Toys and Games have been a bastion for creativity and design for decades, providing the perfect blend of commerce and imagination needed to sustain a livelihood for a variety of artisans. Recent publications and kickstarted research powered by nostalgia for aging millennials has led to a plethora of data about these industries and the practitioners who take part in it.
REFERENCES
Witwer, M. & Newman, K., Peterson, J., Witwer, S. (2018). Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, A Visual History. Ten Speed Press.
Seeley, S. & Seeley, T. (2015). The Art of He-Man and The Masters of The Universe. Dark Horse Books.
Forster, B. & Sorenson, J. (2019). Transformers Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging. IDW Publishing.
Farago, A. (2014). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History. Insight editions.
Heller, S. & Mungia, R. (2021). SF20: Toys: 100 years of all-american toy ads. Taschen.
Voger, M. (2015). Monster mash: The creepy, kooky monster craze in America 1957-1972. TwoMorrows Publishing.
Fawcett, C. (2021). Rad plastic. Tkaf productions
Reed, W. (2001). The Illustrator in America 1860-2000. The Society of Illustrators Inc.
Hudson, G.. (2019).Illustration on British and North American Printed Ephemera, 1900-1910. In S.Doyle, J. Grove, & W. Sherman (Eds.), History of Illustration (1st ed., pp. 198–214). Fairchild books.
Kane, B.M. (2019). Overview of Comics and Graphic Narrative, 1830-2012. In S.Doyle, J. Grove, & W. Sherman (Eds.), History of Illustration (1st ed., pp. 198–214). Fairchild books.
This is Incomplete Design History: The Illustration Files, a podcast that explores overlooked and ignored topics in graphic design history. It is our goal to deepen and expand the knowledge, understanding, and interpretation of design history.
Because history is messy. It’s incomplete.
Thank you for joining us today, I am your host, Sam Washburn..
Toys and Games have been a bastion for creativity and design for decades, providing the perfect blend of commerce and imagination needed to sustain a livelihood for a variety of artisans. Recent publications and kickstarted research powered by nostalgia for aging millennials has led to a plethora of data about these industries and the practitioners who take part in it.
Relying on a variety of resources such as Heller and Heimann’s Toys: 100 Years of All-American Toy Ads and Fawcett’s RAD Plastic, along with a personal obsession with tiny plastic people, we’ll take a broad look at illustration in the toy industry, with a focus on action figures. We’ll cover some of the history, the concepting process, and even packaging art to get a stronger understanding about how illustrators in the workforce make a living outside the worlds of editorial and publishing.
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A Prehistory of Illustration and Toys
Like most topics in art and design, finding a starting point when talking about, well anything, can be difficult. Still, for our purposes, the work of scholars like Hudson, Doyle, Grove and Sherman in The History of Illustration can be beneficial. Specifically, the development of chromolithography and the advent of mass advertising in the late 1800s.
With photography in its infancy, illustration was a prominent aspect of advertising in these early years, and that applied to toys as well. While many of these examples tend to run the line between dolls, teddy bears, and sports material, it was the advent of licensing that cleared the way to an explosion of image making in the 20th century.
R.F. Outcault, one of the early pioneers of American comic strips, had the dubious honor of finding out the importance of trademark and copyright protection the hard way when his popular character, The Yellow Kid, was used for a plethora of bootleg materials. This wholesale rush to produce merchandise with the character on it set up a template for exploitation that would later be used by the owners of such famous characters as Mickey Mouse and Popeye the Sailor.
These initial examples of toys and illustration intersecting are firmly rooted in advertising. The products themselves are early examples of mass manufacturing, with production work most likely done in house or rolled into the actual product development as par for the course. A few decades later the intersection of the illustration and toy fields would be far clearer.
