The end of ThunderCats?
 

One of our sister sites, www.thundercats.ws, has put up an awesome article on reasons to, and not to, save the current ThunderCats franchise.

For those curious - ThunderCats is on the brink of being shut down. No support from Warner Bros. or Cartoon Network and a shoddy merchandising plan from Bandai of America have left the series dead in the water.

Check out Joe Moore's awesome article at the link below.

http://www.thundercats.ws/news/site-...-be-saved-455/

What do you think?

I gave watching the new Thundercats a go when it first started. It wasn't really my cup of tea so I gave up on it after about five episodes, but from what I saw its a really well produced show. It was cleverly rebooted, and was actually fresh rather than simply being a retread of the original.

I'm not sure how well the toy sales actually are over in the UK, but its certainly not given much shelf space. Usually I just see it shoved into the corner (along with the Power Rangers Samurai stuff funnily enough) where all the toys nobody buys go. I guess it can't really keep up with the Transformers and Doctor Who stuff it usually shares a shelf with. When the show started on Cartoon Network over here my local Entertainer tried to push it, but it died down pretty quickly.

I met Matt Mercer at an anime convention last year and he seemed so psyched about how fans were loving it and that he'd had the opportunity to play Tygra, so I'm saddened to hear about the state of the show for his sake as well as the fans :(

It's a shame, really. This show got me interested in the lore, though I never watched the old series. Not to mention the awesome opening theme!

Bandai America had a giant license die in their hands years back called GUNDAM, which Bluefin Tamashii Nations USA now brings product for, over and does a better job handling the product which to me, says something.

Bandai America's only successful products right now are Power Rangers. Most of the Thundercats toys were cool, but their case selection wasn't good, and come on, you can't realistically think mummy Mummra with the basic points of articulation was going to sell.

The fact that these ended up at Ross during xmas time not even a year after a release and while the toys were still full price on regular retail shelves was a very bad sign. Packing 6" Tygra one per case wasn't cool either.

Shame too, the 6" figures are great.

Cartoon Network killed Thundercats. They made the same mistake Disney made with RPM, airing it at an idiotic time. It was better on Friday Night when it had Ben 10 as a lead-in. But. CN is where good shows go to Die. Sym-Biotic Titan, MEGAS XLR, and Samurai Jack are good examples. So fans, like me, of Green Lantern and Young Justice? Enjoy them now. CN'll find a way to kill them soon.

Ehh. I dropped YJ after the timeskip.

Anyway, it's a shame. While I didn't faithfully follow the series (Practically every time I watched it, it was about Wilykit (Kat?), that circle flute, and the elephant people :I), it was a pretty neat show. Looked great and much improved over the original (I didn't like the original Thundercats show).

Not to mention Transformers Animated, though that's debatable.

As far as Thundercats goes...eh, only watched about half an episode, didn't get that interested in it. I'm not surprised it isn't doing well, considering it's on Cartoon Network of all channels. Some 80s franchises were better left in the past.

The timeskip was a little confusing at first, but then I saw Nightwing and stopped caring xD

Seeing Nightwing was cool, yeah, but I just found the shift too jarring to bring myself to continue watching.

Welp, nail in the coffin, saw most of the line clearanced at Target.

I thought the Hub's creation is what killed Animated...

Hasbro killed Animated.

The entire reason Animated was created was to work as a "back-up" if the Transformers movie bombed.

The movie didn't bomb.

Toy sales were weak (you followed the live-action movie with a total cartoonish looking series), Cartoon Network black-holed the show as they do with all the shows that they don't own a majority in, and Hasbro wanted to bank in on the live-action success, and thus started production of Transformers Prime to tie in with the movie look and feel.

Cartoon Network and the designers at Hasbro were already in the process of having a Season 4 planned out and ready to go, and Hasbro chose to kill it. Really sad, as Transformers kind of died for me at that point.

Me to, to be honest. I bought a couple since then.. but I haven't had that same sense of "OMG I NEED MONEYZ" since Ani died.

So it's pretty much a repeat of what happened with the He-Man animated remake a few years back?

And every other show ever started on Cartoon Network.

Aww man. I remember that show. Wasn't half bad.

He-Man was also hurt by Mattel's HORRIBLE distribution. If you pack 12 figures in a case, retailers are going to stop ordering if its:

5 x He-Man
5 x Skeletor
1 x Man at Arms
1 x Beast Man

I mean really, who thought He-Man and Skeletor would be able to round up a line? Next case of 12?

4 x Battle Armor He-Man
4 x Battle Armor Skeletor
1 x He-Man
1 x Skeletor
1 x Beast Man
1 x Trap Jaw

I mean WTF

It's also thanks to Mattel we never got that comic aswell.

My future brother-in-law is going to be sad if this is canceled. From what little I've heard of him watching it I can tell he truly enjoyed it.