Yesterday I popped up in Joel Watson’s Webcomic Rampage photocomics, of course, because he’s in love with me.
Shortpacked! by David Willis
Toys are serious business.
Convention appearances:
Calgary Expo Calgary, AB: April 26-28
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Multiplex
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
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Dinosaur Comics
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Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
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©2005-2013 David Willis | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑
WHY WOULD THEY SELL THINGS TO KIDS THAT IS STOOPID
Kids aren’t the ones buying them anyway…
What? Kids don’t buy toys anymore? What sort of bizarre universe have I entered?
One in which kids aren’t expected to have jobs and earn money?
Isn’t that why children have parents? So they have someone to bug for money to buy toys?
Yes…that is the sole reason kids have parents. Congratulations, you figured it out.
Has the concept of an allowance been completely forgotten?
Clearly you haven’t heard the (apparently serious) proposal to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants whilst simultaneously repealing child labor laws….
China?
Oh man! Thanks for the reminder!! I forgot it was premiering this month!
THERE NOT!
I think very mean guy needs some gray in his hair too.
He is so dense not even light can escape his black hole hair.
Nah, he is a card carry lifetime member of the Grecian Formula Society. Either that or its been a wig made from [censored] which explains the questionable disappearance of that toy line.
If the “Market” doesn’t “sell” anything to kids then they’ll only watch PBS, and get it into their heads that greed is bad and not want toys anymore, and Shortpacked! can’t let that happen. This Galasso commands.
Sesame Street’s revenue is like 75% toys. So I don’t see that happening in the near future.
Did you know Telly used to be Television Monster, who would go into a hypnotic trans whenever he watched TV and was used to teach kids TV is bad? True story. Guess why that ended.
Because “TV is inherently evil” is a bizarre and functionally useless message, particularly when being conveyed by a television show where the entire premise is taking the things TV is good at and applying them to a positive purpose?
This is whythe I always really liked that one episode of Teen Titans where they all get sucked into the TV and at the end someome says something about how TV is evil and it will rot your brain. But they only won because Beastboy watched too much TV so really I guuess this whole thing was pretty pointless. That was probalby my favorite episode, next to Mad Mod.
That was only one episode, but it was absolutely hysterical! That monster’s eyes swirled around, and it could think of nothing but television. The monster’s answers to Maria’s “The M Game” were all names of television programs: Mary Tyler Moore Show; Million Dollar Movie; The Match Game; Six Million Dollar Man; and so on.
That was funny. What was not at all funny was a college roommate who moved in that very same school month. Exactly the same attitude, with out the swirling eyes, or the social skills. Funny on Sesame Street, not funny in real life.
That was thirty-plus years ago. I wonder whether he ever grew up…
I am similarly stoked for Rescue Bots. It’ll be interesting to see how they deal with the lack of Decepticons, and the animation looks real nice. Why can’t people develop My Little Pony complexes about this instea of that? Because, you know.
That’d be awesome.
I don’t understand why MLP and Transformers has to be an either/or thing.
Obviously it’s because some law of Conservation of Periphery-Demographic exists. If there are to be brony and pegasister equivalents for T:RB then MLP:FiM has to give up the goods. That’s a totally sound explanation, right?
Because if I began to scratch the surface of why I want viewership of MLP to shift elsewhere, I’d end up making a bunch of people angry. Since we’re talking about Hasbro child franchises, that’d be kind of ridiculous.
I suppose having a My Little Pony watcher that concurrently enjoys Rescue Bots is better than just a My Little Pony watcher. Though I prefer to err on the side of exclusivity.
Yes, yes you really would.
If the new transformers is as good as MLP:FIM is then I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a lot of them shift to transformers. The way I see it is the main reason that a lot of them like MLP is because its a good show, not great but still so much better than the garbage that hasbro was producing in the eighties. MLP has solid writing, likable characters and very good animation, if rescue bots has all of these things as well then I’m sure it will do just fine.
Rescue Bots is not going to be anything like MLP. It can’t be. Rescue Bots is aimed at a much younger audience, the 3-5 crowd. MLP is for, y’know, preteen girls.
The pre-teen demographic is usually around 9-12 and while some of those kids might enjoy the show, that’s not the TOY demographic. Those girls have grown out of MLP already. MLP toys are generally 3 (for small parts, but my 2 year old loves her ponies) up to about 7 in regards to actual interest from kids. MLP:FIM is the main reason a pre-teen might want MLP toys, and that’s only within the last year or so.
Admit it, David. You’ll watch it XD
Well, yeah. But I don’t expect it to be for me, and to have all sorts of crazy references to Benny Hill or whatever. It’s going to be a very simple show for kindergartners.
So… you’ll be watching something aimed excusively at five year olds? ‘Er, why exactly will you be doing that?
I think you answered your own question there.
