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He-Man was not the first cartoon based on a toy or product

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  • Werewolf
    Inhuman
    • Jul 14, 2003
    • 14615

    He-Man was not the first cartoon based on a toy or product

    Here's a few that beat He-Man and Skeletor to animation.

    Raggedy Ann and Andy 1941
    Hot Wheels 1969
    Strawberry Shortcake 1980
    Pac-Man 1982
    Shirt Tales 1982

    He-Man and the Masters of the Universe didn't air until September 5th 1983 and only beat GI JOE to the air by seven days.
    You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...
  • Earth 2 Chris
    Verbose Member
    • Mar 7, 2004
    • 32498

    #2
    ^True, but I think the toy aisle-to-TV shows were prevalent in the 80s that He-Man gets a lot of credit for it. I knew G.I. Joe was around the same time, but I had no idea it was only 7 days later! AND, those G.I. Joe comic and toy commercials were airing before, and they had the same animation style and music, character designs, etc.

    Chris
    sigpic

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    • tmthor
      God of Knock-offs
      • Nov 29, 2005
      • 881

      #3
      Sort of True You could not make toys based on Children's cartoons from 1969 - 1982 because a law was passed. some skirted it slightly but to do a full on cartoon toy line series was a big no no.
      it was 2 cartoons that prompted it I believe it was because of Captain Hot wheels and the Barbie mysteries in 1969 but I could be wrong.
      Last edited by tmthor; Jul 2, '18, 2:10 PM.

      Comment

      • Werewolf
        Inhuman
        • Jul 14, 2003
        • 14615

        #4
        The first Barbie cartoon was Barbie and the Rockers out of this world in 1987.
        You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...

        Comment

        • palitoy
          live. laugh. lisa needs braces
          • Jun 16, 2001
          • 59200

          #5
          The Hot Wheels series was very controversial and actually caused a law to go into place restricting the relationships between toy lines and cartoons.

          All the rest of those properties skirted the law because they were merely IP that had merchandise. Sort of like Snoopy. I think a couple of those characters mentioned were owned by greeting card companies.

          Regan repealed that law in 1982, otherwise we'd have likely seen Big Jim, Barbie, GI Joe and Micronauts cartoons.
          Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions

          Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
          http://www.plaidstallions.com/reboot/shop

          Comment

          • enyawd72
            Maker of Monsters!
            • Oct 1, 2009
            • 7904

            #6
            Originally posted by tmthor
            Sort of True You could not make toys based on Children's cartoons from 1969 - 1982 because a law was passed. some skirted it slightly but to do a full on cartoon toy line series was a big no no.
            it was 2 cartoons that prompted it I believe it was because of Captain Hot wheels and the Barbie mysteries in 1969 but I could be wrong.
            That's not true at all. There were TONS of toys made throughout the 1970's of Hanna Barbera characters while the shows were on the air. Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, Flintstones, Wacky Races, Banana Splits...there were Looney Tunes toys, Jay Ward stuff like Rocky and Bullwinkle, Tennessee Tuxedo...there are THOUSANDS of items on Ebay. Figures, plushes, board games, puzzles, coloring books, soakies, you name it.

            Comment

            • Werewolf
              Inhuman
              • Jul 14, 2003
              • 14615

              #7
              Originally posted by palitoy
              TI think a couple of those characters mentioned were owned by greeting card companies.
              Strawberry Shortcake was created by Muriel Fahrion for Those Characters From Cleveland which was American Greetings toy and licensing division and Shirt Tales was a line of greeting cards and plush toys by Hallmark. Yeah, it's kind of splitting hairs but they were still product line with a cartoon.

              I do think it's a shame we never did get Big Jim, Micronauts or an Eagle Force cartoons. That would have been fun. Toys having cartoons is really not a bad thing. Just look at the Lego movies. I think Lego Batman is the best Batman movie we ever got. Not to mention Star Wars was always about selling toys. So, it's always struck me as smidge hypocritical to attack cartoons like He-Man or GI JOE when merchandising has been a big thing since the early days of Disney.
              You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...