In terms of popularity, the “Kewpie” characters created by Rose O’Neil (1875-1944) are amongst the most famous early examples of illustration and toy design intersecting. As Reed points out, O’Neil was a prominent illustrator for magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal and Good Housekeeping for the early years of the 20th century. Eventually, as part of her practice she started adding cute, chubby cherubs to her images. These little mascots were soon dubbed Kewpies, and took over store shelves as plastic dolls and trinkets. To this day, “Give the fella a Kewpie Doll” is slang for stating something obvious, referring back to the days when the dolls were handed out as favors or prizes at local carnivals.
This home-grown approach to development contrasted with the branded approach of toy production, setting up trends that continue in this industry to the current day. While Kewpies ruled the marketplace, especially for girls, licensed characters like Mickey Mouse, Buck Rogers and Dick Tracy took up store shelves by appealing to boys. All of these properties involved material derived from illustration and comics, both in source material and advertising.
The baby boom generation led to a bonanza of toy production aimed at boys and girls, with Mattel debuting Barbie in 1959 and Hasbro launching the GI Joe line in 1964. Photography and tv advertising was in full swing at this point, leading the way with promotion of these brands, with illustration taking a backseat. While this would foreshadow trends to come in some cases (film and television adaptations stand out), work in a contingent industry, specifically model kits of the 1960s, would prove to be a harbinger of things to come in using illustration in the toy field.
Best known today for his masterful paperback covers and painted landscapes, James Bama was a young staff artist at the Cooper Studio in the 1960s when work for a new client came in. Voger relates that this new client, the Aurora Model Company, needed artwork for a series of building kits based on monster movies and other horror tropes. Bama’s artwork for Aurora would define a look for advertising fantasy and horror products, influencing future products and lines for decades.
Using stock photos and models as reference, Bama produced pulp-inspired, garishly colored box art for the various kits, with grotesque figures contrasting with hero archetypes and sultry portrayals of women. The aesthetic, exciting for kids and preteens alike, captured the imagination of boomer kids, boosted sales, and set the stage for the properties that would later be embraced by millennials
This glossy approach, which relied heavily on the draftsmanship of an illustrator, would prove to be predictive of the field in the coming years. Still, it would take a mammoth, industry-changing event in the late 1970s to open the flood gates on opportunities for illustrators to strut their stuff.
The 1980s Action Figure Explosion
The arrival of Star Wars in 1978 and the impending merchandising tsunami that came with it is generally credited for helping revive the action figure subset of the toy industry. This subset would prove to be a boon for working illustrators in both developmental and promotional art, though not for Star Wars itself, which relied almost entirely on photography.
No, it was the lines that followed, like He-Man, DC Superpowers, GI Joe, Marvel Secret Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and others that would pull from the illustrator reservoir to sky-scraping sales success in the 1980s.
After missing the opportunity to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon before it was cool, toy production giant Mattel (the home of Barbie), started internal discussions about a new toy for boys, heavily inspired by science fiction and fantasy artwork made by folks like Frank Frazetta. Pulling makeshift pieces from its own “Big Jim” line of GI Joe knock offs from the 1970s, and a new, 5 inch scale inspired by the tiny star wars figures, a development team started to put together what would initially become the He-Man line of toys.
While there is still some debate on who initially named the hero and designed it, with general conception of the character going to Mattel employee Roger Sweet and aesthetics going to artist Mark Taylor, as noted in the “Toys that made us” series on Netflix(CITE NETFLIX HERE), the concept for the series came together fairly early. He-Man, leader of a stalwart group of noble warriors all complete with copious accessories, battles Skeletor and his evil group of henchmen for control of Castle Grayskull and all of Eternia, a fantasy world with sci-fi technology. While the contours of the story would change over time, the basics stayed the same, and would dominate the early 1980s toy aisle.
While there might be some controversy on the prime mover behind the initial idea, we do know the names of some of the fantastic craftspeople behind the series.
Much of the early production drawing and design was done by Taylor, working primarily in pen, ink and marker to develop the look of the figures, particularly He-Man and Skeletor. He was aided in this endeavor by designers Roger Sweet, Mark Jones, Ted Mayer, Colin Bailey and sculptor Tony Guerrero, who made the initial prototypes of the figures. Since no action figure series is complete without equally cool vehicles, Mattel also had a group of pre production designers who specialized in making steeds, traps and carriers for He-Man and the crew. The group was headed up by Ed Watts, a former vehicle designer for Honda, and included David Wolfram and Ted Mayer.
