Thundarr Premiered 40 Years Ago

I didn't realize until someone pointed it out on social media that Thundarr the Barbarian premiered 40 years ago today.  I was rather blown away!  Thundarr impacted me a couple ways.  Not only did I enjoy the show on it's own merit.  I mean, hey, it was a gonzo post

apocalypse show filled with action unlike anything I've ever seen before.  But it also expanded my RPG horizons.  I started RPGs with Melee solo games and Holmes Basic.  Thundarr, combined with books I was reading at the time, led me to Gamma World and to other games after that.  And I loved Gamma World with all of it's strange possibilities.  Technology, psychic powers, mutants, animal and plant people.  The whole works.  

I have the series on DVD.  I'm going to have to break it out and watch a few episodes today.

An Amazing Discovery!

So, long about 1980 a show debuted on TV that changed my life:  Thundarr the Barbarian.  I was never the same after watching that show.  Gamma World suddenly played a much larger role in my life.  Mutations and magic suddenly seemed a logical mix.  I pulled out Star Man's Son (Daybreak-2250 A.D.) and read it again.  Twice.  Good times.  Gaming was an unlimited vista of adventure.  All because of a cheesy sci-fi (yes, I said it.  Sci-fi.  Not SF) cartoon.  I wanted a sunsword (and Princess Ariel, too, in an innocent way.)  It was only a few years later that SF and fantasy became rigidly separated in my mind again but while the cross-over lasted, it was pure magic.

Well, yesterday I discovered a DVD set of the complete series at my local library!  I promptly checked
it out and forced my kids to watch the first episode..  They did not have a choice.  They liked it and will watch more episodes with me but I know it doesn't hold the magic for them that it did for me when I was their age.  Oh well.  Nostalgia, here I come!

Gamer ADD

Like father like son.  My son has inherited my gamer ADD.  I didn't even know it was genetic.  He bounces from one system to another more quickly than I do.  Although I purchase a lot of game rules I still prefer a select few.  He looks at the mass on the bookshelf (I print out a lot of games and put them into binders) and wants to play them all.  He's actually stated that out loud.  Right now it's Hollow Earth Expedition (which I'm a little torqued at.  It's one of the few games I've have in hardback.  Had it for years.  It chooses now to cough up pages from both front and back).  We are watching the television show Primeval and I mentioned that HEX has dinosaurs in it and he was off to the bookshelf.

Yep, gamer ADD.