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1[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/silverhawks.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:280:"Wings of silver, nerves of steel... Silverrrhawwwwks!" [[note]]Back row, left to right: Bluegrass (in cowboy hat), Steelwill, Steelheart, Quicksilver. Foreground: The Copper Kidd[[/note]]]]
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4''[=SilverHawks=]'' is sort of a mashup of ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'' (JustForFun/InSpace) and ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman''. It's a [[Creator/RankinBassProductions Rankin/Bass]] AnimatedSeries from [[TheEighties 1986]] that shares most of its producers, creative teams[[note]]including Pacific Animation Corporation and their [[Creator/HanhoHeungUp four]] [[Creator/AnimeR uncredited]] [[Creator/{{AIC}} sub]][[Creator/WangFilmProductions contractors]][[/note]] and VoiceActors with its predecessor.
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6The [=SilverHawks=], the "partly metal, partly real" space law-enforcement for the Limbo Galaxy (which wasn't much bigger than a solar system) oppose The Mob, run by the evil Mon*Star.
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8Now has a [[Characters/SilverHawks character page]], currently under construction.
9
10In 2021, new ''Silverhawks'' [[https://preorder.super7store.com/collections/silverhawks-ultimates-wave-1-figures action figures]] were produced for the collectors' market, followed by [[https://deadline.com/2021/07/silverhawks-80s-tv-show-animated-nacelle-1234789025/ the announcement]] of a {{revival}} of the animated series.
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12----
13!!''Wings of silver, tropes of steel/[=SilverHawks=]!''!
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15* SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon: As usual for syndicated MerchandiseDriven cartoons of the era (though more on this further down).
16* AbortedArc:
17** In Part One of "Gangwar", Melodia and Poker-Face steal back the money Mon*Star took as his cut from the casino. When he finds out it was them and not a new gang, he is not happy. Then in Part Two, he rebuilds the Sky Chomper and attacks Hawk Haven with it. Melodia and Poker-Face don't even appear.
18** In "Zeek's Power", Zeek convinces the Magic Orb that he's Hotwing in order to obtain Hotwing's powers. The Orb threatens to destroy Zeek if it finds out he deceived it. At the end of the episode, Zeek gives Hotwing his powers back without incident.
19* AffectionateNickname: The Mob members had a few of these, surprisingly: Windhammer was Windy, Poker Face was Pokey and Mo-Lec-U-Lar was Mo.
20* TheAllegedCar: In the episode "The Great Galactic Race", Hardware races the titular race (and does his part in Mon-Star's scheme to exploit the distraction of the whole of Limbo watching the race to pull heists around the system) with an alleged Mob roadster. It's slow, it tosses smoke, and the only reason he is able to shoot down Bluegrass when he tries to blast him with the roadster's cannon is because the Maraj is flying too close and gets peppered with red-hot shrapnel of the cannon blowing up.
21* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: A subversion. It's a short astronomy lesson, mostly about the solar system and its nine planets (the show was produced before [[PlutoIsExpendable Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet]]) presented within the context of Bluegrass training the Copper Kidd as a pilot. And then it became plot-relevant, when in one episode Bluegrass was captured, and the team had Copper fly their ship to get him back, specifically referencing his pilot training sessions.
22* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: While all of the original main heroes, except Copper Kidd, have military ranks these seem to have little bearing on their actual positions. Bluegrass, a colonel (presumably Air Force), technically holds the highest comparative rank out of everyone but is clearly below Commander Stargazer and (Lieutenant) Quicksilver on the team.
23* ArtisticLicensePhysics: In this show, space has air. And also a "down." A few harmless insectoid workers get thrown off a ship in one episode, and this is as close to an on-screen death as we usually get. Not only has it a "down," but down apparently means Earth. One episode had the good guys in peril of falling all the way down to Earth and going splat. Since people got cyborged so they could survive the long journey from there, it would probably take a while. There's a hero (Bluegrass) and a villain (Melodia) who both use sound-powered weapons in the vacuum of space, and the characters in general can talk in space.
24* BadGuyBar: The Sinistar Saloon. [[FrothyMugsOfWater 100% alcohol-free]].
25* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Yeah, it's by the people who did ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'', alright.
26** Of course it says something that this was one of the ''least'' ridiculous things about the way the cartoon treated how space works. The creators at least ''tried'' to make it believable by having the characters pull a visor over their faces anytime they have to actually fly around outside their Cool Starship; they still had an arm exposed to the sub-zero temperatures and vacuum of space.
