otter – The Furry Waves

Random Day 8

Welcome back, everyone! I’m back from break, so it’s time for a new entry!

We’ll do a random day to start things off, so let’s jump right in.

Let’s take a look at My Pet Monster first.

In 1987, they released a 13 episode cartoon, and of course, they had to make him cute.

These two are from ‘Little Bigfoot’.

And this set is from ‘Boogie Board Blues’, and stars Beastur, a bigger monster who’s always trying to take Monster back to Monsterland. Yeah, real creative, huh?

One more piece here… here’s a figure I happened to find.

For the second and final show today, I have a few sets from an anime from 1973 called Fables of the Green Forest. This 52 episode anime went all around the world, being dubbed in several languages, including English. These sets will center around one character, an otter named Joe, who always wore a wetsuit and SCUBA mask for some reason. He wasn’t in a ton of episodes, mind you. I seem to remember him being kind of a dick, to be honest.

(Edit: July 27th 2022: Replaced with 1080p versions. Thanks to Nap-o-fuel of Furaffinity for pointing the way to the source files for these.)

From ‘Buster the Bear Comes to the Forest’.

‘A Gift Buster Left Behind’.

‘Huge Tracks in the Forest’.

‘Paddy Beaver Comes to the Forest’.

‘Paddy Builds a Dream House’.

‘Peter Changes His Name’.

‘The Search For Mr. Quack’.

Here’s a link to a Youtube playlist of the complete series in English: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmNp3u5r93jaT6gqMq8-hZqYoL2z5U9sY

Alright,that’s all for this week! I’ll be back in two weeks, so I’ll see you all then!

Doki

Welcome back, folks! Going to a new show today; today, we’re looking at Doki.

No, not that Doki…

That’s the one.

This is actually a Canadian cartoon produced by Portfolio Entertainment, but it actually aired in Latin America first in April 2013 before coming out in English on Qubo in November 2014. It’s currently in its third season and has been renewed for a fourth. A quick rundown of the characters, taken from the show’s Wikipedia page:

Doki (voiced by Griffin Hook) is a curious seven-year-old dog, whose love of adventure makes crazy situations no problem for him. Doki is always open to suggestions and tips from his friends. He learns from his mistakes and applies his knowledge to his adventures. He wears a green cap.
Mundi (voiced by Tara Emo) is a ladybug, who is also an expert mechanic. She is very honest and always helps others when needed.
Oto (voiced by Caden Hughes in 1–59 episodes, Collin Dean in 39 episodes–present) is an anteater, and the captain, conductor, or driver of any vehicle or transport method that the group of explorers use in their adventures. His confidence doesn’t always fit with their skills and perfect landings. Oto loves to change clothes, costume or hat and almost always travels with his friend Mundi. Mundi can fix what he breaks.
Anabella (voiced by Katie Grant) is a hot pink flamingo, and the innocent, loving little sister of the group. Always happy and loving, she tends to daydream and can easily get distracted by anything beautiful or unusual. She is deeply sensitive, and she often expresses how she feels by dancing. Anabella has a free spirit, and is open and adventurous. Doki admires her and often accompanies her on all her adventures.
Gabi (voiced by Sarah Sheppard) is a bright, energetic, and precocious goat who is the most grown-up of the group and often uses complex words that the team doesn’t always understand. She has a great sense of humor and is brave, loyal, stubborn when necessary, and very competitive. Despite her obvious maturity, Gabi hides a weakness; a tendency to believe that she is the smartest of the group, appearing insensitive to the feelings of others and her great heart the salvation of all complicated situations. She has a pet worm named Lancelot.
Fico (voiced by Lucas Kalechstein) is a blue otter, and the silly one of the group who is always happy and known for being funny, affectionate, and impulsive. He’s like a whirlwind, impetuous and energetic, to the point of almost being hyperactive. However, he gets confused and easily distracted sometimes, and this situation usually leads to awkward and difficult situations that put him in trouble. He loves risky activities, water sports, and speed.

These pics will mostly deal with Doki, Gabi, and Fico.

Alright, let’s jump right in. These first two are from small segments that aired before the show itself did, I think.

Going into the actual episodes now, this set is from ‘Doki In the Deep’.

Yes, Fico employs a… twisty snorkel, because he’s kinda a borderline nutcase, and we have to drive that point home whenever possible.

OK, these next very small two sets are from ‘A Whale of a Tale’ and ‘To Catch a Fish’.

Finally, we have the big one that I have. This is from ‘O Mistério da Praia’, which I believe the pending English name is ‘The Mystery of the Vanishing Beach’.

Wow, normal scuba gear? Amazing.

(Edit (September, 8th, 2022): And here the video of said episode…

To end off, we have a couple of odds and ends.

I can’t help but think that there’s more out there. If I find it, I’ll post it in a future entry, but for now, we’re done for this time! I hope you all enjoyed this, and I’ll see you in two weeks!

Ranger Rick, Part 2

Welcome back, folks. Let’s continue from where we left of yesterday…

In June and July of 2008, while on a kayaking trip, Boomer actually had to take a couple of snorkeling expeditions…

Who would’ve thought Boomer thought to bring a knife with him? Perhaps he was aiming to fillet those fish right there in the kayak?

Next up, we have Boomer at it again, this time, giving himself a mild case of the bends…

So Boomer’s never heard of the Bends? Someone needs to fire his SCUBA instructor… preferably out of a torpedo hatch.

