randomly remembering childhood things

This morning, I was looking through digg like I usually do, and I saw a link for “interesting statues from around the world”. Interested (ha!), I checked it out, and to my surprise, one of the statues was of the Japanese anime character, Mazinger Z. Now, I am sure that many of you read that, and were like, WTF is Mazinger Z? Seriously? That’s what I said too, because to me, the statue looked like the robot on a show I used to watch called Tranzor Z; which I quickly learned was the same as Mazinger Z, essentially, translated for the US. I don’t remember much about this show, but often when I have thoughts (albeit very few thoughts remain of childhood) of my childhood, this is one image that I distinctly remember as a good memory. I remember watching the show, and seeing the image again made me happy to put a name with that image I have had in my mind for so long. I have even mentioned that show to other people in the past, only to be met with a puzzling look, because everyone I have ever asked has never heard of Tranzor Z. I thought it was awesome that I was able to find it randomly this morning, and it got me thinking about other stuff I loved when I was a kid. (I also looked on ebay and amazon to see if I could get DVDs, but I didn’t see anything worth exploring… other than some Spanish dubbed bootlegs).

Interestingly enough, just the other day I mentioned, in the post that I made about the movies I was interested in checking out, that while the Transformers remake is exciting the hell out of people on the internets, I would love to see a Thundercats movie. When looking into Mazinger Z, I totally flashed back on all of my Thundercats toys, and the fun that I used to have watching that show as well. Now, Thundercats wasn’t the most fantastically produced show, and the dialogue between the characters is pretty juvenile, but to a kid, it is awesome; as it was to me when I was a kid. The cool thing about Thundercats, is that they have been releasing Thundercats DVDs for the past couple of years, and at some point, I may be overcome with nostalgia, and have to snag a set or two. And because my mind works like a snowball rolling down a hill, that got me thinking even further about childhood nostalgia, and got me seriously wondering; where the hell are the Silverhawks (DVDs at least)?? I mean, the Silverhawks came a few years after Thundercats, and was essentially the same show, but with hawk/human hybrids in space (although, when I was little, I apparently wasn’t aware of this, and if I was, I certainly didn’t care); so it should have a similar fan base (even though it apparently wasn’t as popular), and market for DVDs or other stuff.

For those of you that didn’t watch Silverhawks, let’s take a second to compare the two. Both shows had sage-like guidance from an older/deceased counsel (Jaga for TC, and Commander Stargazer for SH), they both had a range of characters that fought on the same team that had similar characteristics (being that they all were cat/human or hawk/human hybrids), and surprisingly, they had almost identical foes, with the Thundercats fighting Mumra, and the Silverhawks fighting Mon*Star; both of which transformed using some hidden power before facing the heroes. I watched a video on youtube of the intro to the Silverhawks, and really find myself wanting a set of these DVDs as well (not bootlegs)… and I only hope they make their way to DVD soon. There doesn’t seem to be much info on the web about the Silverhawks (other than it was a show, yadda yadda, and stuff I already know), but it is definitely planted deep in memory, and it is cool to randomly remember things like this that I loved when I was a kid. Seriously, I was all about this stuff, I had the Thundercats lair with all of the action figures, and I had several Silverhawks as well. Luckily, I still have my Liono, and the picture I took of him serves as my icon in many places; I just wish I had all of the other ones!

It is interesting how something so innocuous can jog a memory of something that you loved in your past. Mine was a statue of a character from a cartoon that I can’t remember much of, other than the fact I loved it when I was little. Are there any things that you remember from your past, that you wish you could have (like DVDs or whatever)? What were your favorites from childhood? I hope that I can find more stuff, but at this point, I am just crossing my fingers and hoping for Silverhawks on DVD at some point in the near future, and I may have to go ahead and give into that nostalgia and pick up the Thundercats as well.