So in just a few hours I will be boarding a plane for San Diego to attend Comic Con wherein I will be looking at a lot of toys that will be coming our way in the future. However, before I go, I wanted to look to the past to celebrate on of my favorite action figure vehicles from the 1980s: the Thundercats Thundertank!
This isn’t going to be a review or anything like that. Frankly, it is more self-indulgent than anything because after a long time of not owning one, I recently reacquired the Tank on eBay, and in pretty good condition. I have been watching for a long time because it is pretty difficult to find an affordable offering that has all of the parts (especially the treads) and doesn’t have a lot of discoloring. Now, I have had a Cat’s Lair and Mumm-Ra’s Tomb for a while now, but I wanted to get the tank to finish off my grail pieces from this line. This stuff is tougher to find than, say, most of the vintage MOTU pieces because LJN’s Thundercat’s line was not produced in nearly the same numbers.
Now, after MOTU, Thundercats was one of my absolute favorite lines as a kid. I LOVED the cartoon and toys so much and I had a TON of the latter. However, it was one of those collections that kind of disappeared from my possession. I still have most of my MOTU and TMNT toys, and others, but T-Cats are nowhere to be found. I asked my mom and she doesn’t know what happened to them, so I have been stuck restocking. Like I said, was able to procure the Lair a while back and that was the big score, but I am glad to have this back in my collection. I still need to clean it up, but having it again brings back so many memories.
I loved this baby as a kid and still do today. Sure, it wasn’t as big as it was depicted in the cartoon, but having space for a driver and gunner made it a fantastic ride that could take on anything. Panthro was ALWAYS the driver for me, no exceptions, but sometimes the Cats and the Masters teamed up, and it could help haul Eternia’s finest as well. The treads were a great feature, although a bit fragile, and the “action feature” was not overwhelming and stayed put when you wanted it to. Like MOTU, I was more a fan of the bad guys in the T-Cats world, but, man, Panthro and the Tank — that was my go-to.
So, while having this anew now is fun for nostalgia, it is also cool because, due to the size of the vintage line, the Thundertank is compatible with a lot of contemporary lines, like MOTUC. As you can see, He-Man can ride comfortably in the drivers seat and look pretty natural. True 6-inch scale figures might fit a bit better since they are smaller, but there is just something about the synergy of Thundercats and MOTU together.
Now, the funny thing, is, even though I have three BIG pieces from the vintage line, I actually do not have any of the vintage figures back at this point. I know, I know, it bugs me that I don’t have S-s-slythe and Panthro at least, but when I went and got the Cat’s Lair, it was with the intention of using it with a modern Thundercat’s line like I do with the MOTUC figures and vintage He-Man play sets. Well, Bandai pretty much dropped the ball with the classic line (and the Thundercat’s license overall) and it never came to be. So, now that I have the tank, I will be focusing on the vintage figures. Not having a modern Thundercat’s line still feels like such a void in my collection, but since the vintage figures are still so cool, I will be pretty happy with them.
I know, this is a bit out of place during our biggest toy week of the year (or at least tied with Toy Fair), but having a good balance of old with the new is great for any toy room. Hope you enjoyed this stroll down memory lane, and I plan to be back in the coming weeks and months with a look back at the Cat’s Lair and Mumm-Ra’s Tomb.
