Saturday, June 16, 2007

With the Fantastic Four back on the big screen, we decided to use this week's Saturday Cartoons to mention H.E.R.B.I.E., the robot who replaced the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four's 1970's cartoon series.

The ever popular Johnny Storm was heading to a big screen adventure of his own, which literally flamed out. Due to the weird and wonderful world of licensing contracts, the Torch was unavailable to producers of the late 70's toon, so they had to go for the next best thing. Though he tends to be unloved by the fans, the initial idea for H.E.R.B.I.E. (or at least a robot sidekick) came from Stan Lee, and the character design was eventually done by Jack Kirby, so while he may have been a (much) later addition, he has the same lineage as the rest of the FF.



H.E.R.B.I.E. was made into an action figure, seen here alongside Franklin Richards, son of Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman.