Kinda agree with that one anon from before. I don't see WEP making a Teen Titians Go type series with DOTU. Those types of shows are only done by Cartoon Network. Tbh, they seem like a product of the last decade, so I don't see any other companies hopping on that bandwagon. I just sort of see the franchise as a whole dying on the vine and WEP hoarding the IP until they crumble and gets bought by Comcast. But, who knows.
Hi thank you for the Ask!
I hear you, and thatâs a good point about those Teen Titans Go style shows being a Cartoon Network thing. I think that Nickelodeon had a few shows with a similar vibe too. CN has ThunderCats Roar, which has a similar aesthetic and tone, so theyâre still riding that style for now.
I suppose that means that if Dreamworks does another round of Voltron within the next five years, then they might do it in their house animation style, unless they have an internal branding rule that only their original IP gets the house style. The Dreamworks animation style would be a hard pass for me (nothing wrong with it, just really not my thing), but it would be good in terms of managing expectations for tone and content. It also seems likely that theyâd want to keep everything they picked up from the Classics Media acquisition as a separate thing.
I think the Voltron IP will always be around, because itâs like an old house sitting on valuable land. The kind that has good bones, but rarely updated because the absentee landlords are all about that easy rent money with little to no effort (landlords = WEP sitting back and collecting royalties). Itâs a low bar to license Voltron for making robot figures or uninspired retro-nostalgic tchotchkes, so I donât think that will ever dry up long term, in fact I have a pre-order DotU robot figure by Super7 thatâs supposed to arrive in June. People like me will always buy the lions. Itâs new media, like comics and animation, that we likely wonât see more of for awhile. But yeah, who knows!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âą No registration required âą HD streaming
For what I suspect will happen to the Voltron franchise? Itâll be likely become another Macross situation. WEP will own the IP, but do nothing with it for many years until the company either goes bankrupt or bought by someone else (likely Comcast). Itâs only when WEP is no more that weâll get another Voltron or GoLion series. Honestly, given that bomb of an ending, I think that might be for the best.
Hi Anon, thank for you the Ask!
I hear you, and I tend to think that the next iteration of Voltron will be a Teen Titan Go! style approach to DotU. And VLD will die on the vine like other iterations have.
Itâs sad how this kind of thingâsitting on the IP and doing nothing with itâis so reflective of real estate practices (both WEP and Harmony Gold have real estate roots).
Like landlords, theyâd rather a property sit empty with no tenants than either: (1) actively work to monetize the property in some other way; or (2) lower the rent to attract a tenant who could. Instead, like slum lords or absent property owners, they wait out the rise and fall of trends, hoping for the Big Gentrification Payoff. Why sell for 30k at the bottom of the market, when you can do nothing and sell for millions decades later? They really think their IP is like land, that it will increase in value even if they do nothing with it.
Thatâs how it is in the media IP, theyâre not the only companies to take that approach. Not many IP owners actively-and-perpetually invest money in creating new works based on IP they own. But they do exist and itâs not like itâd be hard to ape their models, WEP and Harmony Gold are simply non-creative. Creativity is not their thing.
DreamWorks certainly never met an IP that they didnât milk to boredom. Sunriseâs stewardship of Gundam (along with all their other IP) is a great example of how it can be done.
But DW, Sunrise, and similar media companies/studios/etc are inherently creative. Those of us watching Macross (or Robotech) and Voltron languish through fallow periods canât imagine not actively doing something with the IP.
But thatâs not how landlord-ish companies like WEP and Harmony Gold think. Theyâve left their IP on the shelf, waiting for others to approach them with money and ideas to license. If that sounds dull, thatâs because it is. âDiversifying portfoliosâ was all the rage in the 80s, and this is reflective of that. Theyâve probably got other kinds of investments that they treat the same way. The IP is not a creative endeavor to them, itâs an investment. Like gold or land.
DW has Voltron now via the Classics Media acquisition, while WEP is fully in âsit back and collect royaltiesâ mode, and thatâs the best deal theyâll ever get. DW can milk Voltron as theyâve done with their in-house IP, once theyâve got the right people with a vision to do it. They might not bother if the yield isnât worth the investment.
IF (and thatâs a big if), thatâs DWâs plan, then they will have to scrub it so that Voltron (DotU or VLD or something new) will fit on their shelf of family friendly franchises. They might also decide that theyâd rather not pay royalties, and run down the clock for WEP to fold.
One last thing, while DW, Sunrise, etc will actively make new stories and versions of their IP, that doesnât mean that they exclusively make merchandise for the IP. They wait for, and/or actively court companies that want to license their IP to sell merch. In some cases, like with Sunrise and Bandai, or Marvel and Hasbro, they have a partnership with a toy (or other merch) company that is involved in some part of the IP development, and covers some of the production cost of the IP. WEP and Harmony Gold never had that kind partnership to maintain.
Really sorry if this is random but I read your post about vld merch and just wanted to ask if you think they're planning to release a vld artbook? I've been doing my research for days now and while finding nothing it led me to your blog. I really love Studio Mir art of vld so I really wish to get the artbook so much. (sorry if it's confusing. my english is bad) thank you.
Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!
I have not heard anything about a VLD art book. Iâve seen materials like storyboards be given away at conventions, but never a word about selling an art book. The thing to remember about DreamWorks is that they donât make or design their own merch (or when they do, it is not often). Other companies do it, presumably via the traditional licensing method.
For example, Dark Horse publishes art books and trade paper backs for HTTYD, Trolls, Troll Hunters, in addition to properties not owned by DreamWorks (e.g. Zelda, Fallout, Avatar the Last Airbender, etc).
Lion Forge is the publisher that currently has the license to publish VLD comics, while the various âofficialâ VLD books sold on Amazon are published by Simon & Schuster Publishing (under their Simon Spotlight imprint). Thus, either Lion Forge or Simon Spotlight would be the ones to ask about making a VLD art book. The Simon Spotlight imprint focuses on media tie-ins, so they also publish childrenâs books for properties like HTTYD. After Lion Forgeâs or Simon Spotlightâs licenses expires, then another company (like Dark Horse, Viz Media, etc) might pick it up to publish books, but only if the demand is there. They have to know that people want these things made.
That said, as much as I want to see a VLD art book, Iâve never been very impressed with how most art books published by American companies are designed. The books published by Simon Spotlight are okay for kids but if thatâs what a VLD art book is going to look like then, the chances are high that I wouldnât even buy it. I am very biased towards how they are designed by Japanese publishers (e.g. Shogakukan and Kadokawa Shoten). Viz Media publishes good art books, and I think theyâd do a good job with VLD.
If you want to ask for more information, then Lion Forge and Simon Spotlight are where you should start. Good luck!
Your recent post talked about the Classic Media library that DreamWorks owns, so am I right to assume that whomever owns the licensing rights can do what they want with the story without WEP getting involved or focibly changing something?
Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!
Questions regarding the Voltron IP, and who owns what, are on a lot of folksâ minds right now, and they are questions that Iâve discussed in private with others quite a bit.
The first thing to clear up is that owning licensing rights are not the same as owning the intellectual property (IP). Copyright is a form of IP that protects the expression of the IP in visual or audio form. The phrase âAll Rights Reservedâ that appears in copyright notices means that the copyright holder reserves all rights for their own use, all the rights provided by law.
An IP holder can enter an agreement (money is involved of course) with another entity to grant them: (1) An exclusive license; (2) A sole license; (3) A non-exclusive license. There might be other forms of these types of IP licenses, but those are the basic types that Iâm aware of. Classic Media (now DreamWorks Classics under DreamWorks Animation) has the rights to manage-and-oversee the licensing of IP for the Voltron franchise. That is not the same thing as owning the IP itself. Thus, owning the licensing rights does not mean that the one who owns those rights can do whatever they want with the story.
Here are examples of copyright notices from different Voltron things that I own:
The copyright notices above are chronological, and you can see the changes in how they are worded over time. Youâll note language like âunder license toâ with respect to Classic Media and DreamWorks Animation.
#8 is a little different, as âunder license toâ does not appear, and that might be because that copyright notice was for a thing that is specifically Voltron Legendary Defender, whereas the preceding one, #7 was for this:
Above: a re-packaged and re-branded GoLion SuperMiniPla set by Bandai released in the US in 2018. In Japan, the packaging used the GoLion branding. In the US, they put the Voltron Legendary Defender logo on the box even though this is the DotU Voltron. The copyright notice in the lower left corner of the box reads as described in #7 of the list above.
Now, the matter of âforceably changing somethingâ isnât quite clear, nor is the line where DreamWorks Animationâs copyright begins and WEPâs ends. Same goes for Dynamite and Devilâs Due Publishing when they published Voltron comics. In those comics, new characters and concepts were introduced, but whether or not they are owned fully by the publishers isnât clear without knowing more about their licensing agreement. One can look at the long history of artists and writers getting into court fights with Marvel and DC to see how complex creative control and licensing is. WEP has gone to court a few times over rights as well. Toeiâs letter to WEP over a live-action Voltron film, and what happened when the film producer looked into Toeiâs claim is hilarious.
