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Chuck Norris’s Forgotten Cartoon: The Wild World of Karate Kommandos

Animated character with red hair and mustache on a gradient orange background. Text: "CHUCK NORRIS'S FORGOTTEN CARTOON."

Two "Black Belt Magazine" covers featured; one with a woman in a hat, the other with a man in a red gi. Spring '25 issue promotion.

When most people think of Chuck Norris, they picture Walker, Texas Ranger, his karate championships, or that legendary fight with Bruce Lee.


But here’s a curveball: in 1986, Chuck Norris had his very own Saturday morning cartoon. Yep—Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos.


The show only lasted five episodes, but if you caught it, you probably never forgot it. It had everything that made ’80s cartoons so gloriously over-the-top: ninjas, gadgets, a diverse team of sidekicks with names like Tabe the sumo wrestler and Pepper the tech whiz, plus villains with equally wild designs.


Oh, and Chuck himself led the team, of course—because who else would?


An animated scene shows a ninja in black attire confronting a man in an orange vest by a sea with mountains in the background.

Each episode opened with live-action Chuck giving kids a quick life lesson, then handed things off to the animated mayhem. Think G.I. Joe meets Saturday morning dojo. And yes, there were toys. Kenner made action figures, vehicles, and even a “Karate Corvette.” For a brief moment, Chuck Norris was on the same toy shelves as He-Man and the Ninja Turtles.


Looking back, the whole thing feels like a time capsule. The mid-’80s were peak martial arts mania: the Karate Kid movies were huge, Sho Kosugi had everyone obsessed with ninjas, and kids everywhere were signing up for classes at the local strip-mall dojo.


A Chuck Norris cartoon didn’t just make sense—it was inevitable.


Two animated figures, one in a blue outfit with a red bandana, face each other in a lush jungle setting. One wears a black mask.

Sure, Karate Kommandos wasn’t built to last. It came and went in a flash, and these days you’ll mostly find it living on through grainy YouTube uploads and collectible toy auctions. But it’s a fun reminder of just how big Chuck Norris was (and still is).


He wasn’t just a martial arts champion or a movie star—he was a full-blown pop culture hero, big enough to headline his own cartoon at the height of the Saturday morning era.


And if you were one of the kids who tuned in? You didn’t just watch Chuck Norris fight ninjas—you believed, at least for half an hour, that you could be a Karate Kommando too.



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