Dreamworks working on a She-Ra Show?

SDCC Exclusive 200X She-Ra has rooted hair, soft good
fabric cape and a comb. Could this be what's in store
for a future She-Ra line?

Apparently this claim has reared its head again, after being shot down by Mattel a year or so ago. Now, Dreamworks has purchased Classic Media - the entertainment arm that held the rights to the He-Man and She-Ra shows. With Dreamworks making such a move, it's inevitable that hopes and theories are going to come about - putting properties like She-Ra back into the limelight again.

At the recent Masters of the Universe and Thundercats convention Power-Con/Thunder-Con, Ian Richter, a producer on the 2002 Mike Young Production He-Man series, said that Dreamworks had "big plans" for She-Ra. This is a pretty general statement, but now that it is out there, fans are frothing at the mouth to see this form into some sort of reality.

Girls brands are doing better than boys toys. Brands like Barbie, Monster High, Bratz, Tinkerbell and others are running strong. I don't see a She-Ra show or DTV happening without a toy brand, or other merchandising effort - one always builds up the other. So Dreamworks, and possibly Mattel, are seeing that returning MOTU to retail is probably best done with the She-Ra brand at this juncture - and she will work best on DTV.

Principle figures from the Tinkerbell toy line

Think Tinkerbell - who has a strong series of beautifully-done DTV movies (4 released, 2 upcoming) and a supporting toy line to go with it. This is the perfect model for She-Ra. If she builds up a following, and does well in the DTV market and merchandising realms, then she could possibly expand to television OR test the burgeoning internet TV market, and release an ongoing series directly to Netflix or Hulu (who have both been expanding by producing original programming).

With Tinkerbell doing so well, She-Ra's tone has no need to go fluffy and funny like other brands. Tinkerbell is all about adventure, and Tinks herself is pretty tomboyish. She-Ra's tone DOES have to be balanced - it can't go too far, or be too edgy. Perhaps He-Man and Hordak's roles are scaled back - He-Man has a more Bow/Ken connection to the brand, and Hordak plays a sort of "Emperor Palpatine" role to Etherian Horde Leader Catra. The brand can still have its connection to MOTU, but it is IMPERATIVE to put the She-Ra brand front and center, and make it more independent than it ever was. More characters have to appeal to the girls market, but at the same time perhaps have an "IN" for boys (or at least older collectors who are less likely to be swayed by rigid gender lines).

Right now, there is no true news as to what is going on with Dreamworks and She-Ra - there is no official press release, or dependable news article stating this. The aforementioned is just a likely scenario of the direction the She-Ra brand can head. Hopefully, Mr. Richter has some weight at Dreamworks, and can bring his "off the record" statements to a reality that many fans have been waiting to see for more than 20 years.

Missing POP Characters!

MISSING: HAVE YOU SEEN THE GREAT REBELLION? 4 YEARS INTO MOTUC LINE AND THE GREAT REBELLION ARE NOWHERE TO BE SEEN.

Many of my fellow Princess of Power fans over in the SHADOW WEAVERS REALM (SWR) Facebook fan group have discussed with one another the matter of scarcity of Princess of Power, as well as New Adventures characters, in the Masters of the Universe Classics toy line. Matty made a smart move by "absorbing" POP and NA into the MOTUC line, but unfortunately, the line has been very MOTU heavy since its inception. The argument from Matty is that there's simply more MOTU characters than there are POP or NA. But that argument is starting to lose weight now that there are only around 33 MOTU characters and variants remaining to get a release. POP and 200X characters have averaged 1-2 releases a year, while NA characters average 1 release a year. The rest of the year is populated with mostly MOTU characters. Now that the rights have been obtained for Filmation and Jetlag characters, competition for a monthly slot might even become more fierce...

The folks over at SWR, including myself, have speculated that the reasoning for such a MOTU-heavy distribution ratio is that MATTEL is playing it safe with characters that it knows will secure subscriptions. The developing fear is that by the time MOTUC winds down for a close, many POP and NA characters will not get a release, whilst most if not all of the core MOTU characters will have been released. I myself suspect that getting ALL the core MOTU characters released in MOTUC is the primary goal, and that the rest of the characters are considered "extra gravy" to fill the holes. Although I and my fellow Weavers intend to support the line into the indefinite future - we do hope that Matty will make some efforts to even out the distribution of characters, so that more POP and NA characters get a release in a given year.

