Gumby was one of my first guitar heroes – I guess I could relate to him because I too played guitar, was besieged by Blockheads at every turn and would often escape inside books. By the way, anyone else think that Gumby’s guitar in this pic sort of resembles one of those awesome new Washburn HM series WMs?

CLICK HERE to buy Gumby – 7 Disc DVD Boxed Set w/Gumby figure.

3. Jem & the Holograms’ Aja Leith

Glamour and glitter, fashion and fame, Jem was truly outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous. And her guitar playing sidekick and adopted foster sister, Aja Leith, slung a mean axe on this classic 80s cartoon series. Rumours that Aja went on to become The Great Kat are unsubstantiated. One thing’s for sure though: when it came to throwing down mad lixx in the face of the shred onslaught that was the Misfits (no, not that Misfits, although that’d be cool), nobody rocked like Aja.

It didn’t matter that he was the only Silverhawk who couldn’t fly. It didn’t matter that his cowboy hat was grossly inadequate as any kind of protection from the harshness of space. It didn’t even matter that he kinda looked like George W Bush remade into a cowby cyborg. What mattered was that Bluegrass of the Silverhawks could totally shred, and that he piloted the Maraj by plugging his guitar in to the console and steering via the awesome power of rock (and maybe a little country). If only Detroit would team up with Nashville and implement this new steering system (Gibson, are you and your Robot Guitar listening?), we might pull ourselves out of this financial maelstrom.

She rocks the axe left-handed like Ziggy Stardust. She looks like Daisy from Rock Of Love. And as Muppet Central will tell you, she’s hooked up with at least two members of The Electric Mayhem (Floyd Pepper and Zoot, for those of you who haven’t been reading the tabloids). Nobody’s quite sure what Janice is up to these days – I’d like to think she’s living in the Village, surfacing occasionally to perform dimly-lit solo acoustic jazz sets in small cafes before heading back to her apartment, which is full of exotic cats and lovingly restored Gibson L5s and D’Angelicos – but I’m holding out for a reunion of Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem. Somebody get them on a package tour with The Banana Splits and GWAR.

CLICK HERE to buy The Muppet Show – Season One (Special Edition) on DVD from Amazon.com.