Hello Cats fans. The 25th anniversary year of the debut of the Thundercats show and toyline has come and gone and aside from a few fan sites like this recognizing it, it more or less was like any other year for Thundercats fans. At the beginning of the year I had hopes that we would see something commemorative for this event: A commemorative figure line, a commemorative DVD box set, or perhaps commemorative shirts. Something to celebrate the 25 year legacy this show has left. Months went by and not a peep from WB. It is apparent now in the last month of this year that WB has let this profitable opportunity slip by and I have to hold my hands up and shout “why??” (mainly because I can’t hold any of their execs feet to the fire on this one).
The other 3 of the big 4 toon/toy properties of the 80s have all had commemorative marketings of equal or lesser anniversaries that appear to have generated success (any year divisible by 5 seems to be a good year to Hasbro to release some commemorative G1 Transformer toys, not to mention their current 25th anniversary DVD sets they’ve released. G.I. Joe’s 25th anniversary Joes seem to be selling well, and past commemorative MOTU sets sold out). The common ground for those three properties is that they are owned by toy companies of course, which may have something to do with it. ( Don’t get me wrong, I do think Hasbro over saturates their release of commemorative Transformers, which is almost just as bad. Its just Thundercats has had no commemorative releases of anything significant that I recall which is why I’m stating my argument. I wouldn’t have put this thread out if we’d already seen 15 and 20 year commemorative merchandise.)
Yes we did get news of a new show and toyline in development for 2011, but news isn’t anything concrete. Yes we do have the statue lines that are out, which to date I think two $200 HH statues and 1 Icon Heroes statue have been released. Hardly what I would call commemorative. It makes me wonder why WB didn’t put something in place 2 years ago to start ramping up for this? Were they so obtuse as to not realize the impact it could have had and the profits it could have turned them if something was marketed and produced strategically, (You stamp “commemorative” with a year divisible by 5 on paint cans and sales will spike on them) or did they simply just not realize that 2010 was the 25th anniversary??
Either way, I’ve got to call a spade and spade and say WB absolutely dropped a great opportunity this year that impacted both themselves and fans of the show. I’ve got to hope that with the new show and toyline coming out comes increased dialogue from WB with the fan community in the vein that Mattel shares with both the Masters of the Universe and DC Universe lines they put out so the fans can start getting in their ears for the 30th anniversary coming up in 5 years. That appears to be the only way we’ll see something special happen that year.
Their probably waiting for the release of the new series to really drive the hype, not too mention waiting will also help the new Toy line etc along side of the TV show launch.
But your right some sort of poster or DVD would be good, I did pick up Season 2 Part 2 finally for a low cost in the stores as part of a promotion with some other cartoons so that could have been the extent of the promotion sort of a remember these shows sort of thing to get the spark going.
I know Dave (Bernie’s Piano) has his book coming out, and nothing of course to diminish his work, but what about an official anniversary Encyclopedia/Art book? That would have been both nice and different.
Or a commemorative card set similar to the Marvel Masterpiece sets put out by Upper Deck a few years ago (although I don’t think those were commemorative). That might not have been as successful, but still would have been something to think about.
The big thing would have been figures. The DVD box set would have been nice and could have sold decently well I think (i personally would have traded in the subpar WB sets out now for something remastered and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone), but I’ve got to question why they didn’t strike a deal with Bandai (or preferably someone else) a year or two earlier in order to have a figure line ready either as an online only offering like MOTUC, or something to put out at retail. If Bandai or whoever didn’t overproduce but could produce enough to be just within a reasonable $20-$30 per fig sweet spot and still profit from it, that could have been a cash cow with “25th Anniversary Commemorative Series” stamped on it.
The news of the new show and toy deal with Bandai are nice, but they do nothing to celebrate the original show and toy line. That is where I absolutely think WB dropped the ball big time.
[QUOTE=
The news of the new show and toy deal with Bandai are nice, but they do nothing to celebrate the original show and toy line. That is where I absolutely think WB dropped the ball big time.[/QUOTE]
As a collector, sure it would be nice for them to launch early and it certainly would be cool to see some neat stuff now. Before you know it, it will be there soon.