Just watch some more Daily Show. You’ll feel better.
You can hear all about how American Muslims is bad for family value because it shows Muslims as normal people, and not Sharia law pounding Jihadists. …You know, and why Jon thinks that guy in Florida is stupid.
Nah, the producer said she wanted parents to be able to watch it too. It’s actually all-ages, more or less.
One of the draws of MLP for fans outside of its target demographic is specifically that the show is targeted at young girls, which is supposed to make it somehow bad or not worth respecting, because girls themselves haven’t been respected much in our culture (easily demonstrated by the way being compared to a girl is supposed to be a more biting insult for a man then being compared to a boy is supposed to be for a girl). Simply put, liking something ‘for little girls’ when you yourself are not one is somewhat taboo.
That MLP:FiM is good, that it does have strong writing, voice acting, characters, and animation, allows one to enjoy it for itself. However, for much of the infamous unintended Brony fanbase there’s an extra level of ironic humor in unironically enjoying this show* that is like delicious icing on top of a fluffy cupcake. While Rescuebots could have some of that, in that it is targeted at a young audience, the truth iis that it will be missing out on the gender politics angle, even if the much younger target audience for the show doesn’t push it outside of the range where other audiences can enjoy it to begin with.
After all, when Transformers is one of the highest grossing blockbuster movie franchises of our day (much to my perpetual dismay and abject horror), there’s just no way that Rescue Bots could have that same illicit appeal.
I’m not sure how much hipsterism is going on here. A lot of grown ups sincerely like a cartoon in a franchise traditionally targeted at girls*. The jokes are their way of acknowledging it in self-depreciating fashion.
*This show in particular wasn’t. Faust said she wanted a show parents could watch and enjoy too.
Implying we’re not going to get a canonical MLP:FiM/TF:RB crossover.
They must be pitted in bloody combat with each other, to the death.
There can be only one.
Like in “Highlander.”
Or “Battle Royale.”
Or “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
Or “Saved by the Bell.”
This is, in fact, why fans are creating Fighting is Magic. To train the bronies. They’ve been preparing for this very moment…
Pinkie Pie gave us the warning.
Great. Now you’ve made me imagine an MLP reimagining by Michael Bay.
The horror…
Fluttershy explodes. Twice.
In slow motion… And poorly acted.
Or from a nuke burried 500ft (“half-way”) down.
Oh gosh if I had been drinking milk just then…
This made my day more awesome. Specifically one-fifth more.
Yay.
There’s a fine subjective line between annoying and amusing. I fully expect Rescue Bots will fall on the ‘annoying’ side just as heavily for me as the reprehensible Marvel Superhero Squad did.
Of course, I was late to the MLP bandwagon because I fully expected to dislike that series and didn’t even make half-hearted attempts to watch it, only catching it by accident awhile after it premiered.
Season one was nearly over by the time I caught the bug. Just don’t have much TV time these days, so the internet has to be pretty darn insistent over a very long period of time before it can wear down my defenses enough that I’ll make the time to give something a try.
Likewise to the being late to catch on to MLP, and to the not being a TV watcher… but when people tell me something’s good I usually go check it out. Three episodes in I was hooked.
You were never a Barney hater were you Willis?
Stinson is a bro.
The Dinosaur is a sniper target.
Who could hate Barney Rubble?
Anyone who wishes to hang on to their Fruity Pebbles?
Anyone who listened to him rapping.
For the line: “We’re in Barney!” “What?” “Barney Rubble………Trouble!”
Silly man in black shirt. Adults are the periphery demographic.
Funny how that often works – the target demographic has little to do with who actually watches things. I’m just glad the internet’s made such things faster; seems like it took forever for the college-age crowd to catch on to Sesame Street, comparatively speaking!
That’s so babies.
Definitely babies.
But somehow, I don’t think it’s quite babies McIntyre
But closer to Clown Shoes maybe? Babies First Clown Shoes?
Hehe, I’m having “Krypto the Superdog” flashback to when people were complaining about how bad it looked, not realizing it was aimed for small children.
I’m having flashbacks to when I discovered this webcomic whose readers didn’t seem to realize “Transformers” is a children’s show.
Shut your filthy mouth.
Transformers has media aimed at virtually every demographic, from kindergarteners to grade-schoolers to early HS to Young adults and Adults.
From teething toys to MORPGs.
This franchise published hardcover books aimed at my-first-readers, teen-reads AND adults in the last year or so.
I knew it and still enjoyed the show. You can dance to the theme song, too. Kind of.
The only way Rescue Bots can hope to develop the same following as MLP:FIM is if the charactisation and storyline is as well written as MLP.
Or if it’s well-written, not completely brain dead, have a good choice of humor and could strike the balance between serious and plain old fun.
Transformers has a built in fanbase, though, guys like Duncan who will watch even if they don’t like it so they can complain, and guys like Ethan who are mainly in it for the toy collecting. I think the producers are more likely to play it safe, and use the same tricks that have kept the franchise popular for thirty years.
MLP is more of a freak accident. The creators had no idea that it would develop into such a cult phenomenon. And as much as I respect some of the names involved with its production, I don’t think even they know why it became such a hit, or how to duplicate its success on demand.
Any show that goes into this thinking “We’re going to be the next Friendship is Magic” is like someone posting a silly video on youtube and thinking “This is going to be the next Rickroll”. There’s really no way to predict what memes the internet will embrace.
I’m not a die-hard Pony fan, but I enjoy when friends point out references they slip in as the whole “jokes for adults watching it with their kids” thing. For example there was one bit in a bowling alley where for a short moment they had pony versions of The Big Lebowski characters, and one of the early songs is a tribute to a Sondheim number (State of the Art/Art of the Dress). It feels like Animaniacs that way; I didn’t need to know The Brain was a nod to Orson Welles or anything about Goodfellas/Godfather to find the scenes amusing, but it gave my parents another level to watch for, and to point out to me if they felt it was appropriate to do so.
I think you’re right that the show clicking with older audiences took MLP creators by surprise, but I also think they’ve figured out why it happened so they can keep doing it. As long as the show stays *aimed* at the original audience and stays as positive as it currently is, I approve.
The Gala Song was also a Sondheim pastiche, based on Ever After from Into the Woods.
(The most hilarious ‘grownup’ joke, for me, was in The Ticket Master, when they did your basic Benny Hill chase scene, complete with a Jimmy Hart version of Yakety Sax.)
/\ tl;dr
I didn’t get most of the Animaniacs’ jokes until I was an adult. Just went right by me.
And as much as I respect some of the names involved with its production, I don’t think even they know why it became such a hit, or how to duplicate its success on demand.
Pretty simple. The show was deliberately made to appeal to parents as well as girls. What appeals to parents can also appeal to the general population of adults. If you have someone at the helm with any real competence, they can do it.
I say “simple” in the abstract, of course. One of the charms of the show is that it manages to appeal on both levels without diluting itself, even after Season 2 started to get more elements for grown-ups.
It also treats its target audience with respect, rather than subscribing to the “kids are morons” viewpoint that so many kids’ shows swear by.
Well said, good Doctor. I heartily concur.
I love it this kind of argument. Like, unironically, whenever it happens, it always makes me laugh.
“Dragon Age 2 isn’t solely aimed at the straight white male market!”
“No. No it isn’t.”
“SO YOU ADMIT IT!.”
I had a roommate one year in college who was a little like Joyce without being cute, sweet, or female (so none of her finer points). Whenever politics came up the conversation would roughly follow this format.
“You just want evolution taught in schools because you think it’s actually the truth!”
“Pretty much.”
“A-HA!”
Whenever somebody tries to ask you why you have trouble taking the Bible is pure gospel, just enter at any one point of this circular trifecta of logical fallacy. For funsies! Because gotcha goes both ways!
1) God is explained to us through the Bible.
2) The Bible is the word of God.
3) The Bible is contingent on God – Knowledge of God is contingent on the Bible.
Not here to start a flame-war over religion. Just pointing out the logical fallacies go both ways because Doctor’s roomie made me giggle XD
“What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.” – Christopher Hitchens
For a moment when I read this, I thought that *Dave* was the one agreeing with Duncan, which totally changes the dynamic of the comic.
It’s so Playskool. It’s Playskool MacIntyre.
Shut up, you Fjord.
Those photocomics with Willis in them never fail to put a smile on my face and a brown stain in my underpants.
Haven’t really paid attention to any previews, but if it’s even half as good as the totally kiddie Fisher-Price toy-packing DC Super Friends DVD, it’s going to rock.
Given that the “adult” approach to Transformers entertainment is essentially overstuffed tripe like the Michael Bay movies I’m all for drowning it in the nearest toilet and forgetting that it ever existed.
You know what this strip needed?
Bukkits of Blood guy.
Willing to give this show a try since it TFPrime is only hiatus now and there really isn’t anything else to watch. Not too optimistic about it. Reminds me of something that could air on Qubo or Nick Jr. its even more um..”basic” (another more polite term for dumbed down) than Transformers Armada.
Wonder if they’ll have the same voice acting and animation mistakes?
And..burned. Just Qubo Rescue Heroes with robots. Its like a complete carbon copy of that show.
1st minute: Cybertron has fallen, rendezvous at Earth.
1st segment: Prime wants the rescuebots to be undercover ambassadors of goodwill.
This thing has so much backstory/continuity it’s ridiculous, and I’m gonna watch every minute of it. Who is responsible? Show yourself!
>Jeff Kline
Ah. Now it all makes sense.