The documents produced by these teams read like time capsules today. Since computers weren’t prevalent in the industry at this point, tools like markers, pens and paint (specifically acrylics and or gouache), with notes and whiteout applied liberally. They provide an inside look at how these corporate monoliths operated at the time in terms of creativity and development and are excellent material for working artists to review.
Once all of the initial development work on the line was complete, it was time to make promotional art. For our purposes, it’s best to think of promotional art and illustration as front-facing. That is, promotional art is developed for the consumer, as opposed to the production art, which is typically never meant for public consumption.
Resembling the earlier fantasy and horror offerings of James Bama and the even early practitioners of pulp illustration, the promotional art made for He-Man is rich in color and detail, with ripped muscles and mossy landscapes combining to present a fantasy setting designed to entice boys into buying expensive playsets and vehicles. Early on, the main developer of this artwork was Rudy Obrero, who designed scenes for the box packages. It is perhaps this artwork that started the love affair for the series with the buying public, but it was aided by the artwork produced for the back of the action figure cards produced by Errol McCarthy, who actually went on to strongly influence a second popular toy line.
More line-based and comic-like than the work of Obrero, McCarthy’s illustrations conveyed narrative information about the character encapsulated in the card’s blister pack (the plastic packaging holding the toy, glued on to a thick paper board or “card-back”). This work fit well with the third prominent set of promotional materials used to sell the line: the pack-in mini comics.
Packaged along with the action figures, the mini comics were drawn by a variety of artists who would go on to have influential careers in comics and animation, including Larry Houston, Rocketeer-creator Dave Stevens, and Bruce Timm, who came to the He-Man line through his work on the cartoon series produced by Filmation. His later career would find him co-developing Batman The Animated Series, giving him major influence on an American Icon.
This work offered a pathway to better things for these creators/illustrators. By having this working-class subset of image-making available, a bridge was formed to bigger and better things that influenced the entire field and ultimately the cultural atmosphere of the consumers attracted by the work.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe would prove successful for Mattel and has continued as a going interest, with pauses, stops, reboots, and spin-offs to the current day. A marketing juggernaut that rose in the wake of the success of Star Wars and in tandem with properties from rivals like Hasbro’s GI Joe and Transformers, He-Man set the standard rubric for success in terms of boys toys, with tie-in comics, cartoon shows, and even a much derided live action feature film. This blueprint would be utilized by competitors later on to varying degrees of success, but it’s arguable that no one really succeeded as well as the burly sword wielders as a group of four turtles dreamed up by two indie comic artists in the mid 1980s.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Joys of Delegation
For millenials of a certain age, few brands outside of Disney or Looney Tunes have the staying power of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Power Rangers notwithstanding. The Turtles started out as a black and white indie comic produced by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1985 as a riff on comics they enjoyed by noted creators like Jack Kirby and Frank Miller. A surprise success, the property actually differs from other major brands in the toy world in that it was in the position of searching for producers instead of being developed in-house by a major company. For our purposes, its genesis from indie darling to toy juggernaut was also the result of various contracted teams and firms working together, as opposed to being homegrown.
After the early success of the comic series, which followed the adventures of four mutated ninja turtles (the story really is all in the title here), Mirage Studios, founded by Eastman and Laird and essentially the caretaker of the property, was approached by licensing agent Mark Freedman who offered to promote the series to various toy companies and other producers. After many refusals, a situation that would repeat itself once the toys were actually made, Playmates, a Chinese company with an American office and plans to expand into the US market, agreed to produce figures in conjunction with a cartoon miniseries that would be used to promote the toys.