It is probably intentional in terms of brand recognition and calling something your own as well as marketing to a new generation with hopefully (in a lot of cases) parents who grew up watching the original show who will get a huge kick out of buying toys for their kids and watching them enjoy it. Any visit to the local ToysRus, it’s quite normal to see a 30+ year old looking at Star Wars toys with there 3-5+ year old etc. It’s all great circle.
Recently while at a toy show there was a Thundercats only dealer who had a ton of stuff. Quite a number of collectors probably 18-25 didn’t really know what they were or remembered them as much, which is crazy as this was pretty much an all 80’s show with Transformers, He-man and Gijoe so anyone around in that time period should appreciate these things or at least have a clue. I almost wanted to ask what were you doing at 4:30 in the afternoon those days as that is when the show came on for me.
Perhaps WB shouldn’t be counted out yet, they may do something unexpected. Unfortunately my friend who was a VP in marketing is no longer working there so I can’t really ask him for the scoop. He probably would say they were focusing on alot of new things coming out like the Green Lantern movie. As for Bandai, unlike Mattel being able to go back and create awesome MOTU classics for mainly adult collectors. This is a new company and a new show taking on a whole new look and i’m sure it will match the show WB is working on.
On a similar note for bringing back the good times, quite sure Voltron was redone in the 90’s with the original show and stories just updated using computer graphics along with Trendmasters as the toy maker. I don’t think the line did well at all. If they started fresh it might have been different. That and they used some classic Japanese style animated and not computer animation.
Lot’s to think about, guess we’ll wait and see. I know I will be buying the new line for my kids while they appreciate the collectible side of owning the vintage line.
All we need now is StarBlazers and Battle of the planets to make a comeback.
Well Grune, from one Ex-Thundercat to another, I have to agree with you, I was disappointed this year. I will admit, I was hoping for some kind of concept art or some kind of promo of the new series atleast.
I am grateful they are bringing back the show next year, but seriously, nothing for the 25th anniversary? That’s kind of messed up. I’m going to go out on a limb here…I am very disappointed with the new collector’s figures. I was ready to spend the money on that big statue but seeing the eyes lit up red and made Lion-O look demonic killed it for me so I didn’t buy it. I know everyone loves the HH figures but I don’t like them. Hell, they couldn’t even get Tygra’s colors right. Why spend that money to buy them if you have to repaint them?
Ugh, guess I’m too much of a old nit-picky fan. I saw my kids take an interest in Thundercats lately. They have been putting in the DVDs and asked me questions about the show and the characters. My 8 yr old autistic son really loves them and it’s going to kill me if they go that much far from the original. That’s going to be fun explaining that. Don’t get me started on the whole Tygra / Lion-O being brothers crap.
Perhaps the reason they havent had a commerative set of toys is because of competiton. GIJOE, Transformers, Voltron, MOTU all are currently selling anniversary toys. I live near a store that sells comics and collectible toys and he ALWAYS has at least a 100 MOTU Classics for sale and just as many various other TF or Joe stuff. Thundercats was and still is an awesome line but VERY small in comparison to the toy lines above. Im wondering once the steam wears off from the other lines we will see a decent TC line. But id bet u will see a line once the new show comes. Hope they toys are good cuz we got a new TF, new Tf movie, new voltron, and i think gijoe coming.
Well, your friend selling the hundreds of MOTU Classics figs, he might have trouble selling them, but he’s already bought them from Mattel so the purchase has already counted towards their allotment.
I personally see no steam dying off of the MOTUC brand anytime soon. They’ve sold out every fig to date (not including reissues) since the beginning of 2010 within a day’s time (current figures have started taking longer because they’ve started before they’ve increased production numbers significantly to counteract the less than 60 minute sellouts that were occurring.
I’m not as into the Joes as I am Transformers, so I don’t really pay that much attention to if they over saturate the toy isles with those guys, but I will say Hasbro/Takara don’t miss an opportunity to put some commemorative Optimus Prime out on the shelves. Still just about any memorable G1 figure that is re-released seems to sell rather well.
I know we’re getting some kind of offering from Bandai for both the new show and the 80s show given their master toy lisence, and its obviously too late now for anything this year. I hope WB and/or Bandai starts putting the pieces in place for 2015 (if the world hasn’t ended yet) for a 30th anniversary commemoration of some sort.