27* BittersweetEnding: In the final episode "Airshow" the Mob is beaten once again but the Silverhawks are disheartened by how easily the Mob was able to get the drop on them. However, Stargazer cheers them up by saying it made for one heck of an airshow.
28* CardboardPrison: The Silverhawks are pretty good at getting the Mob sent to jail. Now if only the jail was just as good as keeping hold of the Mob...
29* CoolStarship: The Maraj. Aesthetically pleasing design, it also contains compartments to launch each of the [=SilverHawks=] from, and the main cockpit can detach into a fighter-like mode while the rest of the craft goes invisible.
30* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Steelheart accidentally crushes an alien's fingers when she shakes his hand. Steelwill says this trope almost word for word.
31* TheDreaded: Human gangsters in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, mentioned in the episode "Battle Cruiser". Mon*Star had his people steal heavy weaponry from the Silverhawks to outfit the titular cruiser and send it to blow away that city, instead of using "the might, the muscle, the menace of Mon*Star".
32* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In "Journey to Limbo" Buzz-Saw is destroyed in battle, which never happens again.
33* {{Environment Specific Action Figure}}s: The action figure line included Quicksilver, Steelwill and Bluegrass in "ultrasonic suits" as well as their regular outfits.
34* EpisodeTitleCard: Yet another element the series has in common with ''Thundercats''.
35* EverythingInSpaceIsAGalaxy: The show is repeatedly mentioned to take place in "the Limbo Galaxy", even if all of the events of the series happen within a single solar system and surrounding light-year-wide perimeter.
36* EvilTwin: The Mob builds one of Quicksilver, named Darkbird.
37* ExpositoryThemeTune: "Partly metal, partly real..."
38* {{Expy}}:
39** The BigBad is a gravelly voiced villain who has his own transformation phrase and can transform into a much more powerful form. [[WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985 Hmm, on what show was there also a character like that?]] In fact, both villains were voiced by the same actor (Earl Hammond in English, Silvio Navas in the Brazilian dub).
40** The Silverhawks as a whole are this to the Thundercats. Steelheart, in particular, fills Cheetara's role as the show's [[TheSmurfettePrinciple sole]] ActionGirl. Once again, the Brazilian dub emphasized it, having voice actress Carmen Sheila dubbing both heroines.
41** Fitting the noir-ish setting, Seymour took elements of cab driver Shrevie from ''Radio/TheShadow'' combined with vocal mannerisms from the ''passenger'' in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKIAsHOgiJ0 Burns & Schreiber's Taxi Cab sketch]].
42* FangsAreEvil: Quicksilver's evil twin, Darkbird, is differentiated by having fangs when he's unmasked.
43* FilmNoir: Although the series was entirely in color there's trace elements of noir here and there, like Stargazer's old school office, or Mon*Star being basically a mob kingpin with his own gang. Later addition Condor was explicitly a detective in the film noir style, with somewhat obsolete tech and a [[TwoFistedTales two-fisted attitude]] to make up for it. (At least, as much of a two-fisted attitude that you could get away with in a 1980s cartoon.)
44* FrothyMugsOfWater: The frequently seen outlaw bar on planet Fence has a clearly visible sign that says "No Alcohol". This looks more like it's written on the wall behind the bar as a post production bit of censorship, but there ''was'' at least one, albeit brief, time a character commented on it.
45* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In one episode, Volt-Ure blasts a pilot out of his ship and Mo-Lec-U-Lar quips that they "gave him the bird", which most definitely had to have been against the Standards and Practices of Children's Network Television back in TheEighties.
46* HeterosexualLifePartners: Seymour and Zeek.
47* HollywoodCyborg: The [=SilverHawks=] themselves.
48* HumansAreWarriors: One episode featured a plan to move in and take over organized crime on Earth. However, since "Those Chicago boys are pretty tough", Mon*Star and his gang weren't willing to just try to land and take over. Instead, they attempted a ColonyDrop. Human gangsters are so terrifying that even Mon*Star doesn't want to fight them face to face.
49* InstrumentOfMurder: Bluegrass's guitar and Melodia's keytar.
50* {{Leitmotif}}: All over the place (a big-band "sleazy" number for the casino and bar, a noir-esque piano piece for Stargazer and scenes within his office, ThemeMusicPowerUp for when the Silverhawks move into action, etc).
51* MaleGaze: Steelheart gets quite the pan up on her body in the TitleSequence.
52* MemoryJar: Recurring villain Zero the Memory Thief stores the memories he's drained on tapes worn on his chest.
