My Top 8 "Lone Chick" Cartoon Characters

They're the only female members of their respective groups and teams, and they're just as strong, in their own ways, as their male comrades. Here are my choices for the Top 8 "Lone Chick" Members of Otherwise All-Male Groups.

Princess, BATTLE OF THE PLANETS

Originally known as Jun from the anime SCIENCE NINJA TEAM GATCHAMAN, sixteen-year-old Princess is the pink mini dress-wearing Swan of G-Force, "facing untold danger" right along with her four male teammates Mark, Jason, Keyop, and Tiny. In civilian life, she runs a restaurant and plays the guitar.

When not aboard the team's ship, the PHOENIX, Princess drives the G-3 Motorcycle; when battling the agents of enemy planet Spectra, her hand weapon is an exploding yo-yo (don't laugh, it's deadlier than it looks). And although she can show signs of "female weakness" (getting captured by Spectra, or whimpering after a reprimand from her boss Chief Anderson, for example), she can turn around and face a horde of monster flowers and survive.

On BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, Princess was voiced by veteran voice actress Janet Waldo.

Wanda Kaye Breckenridge, THE HARDY BOYS

Before Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson played Franklin W. Dixon's teenage sleuth brothers, Joe and Frank Hardy were the stars of a late 1960s Filmation cartoon, where they also had a rock band (of course) with their pals Pete Jones (one of the first non-stereotyped black characters in animation), Chubby Morton (the comedy relief), and the babe in the band, platinum blonde Wanda Kaye Breckenridge.

Wanda Kaye insisted that she be part of the mystery solving, no matter how much the boys tried to exclude her because of the danger. But leaving her behind helped her prove her worth as she was the one who fished them out of trouble, wheedling out a reluctant "Thank you" from the guys.

But where Wanda really shone was in the song segments of the cartoon, predating music videos. Her go-go dancing while the boys sang and played was mesmerizing. There's nothing wrong with tradition!

Cyborg 003, CYBORG 009

The sixties-era manga-turned-anime CYBORG 009 was the story of nine people kidnapped from different countries and forced to be equipped with cybernetic superpowers by the enemy Black Ghost, then escaping to fight them and all kinds of evil.

Originally a French ballerina, Cyborg 003 had the least showy superpower of eyes and ears that could see and hear farther and clearly than normal. Yet she never felt less than her showier male teammates. Perhaps it helped that she wore the same pantsuit uniform that the men did. There was only one thorn in her side: dealing with balmy Brit Cyborg 007, one of the team's comedy reliefs.

Penny, the PLASTIC MAN franchise

Plastic Man was a ruthless gangster-turned-stretchable superhero from decades past in the comic books. The 1980s SatAm version was an agent for a covert crime-fighting organization, teamed up with his Hawaiian legman Hoola Hoola and his Southern-accented female teammate Penny, who flew their plane, the PLASTIJET.

In THE PLASTIC MAN COMEDY ADVENTURE SHOW, Penny was truly, madly, deeply in love with Plas, who didn't seem to want to reciprocate--in fact, he was attracted to their female boss, the Chief. But in the following season, he finally said, "I DO!", and soon they were blessed with a literal "bouncing baby boy," in THE PLASTIC MAN/BABY PLAS SUPER COMEDY SHOW. Good things come to girls who wait!

Kylie Griffin, EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS

EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS was the 1997 sequel to THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, in which Egon Spengler recruited four streetwise teenagers to fight a new, spookier crop of spooks. And one of those four, Kylie, was the team's first full-time female Ghostbuster. (Receptionist Janine Melnitz's part-time forays as a Ghostbuster don't count.)

The daughter of divorced parents, seventeen-year-old Kylie became interested in the paranormal after the death of her beloved Great-Grandma Rose--she even owns a black tomcat named Pagan. As part of the Extreme Ones, she was like a female Egon, using her brain power and the SPIRIT GUIDE book he wrote. That makes up for her using a lighter-weight proton gun than the guys so she can carry--and throw--the ghost trap.

Kylie was one to not tolerate fools lightly, and the fool she tolerated the least was her fellow 'Buster, Eduardo Rivera, the Latino Shaggy Rogers. The two had a "will-they-or-won't-they" attraction to each other, leaning more towards "won't they." Maybe if the show had a second season...

Sandy Devlin, DEVLIN

Hanna-Barbera's DEVLIN was the story of three orphaned siblings who formed a motorcycle stunt team working out of a small circus. Sandy was the eleven-year-old sister of twentysomething brothers Ernie (the stunt rider) and Tod (the mechanic/stunt coordinator).

Sandy's role in the family stunt team was to wave the "GO" flag when Ernie took off on his motorcycle. Aside from that, she was an animal lover, an expert minibike rider, and an accomplished chess player, beating her brother Tod every time. So she was very much her own young woman.

That doesn't mean Ernie and Tod don't worry over Sandy. In the episode "Dad's Friend," Frank, an old friend of their late father's, had a habit of telling "tall tales" about his supposed exploits around the world. The brothers feared Sandy was believing all these stories. Imagine their surprise--and relief--when she told them she knew they were whoppers. Tod was so proud of her, he gave her a big hug. Awwww!

Nova, STAR BLAZERS

Known in Japan as SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, STAR BLAZERS told the tale of the Star Force, a team of Earthlings flying in the giant spaceship, the ARGO, to save Earth from takeover by two different alien enemies in two seasons. Both seasons had Lt. Nova as the lone female member of the Star Force.

Nova did double duty aboard the ARGO, serving as a member of the bridge crew along with her love interest, Derek Wildstar; and as a nurse working under the ship's physician, Dr. Sane. At the end of Season One, Nova even risked her life to turn on a machine to eliminate a poison gas and save her fellow Star Forcers, recovering in the end.

Despite her serious role as a Star Blazer, Nova's mother and father still expected her to look for her future husband aboard the ARGO, wanting her to marry after saving the Earth. Parents.

Trixie, SPEED RACER

The American version of the anime MACH GO-GO-GO, SPEED RACER starred an eighteen-year-old champion race car driver and his adventures at the wheel of the powerful MACH 5. And on his team was his seventeen-year-old girlfriend Trixie.

Trixie must be short for "aviatrix," since besides being Speed's assistant driver and logistics person, she also piloted a helicopter and sometimes an airplane. In the episode "Junk Car Grand Prix," it was Trixie behind the wheel of a car built entirely of junk--winning the race!

Alas, even smart girls have their weaknesses, and Trixie's was bouts of jealousy of any girl who even looked at Speed funny, with Speed incurring his girlfriend's wrath. Hoo boy.

There are many other "Lone Chick" characters in Cartoonland; these are just eight of them, fine role models for little girls who are the lone sister in a family of brothers like, say--me!