Official 30-minute Toy Commercials thread

[the greenman]

As a background on the creation of this thread, around the time of the pandemic, some of y'all know I was hospitalized for like an entire month. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time on the internet. I came basically watching a lot of older stuff that I have probably forgotten. When watching stuff from an adult mind perspective that we grew up on, we can see what was worthy of rewatching.

Some of us had recently watched the Netflix series "the toys that made us", at least I had the idea to check out the stuff I grew up on, to see if they really didn't put any thoughts into them. I'm not going to go over deep dive reviews, just pointing out those that did put more into it than your typical commercials.

The first one I'll start off with is Visionaries or officially titled "Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light". A series that came on syndicated stations for me Sunday mornings. I didn't really watch it a whole lot, but I did interact (meaning I had the toys and played with them accordingly). Disclaimer: no offense, but I am a Cis male and I didn't interact with Rainbow Brite, Jem, She-Ra, Strawberry Shortcake, or My Little Pony. Sorry.

One thing that needs to be pointed out, and it isn't so cut and dry as one would think, the Hasbro Sunbow productions cartoons (being GI JOE, Transformers, et al) usually had the same people working on the toons over and over. Usually voice actors Michael Bell, Arthur Burghardt, Neil Ross, BJ Ward, or Susan Silo. Added to some great writers like Flint Dille, Marv Wolfman, and Steve Gerber. On some of these toons, you could tell the difference in the writing. Making it surprisingly better upon rewatch.

Visionaries was pretty good at utilizing the battle between good and evil, although pretty corny at times. However one episode that was a standout was where the knight becomes mentally unstable and utilized two different power totems at the same time. Power totems exhibiting behavioral powers of animals and and such. Genius. Just take the holographic sticker off the guy, and switch it with another.
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[Zorak Masaki]

I hope you get to Inhumanoids, that one had some great creepy horror elements and a surprsingly satirical edge.

 

[Zorak Masaki]

What the heck, I'll keep this thread afloat. Another better-than-average toy-based cartoon from the 80s was Centurions. Yeah, it was pretty blatant about the toy's mix and match the weapons/attachments feature, but it was intelligently written, had some excellent action sequences, and even went places you wouldnt expect (one episode was a complete homage to cyberpunk fiction, didnt see much of that style in other cartoons of the time). Didnt hurt that Jack Kirby and Gil Kane worked on it as well.

 

[Dantheman]

Another thing about Centurions: If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the idea of Tony Stark calling down the Hulkbuster Iron Man armor from a satellite in Avengers Age of Ultron came from Sky Vault in Centurions.

 

[wiley207]

I remember how for a while in the early-to-mid 2010s, Cartoon Network's Saturday morning lineup was mostly comprised of action adventure cartoons based on toy lines. It reminded me of this 1988 "Calvin and Hobbes" strip...

Of course, by 1988, the number of merchandise-driven cartoon shows was starting to shrink, especially on Saturday morning cartoon blocks. But in a way, it's still basically Bill Watterson criticizing 1980s TV animation in general (as he's really against television, or as he calls it, "the late 20th century drug of choice").

 

[aegisrawks]

I really have NOTHING against 30 min toy commercial cartoons. Sure they are more product than art but it doesnt mean they arent created by artists and animators who do their job right and do elevate the material. Even the old amazing animation of old was done with the intent to make money. HECK! Even serious art is created with the intent to make money. And for some reason I have A LOT of respect for cartoons that are seen as low brow to elevate the standards of quality.

EDIT: Also despite thinking Bill Waterson is a bit of a snob, I have respect for him and I like that he used Calvin's dad for this. He is not meant to be seen as always in the right or sympathetic so I appreciate that. He knows he's just ranting but at least he isnt doing it in a "IM AM ALWAYS RIGHT." way.

 

[Dantheman]

I once heard an interview with Buzz Dixon, one of the writers of the Sunbow G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon, and he sounded like he took the material seriously and treated the child viewers with respect. He said he always made sure to show one of the Joes getting hurt in his scripts, to show the consequences of violence.

He also said that the Hector Ramirez character wasn't created to create a kind of Sunbow Hasbro universe, It was more like a reporter character was created for one show, then was used on another, and when the others needed a reporter character, one was already made and approved by legal, so they ended up using him.

 

[Fone Bone]

Say what you will about these shows made hand in hand with the toy companies, most of them were original ideas. ThunderCats, He-Man, G.I. Joe, Transformers, SilverHawks, Jem, My Little Pony, Care Bears, none of that was based on a preexisting property. Yes, cartoon remakes were still a thing, but the 1980's were when a LOT of the franchises that are currently being run into the ground were first created.

