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mutata posted:Marvel at the time swore up and down that woman characters don't sell. We were making the Marvel Disney Infinity at the time and there was massive pushback to any female character we tried to make a toy of. goddamn i wish disney hadn't tanked infinity. those are genuinely some of my favorite nerd hummels, i loving love the designs of basically every single figurine and the game was a lot more fun than most of the lego collectashits.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:22
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The story goes that Perlmutter once went to the offices of Marvel comics, and pointed out that they should use both sides of the paper when writing, and that it was a waste to throw out pencils if there was still a stub left that could write.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:24
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Nikumatic posted:goddamn i wish disney hadn't tanked infinity. those are genuinely some of my favorite nerd hummels, i loving love the designs of basically every single figurine and the game was a lot more fun than most of the lego collectashits. The good news is that every once in a while a bunch of old figures will get dumped in my local dollar stores and I can pick them up for a couple of bucks. Got nineteen that way so far, including most surprisingly Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Mail, and Captain America.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:27
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mutata posted:Marvel at the time swore up and down that woman characters don't sell. We were making the Marvel Disney Infinity at the time and there was massive pushback to any female character we tried to make a toy of. Yikes. I do recall some parents complaining because they wanted to buy stuff for their kids and it was just the only boys allowed club printed in it.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:29
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Oasx posted:The story goes that Perlmutter once went to the offices of Marvel comics, and pointed out that they should use both sides of the paper when writing, and that it was a waste to throw out pencils if there was still a stub left that could write. He also only had one bathroom open at the Marvel offices in NY. And removed the couches from the offices. And went to a movie premiere in disguise and complained about the catering budget for critics.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:39
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Phylodox posted:The good news is that every once in a while a bunch of old figures will get dumped in my local dollar stores and I can pick them up for a couple of bucks. Got nineteen that way so far, including most surprisingly Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Mail, and Captain America. I've got a pretty huge collection (my then girlfriend now wife got me a mega pack at one of our first christmasses together) and they overlook our living room from the top of our bookshelves. I should pull out a collection sheet and nab the 15-20 that I don't have at some point before it becomes really hard.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:45
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Even as a teenager I was confused at the idea that female comic or video and game characters couldn't be popular. I grew up in the time of Lara Croft and my personal favorite character being Samus.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:46
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Floppychop posted:Even as a teenager I was confused at the idea that female comic or video and game characters couldn't be popular. I grew up in the time of Lara Croft and my personal favorite character being Samus. and god forbid you were like me, a hardy young lad destined for testosterone-pumped manhood who one day stumbled across a weird cartoon called Sailor Moon airing before school marketing is restrained by gender, except that the marketing dudes put those limits on themselves in the first place; it is a bajillion dollar self fulfilling prophecy
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Jul 5, 2021 20:16
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live with fruit posted:The fourth movie in the series was set 70 years in the past. They've always jumped around in time. To set up a character who would have an arc. Here it's the opposite, the character already finished their arc and now we're treated to a filler movie about them. It's not like Captain Marvel or Loki which is genuinely building towards new things.
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Jul 5, 2021 20:34
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All you fans of Infinity are warming my heart. When I'm not on my phone I'll post the photos I took of the character art room from the day after we got shut down. The extra large premium figures were gonna be awesome.
mutata fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Jul 5, 2021 |
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Jul 5, 2021 20:45
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mutata posted:The extra large premium figures were gonna be awesome. Goddammit.
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Jul 5, 2021 20:48
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Lunatic Sledge posted:and god forbid you were like me, a hardy young lad destined for testosterone-pumped manhood who one day stumbled across a weird cartoon called Sailor Moon airing before school Sailor Moon always struck me as an extreme example of this. A show with all the appeal of the Power Rangers, which were still pretty popular, relegated to a time slot previously held by Captain Kangaroo reruns. And still it was popular, if for no other reason than there was really nothing remotely like it on tv.
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Jul 5, 2021 21:05
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Bleck posted:if ScarJo just didnae wanna do it no more then like that's fine but "her death was good because it served a narrative purpose, making another man character feel bad" hits a little too close to comic books home for me It wasn't the narrative purpose I'd have assigned personally, but sure. It's not like Florence Pugh won't be replacing her for all intents and purposes anyway, and having Natasha's character's actions and death to build off for her own story to boot. So in that sense you're not even losing anything. They essentially just recast the character. The chances Sam, Jane, Yelena and either Skaar (if the MCU does actually use him as I've seen rumored) or She-Hulk aren't the central component of at least one Avengers film is pretty slim. Hell, I'd imagine Yelena has more chance of having significant focus going forward than Jane or She-Hulk, since Portman may not want involvement in multiple films, though I think she'll want to as long as the part is meaty enough personally, or She-Hulk, since She-Hulk is more of a comedy character.
