Rally Ho! They Rock!

Ah, Frankenstein Jr And The Impossibles. These guys truly rocked the house back in the day, both literally and figuratively.

Frankenstein Jr, or Frankie, as Buzz often called him, was the most powerful robot in the world. He and Buzz, and sometimes even Professor Conroy, defeated the most evil menaces to society. My personal favorite episodes were those with the Mad Inventor, "The Unearthly Plant Creatures," and the thrilling two-parter "The Alien Brain From Outer Space." Although the intro to these shorts was silent with just music and sound effects, there should have been an opening narration. Something like, "Working day and night in his father's lab, young Buzz Conroy built and activated the world's greatest crimefighting robot, Frankenstein Jr." Still, you go, Frankie!

"The Impossibles." A teenage rock band who were also superheroes was another brilliant idea from H-B. Their musical numbers reminded me of the Beach Boys, Young Rascals, and other popular '60's bands. And their powers were indeed unique for the decade. I also noticed that at times, characters would break the fourth wall. For instance, in the episode "Professor Stretch Bounces Back," the narrator asks, "What could Professor Stretch possibly be up to?" Whereupon the villain faces the camera, grins, and replies, "I'm up to no good. That's what I'm up to." I also liked Coil Man's high tech guitar, through which Big D would contact them. One episode I really enjoyed was "The Terrifying Tapper." This villain was capable of travelling through telephone wires--something Coil Man was also able to do. As a result, Coily captured him all by himself! Way to go!

Although several villains had "Tron" in their names(Beamatron, Timeatron, Televisatron), they were humans, not robots.

Trivia Question 46: What past villain did Timeatron personally decide to bring back to fight the Impossibles?


And did anyone notice Multiman's resemblance to the Way-Outs from "The Flintstones" episode "Masquerade Party." I certainly did.

And no, I didn't forget Fluidman. He was able to convert to water, and travel through plumbing. Thankfully, that was limited to sinks, bathtubs, and showers.

But I disagree with a statement in one of my books that claimed "Frankenstein Jr And The Impossibles" were largely forgotten. Largely forgotten? Not by me, and definitely not by my fellow users.

Trivia Question 46: Which historical villain did Timeatron personally decide to bring back to fight the Impossibles?

Answer: Alexander The Great.

Ah, Frankenstein, Junior, perhaps the first animated Swiss-Army robot. No matter what the villain came up with as an attack weapon, somehow Buzz Conroy built the ideal counter mechanism somewhere inside Frankie, and only needed to authorize its use before Frankie indeed thwarted the offensive. Frankie has Goddard and Inspector Gadget and Dynomutt and XJ-9 beat by years. Of course, Hanna-Barbera also had a similar mechanism in place: the storehouse character, who could produce anything needed or useful on demand. Pockets from the Ant Hill Mob is one example, as is Captain Caveman and Louis Dunbar of the Super Globetrotters.

Ah, fun memories.

I watched episodes of the Imposibles out of curiosity while in college. The villains were pretty cool, with some unique powers. One of my favorites was Professor Stretch--he was pretty fun. I personally liked Multiman--there was something badass about that one line he would sometimes use when the villain thought he had gotten all of them and then he would quip back "Except the original." Also, I did like the songs that the Imposibles sang--in particular the one that went "I knew a girl who couldn't dance." The songs sounded a lot like ones that would play on the radio back then.

I only recall seeing one episode of Frankenstein Junior as a kid which I rewatched later on youtube while in college a few years ago. It was the one with the birdman--who besides dressing up like a bird, also had a bunch of robotic birds to do his bidding--which were kind of cool.

There has never been an "Impossibles" album, let alone singles, to my knowledge. Most likely, the songs were performed by H-B's own house band, whose members included Danny Hutton before he joined Three Dog Night.

As far as the Impossibles music goes, I do believe it was done by whoever was staffed at HB. I found a website that has several old HB records to download (can't tell you where it is now, unfortunately, I lost the url), and several of them featured some songs, and a lot of the rock 'n roll type songs on these albums sounded a lot like something the Impossibles would sing. That makes sense to me.

Anyway, on my two cents on this particular show, I don't think I need to tell anyone which half of this cartoon is my personal favorite, or which character I like the best. I think it's pretty obvious.

LOL, I *knew* someone was gonna pull that joke.