Why is Kenner credited for creating the 3 3/4 scale?

[tmthor]

Not to mention Microman in '74.

People don't do their research, to many websites and blogs, not getting Star Wars killed Mego, Star Wars created 3 3/4" and was also the first merchandising blitz based on a movie (Apes takes that crown).

I was always told that Star Wars was the most successful Movie marketed toy out selling POTA. and what else i have always believed was Star wars set the 3.75 inch figure as the standard not that they were first on the scene ....remember the prototypes were built of of Fisher Price Adventure people.

[palitoy]

I was always told that Star Wars was the most successful Movie marketed toy out selling POTA. .

Absolutely more successful, no argument there, but not first. That's the bad narrative that bugs the hell out of me.

The Adventure People were huge BTW, by 1976 the format was knocked off by many other companies. Here is an article about the trend in the toy industry prior to SW being released:

[SainthoodDenied]

I love the FP Adventure People, They were some of my favorite toys as a kid, I had quite a few sets back then. The North Woods Trailblazer was always my favorite, I have a set now on my shelf with a couple other sets from the line.
I've always thought a lot of people must not of had or remember them when they claim SW was the first in that scale.

[El Hombre Nuclear]

Oh my goodness, that pic/article is awesome. Adventure People, early Schaper Playmobil, M.A.C.... If I had seen that spread as a 3 year old my brain would have exploded.

And yeah, the Adventure People were actually successful enough that they even had their own knock-off line, although I seem to be one of the only people alive with an active memory of these things. Behold the Tonka Play People (1978-1981):

http://www.battlegrip.com/tonka-play-people/

That newspaper ad gives me the chills, as I actually got the Explorer Jeep set at Christmas '78. Check out this sweet card art, too. So indicative of the era... It's like being back at my family's summer lake house circa 1980:



Sorry if I'm getting too off-topic here. But yes, the Star Wars myth has gotten out of control over the years. Even if most people don't know stuff like Little Legends of the West, you'd think Adventure People and Microman/Micronauts were popular enough that it wouldn't be so hard to do a little basic fact checking.

[tmthor]

Oh my goodness, that pic/article is awesome. Adventure People, early Schaper Playmobil, M.A.C.... If I had seen that spread as a 3 year old my brain would have exploded.

And yeah, the Adventure People were actually successful enough that they even had their own knock-off line, although I seem to be one of the only people alive with an active memory of these things. Behold the Tonka Play People (1978-1981):

http://www.battlegrip.com/tonka-play-people/

That newspaper ad gives me the chills, as I actually got the Explorer Jeep set at Christmas '78. Check out this sweet card art, too. So indicative of the era... It's like being back at my family's summer lake house circa 1980:



Sorry if I'm getting too off-topic here. But yes, the Star Wars myth has gotten out of control over the years. Even if most people don't know stuff like Little Legends of the West, you'd think Adventure People and Microman/Micronauts were popular enough that it wouldn't be so hard to do a little basic fact checking.

True but again I think it was more that they sett the standard as many lines that came out after were 3 3/4" instead of other scales.....Untill Masters of the Universe.

[El Hombre Nuclear]

Yeah, there's no doubt about that. But, it seems to me that the industry (including Kenner) already kind of knew where the market was heading after AP and Micronauts, so I don't think the influence of those lines should be as brushed-over as they often seem to be these days. I think a good analogy would be the (now basically forgotten) Fairchild VES/Channel F, and then Atari's reaction to that, which set the course for the whole video game explosion going forward. The ultimate success gets most of the credit, but the originator is often overlooked.

[jwyblejr]

True but again I think it was more that they sett the standard as many lines that came out after were 3 3/4" instead of other scales.....Untill Masters of the Universe.

Not really sure about them setting the standard either. If that was the case why did Hasbro wait until 1982 to go with that size with G.I. Joe? Why not start earlier? Sure others followed suit but not everyone.

