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Anonymous 04/22/13(Mon)17:03 No.48736720 O Replies:22487368342248737037 334 Alig First off you need to understand how much of a turnover there was in children's culture in the 80's. It begins with Star Wars Before 1978, Action Figures didn't exist. There were dolls, but the idea of large lines of toys with lots of characters, vehicles and accessories hadn't really caught on yet. Furthermore, science fiction was at best a marginally profitable genre, mostly enjoyed by reclusive intellectual guys in their 30's and 40's Even a successful cult favorite like Star Trek didn't really carry toys well Then came Star Wars, and George Lucas' canny marketing blitzkrieg. Kenner struck gold with the action figure line, and the chase was on. Suddenly kids all over the WORLD wanted to collect and play with their favorite characters. They were affordable, collectable and colorful. And other toy companies took notice The second thing to remember is Marvel Hasbro at this point had been doing their boy line Gl Joe for decades, but it had not been selling well lately as straight-up military man toys had been declining in popularity (party due to the whole Vietnam debacle). Hasbro looked at Star Wars, and created a downscaled version of Gl Joe. The focus of the line would be realistic military vehicles with action figures as accessories, and it would be Star Wars size to ride the popularity. They then turned to Marvel who had a very well-selling Star Wars comic going, and had previously helped market obscure lines like ROM and Micronauts for competing companies Marvel looked at the toys and wrote up a treatment about a covert action team fighting a bunch of evil terrorists, but the important aspect was that they gave each faceless "greenshirt" a compelling, interesting character. Every profile teemed with personality, even that black figure Hasbro had thrown together to save money on paint (he became Snake Eyes). Marvel then offered to make a comic and a cartoon (through their associate studio Sunbow). And it worked Anonymous 04/22/13(Mon)17:10 No.48737037 O Replies:2248737325 334 You see, before 1982 there was a law in effect in the US which prohibited television programming to present commercials aimed at children. But this law was repealed around this time, which opened the doors for companies to create toy-based "commercial" shows like Gl Joe, masters of the Universe and Transformers. Try to imagine pre-1982 television if you will, where there were NO commercial cartoons or live-action shows. You instead had long-dead or dormant properties like Flash Gordon, Tarzan, the Superfriends (who didn't get the "super Powers" toyline until after the law had changed) and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids So Gl Joe was on the air, and suddenly kids could collect the characters and vehicles, and play and then watch them come alive on saturday mornings. It was F------ HUGE as far as revelations in toy sales was. Hasbro naturally looked for more properties to continue the same concept, and they settled on the Takara (and other company) transforming robot toys. These had already been seeping into western toy stores for quite some time, but there had never been a huge marketing push based around them, so it was an area to be exploited Hasbro repeated their routine. They asked Marvel, Marvel wrote up a treatment which changed the faceless, unrelated toys into a cohesive mythology with memorable duration of G1. At the same time, Marvel t rac Marvel I most eve sformer character profile for the unbow set in motion the Transformers cartoon And if you were a kid born in the late 70's, you'd missed out on Star Wars when it was at its biggest, and you may have been into Gl Joe and He-Man, but nd fresh. The sforming gimmick the thing that sold it oon drove it home. EVER in television law saw tons of t the airwaves ad space". And for u oons van or we Optimus Prime, He-Man, Lion-O a lbowed eachother for valuable " kid it Marvel for this, bec sformers a thing. Old rtoons often s what mad eotypical evilbaddarknasty guys. But with Transformers all of a ona had rather bland heroes with the same nky southener robot, an upper al but very mechnical in his man uddenly you had Optimus robot, a dandy, a space-faring wei e brooklyn-pun me ew. It wa good ide and for the nly discovered BOTH action figures AND action figure cartoons many never left that s urday morning TV room. Many gre that times we nging. Action f older. When you're six or seven each summer seems to last forever. Impressions are etched in like a needle in a steel plate. You get older, things change quicker. It's like what Grampa Simpson said, some day you discover you don't know what "it" is anymore oons we sive doma Also it's important to remember s at t e SO MANY kids grew up watching Transformers s the market was not as clogged with different entertainment brand time, a lot of themm of drifted awa t even aware that the bra continued. For them they remember the cartoon, the toys, and then Anonymous 04/22/13(Mon)17:22 No o you have ime ace ildhood. Cha for me, I'm sformers. I believe i not just jud love about ia-twisted pre-made mold, where pretty muc mind). but the nted people working on every aspect eve mos room in 1984. Th o be THElR brand. The not or sim

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The science (or history in this case) of GEEWUNNERS


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Uploaded Feb 14, 2015 at 10:06PM EST

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4chan, nostalgia, star wars, 80s, he-man, 70s, marvel, optimus prime, toys, g1, megatron, figures, tarzan, g.i. joe, superfriends, geewun, flash gordon, lion-o, transformers armada, grandpa simpson, snake eyes, transformers energon, geewunners, sunbow

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