So the long answer? Sure, the licensee could get creative, lawyer up and fight âforceable changesâ (which is too vague but I get what youâre going for here), and it will probably go to court in order to more clearly define the initial agreement. Is it worth it? Probably not if the licensee ever wants to work with WEPâs IP again.
In the example of VLDâif their agreement allows for itâthen at the very least, anything wholly new created by DreamWorks Animation for VLD is theirs. Their agreement may not allow for this, but it seems short-sighted of DW to not have something like that. Owning the right to license the IP of the franchise isnât enough because that is not a copyright.
Hypothetically, if DreamWorks wanted to do a MFE spin-off series, thenâif their agreement gave them ownership of new characters/concepts/etc created for VLDâthey should be able to do so without interference so long as nothing of WEPâs IP appears. That means no logos, no Voltron robot, no legacy characters, and no references or concepts of any kind that could be construed as conferring WEPâs permission and approval of the content.
The minute anything related to Voltron, legacy or otherwise appears, thatâs when WEP has to be involved. Thereâs no way around that unless you want to risk a court fight. If DW and WEP have a good relationship, then, as owners of the licensing rights, DW might be able to do what they want without needing to get permission for every thing that they do, but that seems legally risky. Everyone involved needs to cover their ass.
In a traditional licensing agreement, permission/approval is granted after designs/concepts/plans/etc are submitted to the IP holder. If approved, then the licensee has to execute what they submitted in good faith. The licensee canât drastically change what they submitted, even though changes do happen. Itâs a matter of how different the changes are, and if those changes could damage the IP. If the licensee is âslipping something past the higher-upsâ, they better pray damn hard that the IP holder likes what was slipped by when theyâre surprised to see it and wonder why it wasnât shown to them to begin with when they gave their approval.
For their part, as IP holder, WEP has to abide by the agreement and approval theyâve given as well, or else they risk a court fight. Showing up 6 months after giving approval during production and saying âSike! We want to make changes!â isnât going to go over well, and theyâd have to prove that what was being produced is different enough from what they approved to be a legal issue of some kind. That doesnât mean that they canât ask for changes, or make noises of disapproval, and really, as IP holders, thatâs their rightâVoltron is theirs. It doesnât matter if the licensee has a better idea, if WEP doesnât like it, too damn bad. Others are not entitled to do whatever they want with WEPâs IP, if they have a license, they have to abide by the agreement in the license and honor the integrity of the franchise. Thatâs a big responsibility, and the licensee needs to do their part to not damage the reputation of the IP or drastically alter the perception of the IP.
It would be like Mattel granting a license to someone involved with Heavy Metal magazine (or whomever owns the right to Taarna) to design a Taarna Barbie doll, using the classic Barbie mold, with the Barbie logo and everything.
Above: Taarna and a Beach Bikini Barbie.
Could it happen? Yes. But howâs that going to look for Mattel and their Barbie brand?
If a Taarna Barbie figure is marketed as a convention or online-exclusive for a collectorâs audience (and using the classic Barbie mold would be a selling point for that), and if the marketing and so on is tailored for that audience, then it probably wouldnât impact Mattel and Barbieâs image.
That marketing and packaging still needs to avoid things like nudity and gore from the movie, and then what youâll end up with is a white-haired Barbie wearing a bikini with a sword. Barbies have worn bikinis before, no big deal. But if the Taarna Barbie figure is positioned in the packaging like her nude scene on the rack when captured by the barbarian chief, with the barbarian chiefâs severed head as an accessory, then thatâs going to damage Mattel and Barbie.
May as well skip working with Mattel and make your own mold for a Taarna doll.
I agree with that anon, Archie always had a loyal fanbase but it wasn't until they're horror comics that they started to expand from the old fan demographic, if they hadn't done that we probably wouldn't have Riverdale or Sabrina (love em or hate em they def are money makers for them now). VLD could have done the same if it had been handled correctly (I know the DD comics have more adult themes, but from what I've read they still cater to the older fans rather than try to draw in new ones)
It was a good call by those managing Archie to change things up. My partner really enjoyed the Archie horror comics, but he doesnât watch Riverdale and thatâs okay, he doesnât need to. The old school Archie comics can co-exist with other iterations of the Archie story (horror comics, teen drama television, etc). The audiences for those things are going to be different so they donât have to please everyone at the same time with only one thing to sell them.
Iâve seen this strategy work with other franchises and its a good one. Maybe WEP and DreamWorks will try it with Voltron. There is still an audience for DotU Voltron in a variety of story-telling styles across different media, and the same goes for VLD.
