#tundro

[chernobog13]

Birdman and the Herculoids by Steve Rude.

#Biurdman #The Herculoids #Zok #Tara #Zandor #Tundro #Gloop #Igoo #Gleep #Dorno #Hanna-Barbera #Steve Rude

[acmeoop]

The Herculoids Pitch Art & Model Cel (1966/67)

#60s #hanna barbera #the herculoids #pitch art #presentation art #character designs #alex toth #production art #animation art #zandor #tara #dorno #zok #igoo #tundro #gloop and gleep #early designs

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Herculoids: Tundro

Art by Steve Rude

#Comics #Steve Rude #Herculoids #Tundro #Hanna-Barbera #Animation #Cartoons #Saturday Morning TV #Vintage #Art #Science Fiction

[the-gershomite]

The Herculoids by Lord

#the herculoids #Dorno #Tara #Gloop and Gleep #Igoo #Tundro #Zok #Zandor #Lord #cartoon art

[darker-than-darkstorm]

Not about the Queen

I have been falling asleep lately to episodes of the Herculoids, and let me tell you, it has quickly become one of my favorite old cartoons.

It is Fuck Around And Find Out: The Series.

Every episode is just some neighboring (or even alien) overlord showing up at Zandor’s place and...

Wait, let me go back a bit. Introductions are in order. Meet our heroes, all lovingly designed by the late, great Alex Toth:

Zandor is that guy in the middle.  To the left is his wife Tara, to the right is his son Dorno.  (Dorno calls Zandor and Tara by their first names all the time, but the opening narration establishes their relationship).  Zandor has a shield that blocks pretty much anything, and a slingshot that shoots powerful energy rocks, and is the tactician. Tara and Dorno sometimes use similar slingshots, though Tara is unfortunately often a damsel in distress, but not quite as much as you’d expect for a show from this era.

They look very primitive, but they were extremely familiar with advanced civilizations and high technology. There’s a vague implication that Zandor, at least, is from a more advanced society and just wanted to get away from it all by moving to this extremely backwater planet. They don’t even live in a house, they instead have a mostly-open shelter and sleep outside, but Zandor has no trouble piloting spaceships (usually left behind by a previous villain).

Those weird-ass monsters behind the humans are the Herculoids themselves. Despite their monstrous forms, they are definitely the real heroes and the real stars of this show. They don’t talk, but they each have their own distinctive voice for roars despite three of them being played by the same guy (Mike Road, who also voices Zandor). Even the two blobs have different voices, with the larger one having a deeper voice (but, again, both played by the same person, Don “Scooby-Doo” Messick, who also voiced a lot of the villains). They also understand English perfectly, and Zandor understands them.

That’s Tundro on the left: he shoots energy rocks from his horn, that flower-petal-like arrangement around his head blocks things being shot at him, and, though you can’t see it in this picture, he has eight little legs and can charge at high speeds. He’s weirdly cute in motion, because his legs are so stubby (though he can also extend them to become very, very tall).

On the right, Igoo. He’s an ape made of rock. Like if the Thing from the Fantastic Four was ten feet tall and couldn’t talk. He was at a disadvantage at ranged combat (he could just throw things, and everything he threw tended to get shot out of the air), but in melee he was unstoppable.  Very hard to hurt, as well. Because he’s the most humanoid, he’s the most likely to be comic relief (again, sort of like the Thing), but also the most likely to punch a robot’s head off when energy rocks and laser beams aren’t quite doing it.

Gloop and Gleep are the two blob-like things with the big eyes. Gloop is the big one, Gleep the little one. Possibly the least powerful offensively, but impossible to hurt (they often used their bodies to shield the humans) and incredibly versatile, able to stretch and turn into pretty much anything (shades of Mr. Fantastic, speaking of the Fantastic Four — no equivalent to The Invisible Woman or the Human Torch, if you’re wondering). It’s never explained their exact relation to one another. They’ve killed a few folks by squeezing them to death. (I’m not exaggerating, incidentally. The aliens definitely died)

And last but not least, in the back, Zok. He’s a dragon that shoots lasers from his eyes and tail, and he’s exactly as cool as that sounds. Very rarely he breathes fire (which I think only happened in the 1980s episodes), but usually it’s lasers. Slightly less durable than the others, but he can fly.  I mean, look at him:

I love that guy.