 

[harry580]

I don't know this one counts but, at one point, there's was a rumor that fox is going to make a cartoon based on the kenner opreation alien toyline (which based on fox's alien franchise) but didnt happened, but only to have the person who made the rumor realized that fox was not going to turn a adult only ip like alien into a kids cartoon (despite kenner making the operation alien toyline towards kids)

 

[the greenman]

SECTAURS: WARRIORS OF SYMBION

This one was a prime example of an elongated commercial, usually with intent to sell to children (particularly boys who would love to play with bugs). Except this time Coleco got in on the game, and as usual teamed with a comic book company for crossover promotion (Marvel comics) and they got Bill Mantlo (of Rom: the Space Knight) and Mark Texeria worked on this comic. They went with this plan in 1986 coupled with a limited animated series.

This was probably because there was uncertainty about this particular line, as it was originally meant to be hand puppets of bugs. Don't forget Coleco (a leather turned plastics company) had a hand in Cabbage Patch Kids. Creators of this line were Maureen Trotto, Lawrence Mass, and Tim Clarke who was also a puppeteer for Jim Henson in the 80's.

The comics had a different storyline than the animated series, not that it really mattered. I'm still trying to figure how they got humans (from SYMBION not Earth) transformed into the humanoid/insect creatures. Oh I've seen the series and the experiments, but don't call them human.

I actually liked the animated series made by Ruby-Spears for it's sci-fi fantasy story. The villain Spydrax (voiced by ARTHUR BURGHARDT
go to villain v.a.) comes out the gate as a villain burning a village, and the hero Prince Dargon (voiced by legendary Dan Gilvezan who voiced a lot of Hasbro characters as well as everyone's favorite web crawler. Inspired casting.) on his trusty dragonflyer steed.

By the end of the decade Coleco went bankrupt. Eventually trusty toy company Hasbro, would grab up the property. Though they couldn't recover enough for a second wave of toys.

Btw, the series being limited was probably worthwhile. As the writers didn't put too much emphasis into characters other than your tropes kinda based on medieval knights. Although I never interacted much with this toy much. The weird hair and iridescent "armor" on some of the characters didn't really entice me much. This was a case of great idea and poor execution on the writers of the series IMHO. However, I didn't much care for character design in the show. Some had big bug eyes (of course Duhhh), and they just didn't seem to show good diversity of characters in the insect kingdom, I mean alien or not.

For you hardcore fans:

Sectaurs.com Merchandise and Media

An Exploration of all the Merchandise, Media and Promotional materials created for Sectaurs

www.sectaurs.com

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[Dantheman]

I had a couple of the Sectaurs toys (The tarantula and the dragonfly), but aside from being neat puppet-like toys, I was more into He-Man, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. They got most of my attention around 1986-87, like with most young boys in America.

 

[Fone Bone]

Honestly, I only got into stuff like these shows because other boys my age were and I was trying to fit in. If it were up to me I would just be watching the Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, The Pink Panther, Gummi Bears, and Muppet Babies into my teen years.

 

[Dantheman]

I remember first learning about DNA from G.I. Joe, during the storyline where Cobra set about to create Serpentor.

An indictment on our education system, or what?

 

[the greenman]

I remember first learning about DNA from G.I. Joe, during the storyline where Cobra set about to create Serpentor.

An indictment on our education system, or what?

Probably. We know the children's programming worked.

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[the greenman]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1987-1996)

This is referring to the first (1987) series. The original classic that got all the cowabunga and teen vernacular down first (as a NYC kid who grew up on RUN DMC and other hip hop, always found it weird these NYC Turtles talked like surfers. That's another show) I must've watched the vhs of the original pilot miniseries thousands of times and of course plenty of interaction with the Playmates toys.

I recently watched a documentary on these toys, and discovered there was a different selection of the original four turtles initially released with soft rubber heads.
More info here:

Soft head, hard head two versions of figures

Playmates started making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in 1988. Since then, a formidable collector's market has opened the doors to the ...

tmntthecollective.blogspot.com

Mine were the usual hard plastic kinda style. I remember specifically having Donatello and using a real wooden twig as his bo staff. I even used rubber bands to tighten the grip correctly. Didn't fit all the time. These original toys based on that original miniseries, even going onto the series that were airing on CBS were adding characters to the point of nauseam. Through the documentaries I watched on TMNT, I found out the toy sculptors/designers at Playmates we're given free reign to make whatever they wanted and Eastman & Laird said they could keep the profits. Explaining why they practically created anything and everything crossing with ninja turtles.