The way this strategy can continue a franchise (e.g. Transformers), or keep a smaller IP alive (e.g. Thundercats), is why I donât get upset over the Bayformers even though Iâm such a G1 Transformers snob. Bayâs Transformers movies were totally not my thing, Iâm not into the designs, but they brought a lot of money and new attention to the franchise, and thatâs how we got IDWâs amazing comic book run. The audience for those movies and the audience for the comics are very different, and by all accounts, both audiences got what they wanted. Bayformers had to happen, trying to appeal to G1 snobs like myself for those movies would have been a bad idea.
The Bumblebee movie, and the Prime Wars Trilogy cartoons are also different takes that iterate upon ideas introduced by the Bayformers, and the IDW comics.
DreamWorks and WEP have what they need to do something similar to what Archie and Transformers did. Iâd love to see that done, but Iâm not holding my breath.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âą No registration required âą HD streaming
Do you think the conflict between the eps and the original team over the lack of a proper bible caused the early departure of most of the talent that made the first 2 seasons good? Also in regards to wep and dw not expecting voltrons new demographic appeal, do you think that may change?
Hi Anon! Thank you for the Ask!
The first part of your Ask is close to rumors that went around awhile back regarding the departure, and those rumors included things like âthe show bible was thrown outâ and that there were internal ship-wars. Until I see those rumors validated by someone showing their paychecks bearing DreamWorksâ mark, Iâm not paying them any attention, even though I can enjoy a little confirmation bias from them.
That said, there are many reasons why there could have been the departure of so many people all at once. Serious internal conflict is a possibility, and one that could have included the factors that lead to the show bible being so loosely defined. Or it could simply be for mundane reasons, such as DW wanting to shift their best talent onto the next hot project for their upcoming deal (e.g. Tim Hedrick and Fast & Furious). Contracts could have ended and were never planned to last for the duration of the entire show in the first place. DW had an aggressive production schedule, so it could also have been burn out, and less about internal conflict. It could be all of these things and many other things at the same time, so, no, I donât think that the show bible that caused it.
My intuition and experience tells me that the departure was probably for mundane reasons, as the aggressive production schedule indicates a strategy that front-loads the talent (A Team) to get Show 1 going, and then moves that talent onto Show 2 to get that started while new talent (B Team) is brought in to finish up Show 1. This is another of those banal-yet-important reasons why your show bible has to be tight.
To find out more about that, Iâd recommend looking at other DW shows with similar production timelines and same length. Shifting your talent off of a show to start another one might not be done if it isnât a long series. That might only be a thing that is done in special circumstances, and DW extending their contract with Netflix to produce Fast & Furious and other shows could qualify.
We do this all the time in software development (and Iâve experienced this in other industries as well). My role as a front-end director can include leading the UX process, the UI process, and the direction of UI into front-end development from the very beginning. My skill set expands what I do on a per-project basis since I also design user interfaces and code for front-end development. Meanwhile, my colleagues who lead the development teams, and those who lead the systems architecture design, and so on, will enter into different phases of the project at different times. Since we use the Scrum framework for Agile methodology, there are many short iterative cycles for each phase of development and the Product Owner (e.g. the client) is involved continuously.
For some projects, at some point in the development process, we (the A Team) leave to begin the next project, while the B Team comes in to finish up what we started. Our documentation (including Product Vision, requirements, systems diagrams, pattern libraries, and so on) is vital towards empowering the B Team to do their best work. The team members who stay on from start-to-finish are nearly always the Project Managers, and the Tech Lead (e.g. the show-runners, the EPs, and the directors for the project). We also develop multiple projects at a time, so, given my skill set, I can be in both the B Team of multiple projects, while performing my role as front-end director of the A Team on another project. The same goes for my colleagues as well.
Demographic Appeal.
For the second part of your Ask regarding expectations about demographic appeal: Yes, in a way the expectations have already has changed. Thatâs more a matter of whether or not everyone involved will be on the same page about it. Also, by the time they go for another iteration, they may have done more research and decided to target a demographic thatâs entirely different from what they started off with.
The show-runners appear to have had an audience in mind, and that audience was probably the viewers who loved the show from start to finish (I touched on that in another Ask). It was definitely not boys aged 9-12, nor was it us. âWe/usâ arenât even a united demographic, and thereâs no way to tell if DW (or anyone) has thoroughly researched âusâ to figure out all the details. At the very least, they know that there are a lot of women within the wider audience who buy t-shirts.
It also appears that not everyone was in agreement with how the show should balance the audience that the show-runners wanted to go for, and the audience that others wanted to go for. Whether or not those others were WEP, Playmates, or DW, it doesnât matter, because the job is to make the show that promised as part of the agreement between IP holder and licensee. âSlipping stuff past higher-upsâ is dangerously close to not holding onesâ end of the agreement up. Could that stuff have been better story? Sure. Doesnât matter. Further complicating this, is that DW has an incentive to make shows that will attract a wide audience so that they will continue to get deals from companies who need content for their streaming services. Wide appeal sells subscriptions. S1-S2 seems as though it was balancing the two initial audiences, and it had enough appeal to attract a much wider audience than intended.