And almost every episode, some villainous idiot shows up and goes “Aha, it is Zandor and the Herculoids!” — yes, they all know who he is already, and call him by name, which makes the impending defeat all the more humiliating — “I believe I will attack them for some reason that has to do with my plan to take over this planet and/or the universe!” And then they usually send out dozens of troops who look mostly like the leader but with slightly simpler costume design. Sometimes they send out robots or even a giant monster instead. Sometimes this is just a distraction while they use a machine to steal the planet’s air (Spaceballs ain’t got nothin’ on these guys) or invade a nearby village to steal their gold, but just as often they just are there specifically to capture and/or kill Zandor and the Herculoids.

And by the end of every single episode, the villain’s troops are all dead, their “unstoppable” gizmo is wrecked, their spaceship or fortress reduced to rubble. Usually, that was it for them, implied to have been killed when their ship crashed or their fortress exploded. (Sometimes they escaped at the end and didn’t return; sometimes they escaped at the end and actually did return once in a later episode. Once the villain returned even though they had seemingly been killed in their previous appearance, and they managed to escape at the end of that episode, too, though that was also their last appearance)

And almost every single episode has a point where the villain has a chance to just surrender and leave, and Zandor often even offers to let them go if they’ll just stop, but they never take it. They always double down. “Sure, the giant nearly-invulnerable monsters easily thwarted my first attack and murdered half my troops”, they say, “But now I shall do exactly the same thing but harder; surely that will work! Go, my remaining loyal minions! Use a slightly larger laser cannon this time!”  Spoiler: it doesn’t work. In another few minutes, they will all be dead, and the leader’s last-ditch attack will also fail, leaving him (or, once, her) also very dead.

They always fuck around and boy do they find out.

(There’s some episodes where a monster is just spontaneously generated out of a swamp or hatches from an egg or something, but the overconfident villains make up the majority.  At least once they crossed over with Space Ghost, which was done by the same animation and writing team)

I honestly love it. I love all the goofy Alex Toth designed 1960s H-B cartoons (Space Ghost, Mighty Mightor, etc) and also the weird in-between series Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles (which has character and background design reminiscent of the Jetsons but the writing of their Space Ghost-era superhero cartoons), but The Herculoids is absolutely my favorite.

I find nothing as soothing as old superhero cartoons where you don’t have to focus on the myriad plot twists (because there are none), just watch and enjoy the explosions. Or drift off to sleep while explosions happen.m

#Herculoids #The Herculoids #HB #Hanna-Barbera #Space Ghost #Not Really Space Ghost #Zandor #Tara #Dorno #Tundro #Igoo #Gloop #Gleep #Zok #LASER DRAGON

[artofjoshuaclarke]

KAIJUNE DAY 13: Tundro

It came raining boulders.

Scouts searched desperately for where exactly the bombardment was coming from. Reports from outside said that strange stones charged with glowing green energy were raining down, stones that did not merely shatter on impact but burst apart with tremendous force. Explosions be damned this was tons of rock hurtling in every direction at high speed, it was cleaving through the buildings that remained, further hammering our meagre shelters - and threatening the Genesis Engine.

Before we had countered every theat, our own crafted champions were defending the city at this very moment. Between the low booms we could hear the high pitched screech of the Steed and the burbling howl of the Krakenwulf, the grinding thrum of the Highway and the bellowing scream of the Hunter Killer. Blood and Ichor flowed and light flashed. But it was not enough, even if our own defeated the howling titans outside we could scarcely expect them to assail whatever it was that shelled us incessantly, especially with the recently revealed looming danger of the Shade.

Word came of something in the hills outside the city. A living rock, chewing stone and bombarding us with energy infusing what passed through its internal systems. Aerial support is what was needed here. Something that could traverse the distance at speed, and distract Mortarus while our own wounded titans closed the distance and brought the fight to it directly. The damage was mounting, it was clear that there would need to be repairs to the Engine after this, and something else had become paramount, we needed to be able to move the Genesis Engine somehow. But for the moment we were scanning our files. There had to be something that could fly in our arsenal. We had several options on file but not a bird of prey was compatible with our available volunteers. But there, a single match - it would not be a bird but a bat.

Sparks flew and rubble had begun to fall from the ceiling. We almost hurled the academy volunteer into the engine and engaged the Genesis Engine. Circuits blew and fires erupted, the lights went out, and a thrumming bellow echoed from the Engine.

And a titan on leather wings took to the sky.

#kaiju #kaijune #artwork #artists on tumblr #oc art #digital art #creature design #kaijune2023 #80s cartoon #herculoids #monster #godzilla #fantasy #scififantasy #instagram story #storytelling #monster design #post apocalypse

[omniversalobservations]

Hanna–Barbera's World of Super Adventure (1982?)