53* MerchandiseDriven: Initially an AvertedTrope. [[WordOfGod One of the series creators]] had become tired of seeing cartoons based upon toys and decided to create an original cartoon as an act of rebellion. However, before the end of the first season, fans were demanding toy versions of the characters, subverting the aversion. Creator/{{Kenner}} wound up making ''[=SilverHawks=]'' action figures, and there was plenty of other merchandise as well.
54* MethuselahSyndrome: People apparently measure their lifespans in the ''millennia''.
55** Considering that their civilization has FasterThanLightTravel and {{cyborg}}s that breathe in space, [[FridgeBrilliance it actually makes sense]] to have that kind of longevity. With that kind of biotech, a century's lifespan would be ridiculously small.
56* MildlyMilitary: Despite the military ranks most of the characters possess, they behave more as a team of peers. They also observe very little military protocol.
57* MirrorMoralityMachine: In "Switch", there's a gas that temporarily switches people's moralities. The [=SilverHawks=] become robbers and the mob captures them. Once Mon*Star and his mob are back to normal, they moan over the fact they returned the stolen money and then they try to take advantage of the fact most [=SilverHawks=] are in prison.
58* MsFanservice: Being the [=SilverHawks=]' sole woman member, Steelheart's cyborg body gets a special MaleGaze treatment in the opening sequence.
59* NeverRecycleYourSchemes: Played with in the episode "Magnetic Attraction"; when Commander Stargazer gives Steel Will a [[ReversePolarity polarity reverser]] to deal with the bad guys' gimmick of the episode, Will asks how he had one handy. Stargazer replies it's not the first time they've tried it, it's just the first time since the [=SilverHawks=] were around.
60* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Condor's voice is an imitation of Creator/HumphreyBogart.
61* NoHuggingNoKissing: The closest to romance was in "Stargazer's Refit" with the implication that Stargazer and Mavis used to be an item.
62* NonIndicativeName: Quicksilver is the only Silverhawk who is actually silver.
63* OneWordTitle: The series itself, plus quite a few of the episodes.[[labelnote:List]]"Darkbird", "Fantascreen", "Smiley", "Gotbucks", "Undercover", "Flashback", "Switch", "Gangwar", "Moon*Star", "Burnout" and "Airshow".[[/labelnote]]
64* OperationBlank: The episode "Operation Big Freeze".
65* PhlebotinumBattery: A villainous example. In one episode, Mon*Star is captured and jailed, and Hardware pretends to be captured in order to smuggle in a box full of the Moonstar's energy.
66* {{Planetville}}: Paired with PlanetOfHats and ItsASmallWorldAfterAll. Most of the planets in the "galaxy" of Limbo are extremely small (little more than asteroids) and characters casually come and go from the exact locations on a given planet that they need to get to. Most planets also have a single overriding theme.
67* PreppyName: Comic book character Percunius Wadsworth Wellington the 62nd.
68* RoguesGallery: Mon*Star and his mob fill this role for the [=SilverHawks=], fittingly enough. The specific members of Mon*Star's mob are Yes-Man, Hardware, Melodia, Windhammer, Molec-U-lar, Mumbo Jumbo, Poker-Face, Buzz-Saw and Timestopper. Other villains include Zero the Memory-thief (who worked occasionally with Mon*Star's mob), the Rhino, the Cyclops, the Space Bandit and the Bounty Hunter.
69* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale,SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance;
70** When the "Limbo Galaxy" is introduced in the pilot episode, the main characters supposedly have to be converted to cyborgs because it's the only way they can survive such a long trip. The distance is then stated as two light years, which is half of the distance from Earth's sun to the closest neighboring star. If it were truly another galaxy, then it would be more like THREE MILLION light years. And three million light years is considered a very close neighbor in real-world intergalactic terms.
71** Furthermore, the Silverhawks are also supposedly assigned to patrol ''a whole galaxy'', and all of the action happens on what, at most, seems to be a single solar system (and how long it takes to get from one planet to another depends strictly on TravellingAtTheSpeedOfPlot).
72** The most absurd example is in one of the later episodes where Commander Stargazer's been fitted with a time bomb. He thinks he's about to blow up, but Moonstryker cheerfully reminds him there's an hour difference between "Earth time" and "Limbo time" and they're still in the clear. The idea that there'd only be one time zone for a whole planet, let alone a whole ''galaxy,'' boggles the mind.
73* SixthRanger: The original [=SilverHawks=] got four new teammates (Hotwing, Flashback, Condor and Moonstryker) midway through the series.
