death tribble Posted January 1 Report Share Posted January 1 Rich, You can pick the next team. Themes that have been done more than once. Arsonists, the Seven Sins, the Undead, teams operating only at night or during the day, users of cold powers, sports, agents, constellations, chemical elements, giants, retired villains, aliens, pirates, anime, toys, Information Technology, cowboys, Lovecraft/Cthulhu mythos, yellow journalism, maths, school/college, families, cops, villain support groups, holidays, heroes who are villains, monsters, halloween, darkness/shadow/night powers Teams from Africa, Japan, Soviet Russia, Britain, India and based on American history have been done. The 12 labours of Hercules, the 7 days of the Week, the compass points, the 4 seasons, planets, dinosaurs, extinct animals, earth/air/fire/water powers, flying/water based heroes/villains, American Indians, Nazis, snakes, bikers, gangsters, blades, gun, martial artists, clowns, the weather, colours of the rainbow, cooking, alcohol, fairies and weight have also been themes Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 1 Report Share Posted January 1 Cripes, and you want me to find something new? Thanks, no pressure at all... Ah, I know. In celebration of the earliest version of Mickey Mouse entering public domain at last, let's see some villains from the (entirely fictional) Clown Town cinematic cartoon franchise from the 1930s. I covered the franchise's lead hero and main villain over here but as the blog post says there were other baddies in the shorts beyond Mister Mean. Let's see who you think they were and how they're adapting to our weird colorful reality. Three or four should be plenty, I'd think. For those who don't want to scroll through game stats for an unfamiliar system, here's the most salient points for both characters: KO Clown KO Clown started out as a character in the 1930s "Clown Town" cinematic cartoon series, where he mostly played the hero by showing up at the last moment to stop the scheme of Mister Mean by bonking him with a hammer. The shorts weren't the most sophisticated humor even for their era, but became popular enough to get a newspaper strip and later a children's radio program and comic book. In the late 1940s a young boy named Ricky Little somehow gained the ability to summon KO Clown into our reality by saying the magic word "Okaykayo!" and the two of them spent about five years bonking real-life mobsters, recalcitrant Nazis, mad scientists and Communist spies alongside other peculiar Golden Age heroes. Ricky disappeared when he was sixteen, the same night that a studio fire destroyed the original prints of the Clown Town shorts and that was the last anyone saw of KO Clown for decades. Clown Town faded into obscurity by the end of the 1950s, and remained an obscure "lost media" curiosity until 2023 when a forgotten film reel was discovered by a film historian. As luck would have it, that historian had a ten year old daughter and the magic word worked as well for her as it had for Ricky Little. It took a while to explain concepts like "child endangerment" to KO Clown, but he eventually accepted that things had changed. He now works with a minor superhero team rather than a unpowered preteen crimefighting partner. Many villains hate him with a passion - getting beaten silly by an old-fashioned cartoon is embarrassing - but he's actually got his fans even in the supercrime community. But no matter how busy things get, he still makes time to visit little Susie and always comes when she calls out "Okaykayo!" Her father is still digging into KO Clown's past, and there are some things buried there that might be awkward for everyone involved. If KO Clown can manifest here in the real world, why not other cartoon characters like Mister Mean? And what happened to Ricky Little? Description: A cartoon clown. Tall, gangly, rubber-limbed, wearing bright blue pants, a canary yellow shirt with big red buttons, white suspenders and gloves, and enormous red clown shoes. Frequently carries the tools of his trade, with his powers letting him conjure an endless variety of pies, seltzer bottles, jugglers' clubs, rubber chickens and similar props out of thin air. His favorite "toy" is a huge red mallet that's taller than he is. His clown makeup changes to reflect his emotions, usually glad, sad, or mad. Sometimes he goes all monochrome just for the sake of nostalgia. Has a jolly voice and his movements are weirdly irregular, like early cel animation. Gender: Male Age: Clowns Are Eternal Height: 6'2" Eyes: Bright Blue Hair: Neon Green Fright Wig Skin: Pasty White Under The Clown Makeup Build: Lanky His greatest weakness is "Kissy Stuff" as he puts it. As a character from a 1930s children's cartoon who has the emotional maturity of a stereotypical ten year old boy, even mild displays of affection throw him off his stride. Explicit sexual displays are pretty much his Achilles' heel - assuming he even recognizes them for what they are. He may express concern about catching cooties when fighting female supervillains. Mister Mean Much like his nemesis, Mister Mean was a character from the 1930s "Clown Town" cartoon. He was the show's principle bad guy, always scheming to take over the town and make its citizens' lives miserable and always stopped in the end by KO Clown. It's not clear how he's followed the Clown to the real world in the 2020s - is there a rotten little kid behind it? - but he's back his old shenanigans. While technically a supervillain, his idea of an ingenious criminal plot tends to be childish, outdated, impractical or all three. He works very poorly with his