and tv shows!
Living in South Africa, we were privileged to have a lot of action figure series on our broadcasts. He-man was a favorite of mine but Bravestar was a close second. The intro and music was epic and I wished it could have grown further.
My wife got me a Bravestar in mint condition in its box one birthday and I got a Tex Hex for myself also in mint box condition. Did get a Sandstorm and Scuzz later on, but the others still elude me.
Long story short: Bravestar was epic and still a favorite of mine and many friends
More than 30 years ago my 7-year-old old self loved my Bravestarr and Thirty Thirty figs. God I loved those figs. Didn’t even care about the show. I just dug the aesthetic. Thanks for putting it up Dan. Beautifully done. Awesome retrospective. 😎👊
From my experience, when you twirl a big honking blunderbuss, that's all the talking a horse needs.
I do give props to Bravestarr for being bold enough to kill a kid in its anti-drug episode. It was much straight forward than He-man that had its drug victim as the Eternian equivalent of a swimsuit model.
Can you confirm if Sherlock Homes in the 22nd Century was a spin-off/back door pilot from a Bravestarr 2-parter? Since one was Filmation and the other DIC I have my doubts, but they do look awfully similar.
i was 14 in 87, i dont remember it being in the pilot episode, or a direct spinoff, but i do remember there was a "crossover" episode involving characters from both shows.
Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd century was the name of that, only had the two-part episode.
BraveStarr was awesome. I used to have two BraveStarr t-shirts as a kid; they were among the three favorite shirts that I kept wearing all the time as a first grader. The third shirt was a Captain Power shirt. :) In the sixth grade, I met a new friend who was also a big fan of BraveStarr and liked to draw cartoons as well. We ended up creating a comic book continuation to the BraveStarr story, in which he finds himself stranded alone in a new town, battling live and undead enemies, while tracking down Thirty/Thirty. The reason we made Thirty/Thirty missing in the story was because we couldn't draw a horse.
I actually found bravestarr later in life, but it hit all the nostalgia buttons from watching He-man and She-ra when I was growing up.
My brother and I never saw but a couple of episodes or Bravestarr, but we thought the toys were excellent on their own merits. I still think it’s one of the best toy lines of the 80’s!!
I loved BraveStarr. I had the figures of BraveStarr, Tex Hex, and 30/30 and played with them constantly. I have little memory of the cartoon itself but those toys lasted me a long time. I wish I still had them. I remember loving the thick feeling plastic on the human figures but I think my 30/30 felt apart pretty badly and I had to tape his legs together.
I had a few episodes of Bravestarr and the Filmation Ghostbusters on VHS. I never saw them on tv, so I always thought that they were straight-to-video only. The Bravestarr episode that I remember most was about a guy who was a really sore loser. He nearly lost a boxing match until he whipped out a pistol. "I NEVER LOSE!" *BAM!*
I watched this as a kid with my brother and sister. We were from Texas but growing up in Missouri. As a *New Texan* Marshall Bravestarr belonged to us.
Was anyone else here a big Battle of the Planets fan? A video of the whole G-Force/BOTP/Gatchaman history would be a great video in my humble opinion if you are ever looking for ideas Dan.
Great idea, but there's so much they'd likely need a multi parter like they did with the spectacular Robotech videos.
Yes I just mentioned Battle of the Planets on another channel not 10 minutes ago. I agree with you completely. Somebody, PLEASE, do a BOTP\ G-force video. Please???
G-Force was my first anime that I knew was anime (Speed Racer was almost certainly my actual first, but I legit didn't even realize it was anime until I was probably in high school).
The original Super Sentai show, pre-dating all the others. Still holds up well today for a cartoon from the 70's.
Trans-MUTE!!!!
Bravestarr's guns were the coolest action figure guns from the 80s that both fit bravestarr's hands and also the holster clippy deals on his legs
I love the amount of research that went into this and the insight into marketing strategy and the cartoons of my childhood. Awesome job.
I have one fond memory of Bravestar. I was playing with my Tex Hex in the den, unaware that the laser light firing action was the same frequency as the channel up button on my TV remote. So I was unaware that my toy playing was randomly changing the channel to the confusion of my parents and brothers.
Failure?? I remember watching the show and loved it! Thirty Thirty was amazing!
I remember they tried to do a spin-off series with Sherlock Holmes in the future.
Wasn't that a Movie-Special of Bravestar at the end?
BraveStarr was friggin awesome and my first foray into so many genres and styles I still adore 35 years later
One of my favorite cartoons I watched when I was a kid. Thanks for doing a video on this one.
They needed a thousand lawmen. They got one. He was enough.
Later, they reevaluated the method they utilized for quantifying their need for lawmen.
I remember these toys being pretty expensive back in the day, especially the figures that came with the backpack. Moms don't care if your intergalactic law-man did have the powers of hawk, wolf, puma, and bear, they were not going to advance you next two weeks allowance so you could get one figure.
I got like the whole town and several figures for Christmas one year. I wonder if they were on clearance, or if my parents shelled out big time. It was a great Christmas!
Exactly, they were more expensive and it was tougher to get parents to buy them. I think that’s a bigger reason for their failure than no cartoon ready at launch, because masters of the universe and others did the same thing. I also think space westerns just weren’t something kids wanted. As was mentioned, there were other attempts, none of them successful.
@darkhearsttoys5224? ?D😊😊😊a😊ee's
W😊ad Daz😊😊😊
😅a
I remembered watching this show as a kid but could never remember its name, which was killing me. So thanks!
I hate that you dig up my childhood past....... yet I love it! And these shows were quality cabled-tvs back then!
Great thing about the toy line is that the figures are huge with great articulation too. Still looking good on my shelf.
I have BraveStar riding his horse along side MOTU Classic He-Man riding Battle Cat and Bandai's Lion-O.
It always creeped me out that he rode his partner.
The Burning Sensation real men ride each other!
DL Lambert cyborg. Enhanced mind and body. He does transform and become humanoid.
I guess he didn’t know how to quit him...
We've all been there...
You just ruined my childhood.
Most underrated '80s cartoon; one of my top 5!
I loved Brave Starr growing up. My cousins and I collected the toys, my Dad quoted 30/30 all the time. The writing was tight, and the movie was also the first on screen kiss I saw, and got jealous of my hero. Judge JB McBride was my first TV crush for sure.