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Stature

NP Wednesday August 29, 2018

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Seems Gracemander regenerates quite well.

55 minutes ago, Stature said:

Of course, an observant person would wonder where Greg's other leg went. Or just release the panel as-is.

It's supposed to be up in the air. His pose is probably similar to his Grace's. But yes I would expect at least a bit of it would be visible ...

 

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So, since Sarah and Diane had the job of making things interesting for new trainers by pretending to be bad guys, I'm guessing Greg's job is marketing?

5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

It's supposed to be up in the air. His pose is probably similar to his Grace's. But yes I would expect at least a bit of it would be visible ...

His leg is likely behind Gracemander's hair...well even Dan's commentary states that Gracemander's head is blocking the view.

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For some strange reason, this reminds me of my childhood, when half-hour toy commercials had breaks every now and then to show short films about cereal, snacks, and other toys.

Anyway, yay for starburst background in panel three!

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4 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

For some strange reason, this reminds me of my childhood, when half-hour toy commercials had breaks every now and then to show short films about cereal, snacks, and other toys.

I wasn't aware something changed in this regard. Everything in TV is interrupted by advertisement, why should commercials be exception?

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I remember back in the 80s, having the adventures of the Transformers (who they made sure you knew were available in stores) interrupted by the latest adventures of Captain Crunch or the Trix Rabbit. However, in the 90s and 00s the line between commercial and show seemed a lot less blurry - the segments that were officially labeled "commercials" rarely felt like shows in their own right any more, while the actual shows often felt like they existed to tell a story (or make you laugh) first, and to sell stuff second (in fact in many cases it felt like any merchandise related to the show was an after-thought).

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to watch kids' shows on commercial television, so I have no idea if those trends have continued. (I have noticed however that most commercials aimed at adults these days are pretty boring, at least on the stations I get... I never thought I would miss entertaining commercials!)

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5 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I have noticed however that most commercials aimed at adults these days are pretty boring, at least on the stations I get... I never thought I would miss entertaining commercials!

I remember the contest between Quisp and Quake cereals in commercials produced by Jay Ward.  I remember thinking I was missing out on something because I never saw the commercial where their race ended.

I remember when the Saturday Morning staple Superfriends changed its name to the "Super Powers Team" and by coincidence, all the characters on this version of the show were available as action figures under the Super Powers Team label.  This included several characters that never were in any mainstream DC comic.

I remember the Honeycomb Hideout.

I remember He-Man and She-Ra having adventures with the same core group of allies and enemies four out of five episodes.  But at least once a week there was a rarely seen hero and/or villain so central to the plot, you had to add that action figure to the collection.

I remember McDonaldland characters.

Are these representative of the alternating half-hour and half-minute commercials to which you were referring?

 

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52 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

I remember He-Man and She-Ra having adventures with the same core group of allies and enemies four out of five episodes.  But at least once a week there was a rarely seen hero and/or villain so central to the plot, you had to add that action figure to the collection.

I remember McDonaldland characters.

Are these representative of the alternating half-hour and half-minute commercials to which you were referring?

I remember He-Man and She-Ra as well, though I wasn't particularly in to them.

I remember the continuing battles between Captain Crunch and the Soggies (and wanting to see more of those adventures).

I remember the original Transformers cartoon, which started with a cast of over a dozen and introduced new characters every few episodes because they were trying to fit as many of the toys into the show as possible.

I remember worrying about how Lucky was going to get out of that crystal cave he was trapped in.

I remember how whenever a new mutant was introduced in the original TMNT cartoon, there was a good chance there was already a toy version of them out.

...So, in answer to your question, yes.

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I remember watching The Transformers and G. I. Joe in the afternoon, after high school let out, when we were in the mood to give our brains a rest for an hour.  I started watching Transformers with the movie (the friend who had wanted to see it, had to explain stuff like why people were cheering when the good-guy boombox ejected little cassette bots to fight the bad-guy boombox's cassette minions), and  only watched Joe because it was on after Transformers.

My older sister and I were savvy enough to know the shows were trying to sell toys, and evaluating how they did it and how successful or blatant they were was part of the fun of watching.  We could appreciate the good writing and try to figure out where the bad writing went wrong, and see writing about new toys as a challenge the writers had to meet, rather than an automatic failing.  When my sister invented the Nocturnicons, she figured out gimmicks for the toys, like a bat who was a spy/had excellent hearing, and the toy was a Mister Microphone-type toy inside.  She also wrote a terrific short story with Starscream's ghost that was modeled after Steven King's short story "Survivor Type" (if you've read it, you will likely remember it the moment I say "med student stranded on a desert island").  I leveled the field by inventing some female Decepticons, again with the toys all planned out.

I don't recall doing as much of that with Joe but I was aware of the marketing elements there, too, trying to come up with things like an excuse to put everyone in new outfits (perhaps an "alternate universe" episode where you can make evil versons of the good guys and good versions of the villains, who just happen to be the same mould with different colors of plastic ;-) or create a new character who was an inventor as an excuse for new gizmos and their toys.

The challenge was to tell a good story in the process of selling those toys, to come up with interesting toys and well-rounded characters who were distinct from those that already existed.  And there were times when the shows managed to do all of that, if you paid attention.  I honestly think a good show will sell more toys than a bad one, even to little kids, and I think at least some of the writers and people in charge got that.  Every writing class or group I've been in has used challenges as an exercise, like "write a story with only dialog" or "write three paragraphs with your main characters, not using the letter 'e' at all" or "write a scene set in an unusual place, where the setting it an integral part of the story."  These shows were a great example, basically "write a half-hour episode which introduces this new toy, in a way that will make kids like the character and want to buy it."  Sometimes, having to follow restrictive rules can lead to wonderfully creative stuff.

 

....I'm still disappointed in them for not coming out with a Starscream's Ghost toy made of clear plastic....

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