WE WANT TO BE JUST AS VOCAL IN SUPPORTING POP CHARACTERS AS THE ANTI-POP CROWD ARE SPEAKING AGAINST THEM.

Princess of Power Classics!

I am an avid Princess of Power (POP) fan - as can be seen in previous posts on this blog. Princess of Power is a spin-off of the legendary Masters of the Universe (MOTU) brand, engineered by Mattel. As Masters of the Universe starred He-Man, being an action figure toy line for boys, Mattel wanted to recreate the success of MOTU in the girls' market - thus Princess of Power starred He-Man's twin sister She-Ra. Though not as successful and expansive as MOTU, POP still established itself as an action figure/doll icon - it's rare to have a toy line of this nature, and even rarer for such a toy line to etch a place for itself in entertainment & merchandising history.

In 2008, Mattel made plans to continue it's MOTU relaunch by releasing new action figures via an exclusive online outlet. At this point, the MOTU relaunch toy line, known to fans as the 200X line, had been canceled in the retail market due to poor sales. Licensing privileges were given to NECA, who continued releases for the 200X line in the form of "Staction Figures", non-articulated action figure-sized statues that could be displayed with other 200X action figures. The staction figures proved successful through smaller niche online markets, and Mattel made decisions to revitalize the 200X line with this new online distribution method.

Having worked closely with the Four Horsemen toy sculptors for the 200X line, Matty was pleased with concept sculpts for this new online outlet, but was even more pleased with sculpts that were closer in style to the vintage MOTU toy line. The idea of taking original toy designs and refreshing them with contemporary action figure mechanics had already proved successful in Hasbro's Transformers Classics toy line, and it made since for Matty to do the same for MOTU. And thus, the Masters of the Universe Classics line was born.

Originally, there were only going to be a handful of figures released, just to commemorate the brand (similar to the Masters of the Universe Commemorative Series - which re-released a few of the original characters in their original sculpts). The MOTUC line started with King Grayskull, a "classicized" version of a character that had been introduced in the 200X cartoon series. Buzz around the figures soon erupted, and the line eventually grew beyond the 6 or so figures that were originally planned.

Quickly establishing an infrastructure to create, build, package, promote and distribute the figures, Matty was poised to carry the line for a fairly long stretch. It was soon decided to expand MOTUC beyond just the core characters - the absorption of the POP characters, as well as another MOTU spin-off line simply titled He-Man (known to most fans as New Adventures of He-Man {NA}), assured a massive inventory of characters for the MOTUC toy line. With the absorption of the spin-off series, and the release of 1-3 toys a month, many fans have speculated that MOTUC could last until 2017 or longer. But there's been concern that the line could potentially not make it that long...

Typically, a specific toy line has a 3-5 year life span. Toy companies often bring a toy line to a close, or reboot it if it's popular enough - Transformers and Power Rangers are chief examples of this. So it is understandable why collectors have anxiety levels that are continually mounting up.

And fans of Princess of Power have much anxiety, as the line is now in its third year, and going into its fourth with only 6 toys that are based on vintage Princess of Power characters: Adora, She-Ra, Bow, Catra, Bubble Power She-Ra and Swiftwind. Though there are 4 more toys coming in February 2012 in the Star Sisters 3-Pack: Starla, Tallstar, Jewelstar and Glory Bird, POP fans wonder what the rest of 2012 has in store - who will the next POP figure be?

As I am a member of the MOTUC/POP Facebook fan group SHADOW WEAVERS REALM, I'm taking part in a sort of petition to bring awareness to the gross shortage POP characters in the MOTUC toy line. Perhaps more fans can rally to this message, and get Matty to shift its ratios, which seem to be more focused on getting core MOTU characters released, rather than a more balanced distribution that brings POP and NA more into the fold.

My 2010 Challenge is...

As a belated Holidays gift from my better half, I spent Saturday afternoon sifting through Ebay for some potential purchases. I went ahead and purchased an Adora action figure from the new Masters of the Universe Classic (MOTUC) exclusive toyline. It's the first figure from the line that I will be purchasing. The interesting thing is - she doesn't go on sale on mattycollector.com (the only place you can purchase it officially) until January 15th. The toyline is so hot that some of the limited release figures sell out in less than a day - one is released every month, with a bonus figure thrown in every now and again.

One of the remedies to missing out on a figure is to have joined the mattycollector subscription club, but you have to pay for that every month. The other way is to go to third party vendors - the online stores that go in and buy the figures in bulk, mark up the pricing, and sell them to the ravenous customers that missed out on the first round. This is not always the solution - Mattel is controlling the distribution numbers of the figures to a degree that you won't find a figure anywhere...without having to pay some outlandish markup through a third party vendor.

I digress...I'm holding out on purchasing a lot of the MOTUC figures due to the simple fact that I've collected many of the characters in the original line, as well as the 2002 updated line. I'm looking for something new - ala the Adora figure. I love the line, and am very excited for it's continuation, but I intend to invest my dollars in building up an MOTUC collection with a focus on the Princess of Power (POP) and New Adventures of He-Man (NA) chapters of the line. Until these figures start showing up on mattycollector.com, I am going to satiate my thirst for POP product by collecting the figures I never could as a kid.

Every month of 2010, I intend to expand my vintage Princess of Power collection by one figure. I am in no way planning to collect EVERY product from the line - I am not a completionist collector, and some products are of no interest to me. The core of this vintage collection will be:

First: the characters that appeared on the show
Second: expanding to interesting pieces that didn't appear in the show

January is Frosta - the Ice Impress of Etheria

She is the reigning Queen of Castle Chill in the Kingdom of Snows, and is known to have an intense crush on He-Man, Adora/She-Ra's twin brother. She sends out blasts of ice, as well as turn things into ice.

Sexist Toys

This entry is inspired by two sources: A five hour chat with a friend at Starbucks, and numerous postings on the Mattycollector.com facebook page. I haven't blogged in quite a while, and it's time to get back to it...

I am not the most avid toy collector - though I do have a designated Toy Room, I have seen other peoples' collections, and my collection pales in comparison. I am in now way a completionist, and would never dream of being so - too stressful. My two main lines of focus are Masters of the Universe by Mattel, and Transformers by Hasbro. If I could own stock in these two companies, I would...some day. I'm 32 years old, and I grew up with these two lines and others. I collected them as a kid, and continue to collect them in my adulthood.

Transformers as of late is proving to be far too oversaturating - the movie line is crap in my humble opinion. I do like the complicated, biomechanical, realistic design of the characters onscreen, but the designs do not translate well to the toys. You have repackaged G1 stuff, reimagined G1 stuff, Animated toyline stuff, the movie stuff...there's just too much of it.

Right now, my focus is on Masters of the Universe (MOTU for short), albeit I don't actually collect the figures...not in the budget. Mattel has a good thing going with its MOTU Classics line. Although there's such a limited supply that it sells out quickly on the Mattycollector.com website, and so those that don't act fast enough are forced to pay anywhere from $34 on up for a figure they missed out on - that's some mark up. These third party stores - Ebay, Bigbadtoystore, Amazon, have to recoup their costs from buying the figures from Matty, and try to make a profit. Understandable, but that leaves me and many others out in the cold. It's already a lot to pay $20 plus shipping and tax for one figure, so to invest more? I'm a fan, but I can't go that far.

Well, that is until Adora comes out in the beginning of 2010. Adora, He-Man's twin sister, is She-Ra Princess of Power, the central figure of the female spin-off line Mattel produced back in 1984. The thing is He-Man was re-released in a Commemorative Series in 2000, then was reimagined in 2002. And thanks to the 4 Horsemen toy sculptors, the He-Man flame was kept alive with their "staction" figures and busts, until Mattel released MOTU Classics. She-Ra and company would not receive any sort of attention until the Princess of Power herself received an update as an exclusive San Diego Comic Con retooling of the 2002 Teela figure. The MOTU toyline itself is guilty of having only three female figures in its entire run from 1982 to 1987 - Teela, Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress. What's tragic is the Sorceress was a central character to the mythos, and her figure was not released until the end of the line...hmmmm.