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Jul 5, 2021 21:12
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Lunatic Sledge posted:and god forbid you were like me, a hardy young lad destined for testosterone-pumped manhood who one day stumbled across a weird cartoon called Sailor Moon airing before school I completely forgot to mention that. Sailor Moon was my jam in grade-school. I'm a cis-het man, granted I've always been firmly in the nerd category. No football, basketball, etc... and instead being a band/comic/vidya game nerd. edit: just saying that to clarify I'm firmly in the category that marketing bean counters would say "he's not interested in female characters"
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Jul 5, 2021 21:24
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tsob posted:It wasn't the narrative purpose I'd have assigned personally, but sure. It's not like Florence Pugh won't be replacing her for all intents and purposes anyway, and having Natasha's character's actions and death to build off for her own story to boot. So in that sense you're not even losing anything. They essentially just recast the character. How can you say it's recasting when you don't know anything about Yelena? Just because she'll likely carry the name Black Widow doesn't mean it's essentially recasting. Do you think it's recasting with Sam taking Steve's place? Or recasting when Kate Bishop becomes the next Hawkeye?
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Jul 5, 2021 21:48
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Floppychop posted:I completely forgot to mention that. Sailor Moon was my jam in grade-school. Ain't no boy ever gonna buy no girly anime doll! ...  Not even getting into the topic of how silly it is to think GIRLS can't buy your toys. Yes, cut out half the market just because you're a control freak and you need to tell people what they're supposed to like, even when listening to them and openly pandering to your audience can make so much more money!
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Jul 5, 2021 22:14
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To be fair, this is all getting it a bit backwards. Disney bought Marvel specifically to appeal to boys, because while they had little girls completely sewn up with their princess stuff, they were nowhere with boys. That’s why they made a bunch of adventurey animated movies without proper musical numbers even though they kept flopping. Remember, Disney makes its money from merchandise and the theme parks. Movies and TV are small beans. It’s weird they didn’t realise that girls could be a big market for Marvel too sooner, though perhaps they were worried that the boys they’d finally managed to snare would be turned off if their sisters liked the movies too.
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Jul 5, 2021 22:26
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Comrade Fakename posted:Remember, Disney makes its money from merchandise and the theme parks. Movies and TV are small beans. This isn’t entirely true. Disney makes most of its money of TV, then the Parks, and then the films. Merchandising is mostly tied to the latter two but it’s involved with everything so it’s hard to disentangle. Everything is designed to promote everything else. Theme Park documentaries on Disney+, DVD of recent releases in every gift shop, tie in TV shows for every film that succeeds. They care about everything because it all ties together and combined makes insane amounts of money. Edmund Lava fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jul 6, 2021 |
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Jul 5, 2021 23:03
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Lunatic Sledge posted:and god forbid you were like me, a hardy young lad destined for testosterone-pumped manhood who one day stumbled across a weird cartoon called Sailor Moon airing before school A lot of that is probably stuff that was decided in the 40s/50s/60s when the only big things were G.I. Joe and Barbie, and nobody really started questioning them until the last 10-15 years.
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Jul 5, 2021 23:03
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Jul 6, 2021 01:09
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Codependent Poster posted:How can you say it's recasting when you don't know anything about Yelena? Just because she'll likely carry the name Black Widow doesn't mean it's essentially recasting. Do you think it's recasting with Sam taking Steve's place? Or recasting when Kate Bishop becomes the next Hawkeye? You're right. I mean recasting in the way the original post was talking about (i.e. a female hero with agency), because future Avengers films will have a Black Widow with the same general fighting style, same general abilities and more importantly to that post some agency of her own. It's why I said she would have her own story, presumably building off Natasha's actions and death. I'd say legacy heroes in general are like that, including Sam as Cap, yes. Sam as Cap does have his own abilities and fighting style distinct from Steves, so it's not entirely the same, but I'd certainly put it under the same general banner. I'd only differentiate Kate Bishop because she probably won't be in the normal Avengers, and will instead most likely feature in the Young Avengers. Technowolf posted:A lot of that is probably stuff that was decided in the 40s/50s/60s when the only big things were G.I. Joe and Barbie, and nobody really started questioning them until the last 10-15 years. I recall a while ago seeing something about how originally video games had quite gender neutral advertising and bias during the 70s and 80s, and it was only after the industry crashed in the West and revitalized under consoles instead of PCs during the 90s that advertising primarily at boys became a focus. Which I would imagine is at least partially because a lot of games didn't have a recognizably human character given the limitations of the medium at the time.
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Jul 6, 2021 12:53
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I can't imagine any sort of corporate law change that happened around the same time as the crash that could possibly have affected the decision making process in terms of who and how to advertise.
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Jul 6, 2021 13:16
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Casnorf posted:I can't imagine any sort of corporate law change that happened around the same time as the crash that could possibly have affected the decision making process in terms of who and how to advertise. You're being sarcastic obviously, but I genuinely can't. If such a law was passed, which I'd presume was in America rather than one passing around the same time across the EU too, then I'd be curious what it was.