For what itâs worth, I think it would be a mistake for any continuation of VLD to attempt to appeal to and please the many demographics that formed into the wider audience (myself included). There are simply too many. Whomever is calling the shots needs to pick one, get everyone on board, and be honest about it. They shouldnât hype or advertise what theyâre not going to deliver. The closest they could get to pleasing the entire audience would be a story thatâs going to be fully in the family-friendly zone (and not everyone in the various demographics wants that either). The family-friendly balancing act is a tough one, and thereâs a reason why those stories avoid certain things, things that VLD darkened its tone and content for.
Do you think WEP will survive the next few decades? Besides the Voltron IP, which in itself had a small fanbase, what more do they have to offer? I say this because I've seen companies like Archie Comics and Hasbro's Power Rangers expand from they're comfort zone in order to bring the product into the 21 century and expand its original niche fanbase. Does WEP stand a chance without doing this or being bought out?
Hi Anon! Thank you for the Ask!
Voltron will survive, whether or not WEP is still around, well, theyâve lasted this long by doing the bare minimum at barely one step above Harmony Gold, who finally managed to put out a good Robotech reboot comic series without setting themselves on fire in the process. Nevermind WEPâs other properties, for the purposes of this hypothetical, WEP is Voltron.
As @dynared most excellently said:
âIâm roughly 90% sure the franchise will endure because if you canât kill GoBots you sure as hell cannot kill Voltron.â
Put that on a t-shirt because itâs true. I never thought Iâd see a serious GoBots comic for the discriminating adult collector, but here we are.
My partner reads those Archie comics you mentioned and he enjoys them, and heâs enjoying the GoBots comics too. Heâs totally that niche market that is being catered to in todayâs action figure and comic industries. Every Wednesday is like Christmas for him, makes up for his soul-destroying job.
His collection of obscure Hanna-Barbera Funko Pops that nobody but him and five other nerds in the whole world ever wanted is proof that any IP can rise from the franchise grave and find new life.
Voltron is valuable regardless of whether or not the next iteration regresses and plays it safe, or continues what VLD started. WEP will hang onto to it because itâs easy passive income, so long as it doesnât become more trouble than itâs worth. I donât see that ever happening because easy money is easy money.
WEP doesnât need to be bought out, because the licensing for the Voltron IP is a part of the Classic Media library thatâs been passed around from company to company over the past +10 years. So itâs more about who buys DreamWorks, since they bought that library and folded it into DreamWorks Animation.
With Disneyâs impending acquistion of 21st Century Fox, the number of massive media catalogues owned by smaller companies (relative to Disney, thatâs everyone) grows smaller.
So the real question is, will DreamWorks survive? Will they ever be in a position to need to sell off their catalog (and Voltron along with it)? Or will they eventually be bought by Disney like everyone else?
EDIT/UPDATE: Completely forgot about Comcast. Thanks to @aquaburst3 for reminding me about that. Comcast acquired DreamWorks and put it into their NBCUniversal Division, so they definitely arenât going anywhere.
I have another post about this, where Iâm a little more clear about what I mean regarding the difference between Classic Media/DreamWorks Classics and WEP. WEP fully owns the IP. DreamWorks Classics manages the licensing of IP for the franchise. Those are not the same things, and Iâll break that down further in that post.
Thanks to @ptw30ââs post, âA Few Thoughts on DW/VLD Marketingâ for reminding me that Iâve had a draft about VLD toys, merch, and marketing copy inconsistencies to complete. Read her post first.
Iâve been researching the toys and merch for several months now to follow-up on weird things that I noticed much earlier. Iâm a toy collector who is also a designer and have worked in advertising/marketing, and in broadcasting at Cartoon Network. I left that world to design and develop applications in genetics/life-sciences, best decision I ever made (co-founded a startup in between all of that too. Good times). My experiences had me zeroing in on this show bible business that came up during that Letâs Voltron interview (March 28th, 2019). Iâve been suspicious about it for awhile, as the gradual unraveling of VLDâs narrative, lore retconning, and OOC dialogue and behavior of the characters (most egregiously in S8) is indicative of a lot of problems, and an incomplete or poorly-done show bible is at the top of that list. Now combine that with the weirdly slow-to-market of VLD merchandise and toys.
