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.

My dad would often record shows off TV to VHS for us, and looking back we'd end up with some pretty obscure stuff.

One cartoon that I've tried repeatedly to find again over the years was a kind of anthology of various Grimm's fairy tales. The animation was sort of rotoscoped in places, and I later found out they were Soviet-era cartoons, but the art from some of the stories really stuck in my brain.

In particular there was a story about some kind of ice mountain, and I think two children had to go there for some reason and confront the kind of dour king who lived there. All I really remember is the image of the mountain itself, that was very geometric and sparkling. All I've ever been able to find was one of the short tales from the collection about the Fisherman and the Golden Fish. The imagery in general stuck with me:

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

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...

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

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

Beakman’s lab. In Chinese

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

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

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?

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

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

I remember a few. I'm thinking they could be considered obscure to some degree, but mostly because I live in Europe. But I remember 'Mighty Max,' 'Captain N: The Game Master' and 'The Toxic Crusaders.'

'Toxic Crusaders' has an absolute banger of an intro song. XD

https://youtu.be/mf2_g52p__Y?t=13

The singer goes so hard.

I swear - there used to be a segment on CBC kids where children would submit short films they had made. The mascot was an electric wall outlet; I have not been able to find anyone else who remembers this but it was definitely real because I have a number of home movies I wanted to submit to it.

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!

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

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

Clutch Cargo

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.

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