Sept 9: How She-Ra Was Both the First and Probably Last Real Attempt at Female Action Figures
Plus how the biggest hit of the '90s has vanished completely
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
September 9th, 2022 • Issue 116
How She-Ra Was Both the First and Probably Last Real Attempt at Female Action Figures
37 years ago, on September 9th, 1985, She-Ra: Princess of Power premiered.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a toy commercial disguised as a TV show. But it feels like there was some attempt to hide that from viewers; some way kids’ parents could suspend their disbelief to think maybe, just maybe, the show was more than a commercial.
She-Ra: Princess of Power did not make such an attempt.
After He-Man’s unexpected, zeitgeist breakthrough success, the folks in charge at Filmation (the production company) and Mattel (the toy company) learned a surprising stat: 30% of the show’s viewers were girls.
He-Man toys were flying off the shelves at the time. According to a New York Times article from December 1984, Mattel sold 55 million action figures — which the paper still called “dolls” — in the U.S. in the toy line’s first two-and-a-half years. (One year before the show premiered, one-and-a-half years after.)
But how many of those kids purchasing action figures were those girls watching He-Man? Reading between the lines, Mattel seemed to believe the answer was: Uh, not many.
Solution? They whipped up the character of She-Ra, a retconned sister for He-Man, around whom they would create a spinoff series. A spinoff with one major purpose: To figure out if girls would buy action figures.
Could action figures come full circle? Hasbro invented the term when they created G.I. Joe in 1964 as a way to (at the time) de-stigmatize dolls for boys. Now, two decades later, could action figures also appeal to girls?
And the answer was… ehhhhh.
The She-Ra TV series was a hit, not quite on the level of He-Man but strong in its own right. However, popularity didn’t translate to a comparable toy phenomenon. According to a former Mattel employee, She-Ra moved around $60 million worth of merchandise in 1985. Not bad… but nowhere close to He-Man, which moved nearly 700% more.
Then, in 1986, the sales for both lines fell off a cliff. Some of Mattel’s staff in charge of “boys’ toys” blamed She-Ra for bringing down the line but, really, the fad had reached its natural and inevitable denouement. Filmation was done producing new episodes of He-Man. The toy line was oversaturated. Kids were ready to move on to the next thing.
Notably, in 1986, Barbie shook off a sales slump and became a toy powerhouse again. Mattel even attributed some of that to the She-Ra effect. Girls saw two options on shelves — dolls versus action figures — and the market declared a clear winner.
Did this moment end the debate over whether girls would buy action figures? Not definitively… but it sure curbed future plans.
Today, the concept of “boys’ toys” and “girls’ toys” is on the outs, at least officially; toy aisles at the remaining physical toy stores like Target still seem to unofficially segregate.
But female action figures are still far rarer than male action figures. And, likely, it’s because the theory is: Even today’s modern boys are still less inclined to play with them and even today’s modern girls are still less inclined to buy them.
The enduring gulf between male versus female action figures is unmissable.
There was a public outcry in 2015 when Marvel and Hasbro released a line of action figures for Avengers: Age of Ultron and the one prominent female Avenger, Black Widow, was conspicuously absent.
Earlier this year, a writer for Bleeding Cool analyzed the top toy lines from 2021. 23% of the Hasbro’s Marvel Legends were female figures; as were 12% of Hasbro’s Star Wars; 20% of Mattel’s new Masters of the Universe; 15% of Mattel’s WWE; 10% of McFarlane’s DC multiverse; and 7% of McFarlane’s other licensed toy lines.
Maybe girls really don’t want action figures. My daughter had access to every action figure, truck, angry dinosaur, and other stereotypically “boy” toy — and, with no prompting on our part, gravitated only toward unicorns, Disney princesses, and dress-up gowns. It’s anecdotal, but far from an anomaly.
Or maybe this is a chicken-egg scenario. Toy companies are reticent to produce female action figures so sales of female action figures are low which means producing fewer female action figures.
There’s no good answer nor a clear one. But since the She-Ra experiment more than three decades ago, it seems like there’s never been a bona fide attempt to try again. Which gives that toy line a legacy, but one that’s a real downer.
Other momentous moments from this week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
September 9th
1988 - Chicago’s single Look Away was released.