Both manufacturers and merchandise license program partners canât get product to market in time to meet (or even anticipate demand) if they donât have official assets from the show, and that includes anything that would have been in the show bible. When the show-runners let it out that their show-bible was the âloosest youâll ever seeâ, and then complained about the elemental icons used on the toys by the manufacturer (Playmates) not matching their aesthetic, and after they redesigned them, Playmates didnât want to use them, I was like: âReally? Yâall got hung up on that?â
It takes months, sometimes over a year, to design and test molds for toy prototypes and then to go into mass production and distribution. Traditionally, there is also a step where the IP holder has to approve the design concepts created by the manufacturer (toys and other merch).
The IP approval step could potentially have been made more complicated by the different players involved in the communication: WEP, DreamWorks Animation, Playmates, Studio Mir, and the most complicated layer of all, DreamWorks Classics, aka Classic Media. All of them could have been involved, Iâm not saying that they all were, but itâs something to consider.
DreamWorks acquired Classic Media in 2011-2012 and formed them into a separate unit within DreamWorks Animation. Classic Media were the managers of the Voltron IP among many other brands in their huge IP library. Thatâs the short version b/c itâs complicated. IP ownership and licensing is not always as straight-forward as one might think, especially with these toy-cartoon properties from the 80s.
So where did the elemental icons come in during the creation of the show bible and toy design approval process?
Above: packaging inserts showing the elemental icons.
I kept the package inserts becauseâas a toy collectorâI strongly felt that the packaging was done very well. The graphics are slick and look good. The ink has a nice saturation with a lot of color depth, range, and fidelity. The die-cuts are excellent and intricate. The packaging on the larger lion sets makes great use of aqueous coating and spot varnishes. Whomever designed the packaging knew what they were doing, and also understood the print production process (Hi! I used to do that too).
I kept these even though I always ditch packaging because I wanted to scan them for collage art. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these elemental icons, and they look reasonably well integrated with the graphic assets from DreamWorks and Studio Mir. These inserts were from the toys released in 2017.
The toy packaging gets more interesting when you see what marketing copy was sent to Playmates to use (or work from if it was from the show bible).
Above: Shiroâs package insert with descriptive text that says, âLong ago a mighty robot warrior, Voltron, was created to protect the galaxy from evil. Now, five young heroes must master the power of the Voltron Lions to defeat the Galra empire and restore peace!â
âFive young heroesâ eh? They must have gotten that text early on because thatâs kind of a weird way to say it when the Shiro packaging also says ââŠwise beyond his 25 yearsâŠâ. I mean, 25 is still young, but thatâs not what comes to mind when I read âfive young heroesâ on a toy box!
Shiro is the only one with a listed age in any of the packaging. I noticed this when I got these toys in 2017 and it reminded me that I had originally read that it would be five teenagers and I had to go looking for articles that I kept (yeah I do that b/c toys).
From this article on ActionFigureInsider.com about Playmates launching the VLD toyline in 2016:
âLetâs Voltron! Playmates Toys and DreamWorks Animation today announced plans for a new toy line based on the new DreamWorks Animation series Voltron: Legendary Defender, a re-imagining of the classic property featuring five teenage pilots and mystical robot lions, set to debut as a Netflix Original Series in 2016. Playmates Toys will serve as the master toy licensee and will create an expansive line of toys set to launch in spring 2017.â
and
âVoltron: Legendary Defender follows five unsuspecting teenagers as they are transported from Earth into the middle of a sprawling intergalactic war and become pilots for five mystical robotic lions in a battle to protect the universe from evil. Only through the true power of teamwork can they unite their lions to form the mighty warrior known as Voltron. Voltron: Legendary Defender premieres on Netflix in 2016.â
LULZ. That ainât no fluke yâall. That loosey-goosey show bible and the initial story planning drafts/concepts must have had Shiro as a teenager. Oops.
Playmates got part of the message in time to slip-in Shiroâs age on his packaging, but why the discrepancy between the article in early 2016 and the 2017 toy release in the first place?
Obviously, things changed between the first story planning phases, the release of marketing copy to media, the release of production art assets to Playmates, and when S1 was made. There still would have been time to update that copy for Playmates and media in early 2016, given that S1 would have already been in production, with S2 to quickly follow by that time. The show-runners already knew before that article ran that Shiro was not going to be a teenager anymore (and likely many other toy-relevant details). Did they intentionally not update anyone who had a right to know, or did it just slip their minds? Did someone else in the chain of communication mess up? Did that disagreement over the design of the elemental icons take up a lot of time, or possibly include larger disagreements?
Since the first wave of toys were released in 2017, when Keith was in the Black Lion, they would have been designed for production and manufactured much earlier than that. Playmates canât turn around on a dime to manufacture toys (not to mention design the packaging) to match the seasons. They need to have the information of what will happen in a season way ahead of time. This is one of many banal-yet-important reasons why your show bible needs to be tight, and your character arcs well-planned out.
