Today I'd like to take a look at an underrated but fun cartoon from the early 1980's Blackstar! The cartoon was a myriad of different ideas all melded into one. It told the story of astronaut John Blackstar who landed on the planet Sagar. Once there he finds a society of mystic and magic alongside typical space alien stuff.

The show really taps into some Flash Gordon elements as well as plenty of things that would be revisited a few years later with He-Man. Filmation made the cartoon working with Lou Scheimer much in the same way they would with Masters of the Universe. The two shows share similarities, with both clearly being inspired by Hanna Barbara's Thundarr the Barbarian.



As with so many 80's cartoons, Blackstar only lasted one season consisting of 13 episodes. The show wasn't of the greatest qualities, largely because it didn't get a ton of time to develop and Filmation had plenty of limitations. However the show did have some nice charm with so many different characters even if they were very much inspired by other properties.

That's one of the things that made Blackstar so much fun. It was a bit like watching He-Man, Thundarr, Flash Gordon and the Smurfs all rolled up into one. The Trobbits of course taking the Smurf role... Wonder where they came up with the name Trobbit? Couldn't be inspired by Hobbits could it? No way. Hell even the opening theme sounds like a complete ripoff of the old George Reeves Superman show from the 1950's.



Like I said, Blackstar didn't reinvent the wheel. Mostly it just covered the wheel with a new paint job. Still the show made for some fun and the action figures which came out several years later were some of Galoob's finest. In fact I still have a Trobbit from the old days. Those guys were nearly indestructible!



Blackstar was released on DVD a few years ago and got a pretty good treatment as I recall. I never did pick up the DVD set, but if this post interested you, then maybe you can. Feel free to share your fond (or not so) memories of Blackstar in the comments section!

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