SilverHawks is an American animated television series developed by Rankin/Bass Productions and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1986. The animation was provided by Japanese studio Pacific Animation Corporation. In total, 65 episodes were made. It was created as a space-based equivalent of their previous series ThunderCats. As was the case with ThunderCats, there was also a SilverHawks comic book series published by Marvel Comics under the imprint Star Comics.

Plot

A bionic space enforcer called Commander Stargazer recruited the SilverHawks, heroes who are "partly metal, partly real", to fight the evil MonStar, an escaped alien crime boss who transforms into an enormous armor-plated creature with the help of Limbo's Moonstar. Joining MonStar in his villainy is an intergalactic mob consisting of Yes-Man, Buzz-Saw, Mumbo-Jumbo, Windhammer, Mo-Lec-U-Lar, Poker-Face, Hardware, and "the musical madness of" Melodia. Quicksilver (formerly Jonathan Quick) leads the SilverHawks, with his metal bird companion Tally-Hawk at his side. Twins Emily and Will Hart became Steelheart and Steelwill, the SilverHawks's technician and strongman respectively. Country-singing Bluegrass piloted the team's ship, the Maraj (pronounced "mirage" on the series, but given that spelling on the Kenner toy). Rounding out the group is a youngster "from the planet of the mimes", named "The Copper Kidd" and usually called "Kidd" for short, a mathematical genius who spoke in whistles and computerized tones. Their bionic bodies are covered by a full-body close-fitting metal armor that only exposes the face and an arm, the armor is equipped with a retractile protective mask, retractable under-arm wings (except Bluegrass), thrusters on their heels, and laser-weapons in their shoulders.

Characters

Silverhawks

Main Silverhawks

Minor Silverhawks

SilverHawk's Fighting Hawks

The Fighting Hawks are hawk-like partners of the SilverHawks who have different abilities that help them in their fight against the Mob and other villains.

Supporting characters

Federal Interplanetary Force

The Federal Interplanetary Force is an interplanetary organization that have their headquarters on Earth. They are responsible for the creation of the Silverhawks and have helped out whenever Stargazer contacts them for help.

Villains

The Mob

The Mob is an organized crime group and the primary antagonists of the series that commits crimes throughout Limbo and operate from Brim*Star. They travel in three open-cab spacecraft called the Zoomer, Road Star, and Limbo Limo.

The Mob's Fighting Hawks

The Mob has Fighting Hawks of their own:

Three Outlaws from Fence

They appear in many episodes and are friendly to Melodia and Poker-Face, though the three are usually betrayed by the Mob. They are often seen playing cards at the Sini*Star Diner on the planet Fence:

Other villains

Setting

The Galaxy of Limbo

Even though it is in outer space, Limbo has breathable air and characters are seen falling off their vehicles as if in a gravity field. During the series, various planets are shown:

Stars

Planets

Other

Production and release

Rankin/Bass followed up their successful ThunderCats series with this series about a team of heroes in the 29th century who were given metal bodies and wings to stop organized crime in the Galaxy of Limbo. SilverHawks featured many of the same voice actors who had worked on ThunderCats, including Larry Kenney, Peter Newman, Earl Hammond, Doug Preis and Bob McFadden. Lorimar-Telepictures was purchased by Warner Bros. in 1989, and the rights to SilverHawks are now held by Warner Bros. Television Distribution. Reruns later aired on Cartoon Network from 2000 to 2001.

Episodes

Merchandise and other media

DVD releases

In October 2008, Warner Home Video released SilverHawks: Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. The 4-disc set contains the first 32 episodes of the series. In October 2011, Warner Bros. released SilverHawks: Volume 2 on DVD in region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. The 4-disc set contains the remaining 33 episodes of the series.

Action figures

The SilverHawks action figure collection based on the animated series was produced by Kenner and first released in 1987. LJN, the makers of the ThunderCats figures, originally were to produce the SilverHawks figures but decided to pass on the project at the last minute. Each figure was packaged with a companion bird and, similar to Kenner's Super Powers Collection toyline, had an action feature of some type. The second series of figures is harder to find than the first with Ultrasonic Quicksilver being the most difficult. The MonStar with Laser Lance, Copper Kidd with Laser Discs, and the Copper Racer vehicle were not produced but were shown in the 1988 Kenner toy catalog. The Hawk Haven Fortress was also never released, due to the high production costs it would incur. Many recurring characters were never made, including Yes-Man, Melodia and Poker-Face.

Weapon-birds

The weapon-birds are cyborg animal companions released with most of the action figures. While Tally-Hawk appeared in almost all of the episodes in the series, all other "weapon-birds" only appeared in a handful of episodes. In the episode "The Fighting Hawks", the weapon-birds for the Steel Twins were accidentally switched from the toy versions. The weapon-birds are listed below, with their toy partner's name in parentheses. In 2021, a new line of Silverhawks action figures were announced.

Other merchandise

Several other pieces of SilverHawks merchandise were released in the 1980s, including a board game, puzzles, bed sheets, and a plastic pencil pouch with the main characters on one side. Pajamas were also produced, which included wing flaps under the arms to more resemble the characters.

Comics

Marvel Comics' kid-friendly imprint Star Comics (which also published ThunderCats) released a seven-issue series. Writers included Steve Perry, who also wrote for the animated series.

Other appearances

In the 2011 ThunderCats remake, Mon*Star briefly appears in a cameo in the episode "Legacy". He was seen on a monitor on the bridge of Mumm-Ra's ship. Solar Opposites features a lengthy subplot that parodies the IP called SilverCops.

Reboot

As of July 2021, a NacelleVerse reboot of Silverhawks is in development.