              Comment

              • enyawd72
                Maker of Monsters!
                • Oct 1, 2009
                • 7904

                #8
                Originally posted by Werewolf
                Not to mention Star Wars was always about selling toys. So, it's always struck me as smidge hypocritical to attack cartoons like He-Man or GI JOE when merchandising has been a big thing since the early days of Disney.

                Totally agree. Besides, toys and cartoons had pretty much always existed side by side, so did it really matter which came first? So what if a cartoon is based off a toy line, or a toy line is based off a cartoon?

                Disney made thousands of toys based on their cartoon characters for DECADES going back to the 1930's.
                Last edited by enyawd72; Jul 2, '18, 4:04 PM.

                Comment

                • Werewolf
                  Inhuman
                  • Jul 14, 2003
                  • 14615

                  #9
                  I think the 69 Hotwheels cartoon would have flown under the radar if rival toy company Topper had not made a stink about it.

                  The cartoon is actually very loosely connected to the toy line. The only thing really in common is the name.

                  You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...

                  Comment

                  • palitoy
                    live. laugh. lisa needs braces
                    • Jun 16, 2001
                    • 59200

                    #10
                    Originally posted by enyawd72
                    That's not true at all. There were TONS of toys made throughout the 1970's of Hanna Barbera characters while the shows were on the air. Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, Flintstones, Wacky Races, Banana Splits...there were Looney Tunes toys, Jay Ward stuff like Rocky and Bullwinkle, Tennessee Tuxedo...there are THOUSANDS of items on Ebay. Figures, plushes, board games, puzzles, coloring books, soakies, you name it.
                    Yeah you could merchandise the characters but they had to come first. The reason we didn't get a lot more Saturday morning related toys was they were kind of risky if they got cancelled.
                    Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions

                    Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
                    http://www.plaidstallions.com/reboot/shop

                    Comment

                    • palitoy
                      live. laugh. lisa needs braces
                      • Jun 16, 2001
                      • 59200

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Werewolf
                      Strawberry Shortcake was created by Muriel Fahrion for Those Characters From Cleveland which was American Greetings toy and licensing division and Shirt Tales was a line of greeting cards and plush toys by Hallmark. Yeah, it's kind of splitting hairs but they were still product line with a cartoon.
                      Oh, it's total semantics but that was the work around.
                      Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions

                      Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
                      http://www.plaidstallions.com/reboot/shop

                      Comment

                      • Bantha5
                        Museum Super Collector
                        • May 2, 2013
                        • 182

                        #12
                        I’ve heard somewhere there was talk of an Art Clokey (Of Gumby fame) claymation tv show of GiJoe in the 60s.

                        Comment

                        • Werewolf
                          Inhuman
                          • Jul 14, 2003
                          • 14615

                          #13
                          I think toys like MOTU and GI JOE kind of skirted that line of being sort of a toy first and sort of an IP first.

                          SW also lead to their creation.

                          From what I've read Kenner had become THE toy company with SW. They also had become, maybe, a bit of a bully with it. Forcing retailers to carry less popular items or risk being shorted on SW toys. Hasbro and Mattel desperately wanted their Star Wars and retailers wanted new IPs to push back on Kenner. From the ground up a lot of thought, planning and back stories were created to flesh out the characters for MOTU and RAH. So, yeah, they are toys but they were also created like any other new story based property. Which, of course, could also be licensed out to other companies, just like SW, with additional merchandise like pajamas, Halloween costumes, story books, etc.

                          So, I guess, it's always been kind of a chicken and the egg kind of the thing with merchandising. Just like Disney knew and planned that their movies, cartoons and TV shows would sell a lot of toys.
                          You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...

                          Comment

                          • ZombieJimC
                            Persistent Member
                            • Mar 12, 2014
                            • 1246

                            #14
                            I dont remember that Hot Wheels cartoon at all. I would have like to have seen an Action Jackson cartoon.

                            Comment

                            • ZombieJimC
                              Persistent Member
                              • Mar 12, 2014
                              • 1246

                              #15
                              They could have used the theme from the AJ commercials. It was a catchy tune. Those commercials were Awesome.

                              Comment

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