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
443- Matters of Time
442- Tanz Tanz Revolution
441- Abandoned Ships
308- Curb Cuts (Repeat)
440- La Brega in Levittown
439- Welcome to Jurassic Art Redux
438- The Real Book
437- Science Vs Snakes
436- Oops, Our Bad
435- The Megaplex!
434- Artistic License
433- Florence Nightingale: Data Viz Pioneer
432- The Batman and the Bridge Builder
431- 12 Heads from the Garden of Perfect Brightness
Judas and the Black Messiah, Episode 1: The Chairman
430- The Doom Boom
Judas and the Black Messiah Trailer from 99% Invisible and Proximity Media
429- Stuccoed in Time
428- Beneath the Skyway
427- Mini-Stories: Volume 11
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