Thanks to the work of Farago and Fawcett, we know quite a few details about the initial design work on the line, which actually included some He-Man alums among their number. Designer John Handy handled much of the initial production drawing and concepting, working closely with sculptors Scott Hensey and Roger Bogg as well as artist Errol McCarthy, a Mattel He-Man alum.
Another Masters of the Universe designer, Mark Taylor, would help design initial vehicles for the toy line. It was Handy who initially suggested color coding the titular turtle foursome with uniquely colored masks, a design change that stuck with the series permanently. Another innovation developed by the initial team was to have the turtles sculpted in action poses before the addition of articulation- an aesthetic choice that set them apart from the rest of the market from the get-go.
As a relative newcomer to the market, Playmates relied on outside contractors for much of the work on the line, a process that carried forward for years. Aside from Mirage, which would provide character designs consistently throughout the initial run of figures, the two most consistent outside studios to provide design work and sculpting were Varner and Anaglyph Studios.
Both studios had stand-out talent who helped develop the look of the Turtles line. Anaglyph had David Arshawsky, whose exaggerated, attitude-oozing designs for the supporting cast of mutants to fight alongside or against the turtles included fan-favorites like Mondo Gecko and Muckman. Varner had Russ Vosler, who would also go on to design a menagerie of animal-based co-stars. Much of this pre-production was done using the same analog tools used earlier by Mattel: markers, ink, etc. Indeed, many collectors consider this one of the last great examples of analog toy design to sweep the marketplace before the full introduction of computers in the industry.
Anaglyph and Varner did much of the work in-house, from initial clay models, to wax models, to resin proofs, and a seemingly endless collection of molds per figure until finally having molds and demos ready for production overseas.
It shouldn’t go unnoticed that the promotional artists and package designers also played a pivotal role in the line’s success. While initially borrowing the aesthetic of the Eastman and Laird comics, firms like McHale Design and artists like Dirk Wunderlich, Keith Batcheller, and later on painter Greg Huber did fantastic work for the line. Sadly, much of the craftsmanship put into this artwork apparently only exists in copy form now, as the original artwork was either lost or destroyed in the replication process.
The Turtles went on to true cultural juggernaut status. Decades later, after millions of toys, seven films, multiple comics, dozens of video games, and around five different cartoon series the brand shows no signs of really slowing down.
Of course, the most fascinating aspect of this line is the number of proverbial cooks in the kitchen. The initial toy line was so scattershot and mutable from the start that so many outside firms had to be brought in to keep it going forward, which allowed all these different artists to have a crack at adding to the universe. This adaptability, instead of devolving the brand, has allowed it to be rediscovered every five to ten years, with successive generations of artists making their own contributions to the property. It also lead to countless knock-offs, such as Street Sharks, WildWest Cowboys of Moo Mesa, SwatKats, Bucky O’Hare, Extreme Dinosaurs, Cheetahmen, Monster Squad, Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys, Mighty Ducks, Gargoyles, Road Rovers, and of course, Biker Mice from Mars.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it’s amazing how two toy lines have proven to be so influential in design and illustration. These purely capitalistic endeavors, and make no mistake, they are purely capitalistic, nevertheless provided work for a small army of designers and illustrators as well as inspiration for countless more. Today we have a slew of different brands and products derived from this initial work, be it creator-owned toy production companies like McFarlane Toys or Ashley Wood’s Underverse line, or the work of celebrity toy designers like The Four Horsemen.
This broad expression of creativity not only provides inspiration, but a blueprint for younger illustrators in how to make it as an artist.
Credits:
This episode was produced with the aid of a grant from the University of Central Oklahoma
Research & Writing credits for this episode are from – Sam Washburn
With additional research assistance provided by – XXXXX
Story editing provided by Spencer Gee
Sound design/engineering – By the University of Central Oklahoma’s Center for eLearning and Connected Environments
Music by Christina Giacona and Patrick Conlon of Onyx Lane
Contact:
If you would like to contact me about this episode or about the podcast please email me at Hello@idh.fm That is HELLO@idh.fm
Our website can be found at idh.fm
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