My memories of Saturday mornings in the late eighties are hazy, but I can still conjure up the scent of stale cereal and the low hum of the television warming up. One thing that always seemed to cut through the morning fog was the promise of cartoons, and among the rotating lineup, there was this particular show… I can’t remember its proper name right now, but it’s some sort of silly tale about little creatures and I think it was called Tom Lizard Hoppers, and, most importantly, the shirt… I desperately wanted one.
Tom Lizard Hoppers cartoon lightning shirt Show Your Love with Style
The cartoon itself wasn’t high art, truth be told, with its slightly jerky animation and plots that mostly involved things like a missing pie or a squabble over a shiny rock. But there was a certain energy to it, a vibrant silliness that somehow perfectly captured that pre-teen feeling of boundless potential. The characters had these goofy expressions and these huge, wide eyes that would pop up at any excitement. My kid brain saw it as this grand adventure.