THE Cartoon/Animation thread (Discussion)

Wasn't there a Wacky Races where Dick Dastardly thought he'd won a race? I'm sure there was one where he broke down near a finish line

I believe so. Most of the time his cheating proved to be his downfall or Muttley did something stupid which resulted in them being last.

Another cartoon series that featured Dastardly and Muttley was Yogi's Treasure Hunt where each week the 'gang' was given instructions by Top Cat of where to find it by a series of clues they had to work out. D & M wanted to get to the location first before "that butt-in-ski bear" and his 'treasure chump' friends got there first. Incidentally if you go to that website wco.tv you will find an updated version of Wacky Races - it's not bad although some of the main racers have been dropped for some reason.

As it has been mentioned a few times I think we can concentrate on looking into Wacky Races next week where we can discover more about the series, its characters and vehicles(who drove what) etc.

Okay away we go "on the way out Wacky Races" as the voiceover once said.


Wacky Races was a group of disperate racing drivers in various mad vehicles racing against each other in a series of races across America. As mentioned earlier it was the inspiration for the comedy film 'The Great Race' in 1965. The names of the drivers and cars will be known to fans: The car numbers can be found in the above picture.

The Crimson Haybailer-Red Max (a converted aeroplane possibly from World War 1)
The Creepy Coupe(Coop to the Americans) with the Gruesome Twosome(Big and Lil')
The Bouldermobile(Prehistoric caveman type Rock and Gravel)
The Arkansas Chugg-a-bug(Luke and Blubber Bear)
The Convert-a-car(Professor Pat Pending)
The Bulletproof Bomb(The Ant Hill Mob) Note: not the same car that appeared in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop)
The Army Surplus Special(Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly)
The Turbo Terrific({Peter Perfect-chisel-chinned hero type)
The Mean Machine("with double-dealing do-badders" Dick Dastardly and sidekick Muttley)
The Compact Pussycat(Penelope Pitstop) the only female racer.
The Buzzwagon(Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth a beaver)

In their own way all the drivers had gimmicks they could use to cheat or gain an advantage-the most advantages was probably Prof. Pat Pending whose vehicle could convert into just about anything that would give him a chance. Dick Dastardly's cheats were always his downfall because he would demonstrate the various ingenius traps he devised which would work perfectly but when the racers went towards them they usually failed but ended up trapping him. Despite his efforts Dastardly NEVER won a single race although came mighty close. Muttley in this guise snickers alot and usually avoided getting too injured. Unlike the Muttley in Dastardly and Muttley in the their Flying Machines, this one is sneakier and can't fly(in D&M he can make his tail like a helicopter blade and hover) and doesn't want medals.
http://www.dan-dare.org/Dan%20FRD/WackyR...rivers.htm

As mentioned earlier in 2018 a new version of Wacky Races was created and ran for two series. You can find that and the original series episodes at wco.tv

The Voices:
Paul Winchell – Dick Dastardly, Private Meekly, Clyde
Don Messick – Muttley, Professor Pat Pending, Gravel Slag, Little Gruesome,
Ring-a-Ding, Sawtooth
Daws Butler – Rock Slag, Big Gruesome, Red Max, Sergeant Blast,
Peter Perfect, Rufus Ruffcut
John Stephenson – Luke, Blubber Bear
Janet Waldo – Penelope Pitstop
Dave Willock – Narrator

Now the last one I didn't know at all, his name never came up on the credits.
Don Messick is a stalwart of the Hanna-Barbera stable with all sorts of great voices along with the brilliant Daws Butler. Strange thing about this series is that sometimes the characters would talk to us including Dick Dastardly, who would turn to talk to the 'narrator'

In the early 90s I recall a kids show called Mayhem or something like that on itv,during the cartoon segments they showed one called Fender Bender 500 which was like an updated version of Wacky Races.

This might satisfy your memory
https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=o...8&oe=UTF-8

^ yep,that's it.Cheers.

All episodes here too
https://www.wco.tv/anime/fender-bender-500

In post #64 GreenMachine mentioned Hanna-Barbera stalwart Don Messick,later in his career he voiced Autobots Ratchet and Gears and a Deception called Scavenger in seasons one and two of The Transformers(1984-1985).He reprised his role of Scavenger in Transformers : The Movie(1986).His one line in the entire feature is "Human germ."

He's another we can cover later, his career is very varied and I think I remember him on Blue Peter some years ago talking about a project he had done or was doing.