We can see the first wave of the toys in photos from Toyfair 2017. Thereâs even a Zarkon figure, and various toys that are clearly for young boys (prop swords, masks, and the like). I remember seeing these photos right after Toyfair and thinking that Zarkon figure was looking pretty cool looking for what it was.
Above: Zarkon prototype figure with black bayard sword. Photo by Jim Kiernan for NerdyRottenScoundrel.com.
Since Playmates was able to create a prototype of Zarkon ahead of Toyfair 2017, that means that they began the design phase in early 2016 before the show first aired (possibly before that even). This also means that they knew that Zarkon had the black bayard, so that much was planned out.
Then in Toyfair 2018, Playmates had new toys, including prototypes for the Hunk, Pidge, and Allura figures, the HyperPhase lions, and the âStealth Modeâ translucent lions. Itâs worth noting that photos of the Pidge and Hunk paladin figures show up on the inserts in the 2017 toys as they were originally intended to be part of that wave.
Above: Prototypes for the Allura, Pidge, and Hunk paladin figures. Photo by Joe Moore for Toyark.com.
So salty that Playmates cancelled these.
Below, an excellent video from Toyfair 2018 where Pixel Dan asks the hard questions of the rep (if video doesnât show here is the URL to it on YouTube):
Pixel Dan asks about the possibility of a Lotor figure, and what happened to the other villain figures from 2017 (e.g. the Zarkon figure, and there was a prototype for another robeast other than Myzax). The rep says those were pushed back, and there âwill be more Lotorsâ (LOL) in the next phases in development. Iâm pretty sure he got Lotor confused for Zarkon.
Itâs important to note that Pixel Dan and the rep talk a lot about the slow distribution of the first wave of figures based upon what retailers were doing with their ordering and stock. That people werenât seeing them in stores. The rep explains that the toys are made in response to demand and thatâs also up to the retailers to order them, but thereâs also some comments that I interpreted as though they didnât have enough details about what to make in the first place.
For those who havenât already seen me share ToyGalaxyâs excellent video about the action figure industry being broken, give it a watch:
The video above explains a lot about why Playmates had problems with distribution, as ALL manufacturers were-and-still-are having distribution problems. Itâs really hard to find toys at stores, my partner and I go hunting all the time, the lengths we go to are absurd.
Iâm certain that retail distribution problems contributed to demand for the toys and thatâs partly why they were cancelled. But this problem with the show bible also contributes because if Playmates had future season information when they should have, then they might have been able to design toys that more closely matched the show, thus boosting demand once it hit critical mass. I also wonder how much time they lost in the beginning due to the back-and-forth over the elemental icons.
Other merch, like t-shirts should also have been in production before 2017. They would have required details from the show bible as well. We could have had lion slippers yâall. Just sayinâ.
So about those Allura with the Red Lion t-shirts that @ptw30â mentioned in her post:
Above: officially licensed t-shirts for Allura and Keith with the Red Lion, bearing the fire element icon.
Someone (ptw30? headspacedad?) called these shirts to my attention privately a few months agoâafter S8 but ahead of Hot Topicâs recent new t-shirt releaseâand alarm bells went off in my head. Typically, this is the kind of error that youâd see in a knock-off, but these are officially licensed and they were linked to directly from the Voltron store page (at the time they had a re-direct promo image for merch on Amazon, in addition to what they sell on their own store page).
Descriptive text in the shopping page for all of the t-shirts of this style reads:
âJoin the Paladins Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Coran as they combine their lion mechas together to form Voltron! Help them take on the Evil Galra Empire with these officially licensed Voltron: Legendary Defender graphic tees, pullover hoodies and popsockets!â
Coran eh? Interesting choice for text about combining lions. Why no mention of Allura on her own t-shirt? And what the hell is a popsocket?
On another Allura t-shirtâwhich also has different product specification text indicating that itâs probably not manufactured by the company that made the t-shirts aboveâhas descriptive text that reads:
âVoltron is the classic cartoon series that began in the early â80s. It is an animated show that brings back the nostalgia of classic cartoon fever. Not to mention a popular show pretty much stole the idea. (starts with pow- ends with -angersâŠ.) Voltron will always be number #1! This womenâs juniorâs shirt features a high quality character design of Princess Allura and Blue Lion.â
Why are they dragging Power Rangers in the text for an Allura t-shirt?
And actually, itâs incorrect. Power Rangers aka Tokusatsu Sentai shows came first. Voltron/GoLion descends from the combining mecha genre that began with Go Nagaiâs Getter Robo series in the 70s, which was influenced by the Tokusatsu Sentai shows. So no, Power Rangers didnât steal that idea.
Did anyone involved with VLD do their homework other than Tim Hedrick and May Chan?
We can see here that the t-shirts that are available on the Voltron store, and whatâs available on Amazon are not always the same, even though the shirts say they are officially licensed. Whatâs going on here?
Someâbut not allâof the t-shirts in the Voltron store list âFrom Trevcoâ in their description. Trevco.inc does licensing for branded merchandise, and selling t-shirts via Amazon appear to be one of their licensing product programs. Both DreamWorks Animation and Voltron: Legendary Defender are among the brands listed. Oh look, another layer in IP licensing cake!
Meanwhile, in the Hot Topic store, thereâs a completely different styleâin terms of aesthetic and designâof both VLD and Voltron DotU t-shirts being sold. I suspect that HT licensed VLD and Voltron DotU for in-house design, plus artist collaboration design, as these are exclusive for Hot Topic and Iâve not seen them anywhere else. That could mean they have a different kind of license than what Trevco and others selling on Amazon have. The t-shirts from HT donât list any other manufacturer on the label, other than being made in Haiti. I kind of want to buy that weird Allura with Red Lion t-shirt to just compare them. (Surprising no one, I bought the Lot//ura and Black Paladin Shiro t-shirts from HT).
The difference in style between whatâs on WEPâs Voltron store and Amazon, versus whatâs in Hot Topic is very interesting, and I assume it has a lot to do with demographics for their respective markets (perceived or real). In a traditional merchandize licensing agreement, WEP and/or DW would still have to approve any designs created byâor if artist collaboration withâHot Topic.
How long did that approval process take?
The recent release of t-shirts (Feb/March 2019) include a t-shirt with a scene from S5 (the chosen marks scene for Allura and Lotor). There are no MFEs, Atlas, white-haired Shiro, or anything else from S7-S8. There is a Keith t-shirt with his cosmic wolf, and a shirt with the Monsters and Mana designs, so they got something from S6.
Above: Funko Pops. Iâve got a poorly-painted Allura (her right earring and tiara yâall), both Shiros, and the Pidge, Hunk, and Amazon Exclusive metallic paint VLD Voltron (Pidge, Hunk, and Voltron not pictured).
The VLD Funko Pops came out in the end of 2018 but ahead of S8. Iâve seen them at Hot Topic, and online (Amazon, and BigBadToyStore.com), but I have not seen them at other retailers that carry Funko Pops like GameStop and Target. We go toy hunting to those all the time, in many different places. I guess that demographic of boys aged 9-12 just arenât interested in VLD to demand it at GameStop and Target. At least Hot Topic knows whatâs up.
The Funko Pops use Alluraâs uniform from S1-S2, and have two designs for Shiro (Black Paladin, and his black outfit). How long did these take to license and approve? Funko Pops are the lowest hanging merch fruit, so they should have been an obvious licensing choice by the end of 2016 once it was clear that VLD was a hit. But we didnât see these until just before S8?
Finally, apparently WEP and the Voltron Store donât mind those elemental icons that the show-runners hated, since they have a lanyard with them on it in their store (image below):
Itâs almost as if no one is on the same page!
If I didnât know any betterâoh wait, I do because this is kind of my thingâit looks like these elemental logos were designed to be like Boy Scout merit badges. Thatâs fitting as the toys were meant to be bought by boys aged 9-12, and are safe for children aged 4 and up. With over 15 years of professional design experience across multiple fields and domains of design, if I were designing these, thatâs exactly what I would have done from Playmatesâ end, especially if DW and WEP had told me that their target demo was boys aged 9-12.
Shouldnât the show-runners and Studio Mirâs very different design aesthetic have been made clear in the show bible and in any discussions and communications with Playmates (and whomever else was involved)? Who was responsible for communicating that?
To be clear, I like Studio Mirâs aesthetic much better, but what I like is irrelevant when weâre talking about toys and target demographics for marketing them, vs whatâs appropriate for merchandise that could be for all kinds of demographics.
Iâve been in situations where Iâve had to design in parallel with an outside agency, and in the dark with little communication between us. Itâs an awful position to be in, and Iâm surprised that DreamWorks didnât know better than to make sure that didnât happen between those designing for the show and Playmates and anyone at DreamWorks Classics and WEP that might have been involved in communications.
I spat out my coffee when I read that bit about the show bible, because damn, if youâve ever had to design an ad campaign (which can last for years!) with a half-assed or incomplete branding guide and little-to-no marketing and romance copy (let alone a style guide to help your copy editors write it), then youâre looking at a huge mess once that thing finally gets finished.
