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

[palitoy]

In 1969 the Federal Communication Commission passed a landmark decision
effectively banning any and all children's television programming that was associated with a toy line.
The bill was instated under the concern that programming for children should be
educational, and that toy related tie-ins degraded children's programming to the status of
half-hour commercials

Yes BUT toy companies themselves were still free to license the properties after the fact. The law prohibited the toymakers from creating the property, that's the difference and what Dwayne is accurately stating.

[tmthor]

Oh, it's total semantics but that was the work around.

True but also some companies would utilize other forms of media....like We are making Toys based on the Comic not the cartoon....or Like with Dukes of hazzard and Hulk...they were not technically "Children's programming"

[tmthor]

The first Barbie cartoon was Barbie and the Rockers out of this world in 1987.

Barbie Mysteries was a show in development think of a Scooby Doo like show but starring Barbie.

[tmthor]

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.

In 1969 the Federal Communication Commission passed a landmark decision
effectively banning any and all children's television programming that was associated with a toy line.
The bill was instated under the concern that programming for children should be
educational, and that toy related tie-ins degraded children's programming to the status of
half-hour commercials

[ZombieJimC]

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

[ZombieJimC]

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

[Werewolf]

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.

[Bantha5]

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

[palitoy]

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.

[palitoy]

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.

[Werewolf]

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.

[enyawd72]

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.

[Werewolf]

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.

[enyawd72]

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.

[palitoy]

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.