peers, many of whom either baffle or secretly horrify him. His weird powers are useful enough that he does attract all manner of petty thugs as henchmen, although they're more interested in using him as a distraction while they get away with some actual loot - often in bags clearly labeled as such. To date he's proved impossible to arrest (much less imprison) as he melts away into a puddle of black ink when defeated, inevitably returning in weeks or months. It's quite possible that Mister Mean may only be the first Clown Town villain to manifest. The shorts did have other lesser baddies and there's obviously some kind of breach in reality revolving around the films. If the breach widens it may only be a matter of time until there's more criminal silliness going on. For now it seems Mister Mean is the only one carrying out schemes to counterfeit nickels, steal all the ice cream in the city, and turn everyone into mice. Description: A cartoon bad guy. He generally wears a black suit under a black overcoat and a tall, crooked stovepipe hat - black, of course. Short and scrawny with a hunched physique and arms so long his spidery hands drag on the ground. Carries a six foot long fountain pen that he impossibly tucks away in his coat when it's not needed. His inability grow suitably villainous facial hair is a sore point for him. Gender: Male Age: Timeless Classic Height: 5'0" Eyes: Red Hair: Black Skin: Sickly Green Build: Hunched Mister Mean's powers are very similar to KO Clown's, although he favors conjuring up comedically menacing weaponry with Transmutation instead of circus props. He's particularly fond of big round bombs (usually labelled as such) with sputtering fuses, jagged daggers that don't seem to actually draw blood, blackjacks and occasionally tommy guns when he's feeling like playing gangster. His signature weapon is a huge fountain pen that he can use to jab people, spray ink, or siphon energy from people - which leaves other cartoons all shriveled and puny but just makes real world folks intensely sleepy. His greatest weakness is extreme squeamishness about the sight of blood, which (as he puts it) just isn't natural. "Why are you people all full of red ink?" 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Stanley Teriaca Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 (edited) Hi. The former steriaca here. Let me try my hand in this. Vile Vinny Vile Vinny is basically a cartoonist gorilla shaped human with amazing superhuman strength and durability (doubly potent because of his Toon Force powers). If he can put his hands on something he can wreck it, but KO Clown can always fix the things he wrecks (it's a no range Transformation which "heals back" when a heroic Toon Force user wills it to be fixed and actually takes any action to fix it). He can normally lift a car with little effect, but has lifted things nobody could in the cartoons. Vile Vinny represents the stupid hulking bad guy who rampages around Clown Town and generally uses his great strength to ruin things around the town. It should be noted that Vile Vinny never met Mister Mean in the cartoons, and was probably reduced to never appearing in the comic at that time (because he never crossed dimensions he wasn't practically liked as a character). Vile Vinny dresses like a circus strongman, wearing a tiger pattern one piece with only one strap on his right shoulder. He is also covered with reddish brown fur (he is a pseudo gorilla after all), and mean red eyes. Edited January 2 by Stanley Teriaca Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 That's the ticket, all right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 2 minutes ago, Rich McGee said: That's the ticket, all right. Thank you. I was thinking about a variant of the Circus Strongman archtype. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 Kind of like this guy, but furrier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quackhell Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 Spring Shoe O'Sullivan A crackpot inventor and flimflam man who sold his "miraculous" gadgets and gizmos to the citizens of Clown Town. His gimmicks always end up failing in dangerous ways and would require KO Klown to come to the rescue of the poor suckers tricked by the conniving con man. He was inspired partly by the legend of Spring-heeled Jack and medicine show shysters. He was considered a minor character and only made one appearance in the shorts and returned briefly in the comics. He still managed to somehow break through the weakened dimensional barrier, but was easily defeated and hasn't been seen since. O'Sullivan wears a garish emerald green suit, bowler hat, a loud orange vest and bow tie. He is thin and sports slicked backed red hair and a handlebar mustache. As his nickname indicates his main gimmick is his spring-loaded shoes that allow him to leap great distances, but he would eventually lose control and careen around chaotically. He had other contraptions that were often Rube Goldberg type machines that ultimately performed mundane functions. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 Sounds good. Snake oil salesmen and their kin are very apropos for early animated cartoon baddies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 1 hour ago, Rich McGee said: Kind of like this guy, but furrier? Yep. That's the idea. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 1 minute ago, Stanley Teriaca said: Yep. That's the idea. I might be wrong (I sold my only copy of the mini years ago) but IIRC he's even holding one of those old-fashioned dumbbells - the ones with big spherical weights rather than discs - behind his back. He's technically supposed to be a zombie I think, but the only indicator is a couple of exposed ribs under a tear in his clothes, which are trivial to putty over if you want a live strongman instead. The image does not do justice to his glorious mustache, I might add. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 Princess Bareback The person called Princess Bareback is one of the most beautiful women in Clown Town. She is the daughter of the mayor of Clown Town, Mayor Ringmaster. While she doesn't actually directly commit crimes, she is madly in love with KO Clown and she deliberately makes herself the damsel in distress just to get his attention so she can subject him to mushy stuff, which of course causes him distress. She usually wears a beautiful light colored dress with a matching bonnet, her blonde hair in a ponytail then styled into long sausage ringlets which flows past her waist but above her knees, and big blue eyes with long eyelashes. As a damsel in distress mode, she usually finds herself also cocooned from shoulders to ankles in ropes and a bandana gag around her face. She doesn't actually have to be kidnapped to cause problems for KO Clown. Sometimes by stepping in between a fight to give him a kiss when he least can handle it for example. She is often found tied up near Mister Mean, but it should be noted that Mister Mean rairly ever actually kidnapped her. She is also a common victim of whatever flimflam device Spring Shoes O'Sullivan has convinced her could actually win her KO Clown's heart. While the character's idea and mode of dress is based on a twisted variant of the silent movie damsels in distress (already considered old hat by that state), her name comes from circus bareback horse riders. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 Good job. Well, that's three. If someone else has a team idea chime up and we can move on, otherwise this can rattle on a bit. I sure can't think of anything that hasn't been done already myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 3 Report Share Posted January 3 Hopalong Rabbit Questionable whether he's a villain, but Hopalong Rabbit is certainly a problem for OK Clown. He's actually Princess Bareback's pet rabbit, and isn't he just the cutest thing! Problem is, Hopalong has a habit of getting out of his cage, and into trouble. Like bouncing his way into a construction site full of dangerous machinery, or a factory loaded with the same. Of course, OK Clown will then have to save the little rabbit - isn't he cute! - and naturally, Hopalong is always just ahead of the pile driver's fall or the cutting saw's sweep - leaving the hapless clown chasing after him to take the hit... It should be noted that in all of the shorts Hopalong was in, at the end the bruised and battered OK Clown returned Hopalong safely to his cage - whereupon the camera zoomed in on Hopalong - who sniggered. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted January 3 Report Share Posted January 3 Rich, I am the unofficial archiver for the teams in the hero and villain threads. Link is below. The thread lists all the teams we have done and who did them. Amazingly there are a very few duplicate names amongst all the heroes and villains we have done and as we are close to 1000 teams and several thousand names that is an achievement. The ninth post contains potential ideas that we have not done yet. I also use it as an aide memoire for myself for villains yet to make a definitive appearance like Dr Reginald Penguin and Mylos Stempf. But it also contains ideas like using Batman's rogue's gallery as heroes. So if you want an idea you could find it here or let me know about an idea and I'll include it for later use. Last year I also set up a series of documents for each individual team. Bolo of Earth (as one of the prime movers behind the threads) is currently reviewing some of them. Stanley Teriaca, Do you want to be listed under your original ID for any new work or do you want the new ID to be used ? And that could be backdated if you so wish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 3 Report Share Posted January 3 3 hours ago, death tribble said: I am the unofficial archiver for the teams in the hero and villain threads. Link is below. The thread lists all the teams we have done and who did them. Amazingly there are a very few duplicate names amongst all the heroes and villains we have done and as we are close to 1000 teams and several thousand names that is an achievement. That's a lot of villains, all right. I have trouble keeping track of the mere ~250 on my Sentinels RPG blog, complicated by the fact that some of them are ports from other systems (mostly my old V&V days). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 3 Report Share Posted January 3 11 hours ago, death tribble said: Stanley Teriaca, Do you want to be listed under your original ID for any new work or do you want the new ID to be used ? And that could be backdated if you so wish Death Tribble, I have no preference. Do whatever is easiest for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 S Serious Sam Killjoy S Serious Sam Killjoy is a very serious man. In fact, he hates fun and doesn't actually want anyone having fun at all. Originally he was a simple Killjoy, content with preventing fun in his area. But after encountering KO Clown so many times his motivation is changed to kill KO Clown. This makes it 5 characters I believe. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 Yep, that's plenty. Someone else got a suggestion? I had enough trouble coming up with one, and that was without this godawful headache today. Groan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 1 hour ago, Rich McGee said: Yep, that's plenty. Someone else got a suggestion? I had enough trouble coming up with one, and that was without this godawful headache today. Groan. Usually the person who did the last entry in the last team or group is the one who starts the new team, unless he doesn't have any ideas. So I have first crack on the team theam. So...the new team is Hyde's Havocs. Six drug addicts who had a chance to have a chance to try a new drug invented by Professor Hyde. Since one of these people are the brick Blackhead, I only actually need five more people. The drugs interacted with the bodies in unpredictable ways which Hyde would probably be unable to reproduce. Not everyone is actually greatful to Hyde for the powers granted. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quackhell Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 (edited) Blood Rush Tommy Yuen was just trying to find an aid leading up to his college exams. Hyde gave him a drug that boosted his adrenaline output. It enhanced his senses, speed and strength to near superhuman levels. It also greatly increased his aggression. His addiction to the drug and his personality change drove away his friends and family and led him back to Hyde and his growing crew of underlings. He usually wears a black tracksuit with red stripes down the arms and legs and black fingerless gloves. When he is at his peak power the whites of his eyes go red as his blood vessels expand. He is usually the first into combat using his gymnastics background to flip around the enemy and land fast powerful strikes. He then gets clear so Blackhead can attack with his projectile blast on a weakened target. Unbeknownst to Yuen, one of his former friends made contact with the masked martial artist vigilante Shadowmoon to try to track him down and help him reform and get clean. Edited January 6 by Quackhell Stanley Teriaca 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 Rainbow Ray Mike Raynes would really get at Professor Hyde if he could but he can't. He was one of the test subjects for Hyde and was a junkie but what happened to him was extraordinary. For the mixture of drugs caused Mike to spontaneously develop superpowers by changing him into a woman. From a dishevelled, ignorant slob Mike was transformed into a voluptuous paladin. She has a variety of energy powers but not any movement ones and they are all different colours. She can make holes in walls, cause explosions and vary an energy blast to just knock someone off their feet, stun them or completely incinerate them. She takes the drugs in order to stay as the superpowered form and not return to being Mike. Mike wants to come back but Rainbow Ray wants to live so will do anything for Hyde that will let her live. ; Stanley Teriaca 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 Desperationado Kelly Bight was into drugs from the minute he was introduced to them. Hs mother blamed his genetics - his father, Peter Briggs, had been a stoner for years before he went into the army and disappeared. (https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/74339-create-a-villain-theme-team/page/202/#elControls_2828297_menu). By the time Professor Hyde showed up, Kelly was an emaciated shell, the kind of semi-alive thing that shows up on anti-drug PSAa. He was desperate for his next fix. Kelly hit the jackpot, at least as far as any super-soldier or enhanced human project would be concerned. He came out of his coma built like a Greek God, with bulletproof skin, faster and stronger than any ten men, able to leap hundreds of meters, with enhanced senses including supersensitive hearing and telescopic vision. Incredibly tough, and even if injured, he healed in minutes. However, the mind inside the physical god was still Kelly Bight, and nothing had changed there. Kelly's physical addictions were cured, but his mental ones still raged - and he could not get high. His new body just cycled any drugs he took back out again with no effect. Alcohol he could drink by the kiloliter with no effect. Injectables? First, try to get through his steel-hard skin, and even if you do - no effect at all. Pills? Might as well have been sugar. Kelly's body may be that of a god, but his mannerisms are those of a junkie. That, and his obvious looks of desperation, have given him his name - Desperationado. Stanley Teriaca 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 Just added to my Professor Hyde thread what Professor Hyde basically thinks about his test subject brigade. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 (edited) This one is not one of the five I'm looking for. Just enjoy this entery. The Overdose The mysterious man who is now known as the Overdose was a male test subject (more likely a homeless person who he took from tbe street) who actually died of the drug tested upon him. But unlike others who died, the body still moves on, various drugs dripping from his skin which makes contact with this drug zombie dangerous. Hyde keeps him locked up in his own private cell, since he can't exactly control him at all. Only Professor Hyde knows about him, but everyone knows about the door nobody is allowed to open and the room nobody is allowed to enter. Edited January 7 by Stanley Teriaca Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Teriaca Posted January 8 Report Share Posted January 8 There s still one more villain to create before we shift into the next team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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