As far as the series, I did watch this series, but pretty sure once it moved to CBS I grew out of it. Most kids my age probably moved on to Power Rangers as I did. Getting through HS and beyond. From the few times I checked out TMNT on Saturday mornings, I witnessed more characters, stupid stories, and wonky animation. It was fairly consistent, but you couldn't ask me about continuity.

The show featured the voice talents of Barry Gordon (Donatello), Cam Clarke (Leonardo), Townsend Coleman (Michaelangelo), Rob Paulsen (Raphael), Renae Jacobs (April O'Neil), Peter Renaday (Splinter), Pat Fraley (Krang), and "Uncle Phil" himself James Avery (as The Shredder). Most of these guys were heard on multiple shows of the time (particularly Paulson). I hear Coleman ad-libbed COWABUNGA into an episode.

It is believed that the series grew darker in tone, probably from the films influence. Issues occurred outside of the USA, over the very name Ninja, and so they toned things down, and even changed the name to TEENAGE MUTANT HERO TURTLES in Europe and possibly Australia.

IMHO, the popularity of this series kinda owed a lot of it's popularity to this short-lived new wave of kungfu in the 80's into the 90's (this includes the Last Dragon and even Sidekicks). Or was it vice-versa? There was also Karate Kid, I guess.

The total of the series was 193 episodes. It also is lopsided in entertainment, honestly. The production of the pilot miniseries was dropped for a few reasons, particularly cost. TOEI studio worked on it, and one can tell the difference. They cut corners towards the end. They kept things going because the toyline was a hot item. Perfect example of keeping something going even though fans left.

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[Pooky]

This era is usually overlooked or casually dismissed in Animation History books, but I can recommend a couple of recent(ish) books that cover some of the gap; Rise and Fall of the 80s Toon Empire by Jason Waguespack and The Gamesmaster by Flint Dille. The former is a fact-driven overview of the production histories and commercial fortunes of the studios and shows that defined the era, the latter is a personal account by Dille who worked as a writer on Droids, G.I. Joe, Transformers, the ill-fated Garbage Pail Kids cartoon and more.

A YouTube channel I can recommend that covers this era is Secret Galaxy. Most videos are an overview of the history of a particular brand, show or film. They've started to cover more recent shows (and by "more recent" I mean 90s or 00s), but these kind of 80s shows are their bread and butter. Another is CerealGeekTV which looks at particular aspects of certain shows in detail, e.g why the Call of the Primitives episode of Transformers had such exceptionally good animation. The channel is an off-shoot of a fanzine dedicated to the era which publishes issues on an intermittent basis.

Here's an interesting bit of Lost Media that turned up recently; the first episode of the third season of Transformers, with the unused second voice of Rodimus (following Judd Nelson in the movie). He was recast with Dick Gautier before any episodes aired, though through oversights typical of the frantic productions of the time, a couple of lines did slip through.

 

[Vuxovich]

I am sad nobody remembers BKN cartoons like Skysurfer Strike Force. Why?

 

[Zorak Masaki]

Another thing that should be noted about these shows is that some kids already had the toys, which meant when you saw an episode featuring your favorite toy (especially with shows that had large casts like Transformers, GI Joe, or He-Man, which didnt always feature the same cast in every episode), it would get you excited to see what they did with it. Like for example, if you had a figure of the Transformer Perceptor, you could say "Hey, this one has Perceptor in it, he's my fav Transformer, let's see how he is on the show".

 

[Pooky]

I mostly watched Transformers on UK Satellite TV c.1992-93, by which point most of the toys on shelves were of characters who never appeared on the show, which had ceased production half a decade earlier (indeed these toys apparently never even officially made it to US shelves). I had a character that kind of looked like Ultra Magnus, and another who kind of looked like Blurr etc. I was excited when I saw The Ultimate Weapon, an episode which focuses on First Aid, a character I actually had.

 

[Dantheman]

It must've been weird for some kids to get into Transformers during the Generation 2 era in the early '90s, because the "enhanced" version of the G1 cartoon aired but showed Megatron being gray and turning into a gun, when the Generation 2 toy was green and turned into a tank, due to toy safety standards about toy guns. Plus, the combiner teams like the Constructicons were re-released in the Generation 2 toy line in different colors than on the cartoon. I think the G2 versions of the Dinobots were the same, but I'm not sure.