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Jul 6, 2021 13:52
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It's an oversimplification, but after Ronald Reagan became president of the US, consolidating money into a few very specific old white guys suddenly got a whole lot easier (and it was already pretty easy!), the restrictions on advertising on television got lifted, and there was kind of a sea change in policy toward various demographics. Since America was full of money at that point, the old divide and conquer trick applied, marketing got pretty balkanized, and as money flowed into predominantly male circles the quarterly profits showed stronger growth there -- as other demos got downplayed, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy with the caveat that, because people will generally see what they want to see (all other things being equal), even when presented with obvious evidence that there's still money to be made by exploiting everyone you have guys going "no lady toys." Or, I guess, you could go looking for a specific key law that makes the thing I said literally true instead of the shitpost about narrow focus that it is. That's cool too.
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Jul 6, 2021 14:28
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Gaming ads were so bad that they were trying to figure out what kind of edge lord marketing might work with boys, resulting in Nintendo advertising earthbound with "this game stinks" thinking the aggressive negativity attracts attention. It did not.
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Jul 6, 2021 14:35
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It was a fun artifact, though! The scratch'n'sniff card is very silly, even if they all smell to me like generic chemicals.
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Jul 6, 2021 15:01
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Phylodox posted:Goddammit. Brace for impact:                   And here's my employee-only matte-finish-helmet (long story, lol) Darth Vader in box signed by the character art team: 
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Jul 6, 2021 20:09
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 Holy poo poo those are neat
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Jul 6, 2021 20:13
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The larger, premium line figures still functioned as NFC game tokens. They each had an element that lit up via lightpipe. Jack Skellington's snowflake, Darth Vader's lightsaber, Hulkbuster's thruster fire, etc. I forget some of the details at this point. Pretty much everything in those photos were both almost done and never came out.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:16
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MOTHERFUCK!!!
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Jul 6, 2021 20:17
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That’s neat. I picked up a good chunk of them when they were being clearanced. They are good statues it’s a shame they didn’t keep releasing them like amiibo.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:19
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Invalid Validation posted:That’s neat. I picked up a good chunk of them when they were being clearanced. They are good statues it’s a shame they didn’t keep releasing them like amiibo. They repurposed the designs/models and the style for a line of articulated figures called "ToyBox". I believe there's also a mobile game that uses them (and creates a lot more Disney characters in that same style) as well. But yeah, not the same. It's always neat to find folks who liked DI! It's a big part of my professional history, heh.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:22
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mutata posted:Brace for impact: Jesus christ that Buzz seriously looks like he's about to walk off the platform and start moving. I honestly thought at first that I was just looking at a screenshot from an animated film here at first glance, it was a real double-take. I wish I had more specific things to say about Infinity but everything was just so well done on every level across the board, what can I say? Infinity was just fun. I can confidently say good job on whatever your contribution was.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:24
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I think it coulda been huge if they woulda just put out figures people wanted and not had a bunch of infighting between the divisions (Marvel, Disney, Star Wars). I can’t stress how good those statues are. They’re solid as hell.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:24
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mutata posted:cool stuff Up until this point I have never had any interest in Disney Infinity. But that's loving sweet.
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Jul 6, 2021 21:32
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Wow, those behind the scenes Disney Infinity figures are amazing. My wife and I would play that together, and seeing all this is making me wish all over again that they would have never shuttered it. It was so fun. Awesome stuff, thank you for sharing, mutata!
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Jul 6, 2021 21:59
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Casnorf posted:I can't imagine any sort of corporate law change that happened around the same time as the crash that could possibly have affected the decision making process in terms of who and how to advertise. I believe it was literally toys r us having to make a choice on what section of the store to stock the nes in, they went with boys so video games were no longer unisex, but a boys toy. I can't remember what documentary I saw that in our where I read it, but I'm pretty sure that was one of the biggest drives.
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Jul 6, 2021 23:08
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XboxPants posted:Jesus christ that Buzz seriously looks like he's about to walk off the platform and start moving. I honestly thought at first that I was just looking at a screenshot from an animated film here at first glance, it was a real double-take. Thanks! The character department was on an entirely different level, imo. I was an environment artist, mostly on the Toybox from the beginning, but I also worked a ton on the Inside Out playset. ( https://www.artstation.com/mutatedjellyfish some work here, towards the bottom.) It was really a super fun project. For content, here's a Loki ad spot with a few new shots including a Mobius scene we haven't seen yet! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORvr70sygxM
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Jul 6, 2021 23:11
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mutata posted:
*squints* Where...? I read someone saying it's the boat scene, but I swear I can't tell what if that's really very tiny Mobius with very tiny Loki.
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Jul 6, 2021 23:21
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mutata posted:Thanks! The character department was on an entirely different level, imo. I was an environment artist, mostly on the Toybox from the beginning, but I also worked a ton on the Inside Out playset. ( https://www.artstation.com/mutatedjellyfish some work here, towards the bottom.) It was really a super fun project. hahahaha holy gently caress bike Loki
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Jul 6, 2021 23:26
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