Remember when your parents used to tell that your childhood are the best days of your life? First of all, why did they do that? Were they just jealous? What did they think you would do with that information? What are you supposed to say to that?

Secondly, as much as it hurts to admit it, they were right.

Sure, being an adult has its advantages, right? You couldn’t drive a car, get drunk (legally) or have sex (again legally) when you were a kid. In fact, you had put up with quite a lot of crap as a youngster, like the whole ‘no you are too young to go the pub’ thing and those tortuous Saturday afternoons spent being dragged around the shops by your mum looking for new fucking shoes for school. (OK, there are a lot worse things about growing up, but these are the only two that are springing to mind at the moment).

The point is, despite all the growing pains, we all cherish our childhoods. Why? Because the world seemed a more exciting place, we guess. Now, we’ve seen it all before; got the T-shirt. Then, you just couldn’t wait for the next non-school day. You only need to look at the fun we have had compiling these cartoons to tell how important they are to us.We all remember the days spent waiting for the next instalment of He-Man or Transformers.

We chose the eighties (i.e. cartoons which mainly ran during that decade), mainly because most of us grew up then, but also because it seems to be a golden era of cartoons. Or maybe we are getting too excited again. Bloody kids! Anyway, enjoy!

18. Bananaman

Ok, he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box, but luckily he had the strength of 20 men and a slew of banana-based super powers at his disposal. Great theme tune too.

17. Visionaries

Was it just us, or did the bad knights come off worse in the animals they transform into? What chance does a snail or beetle have against a bear or a lion?

16. Dungeons and Dragons

Did they ever manage to get home?

15. Jem and The Holograms

The girls in the office convinced us to put this in.

14. The Mysterious Cities of Gold

Are these the ugliest cartoon characters ever?

13. Ulysees 31

Question: How do you make Greek mythology even more interesting? Set it in space. Dodgy beard though.

12. MASK

That’s Mobile Armored Strike Kommand to you. Really cool show in which the characters would gain special powers by putting on masks. Cue more merchandising opportunities.

11. Voltron: Defender of the Universe

The best thing about this cartoon series were the toys. Connecting a bunch of cool lion robots together to form a super robot (with questionable resemblance to Transformers) - how good is that? Parents liked it too, as they could stretch out the presents over many occasions. There was actually a couple of series of this show, when they decided to replace the five lions with a ridiculous army of cars, trucks, planes and helicopters.

10. Thundercats

Admit it, you are singing the theme tune right now. It’s surprising how many of the words you remember.

9. He-man and the Masters of the Universe

OK, so it’s just a little camp, but Skeletor has to be one of the most entertaining cartoon baddies. Can’t say the same about He-man, though. Was his voice always that odd? I guess too many steroids.

8. Dangermouse

We’re guessing there are a lot of British readers screaming for this to be number one. It was a sensational show, but we had to make some tough choices.

7. Inspector Gadget

Makes you wonder what other gadgets he has up his sleeves. We’ll let you think of the jokes.

6. GI Joe

Cartoon was almost has cool as the toys. Almost!

5. Spiderman and his Amazing Friends; and Spiderman (1981 animated series)

Who doesn’t love Spiderman?

4. Battle of the Planets

G-Force!! All we have to say is thank God for that R2D2 robot, otherwise we would not have had a clue what was going on. Mind you, with loads of action and cool spaceships, who cares? Didn’t the small one have tourettes?

3. The Smurfs

Quick question: Was Smurfette the only lady smurf? You know where we are going with this.

2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Whoever came up with the idea to have four mutant turtles being taught how to be a ninja by a giant rat was either on something very good or a certified genius. They just don’t make shows like that anymore.

1. Transformers

OK, so the whole idea was essentially to sell toys, but who cares?

Honorable mention: Astro Boy
Some of you may be screaming ‘WHERE IS ASTRO BOY’. We didn’t forget - this is an 80s cartoons countdown, and Astro Boy was broadcast first in 1963!