74* SlippedTheRopes: The villains break Mon*star out in one episode after he got jailed again. As part of the plan, Hardware is brought in to be jailed, handcuffed, by Molec-U-Lar transformed into Quicksilver. Once inside, it turns out not only do the cuffs allow to be removed at any moment, they have an in-built jack strong enough to force the cell bars apart.
75* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Occurs on both sides with Steelheart (good guys) and Melodia (bad guys). Unusually for this trope, the two are not arch-enemies. Instead, Steelheart usually faced off against Mumbo Jumbo (since both had SuperStrength) and Melodia against Bluegrass (since both used music-based sonic weaponry), averting DesignatedGirlFight.
76* SomewhereAnOrnithologistIsCrying: Very weirdly averted. Tallyhawk not only ''looks'' like a classic Red-tailed Hawk, he ''calls'' like one[[note]]which isn't really that impressive, as the distinctive call of the red-tailed hawk is pretty much the [[StockSoundEffects standard sound effect]] used for ''all'' birds of prey in films and tv shows[[/note]] and often ''acts'' like one, too, albeit one with a wired-in controller.
77* SpacePolice: The premise of the show.
78* TheStarscream: Yes-Man of all people briefly becomes this in "No More Mr. Nice Guy".
79* SuperheroesInSpace: They were a team of cyborg superheroes protecting the Limbo Galaxy from the villainous Mon*Star.
80%%* SurferDude: Moon Stryker.
81* TeamPet:
82** Tallyhawk, Quicksilver's cyborg hawk. The rest of the team got their own Fighting Hawks later on: Sideman (Bluegrass), Rayzor (Steelheart), Stronghold (Steelwill) and Mayday (the Copper Kid).
83** Sky Shadow, for Mon*Star and the mob.
84** The first wave of the toy line had a robotic bird sidekick for every member of both the Silverhawks and Mon*Star's Mob, but only a few of them made it into the show. In addition to the ones mentioned above, Flashback had Backlash, Hotwing had Gyro, Stargazer had Sly-Bird, Condor had Jet Stream, Moonstryker had Tail-Spin, Buzz-Saw had Shredator, Mumbo-Jumbo had Airshock, and Mo-Lec-U-Lar had Volt-ure.
85* TeamTitle: The team's name is the Silverhawks.
86* TheTeaser: Each episode opened with clips from that day's story, accompanied by a {{narrator}} giving a brief plot synopsis.
87* TentacledTerror: Mon*Star's mode of transportation and battle mount is the Sky-Runner, a five-tentacled space squid clad in armor.
88%%* ThoseTwoGuys: Seymour and Zeek.
89* TransformationSequence: Combined with ByThePowerOfGreyskull, {{Anaphora}}, and AlliterativeList. Different in that the bad guy does it.
90-->[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxR3jUNQLgg "Moonstar of Limbo... give me the might... the muscle... the menace... of ''MON*STAR!!''"]]
91** Subverted in the episode "No More Mr. Nice Guy", where Yes-Man entered the transformation chamber with Mon*Star. Visually, he got all the same camera angles and dramatic poses that Mon*Star got, but he didn't actually physically change. (Seen in the above video link, starting at about 8:30) Then double-subverted when it was shown that he underwent a ''mental'' change, and may have gained some powers despite not looking any different.
92* UnwillingRoboticisation: Averted case with the Silverhawks. They all willing underwent being turned into cyborgs and showed no regret afterwards. Although it isn't shown if they had felt any apprehension before their transformation.
93* VillainExclusivityClause: Mon*Star as the BigBad in every episode.
94* WeirdSun: The Artificial Sun, a titanic flashlight at the edge of the sector.
95* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In "Junkyard Dog" Mo-Lec-U-Lar steals components for Commander Stargazer while disguised as trash collector Dirty Larry. You'd think Dirty Larry is an identity Mo-Lec-U-Lar made up but he's attacked several times by Larry's robot dog Junk, implying that Larry does exist. Yet we never find out where he is.
96** Darkbird, Quicksilver's Mob-created EvilTwin, does not ever appear again unlike other Mob SixthRangers.
97* WildCard: Seymour. While he'd make runs for the Silverhawks in his taxi, usually for payment, he'd also provide taxi service for the mob. Above all, he's more concerned with [[OnlyInItForTheMoney making a living]] and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere saving his own hide]] rather than taking sides between the two factions, "[[{{Catchphrase}} ya know what I mean]]"?
98* TheXOfY: The episode titles "The Threat of Dritt" and "The Star of Bedlama".
99* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Implied in the pilot, where Mon*Star begs the guards to release him. They state they remember what happened to the last guy who fell for that.

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