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Being born in the early 90’s in a country neighboring Russia, you could find quite a lot of bootleg or otherwise weird VHS-tapes of Soviet-era cartoons that had made it across the border back after the Iron Curtain collapsed, usually at flea-markets or in bargain-bins.

I remember we used to have quite a few of them, most were just collections of different Russian cartoons from like the 70’s and 80’s. A few I’ve managed to track down, like Nu Pogodi! The rest of them I’ve tried to find with the limited details I remember, but haven’t had any luck.

It's technically a Disney Movie, but Brave Little Toaster was a bizarre move we used to watch all the time as kids. Up there with movies like Flight of the Navigator or Short Circuit or Batteries Not Included in terms of rewatchability for us. Tried watching it with my kids a year or two ago and I feel like I don't know how my parents could have let me watch it as a kid. So dark. So weird.

I don’t know how obscure it is, but I loved watching KaBlam! It was weird animated shorts in a variety of styles. My favorites were the shorts made with stop-motion and action figures.

There was a lot of made in Canada cartoons. Flying Rihno Junior High, 6teen, and Being Ian for example.

I named my stuffed bear Kissyfur! Did anyone else watch the Get Along Gang?

Oh boy, I had a few like this that come to mind.

Bucky O'Hare was a favorite of mine. There was also this weird British superhero teddy bear called Super Ted.

Someone else in this thread mentioned Bump in the Night, which was def a big one for me, too.

I also had a VHS of Cubix: Robots for Everyone that I was obsessed with. It was a Korean CGI animated show that sadly never got all that big in the US, but there were a couple of lame video games and a few toys that made it here.

I could make a whole huge list, so I'll stop here, but it would be a disservice of me not to mention Extreme Dinosaurs which was (and still is) objectively the coolest show ever made.

Has anyone here watched Centurions? It was such a cool concept. I'm surprised there hasn't been a remake or adaptation of this.

Big bad beetle borgs! So fun and no one I know watched it!

There was one made in stop motion called "Bumpy in the night". Just two seasons, but it was fun. I liked it.

I have a nostalgic soft spot for the old Sonic Adventures. He sure loved his chili dogs.

Clutch Cargo

Beakman’s lab. In Chinese

We also had a few of the "Just For Kids" VHS tapes growing up and it took me ages to track down info about the company down when I randomly remembered them a year or two ago. I absolutely loved "The Elmchanted Forest" as well as "Sampson and Sally" and "Katy and the Katerpillar Kids."

From what I found Just For Kids had bought the rights to some obscure Eastern European films from the 80's and dubbed them into English before they disappeared themselves which was a disappointment to me given the fond nostalgia I had for their movies. Took me forever to find the films I remembered because of that, but I did eventually.

Jam the Housnail.

I thought for the longest time it was a fever dream. That it didn't exist. I could never find it anything related to the godforsaken thing on any Canadian channels list of cartoons they aired. My family thinks I am joking when I mention how horribly this show plagued my thoughts over this years, but I had been searching for a decade.

Anyway apparently it's from Japan and I probably watched it on Veoh or something, because it's on my anime list now and I finally found out what it was called last year.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/29367/Jam_the_Housnail

A couple come to mind for me:

• Exosquad
• Red Planet

And although not exactly obscure, I have fond memories of watching You Can't Do That On Television!, Eureka's Castle, and David the Gnome. It's been well over 35 years and I can still hear the Eureka's Castle theme in my head.

We had this VHS we watched as a kid called "How Come?" And I don't even really remember what it was about. But I think it was educational? The only thing I could find about it online was this ebay posting of the VHS: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hMEAAOSwNsVfWTMT/s-l400.jpg

Does anyone remember a show that featured a big record man who clacked wooden spoons together? He was terrifying haha, he would say "NOW HERE'S THE BEAT"... (I think this might be a Canadian show)

Also, anyone remember 3,2,1 Contact on PBS?

Idk how obscure it is, but I was just looking for Zoids Chaotic Century last night and couldn't find it on any streaming service, so I checked Amazon for a DVD copy only to see people want $150+ for used copies of the show... Sucks that it's so hard to find now!

Not sure how obscure it is, but I used to watch Liberty’s Kids on PBS all the time.

Johnny Bravo, Dexters Lab (the OG), Scooby Doo... Those were the days.

Once Upon a Time... Life comes to mind. I also recall Tante Soesa & Sassefras which was a Dutch program that would be broadcast in between other kids programs.

I remember the doughnut man, but not fondly.

There was this movies called scamper the penguin I really liked.

I remember having a VHS tape from some group which was basically just a bunch random kid friendly songs. I did some googling and found a Youtube Channel with them (interestingly called "Kidsongs") - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71a4VPi6toc

The other obscure-ish one that I remember was trying to wake up early before school to watch Superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad. I can see now it was an attempt to capitalize on Power Rangers' popularity and reuse Japanese footage in the same way/style.

War Planets was another one I loved as a kid, mostly because I had a lot of War Planets toys too.

My brother and I remember this cartoon we had on VHS from our childhood. Every time we mention Seabert to anybody, they have no idea what we're talking about. It's about a guy and his seal going on adventures, often in the desert...

I used to enjoy this series of VHS tapes in the late 80s called "Terrific Trips" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrhVMYKOhvQ