this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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The art of subtlety meets the reality of capitalism?
Lemmy user try not to bring up capitalism in every thread challenge (LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE!!!)
They made some cool toys so why not bring it up?
I like how they didn't even bother to match the cartoon and toy versions like at all.
That marketing copy is just amazing.
First of all, acknowledging that the blimp is "incredibly wacky"
Then trying to sell the fact that it doesn't float, mount or have any powered features as "Just you and good clean fun!"
I wanted the Technodrome so bad...
But this unlocked a memory of my very early 20s. We were having a party at my apartment and somebody got a big TMNT doll out. Like a foot long, don't remember which turtle. We tied it to a hook in the ceiling of the 2nd floor porch and strapped a bunch of fireworks to it including several rockets duct taped to the back of his shell. My roommate set it off while there were at least 15 people on that porch. Fucking hilarious, it spun around crazy fast exploding shit everywhere.
Kids- we are lucky nobody got hurt blah blah blah
Were you planning on invading France?
But they are right: You can’t sell cool toys with subtlety.
So, you're not wrong, but... these shows were literally designed to sell the toys. They were basically half-hour commercials.
G.I. Joe, TMNT, Transformers, X-Men, He-Man, Power Rangers, My Little Pony... they were all built on the same model (hey kids! whine at your parents until they buy our plastic ~~dolls~~ action figures!).
Quit making capitalism sound cool.
There is an excellent documentary series on Netflix called The Toys That Made Us which covers a lot of these. The Star Wars episode was very interesting, it gives you a look at the wheeler-dealer moneymaking side of the franchise (and some of the early toys are hilariously bad).
Some of it is kind of cool, and produced some genuinely enjoyable cultural icons... but also a lot of it was very manipulative, and you end up realizing how much of this cultural period was manufactured, packaged and sold to us through TV.
The van shot pizzas, dude.
Very good show!