Batman and Luke Skywalker
(& a secret dark heart that pulled, a bit, for Skeletor)
Peter Venkman. I wanted to fight ghosts too.
EeK! The Cat. It never hurts to help!
Hey, what about good ole Dick Dastardly? Jeez, I was always hoping he would manage to catch that messenger pigeon, and cheering for him to win at least one single Wacky Race, despite all the cheats. He was too cool.
[Stop the pigeon,
Stop the pigeon,
Stop the pigeon,
Stop the pigeon,
Stop the pigeon,
Stop the pigeon, NOW!
Mine was Captain Avatar from “Star Blazers.” What a bad-ass.
When I got a little older, it was Jason from “Battle of the Planets.” But I gave that up once I’d found out paulberserker already wanted to be him.
Thankfully, my Thundarr the Barbarian period was very short-lived.
That would be Princess.
I guess he’s not a cartoon as such but after seeing the Shepard illustrations and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) I had the biggest crush on Christopher Robin. Thus began, at the tender age of 5, my weakness for English guys with floppy hair.
Spider-Man (the original hard-luck hero)
Optimus Prime (who fought and DIED for the notion that “freedom is the right of all sentient beings”)
Dr. Peter Venkman (ultra-cool–more like a game show host than a scientist!)
My favorite comic book hero, although he has yet to be depicted in a cartoon, has always been The Blue Beetle, who combines all the best aspects of Batman and Spider-Man:
http://www.geocities.com/bigbadvoodoolou/comics.html
Hey, You beat me to it. I swear to God I come in here and I’m thinking the same thing. “Hong Kong Phooey, faster than the human eye!”… I would watch it early in the morning before going to school. What could be better than the voice of Scatman Carrothers and the moves of Bruce Lee! What was the dry, sidekick, cat’s name? It just occured to me, he’s the Garfield prototype!
That, and I remember cherishing every barely visible, white snow crackling, no horizontal hold, Black and white TV episode of Ultraman. I’d get home from school and fiddle with the rabbit ears for half the show trying to get a little peak of Ultraman. It was way out of broadcast range on channel 20 out of Detroit or Cleveland and I never saw a full, intelligible, and clear show but I still loved it.
There was a period of time as a kid I wore a “Thing” T-shirt (I think he was one of the fab 4 …the hulkish guy made out of conglomo rocks…indestructible). But it was just a shirt I had, I didn’t really identify or even know much about him.
Have to admit, Popeye. rrrooowwrrr.
“My name is Adam - Prince of Eternia and defender of the secrets of Castle Greyskull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend. Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said…”
Of course, I actually might have been more of a She-Ra guy. I can never remember who I liked more.
I wanted Race Bannon bad when I was five. Not that I would have known what to do with him if I’d gotten him. That wouldn’t be a problem anymore, Race darling…
Wow, I too was a huge Venkman fan. Seems be a lot of others in here.
Now, you guys are all going to laugh at me, but I was incredibly jealous of Kit “Cloud Kicker” from Tail Spin. He never went to school and got to spend his days surfing out the back of an airplane. If I only I could live in cartoons 
Mine was Quick Draw McGraw, but I dropped him when I discovered Astro Boy.
My memory isn’t all it should be in regard to this:
If we’re talking strictly animated then the first was either
Tom Terrific - http://www.tvparty.com/spotpix9/terrific4.gif
Or
Tobor the 8th Man - http://www.alphalink.com.au/~roglen/8man1.jpg
Popeye was also important early on, but I never “played” Popeye for some reason.
I remember pretending to be both, but can’t actually remember my age at doing either (since I had such a prolonged childhood, not like today when it’s over at say 8 and you discover hip hop, sex, and MTV, though not in that order)
If you expand it, then The Rifleman, Roy Rodgers, The Lone Ranger and Tonto were a huge influence, as was Batman (from the comics, not the TV show).
Tarzan.
When I was a kid, on Saturday mornings they had some kid of Tarzan and Lone Ranger hour (no, the characers’ weren’t together, just back to back). I thought Tarzan was really cool because of the animals.
But prior to that, there was a live-action, Buck Rodgers-like show (when I was about four years old) called Jason of Star Command. The hero was a guy who dressed like Han Solo. It took place in the same reality line as Space Academy.
I loved, loved, loved that show as a kid. Wanted to be a sidekick, deperately!
Another vote for the spinach-eating sailorman, but only the original cartoons from the Fleischer studios.
Powdered Toatman, the only superhero whose alter-ego is a clergyman.
That assumes “when you were little” means when I was in my late 30s.
If it means when I was a wee child, Batman & SpiderMan.
I’m shocked I klnow this but:
The name was Spot. I never di figure that out, but i loved his magic car.
I liked Dynomut, Bugs Bunny and Spiderman.
I was a He-Man fan until She-ra debuted, after which my loyalties switched.
I was also a huge fan of Voltron. I remember thinking the Princess was pretty cool, but that I would never want to take her place because I never liked pink.
Damn, he was mine too. I also liked Speed Racer and Racer X… basically anyone who raced around in cool cars.
I was never a huge fan of the anime (Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets) cartoons as a kid. Too much “Let me heroically sacrifice myself for everyone else!” going on. I always wanted to say “Ya know, if you could just stop sacrificing yourselves heroically, maybe we could get something done around here.”
I loved the Batman and Robin TV show. As a kid, I actually thought it was serious. :rolleyes:
I wanted that utility belt so badly. I was amazed that it had everything you could possibly need. “Fortunately I had the Bat Turnip Twaddler and was able to make short work of The Root Vegetable Robber.”