If you’re gonna steal a concept, steal it from one of the best. Hence, I am stealing the concept that Dwayne McDuffie had wherein he listed off characters who received action figures before Static ever did.
My list, however, will be “Things Secret Galaxy has covered before even making a YT Short about Jonny Quest”. This will, unfortunately, be updated fairly regularly. I’m picking this up with his videos from roughly 2 years ago, since he’s been online a decade or so & going through the entire back catalog would be too absurd even for me.
Also, this isn’t an attack on Dan’s channel at all. I’m a member of it, and I watch almost every video that comes out (unless it’s something that I really dislike). I just find it interesting that he can find these failed cartoons for even more failed toy lines that most people only remember as fever dreams, while a show with historic significance gets ignored. Given that he has “history of Toonami” & “history of Adult Swim” videos way way back in his catalog, I know in my heart it’d end with the always disappointing glazing of Venture Brothers that every vaguely masculine animation fan is compelled to do and probably some shitting on TRAJQ as is the Toonami fan custom. But if he can sum up the ever-continuing story of Scooby Doo in 20-30 minutes, he can do it for Jonny Quest & the series’ various iterations in the same amount of time. It’s just me being a petty weirdo, something that everyone should be allowed to do sometimes and not have it turn into an excuse for an internet brawl.
So far, we have had videos on the following before even getting a cursory history of the first American action-animated series:
“Christmas Wrapping”, the oh-so-80s Christmas radio standard
Fruit Stripe gum (originally a members-only video on the most disappointing candy ever)
That all-CGI Voltron cartoon between the 80s franken-anime and the Netflix series
Blue Thunder (AKA “No, we’re not Airwolf”)
Something called Extreme Dinosaurs
Prostars (a show frequently brought up in “what killed SatAM TV” conversations)
Something called Spiral Zone
The Filmation Ghost Busters cartoon (no shade but it’s VERY obscure)
An 80s Lambo model
The 90s Captain America movie where his mask had rubber ears
Animalympics (which does admittedly have a fascinating behind-the-scenes history but is just kinda dull for non-furries)
Bionic Six
Voyagers (no disrespect to Jon-Erik Hexum, who inspired me to become an organ donor, but if it wasn’t for his tragic death, it’d be thoroughly forgotten)
Entertech (AKA the water guns that got people killed)
The late 80s syndicated Superboy show
Something called Barnyard Commandos (with a potential future show on Food Fighters)
The 4 Non Blondes/He-Man meme (members only but STILL)
Legends of the Super-Heroes (as part of a members only video on Batman 66 but STILL)
Monchichis (again, no shade, I LOVED these little guys and have been tempted more than once by the new blind boxes)
Buckaroo Banzai
Defenders of the Earth (y’know, the cartoon that took the King Features “hero” strips and tried to make them into a team)