Hanna–Barbera's World of Super Adventure featuring the most fantastic collection of spectacular super heroic stars ever assembled! They will take you on adventures in space, meeting strange creatures, to exotic lands and fantastic flights of fancy, to jungle planets and mysterious invaders, to prehistoric times and super forces, to honored and winged avengers, to giant, terrifying creatures against primitive power. In space, land, sea and air, it's a variety of stars – mighty, musical, athletic, extraordinary – from funtastic to the fantastic where amazing weapons, men and robots meet in combat in the far-out reaches of the universe. Dedicated to protecting the peace, these fantastic heroes defend the weak, right the wrong and battle against the forces of evil everywhere. And now it's take-off time for the gathering of the greatest…Hanna–Barbera's World of Super Adventure! Source: Wikipedia

This image was painted by Bob Singer in 1973. The heroes shown here are Birdman, Shazzan, Frankenstein, Jr., Human Torch, Coil-Man, Fluid-Man, Young Samson, Goliath, Space Ghost, Superman, Mighty Mightor, Wonder Woman, Batman, Thing, Zok, Tundro, Zandor, Gloop and Gleep. Source: SuperFriends Wiki

#cartoons #Shazzan #Birdman and the Galaxy Trio #The Impossibles #Frankenstein Jr. #Fantastic Four #The Herculoids #Young Samson #Space Ghost #Superman #Mighty Mightor #Wonder Woman #Batman

[sublimedestructivevoid]

This is a great rendition of the Herculoids...

...but why the heck is Tundro so tiny? Her name is literally Tundro the Tremendous. Maybe it's a baby Tundro?

Still loving the art though.

#herculoids

[frankendykes-monster]

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, two former animation directors for MGM’s Tom & Jerry theatrical shorts, all but revolutionized animation on TV. By focusing on character models and backgrounds and limiting actual movement, Hanna-Barbera were able to create dozens of hours of television cartoons. They began with kids comedies like The Huckleberry Hound Show and Yogi Bear; then they transitioned to primetime sitcoms like The Flintstones and The Jetsons. Eventually, beginning with Jonny Quest in 1964, they’d also do action series. By the end of the ’60s, H-B gave audiences possibly the weirdest of these series: The Herculoids.

Jonny Quest proved you could do action animation without much, well, action or animation. The series got by on its amazing, comic-book-like designs and tableaux. While Quest only lasted one season in primetime, it proved the studio could appeal to a young audience in the market for action, adventure, a little bit of horror, and science fiction. Hiring character designer and eventual series creator Alex Toth, H-B gave the world Space Ghost and Dino Boy, a half-hour timeslot made up of two mini-episodes of Space Ghost and one of a much less interesting show, Dino Boy in the Lost Valley. Toth would similarly create Birdman and the Galaxy Trio.

In both instances, Toth’s talents created a superhero series with unique and offbeat villains fighting a stalwart hero. Whether patrolling space or Earth, Space Ghost and Birdman were typical superhero-types fighting against various baddies. But The Herculoids, which premiered in 1967, the same year as Birdman, was different. It was almost like Toth wanted to see if he could make a series entirely about character design, with hardly any world building or “rules” as such.

The show’s opening narration bears this out. Its first line—spoken by voice actor Mike Road, who voices basically every adult male and creature on the show—is exceptionally vague. SOMEWHERE OUT IN SPACE LIVE THE HERCULOIDS.

That’s it! That’s all we know before we get a rollcall of characters.

"Zok, the laser ray dragon; Igoo, the giant rock ape; Tundro the tremendous; Gloop and Gleep, the formless, fearless wonders; with Zandor, their leader, and his wife Tara and son Dorno. They team up to defend their planet from sinister invaders. All strong, all brave, all heroes. They’re…The Herculoids!"

That is literally all we ever get in terms of who or what the characters are. Zandor, Tara, and Dorno are all humans who look vaguely like Robert E. Howard barbarians. But those other weirdos?! They don’t look like they’re from the same planet, much less the same team. Zok is just a dragon. You know dragons. Igoo is a gorilla made of rock. Tundro is a six-legged mix of a rhino and an armadillo who shoots energy balls from its horn. And Gloop and Gleep are just blobs of stretchy goo with two black eyeballs. Certainly very iconic designs, but not of a piece in any way. We don’t even know what a “Herculoid” is and why this group are them.

Moreover, all they do is fight off planetary invaders. But why these interlopers want the planet (which is either called Amzot or Quasar depending on the episode) is never established; it looks for the most part like a primeval world full of jungles and rocks. It’s not until the ninth episode that we even see other people on the planet, as the Herculoids help some villagers who are under attack from raider apes. Sometimes there are castles on the planet, sometimes just grass huts, other times no signs of life at all.

