This year marks the 40th anniversary of a lot of landmarks in pop culture, especially sci-fi and fantasy. So many franchises were born in 1984. Some came to define the genre or invent new genres. The great podcast Imaginary Worlds noticed this and produced a three-part series about 1984's Cambrian explosion of creativity that landed on the big screen, the small screen, bookstore shelves and, of course, the toy store.
In this episode we learn about at two iconic franchises that launched in 1984: Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They came from opposite ends of the business spectrum. Transformers was a top-down marketing synergy between American and Japanese toy companies along with Marvel Comics to compete against He-Man -- another TV toy behemoth. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle would eventually rival them in cultural dominance, but it began with two indie comic book creators making a black and white comic as a lark. But Turtles and Transformers both ended up wrestling with similar questions around what happens when you put the cart before the horse in creating content to sell products.
Toyetic
462- I Can't Believe It's Pink Margarine
461- Changing Stripes
323- The House that Came in the Mail Again
460- Corpse, Corps, Horse and Worse
459- Yankee Pyramids
458- Real Fake Bridges
457- Model Organism
456- Full Spectrum
455- A Field Guide to Water
454- War, Famine, Pestilence, and Design
453- The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food
452- The Lows of High Tech
451- Hanko
450- Stuff the British Stole
449- Mine!
448- Katie Mingle's Right to Roam
447- Flag Days: The Red, the Black & the Green
446- Flag Days: Good Luck, True South
445- The Clinch
444- Pipe Dreams
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