AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Drak Pack cartoon
Continuing my look at cartoons featuring Frankenstein’s monster. Today I look at Drak Pack.
This show originally aired on CBS between 1980 and 1982 and it was created by the Australian arm of Hanna-Barbera.
The cartoon had a great premise. As descendants of the original monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and Wolf Man), the three main teens use their monster abilities, and taking orders from the legendary Dracula, to fight crime and atone for their ancestors’ evil doings. Here is the opening sequence that explains the entire premise of the show (like many Hanna-Barbera cartoons are want to do).
This was a very clever series that merged the superhero genre as well as the monster genre. As you can see, the teens appeared normal until they called on their monster identities to fight evil. The three teens are Drak Jr (or just Drak), Frankie and Howler. They each had different abilities in their monster forms. To change into their monster personalities they high fived and yelled “WHACK-O!” (called the Drak Whack). Surprisingly, they went by the same names whether as regular teens or as the monsters which makes you wonder why they used secret identities. But I guess walking around as a 7 ft green monster would be a bit much. To get around they drove a bad ass hot rod called the Drakster which not only looked cool but had a ton of James Bond-ish gadgetry hiding within it.
I remember really enjoying this show. I only ever saw it a few times because the time that it aired constantly changed. I was always on the lookout for it but never could find it. It was released on DVD in Canada, but you can order it from Amazon (it’s Region 1, so you can watch it on a US DVD player). Unfortunately Netflix has not added it to their library just yet.
Definitely worth a look for monster fans as well as Hanna-Barbera fans. Another really great series staring every0ne’s favorite monsters as heroes.
Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
October 15, 2009 at 9:55 am
I’ve never seen this either but I think I may have heard of it. Looks really cute though!
October 16, 2009 at 9:10 am
It’s a lot of fun, Tink. I’ve been going back and forth about buying it off Amazon. Netflix has had it on the “to be added” list for at least a year. I don’t know what’s taking so long.
October 22, 2009 at 11:31 am
I bought it on Amazon Canada when it was released. It’s still a lot of fun, but it’s really for diehard fans. I watched a couple of episodes and it was still enjoyable but it was more about the novelty factor. If you can get it at a good price I’d say go for it. The one memorable thing about Drak Pack is the cool way these horror icons are portrayed. I really liked Vampira too!
October 22, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Yeah, I watched a bit on YouTube but haven’t seen a full episode. I was afraid of the whole “novelty factor”. Hopefully Netflix will get it at some point so I can watch it.
However, it can’t be as bad as Monster Force.
June 24, 2011 at 7:28 am
Have you ever heard of Thomas Reed’s review of Campbell’s book? (Easily Googled.) If you have, what is your impression of it?