And the villains are all, for the most part, way better equipped. Invading armies or robot death squads, each with armor and laser guns. And yet a man with a shield and a slingshot (yes really) and his gang of weird beasts that don’t talk always win. Each of the 18 episodes of the series consists of two usually unrelated adventures. There’s nothing like a central narrative at work throughout any of them, and each adventure is pretty much the same, save for a new villain or threat. Only one baddie ever even recurs. You can essentially watch any episode in any order. And yet, all of these very strange disparate elements totally work for me. This was a show designed to keep kids engaged for 20 minutes at a time and it’s fully watchable as such. In its gorgeous Blu-ray edition from Warner Archive, I can just throw on a disc and hit “play all” and just enjoy myself while I do other things. It’s got monsters fighting robots and stuff, man! What more could you want?!

The Herculoids gained a fervent cult following over the years, mainly due to its undeniably cool character designs. In 1981, Hanna-Barbera brought them back as part of their Space Stars block along with Space Ghost and two additional space-themed hero shows. I remember my dad being so excited to introduce me to The Herculoids when we got Cartoon Network in the ’90s; this was the peak of animated action when he was growing up.

Toth was a lot like the Jack Kirby of animation. He let his imagination run wild with characters and designs, and for several years, he was the king. If nothing else, The Herculoids occupies a special place in the history of Hanna-Barbera animation in the pre- Scooby-Doo 1960s. And without The Herculoids, Hanna-Barbera offshoot Ruby-Spears Productions would never have produced Thundarr the Barbarian, and that show absolutely rules. Oh wait, that’s right; Kirby and Toth designed those characters too.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"NO ONE WAS USING THESE CHARACTERS AT THE TIME I PAINTED THIS" -- THE HANNA-BARBERA UNIVERSE.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on a piece titled "Hanna-Barbera Heroes" (2001), artwork by Alex Ross, and created for the Warner Bros. Studio Stores as a tribute to the most notable superhero types of characters from Hanna-Barbera’s extensive library of cartoon shows.

"No one was using these characters at the time I painted this.  They weren’t even in regular rotation on Cartoon Network at the time. I talked Warner Bros. into letting me do this huge image, even though I was unfamiliar with many of the characters."

-- ALEX ROSS (American comic-book artist/writer/painter) on his "Hanna-Barbera" piece

Now, for one of the greatest roll calls I've ever posted on here, so here goes:

The Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt ("Blue Falcon & Dyno-Mutt"); Blip, Jan, Jace, and Space Ghost ("Space Ghost"); Shazzan, Kaboobie, Chuck, and Nancy ("Shazzan"); Tundro, Gleep, Igoo, Gloop, Zok, Tara, King Zandor, and Dorno ("The Herculoids"); Samson and Goliath ("Samson & Goliath"); Jayna, Gleek, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Zan, Samurai, Marvin, Wendy, and Wonder Dog ("Super Friends"); Mightor ("The Mighty Mightor"); Avenger and Birdman ("Birdman"); Vapor Man, Meteor Man, and Gravity Girl ("The Galaxy Trio"); Raseem, Bez, Fariik, Prince Turhan, Princess Nida, and Zazuum ("Arabian Knights"); and Jana ("Jana of the Jungle").

Resolution from largest to smallest: 3552x2688, 3476x2400, 3183x1571, & 1280x1222 (2x).

Source: www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/hanna-barbera-heroes.

#Blue Falcon and Dyno Mutt #Cartoons #Hanna Barbera Studios #Hanna-Barbera #Blue Falcon #Dynomutt #Space Ghost #Shazzan #The Herculoids #Herculoids #Samson & Goliath #The Mighty Mightor #Super Friends #Birdman #Galaxy Trio #Hanna-Barbera Animation #Animation #Hanna-Barbera Cartoons #TV Cartoons #The Galaxy Trio #Dynomutt Dogwonder #American Style #Watercolors #Alex Ross #Arabian Knights #Alex Ross Art #Sci-fi #Jana of the Jungle #Gouache #Sci-fi Art

[male1971]

The Herculoids (1967) CBS

On the planet Amzot, the space barbarian family Zandor, Tara and son Dorno fight alongside their giant pets the Herculoids—laser dragon Zok, space rhinoceros Tundro, rock ape Igoo and the shape-shifting Gloop and his son Gleep—to keep their planet safe from invading robots, mad scientists and mutants.

Painting by Alex Ross

#alex ross #herculoids #saturday morning cartoons

[summer-solo-day]

44/?? Childhood TV Shows You Should Watch

Title: The Herculoids

Episodes: 18 (original) / 11 (revival)

Run Time: 22 Mins

Original Air Date: September 9, 1967 - January 6, 1968

Synopsis:

On the planet Amzot (renamed Quasar in the revival), the space barbarian family Zandor, Tara, and son Dorno fight alongside their giant pets the Herculoids—laser dragon Zok, space rhinoceros Tundro, rock ape Igoo, and the shape-shifting Gloop and his son Gleep—to keep their planet safe. The Herculoids themselves possessed human-level intelligence, understood human speech, and often displayed various emotions.

My Rating: 8/10

My Reasoning:

I always liked this show. I remember watching it with my dad a lot. I mean it wasn't my favorite show, but I did enjoy it. I remember always thinking the setting was interesting and the characters seemed so unique (well the Herculoids anyway lol). Gleep and Gloop were my favorites. They didn't speak but were adorable and I just really liked them.

As far as superhero shows go I think it's pretty good. Check out for yourself and I think it will probably reel you into watching all the episodes.

#tv shows #childhood tv shows #childhood shows you should watch #cartoons #childhood cartoons #childhood tv list #the herculoids #hanna barbera

[thefoilguy]

Tundro from The Herculoids - Aluminum Foil Sculpture

#tundro #the herculoids #the herculoids fanart #the herculoids art #herculoids #herculoids art #herculoids fanart #classic cartoons #classic cartoon #dinosaur #dinosaurs #triceratops #foil #sculpture #fanart

[the-gershomite]

Herculoids by Aaron Lopresti

#cartoon art #The Herculoids #Aaron Lopresti #zandor #tara #dorno #Tundro #gloop and gleep #Zok #Igoo #hanna barbera

[roguetelemetry]

Herculoid sketches by Alex Toth 1966

The Herculoids was an American Saturday-morning animated-cartoon television series, created and designed by Alex Toth, that was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show debuted on September 9, 1967 on CBS. This series is set on the distant planet Amzot. The name “Amzot” was first mentioned in the Space Ghost episode “The Molten Monsters of Moltar” (in which the Herculoids made a brief guest appearance) and in the series proper in the “Time Creatures” episode.

#zok #igoo #gloop #gleep #tundro #motherfucking herculoids yo

[geekbroll]

The Wonderful Stories of Whitman (les histoires merveilleuses de whitman) - The Herculoids - Interplanetary Defenders (Les Défenseurs Interplanétaires) 1977 1978 1979 Whitman France No. 1/7115.5.79 (Western Publishing) . . 1 - Herculoids - L'invasion des Nuages Mysterieux (The Invasion of Mysterious Clouds) - 6 pages - reprinted from Hanna Barbera Super TV Heroes 2 - Gold Key July 1968 - as The Vapor-Vampire Invasion 2 - Herculoids - Le Monstre Énergétique (The Energy Monster) - 6 pages - reprinted from Hanna Barbera Super TV Heroes 6 - Gold Key July 1969 - as The Energy Creatures 3 - Herculoids - Les Fourmis Martiennes (Martian Ants) - 6 pages - reprinted from Hanna Barbera Super TV Heroes 1 - Gold Key April 1968 - as Invasion of the Martian Ants 4 - Herculoids - Le Diamant Vivant (The Living Diamond) - 6 pages - reprinted from Hanna Barbera Super TV Heroes 5 - Gold Key April 1969 - as The Diamond Demon . . . #hannabarbera #herculoids #theherculoids #igoo #tundro #zok #gloopandgleep #hannabarberabooks #whitman #whitmanfrance #westernpublishing #martianants #energycreatures #spacestars #wonderfulstoriesofwhitman #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #cartoons #cartooncharacters #cartoonbooks #goldkey #goldkeycomics #leshistoiresmerveilleusesdewhitman #frenchcomics #vaporvampireinvasion #spaceghost #frenchbook #diamonddemon #supertvheroes #hannabarberasupertvheroes (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCbA2eiBDtw/?igshid=1vxzh1vlccvt8

#hannabarbera #herculoids #theherculoids #igoo #tundro #zok #gloopandgleep #hannabarberabooks #whitman #whitmanfrance #westernpublishing #martianants #energycreatures #spacestars #wonderfulstoriesofwhitman #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #cartoons #cartooncharacters #cartoonbooks #goldkey #goldkeycomics #leshistoiresmerveilleusesdewhitman #frenchcomics #vaporvampireinvasion #spaceghost #frenchbook #diamonddemon #supertvheroes #hannabarberasupertvheroes