Warner Home Video has announced the July 12th release of ThunderCats Season 1, Part 1 (MSRP $19.97), which includes the first 12 episodes of the original Rankin/Bass ThunderCats series that aired in 1985. The original series, which chronicled the adventures of the feline exiles from the planet Thundera who bravely fight the vicious mutants intent on destroying them, was a huge hit in the 1980s inspiring a Marvel comic book series as well as numerous toys and action figures.

 

A new ThunderCats series produced by Studio 4C (Tekkon Kinkreet, Batman: Gotham Knight, Transformers Animated, see “New ThunderCats Series Trailer”) is due to debut on the Cartoon Network this year. The new series has a more conscious anime look than the original ThunderCats, though the original series was also animated in Japan (see “New ThunderCats Series Reveals Its Anime Roots”). 

 

So far the Cartoon Network has not released a date for the debut of the new ThunderCats series, but in its press release announcing Season 1 Part 1 of the Original Series, Warner Bros. said it would be available “just ahead of the premiere of the all-new ThunderCats on the Cartoon Network," and Mezco Toys is releasing the first of its new series ThunderCats action figures, a new Lion-O figure in July as well.