In this March and April 2005 two parter, the trio goes on another dive and, naturally, get into difficulties…

I have to wonder why Boomer’s the only one in swim trunks here…

OK, so this is the last bit. This is from August and September 2015, and you’ll notice that the crew looks a bit… different here.

In 2009, the magazines editors decided it was time to make the move to CGI artwork for the Ranger Rick stories, and hired The CharacterShop (yes, apparently, this is how they write their name), a production house in England. In my opinion, this was a step back. The characters looked ugly, and the scenes looked pretty average.

In 2016, they redesigned the characters again, and again, I’m not really sold on it. Plus, they got rid of Ollie Otter altogether and replaced him with some other otter named Reggie who looks like a total stoner. You can find more on the Ranger Rick website, if you wish.

Also, before I go, if you want a more rounded and complete history of the Ranger Rick series, please take a look at Classic Ranger Rick. It hasn’t been updated in several years, but it’s still a fine place to go to read up on the subject.

(Edit (Nov. 14th, 2020): Sadly, Classic Ranger Rick appears to be no more. You can view an archived version of the page via the Wayback Machine here.)

(Edit (August 4th, 2021): Check that, it’s back again, with a bit of a redesign.)

So this is all I have from Ranger Rick. There might be more out there to be found, but I haven’t encountered it yet. If I do, I’ll provide an update.

I’ll post again soon. Not sure what it’ll be yet, but I’ll try to make it exciting. Until then!

Ranger Rick, Part 1

Well, it’s been requested, and this IS his 50th year of his magazine, so why not?

Most Americans have at least heard of his magazine, published since January 1967 by the American based National Wildlife Federation to promote it’s vision to the nation’s children. Ranger Rick, for the past 50 years, has been promoting wildlife conservation and appreciation to it’s readers.

Rick himself is a park ranger hat wearing raccoon with a passion for wildlife and environmental issues and educating his fellows on said subjects. Usually with him are Scarlett Fox, his second in command who generally has a low tolerance for stupidity, and Boomer Badger, a goof who regularly tests Scarlett’s (and sometimes Rick’s) patience.

Naturally, in the course of 50 years, they’ve gotten wet a few times, and over the next couple of days, we’re going to see some of that.

Almost all of these were illustrated by the talented Robby Gilbert who illustrated the stories starring Rick and company from 1999 to 2009. This first set is actually the first time the stories were presented in comic form in March of 2000. (Again, click the pictures for larger images.)

This next one is actually a rarity, with no Boomer or Scarlett. In this November 2005 story, Sammy Squirrel and Punky Porcupine join Rick on a little boating trip…

You know, Sammy never did get in the water…

Finally, this two parter has Ollie Otter joining Rick and Scarlett… and almost dying a horrible drowning death for his overconfidence. I don’t remember the issues, sorry. If someone remembers, please let me know.

Two things here; one, Ollie, webbed feet and holding your breath for, what, 10 minutes, does not equate to SCUBA gear, you damned fool.

Second, when Ollie and Toby were in trouble there, why didn’t Rick and Scarlett, you know… move in and give them a puff instead of (presumably) floating there watching them struggle? I suppose events might’ve unfolded pretty fast, but still…

Anyway, stay tuned until tomorrow, when I’ll have the rest of what I have with Ranger Rick shown.

Random Day!

Hi, everyone. No, I haven’t lost interest in maintaining this blog already, I just haven’t been able to fully decide what I want to showcase next.

So to fix that, I’m going to just show off some random-ish pieces today. No real theming here, just tossing some stuff out there.

First, we have A Miss Mallard Mystery, which is a 2000 cartoon that was somewhat loosely based on Robert Quackenbush’s series, The Miss Mallard Mysteries, which stars the titular character, well, solving mysteries, along with her nephew Willard.

These are shots from an episode called ‘Evil Under the Sea’.

OK, I know it’s stating the obvious, but sharks will be prominent in this blog. (As usual, click for bigger pictures)

(Edit (Feb. 3rd, 2022): Added 1080p versions)

The good news is that, so far in this blog, they’re 0-4.

Pretty pedestrian stuff after that. There’s more underwater action after this, but it’s outside the purpose of this blog. Feel free to look the episode up, though.

Next up is something I’m sure some of you are familiar with; Neopets! I played this for a short while a VERY long time ago. Didn’t really get into it, but many, many people have. Considering that they’ve been around since 1999, there isn’t a lot of pics from them in the collection, but there are some:

That’s all I’ve been able to find of Neopets, in it’s entirety. Oh well. Some of it IS cool looking, though.

OK, one more for today. This one is actually a 1999 German children’s diving manual called “Robbi geht Tauchen”, or Robbi goes Diving. I actually was able to get a physical copy of the book with the help of a friend several years back. For a children’s book, it’s quite detailed, going into specifics of the types of equipment used, pressure, and equalization, amongst other things.

The basic story going here is that Robbi, an otter of all things, gets interested in this whole diving thing, and whilst swimming about, he meets and befriends Krakeelchen, an octopus that apparently is a divemaster…?

No, I don’t know how or why an octopus would be a divemaster.

Anyway, the rest of the book is spent with Krakeelchen teaching Robbi the ins and outs of diving, including SCUBA, because he’s cool like that.

Here are nine pages from the book.