[samurainoir]

I don't have access to any of my Star Wars Collecting books right now, and I have a terrible memory these days, but I want to say that this was initially perpetuated by Steve Sansweet in one of his books. I'll hazard a guess and say this earliest one from the nineties:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Concept-Screen-Collectible/dp/0811801012

[palitoy]

Yeah, Sansweet has made a couple of remarks that kind of slagged Mego's exploitation of the Ape's license as "just a couple of dolls with cloth costumes". He wants to rewrite history a little.

[Hedji]

From that book:

"We were hashing it around, "(Vice president of preliminary design at Kenner) (David) Okada says, "trying to decide what to do, when Bernie (Loomis, President of Kenner Products) held up his right hand, the thumb and forefinger apart, and asked, 'How about that big Dave?'" The Designer took a six-inch steel ruler from his shirt pocket, measured the open space at three-and-three-quarter inches, and the two men decided that would be as good a height as any for the hero, Luke Skywalker, with the other figures scaled from there.

Think this story is completely made up? I don't. And while the format certainly wasn't invented by Star Wars and Kenner, isn't it possible that they naturally arrived at the same existing scale as Fisher Price Adventure People and the like, and then used actual Adventure People for their prototypes?

That's a great book by the way, and I'm not a huge lover of Mr. Sansweet.

[cjefferys]

Yep, I remember reading that passage in that very book too. No idea if it's true or not, but that book is a really interesting read.

[El Hombre Nuclear]

From that book:

"We were hashing it around, "(Vice president of preliminary design at Kenner) (David) Okada says, "trying to decide what to do, when Bernie (Loomis, President of Kenner Products) held up his right hand, the thumb and forefinger apart, and asked, 'How about that big Dave?'" The Designer took a six-inch steel ruler from his shirt pocket, measured the open space at three-and-three-quarter inches, and the two men decided that would be as good a height as any for the hero, Luke Skywalker, with the other figures scaled from there.

Think this story is completely made up? I don't. And while the format certainly wasn't invented by Star Wars and Kenner, isn't it possible that they naturally arrived at the same existing scale as Fisher Price Adventure People and the like, and then used actual Adventure People for their prototypes?

That's a great book by the way, and I'm not a huge lover of Mr. Sansweet.

No, I don't think I can buy that. In an industry practically founded on shameless copying, cloning and passing fads, I would highly doubt that they just independently came up with an exactly 3.75 inch figure and scaled vehicle/playset model by sitting around in a boardroom making shadow-puppets with their fingers. When they were making these decisions, the AP line had already been around for 2 full years, was successful enough to have an ongoing TV marketing campaign and was obviously being written about in the industry trade publications. Also, Micronauts was just being launched by one of the biggest players in the industry to great fanfare. On top of that, this was during the exact same timeframe that larger-scale lines like G.I. Joe and Big Jim were being put out to pasture in North America, making it all the more obvious that the industry was starting to undergo a change. So, Kenner was totally oblivious to everything that their main competitors were up to and all that was happening in the industry, and it was just a big magical lightning bolt of divine inspiration? I'd say it's much more likely that Sansweet was simply painting the picture he wanted to sell to a captive audience of Star Wars superfans, rather than toy industry historians, in a pre-internet age when all of these facts weren't as hashed over and easily accessible. Just my opinion, of course.

[jwyblejr]

What I've always found funny was that with their next big line,they didn't even use that size. Not a knock against Super Powers,I've just always found that to be a little odd.

[Werewolf]

What I've always found funny was that with their next big line,they didn't even use that size. Not a knock against Super Powers,I've just always found that to be a little odd.

By that time MOTU had taken over and larger figures with action features had become popular. Also, from what I recall, they couldn't fit the punching, kicking mechanisms into the smaller 3 3/4 inch scale.

[PNGwynne]

How tall were the Butch & Sundance: The Early Days figures, or Indiana Jones? Would these have been transitional figures before Super Powers?