Which Cartoon was the Most Blatant Toy Commercial?

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Sally W

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It's no secret that a lot of cartoons that have aired over the years have been largely aimed at promoting a toy or toy line. Which one do you feel took it to the most extreme level?

I recently watched an early episode of He-Man on Hulu and I can see why there were so many complaints about it in the 80s. The episode I saw was way more focused on cramming as many toy characters, sets represented by playsets and vehicles and battlecats and representing their cool features than telling a coherent story. The actual conflict was quickly resolved after a lot of top heavy setup.

I'm not saying He-Man was the worst one, but it is one that I remember getting some criticism on this issue. What others do you think were the most obvious about it?
 
Actually, in the 1980s, you'd be hard pressed to find a cartoon that was not just a half hour toy commercial. A number of shows spring to mind. However, to pick just 1 example, I would probably say My Little Pony. MLP was so blatant in it's overt commercialism that the series never even bothered to stick with 1 central cast; the pony characters were constantly rotating and most of them had pretty much the same personality. Only the ponies' colors, voices and identifying symbols on their haunches were different.
 
I'd say among the most toy-heavy cartoons would have to be the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. Even before these products got series and just aired syndicated TV specials, a bunch of new characters would be introduced with each installment, and the week after you could be sure to see all of those new characters in the form of overpriced plastic figurines on the toy store shelves. Heck, many of the new characters introduced in these specials weren't even given dialogue to utter; they just had to be seen on camera for a few minutes, and their names had to be spoken at some point, so the kiddies would know what to look for in the mall and bug their parents to buy them.
 
G.I. Joe, Barbie, Transformers, Gundam, Care Bears- I could go on with how many of these franchises were TV shows meant to be marketing ploys for toys...

Not to be offensive... As some of these examples, especially G.I. Joe, Transformers, and the Gundam universes produced good shows... most of the time...
 
My candidates:

- GI Joe (tons of soldiers and their respective gear/vehicles/etc.?!)
- He-Man (the show that along with Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake kicked the toy-commercial-as-TV-show into high gear)
- Pokemon (dozens and dozens of different creatures to be captured that just *happen* to also be available in various video games, card games, toys, etc. etc.)

-B.
 
How about TMNT? Considering the line had hundreds of characters they had to shoehorn almost every one in there, usually without much character development (at least GI Joe and Transformers and He-man actually gave the characters personalities, TMNT didnt even bother, see the wingnut and screwloose ep for an example).
 
Heh, this thread reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Bart & Lisa write an Itchy & Stratchy episode, and when they attend the Emmys, host Brooke Shields introduces a clip from the show "Action Figure Man", from the episode titled "How To Buy Action Figure Man". :D
 
Would Superfriends count? While it didnt have a toy line until the final 2 seasons, those 2 seasons definitely made sure to make you aware of it (they even did an ep devoted to lex's power suit). Still, it was most peoples first exposure to darkseid and firestorm, so it wasnt all bad.
 
Of the last 20 years, Pokemon. It has to be Pokemon, South Park even parody that aspect of the franchise. "Hurry up and buy me".

The 80's was just a toyetic era, that they were more bladent than today, because back than cartoons was just for kids, and kids didn't care.

But than came the renaiance of the 90's, and artistic quality was such an important thing. Since than, the hip thing to say is something is too commercial, so they try not to be too bladent, though same people that complain something is too commercial, will buy the product anyway.
 
"Cheat Commandos, they're probably battling evil,
And each one sold seperately,
Cheat Commandos, they'll be fighting for freedom,
Buy all our playsets and toys!"

I can't believe no one's mentioned this...

BRATZ. Many "toy commercial shows" actually have somewhat of a plot/premise. Bratz completely lacks it.
 
TMNT was originally based on a joke indie comic series created by two people.
They had no idea it'd turn into a toyetic franchise.

In recent times, I'm going to have to say Ben 10. In fact, I think Ben 10: Alien Force was created just to sell toys.
 
To MLP's credit, the movie and initial first season pretty much stuck to the same (somewhat large cast). It wasn't until season 2 they started shoe-horning in the new out nowhere unneccesary lines. Seriously, for a VERY short season (13 10 minute episodes), they managed to cram in the Princess Ponies, the Big Brother Ponies, The First Tooth Ponies, the Newborn Twin Ponies, The Ice Cream Parlor Playset, and lord knows what else.
 
I know it isn't a cartoon, but I have to say Power Rangers. Because it was a 30 min toy commercial for kids just to see superheroes fight evil space aliens.

She-Ra was a spin-off of He-Man, so girls would have the female action figures.
 
Can we just say the 1980s? During that decade there was no show that was a bigger commerical than the other. They were all pretty equal.
 
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