She-ra's line was relatively successful, essentially being an amalgumation of Mattel's two successes - Barbie and He-Man. This amalgumation unfortunately was a key component in the ultimate failure of the She-Ra toyline. Most action figure lines historically have been guilty of producing mostly male figures, and having maybe one or two female figures. The logic is that boys don't want to have girl figures because well...it's too girly. Mattel's decision to make She-Ra strictly a girls' line doomed it from the start, that and the divergent marketing of both the MOTU and the Princess of Power (POP) lines - which ultimately doomed them both. The problem with POP is that the powers that be really didn't know what it should be. Though it was a line for girls, it was an action figure - which was something that boys typically played with. The term "action figure" was coined so that boys didn't have to refer to their 12" G.I. Joe as a doll. Some parents were apprehensive in buying She-Ra figures because she was considered too violent for girls, and they didn't want to promote tom-boyishness. Boys themselves would not dare venture into the "pink" isle at Toys 'R' Us or where ever to pick up a She-Ra figure. I myself had my mother smuggle my She-Ra figure, and kept her in hiding so my father and brother wouldn't ridicule me.

Filmation, the animation house that produced both the He-Man and She-Ra cartoons, essentially used She-Ra's show as a tool to market both the He-Man and She-Ra toylines...

MISTAKE #1. He-Man was cancelled to make She-Ra. So, in essence, She-Ra season one, is He-Man season 3, with He-Man in a guest starring role. This is where the confusion starts. He-Man's success is largely based on this syndicated cartoon series that catapulted the toy franchise to unprecedented fame and sales. You take that marketing vehicle away, and you are destined to see a decline in sales - which is what slowly happened with MOTU. She-Ra, though being a girls' line was made to be hoplessly codependent on MOTU to evolve. Rather than establish She-Ra as her own independent line with some connections to MOTU, the She-Ra show depicted her universe as half MOTU. ALL of her villains, save for Catra and Entrapa, are MOTU characters. So, in order for a girl to logically complete her toyline, her parents have to buy her boys' toys...big no no. Catra should have been the leader of the Horde faction on Etheria (while Hordak re-established a Horde presence on Eternia perhaps). The feline beauty should have had a mass of colorful villainesses at her beck and call to fight against She-Ra's rebellion. But the logic was that you can't have too many "bad girls" in the line, because you don't want girls to want to be bad...sugar and spice and all that.

MISTAKE #2. The inconsistent marketing for She-Ra, as mentioned above, is another dooming factor. The commercials and collectible fiction depicted She-Ra with more Barbie-esque qualities. Pinks, and orchids donned the advertisements, with She-Ra combing her hair wilst admiring her reflection in a pink mirror in the pink Crystral Castle. This was stark contrast to the television series, which did a good job of balancing the sexes if you will. The pinks and orchids are toned down, and She-Ra herself is a strong, but beautiful take charge kind of lady. Boys could watch the show and respect girls, and girls could watch and aspire to be a strong leader. However in Marketing, you have to have a clear and concise direction for what your product should be, and how it is to be represented. This is definitely not the case.

MISTAKE #3. Making a unisex figure toyline....uh a little too early for that. Let's face it, She-Ra was way ahead of her time. Idealistically, a toyline should be accessible to both sexes, not just for boys or girls. This idea that boys only want swords and guns, and girls want combs and dresses is a little dated. Is it the norm for a lot of people, perhaps. But the doors shouldn't be closed to the boy that wants to comb a doll's hair, or have more female action figures, or a girl who wants to wield a sword and be a warrior princess. Maybe conquering sexism starts with the action figure.

ENTERTAINMENT: The Masters are Making IT

Masters of the Universe, a toy franchise that hit the market back in 1981, still has a presence today. Though its presence is not as strong as another successful, long-living 80s line, i.e. The Transformers, He-Man and his cohorts are finding their way into consumers' hands. MOTU's second climb to fame and success is still at hand, as the potential of the brand is obvious--there is just a need to market the franchise in a way that will make He-Man and the Masters king again.

In an ironic twist, the Transformer line did not appear in the United States until three years after MOTU filled the toy shelves, and then only a year after the He-Man franchise was booming--chiefly due to the success of the cartoon series that debuted in 1983 (MOTU is usually given credit for pioneering an action figure toyline that corresponds with an ongoing cartoon series). At the time, TF was one of the many boy's toy lines that competed for market success, it offered something different--an action figure that presented two modes of play i.e. car and robot etc., and likely wouldn't be compared to He-Man the way another line like Thundercats or Silverhawks would be. Perhaps because of that difference, and indeed Hasbro and Takara's marketing strategy, Transformers would persevere running almost non-stop from 1984 to the present with a steady level of success. MOTU, however, would run from 1981 to 1991 almost non-stop with varying levels of success, and meeting a total demise with the New Adventures of He-Man toyline.

Like many 80s properties, He-Man made an attempt at a come-back--more than ten years after the franchise disappeared from toy shelves, and the entertainment market as a whole. Unlike Transformers, a line that maintained a presence in the boys toy market, as well as the adult collector market, He-Man had to make a come-back, a strong come-back. At a time when competition was fierce, more fierce than it was in the 80s, the marketing ploy had to be one that hit the consumer on multiple levels. Mattel, the toy company that owns the rights to the He-Man franchise, launched a marketing campaign that saw the release of commercials, a cartoon series, a comic book series, and miscellaneous items like partyware, socks, etc. Many argue that the marketing was not invasive enough. The cartoon series, though in many ways innovative and action-packed, somehow was not reaching its audience. In comparison, other brands debuted cartoon series on network television and syndication, hitting a wider audience. Some would even debut on Cartoon Network and air re-runs in syndication, ensuring a massive market coverage. He-Man was exclusive to the Cartoon Network, a cable channel that everyone didn't get.

The action figures of the 2002 Masters of the Universe toyline were beautifully designed and sculpted by the Four Horsemen, a group that is amongst today's top and well-known action figure makers. The line was breath-taking, and when it made its premier at comic-cons and toy conventions in the early 2000's, fans were ecstatic at He-Man's return. Fans had been rooting for his return for years, voicing their desires on websites and forums that eventually merged to become He-Man.org. The 2002 line indeed started with a boom with the toys on shelves, and a television series on Cartoon Network. Eventually, a comic book by MVCreations was released, showing that He-Man was on the up and up. With a second season, and more waves of figures, and statues and bust exclusives, everything was looking good. But then the numbers started pouring in, and He-Man apparently was not performing as well as expected. Yes, the adult collector was ecstatic and avid about the figures, and those expensive busts, but the 4+ year old consumer just wasn't buying it. The line was perhaps too sophisticated, and actually targeted to an older audience, losing the younger demographic.

With a campaign that failed to grab its target audience, Mattel pulled the line back. Though the second season was planned out, and a third season was conceptualized with He-Man's sister She-Ra coming on board, the cartoon was scheduled into the "Oblivion" time slot on Cartoon Network and eventually was cancelled. The toy line was cancelled, and the comic book eventually disappeared as well. Many fans say that the demise of the line was due to Mattel's poor marketing and distribution strategy--not enough advertising of the brand, and too many of the same two or three figures flooding the toy shelves. I experienced multiple times first hand the journey from Walmart to K-Mart to Target to Toys-R-Us to K.B. Toys, all in the same day, only to find the same He-Man and Skeletor variants, and none of the other figures of the rest of the collection.

Despite Mattel's decree, fans were outraged and many online petitions, phone calls and emails followed. The toy company's only answer was to give the Four Horsemen limited power over releasing a line of "staction" figures, statues and busts through NECA (National Entertainment Collectibles Association) that basically keep the franchise afloat. The staction figures were hot order items, some of them going for $80-100 on Ebay because of the demand--off the shelf, one would usually cost around $17. Along with the Four Horsemen's line, BCI Eclipse has struck gold with their ongoing DVD series of the original. The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a DVD set of 10 episodes voted on by the fans, was a smash hit. Winning the 2005 Award for Best 1980s TV DVD Release, the set paved the way for the entire run of the original show on DVD, as well as the She-Ra series, the New Adventures series, and the 2002 Mike Young Productions series. BCI also plans to release other cartoon series created by Filmation (the original He-Man's cartoon studio) thanks to the success of He-Man.

The desire for MOTU products is obvious with the aforementioned success of the Four Horsemen products and the DVDs. Mattel has released the Masters of the Universe Classics line (likely an attempt to replicate the success of Hasbro's Transformers Universe/Classics line). Unlike the retailer-prevalent Transformers Classics, MOTU Classics can only be found on Mattel's exclusive online store (they're playing it safe, gauging to see if producing such a line can prove to be lucrative). Mattel is also banking on the success of a live motion picture coming to theaters near you...hopefully within the next decade. I say if the Transformers can flood the market and conventions with its various products and sophomoric television series (not counting their most recent TF: Animated), and live motion pictures, the same can be done with the one toy line that started it all.