1989 - American Gladiators premiered.
1989 - New Kids on the Block’s single Hangin’ Tough hit number one.
1991 - The Maury Povich Show premiered.
1995 - Pinky and the Brain premiered as a standalone show.
1995 - Skee Lo’s single I Wish peaked at number 13 and Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise hit number one.
1995 - The Sony PlayStation was released in North America.
1998 - Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols appeared on Judge Judy.
1999 - The Sega Dreamcast was released.
2001 - Band of Brothers premiered on HBO.
September 10th
1983 - Inspector Gadget premiered.
1983 - Michael Sembello’s single Maniac hit number one.
1984 - Alex Trebek’s first episode as Jeopardy! host aired in syndication.
1984 - Apple’s Macintosh 512K was released.
1984 - Voltron premiered.
1988 - Steffi Graf won the grand slam in tennis.
1988 - Guns N’ Roses’ single Sweet Child O’ Mine hit number one.
1989 - Deion Sanders made his NFL debut after hitting a home run in an MLB game five days earlier.
1990 - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air premiered.
1990 - The New Adventures of He-Man premiered.
1991 - Nirvana’s single Smells Like Teen Spirit was released.
1992 - Howard Stern appeared as Fartman at the MTV VMAs.
1992 - Lamb Chop’s Play Along premiered.
1993 - True Romance hit theaters.
1993 - The X-Files premiered.
1994 - The Tick premiered.
1998 - Everlast’s single What It’s Like was released.
September 11th
1977 - The Atari 2600 (aka the Atari VCS) was released.
1982 - Chicago’s single Hard to Say I’m Sorry hit number one.
1985 - Pete Rose collected his record 4,192nd hit.
1987 - Prince’s Paisley Park Studios opened.
1990 - Jesus Jones’s single Right Here, Right Now was released.
1992 - Sneakers hit theaters.
1993 - Mariah Carey’s single Dreamlover hit number one.
1993 - Legends of the Hidden Temple and Saved by the Bell: The New Class both premiered.
1994 - Andre Agassi won his first U.S. Open.
1998 - Rounders hit theaters, as did Simon Birch.
2001 - Jay Z’s album The Blueprint was released on an unfortunate release date.
September 12th
1981 - The Smurfs premiered.
1983 - G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero premiered in syndication.
1989 - Linda Rondstadt and Aaron Neville’s duet Don’t Know Much was released.
1989 - Life Goes On premiered.
1992 - NBC canceled Saturday morning cartoons to focus on live-action shows.
1992 - California Dreams premiered.
1993 - Lois and Clark premiered.
1994 - Party of Five premiered.
1994 - Netscape Navigator launched.
1995 - Mariah Carey’s single Fantasy was released.
1995 - The Harlem Globetrotters lost a game to a team featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
1997 - The Game hit theaters.
1999 - The Cleveland Browns 2.0 made their debut.
1999 - Farm Aid ‘99 took place in Virginia.
September 13th
1985 - Super Mario Bros. was released for the very first time.
1986 - Pee-Wee’s Playhouse premiered.
1986 - Double’s one hit, The Captain of Her Heart, peaked at number 16 and Berlin’s single Take My Breath Away hit number one.
1990 - Law & Order premiered.
1993 - Animaniacs, the Ricki Lake Show, and Conan O’Brien’s Late Night show all premiered.
1994 - Notorious BIG’s Ready to Die was released.
1994 - Blues Traveler’s album four was released.
1995 - The Drew Carey Show premiered.
1996 - Tupac died less than one week after being shot.
1996 - Everybody Loves Raymond premiered.
1997 - Elton John’s Candle in the Wind tribute to Princess Diana was released.
1997 - The Weird Al Show premiered.
1997 - Mariah Carey’s single Honey was released.
1999 - Blind Date premiered.
September 14th
1981 - Entertainment Tonight premiered.
1984 - MTV held the first VMAs.
1985 - The Golden Girls premiered.
1985 - Care Bears premiered in syndication.
1989 - The famous Duck Tails NES game was released.
1990 - LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out was released.
1990 - Tiny Toon Adventures premiered.
1990 - Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. hit back-to-back home runs for the Seattle Mariners.
1991 - Paula Abdul’s single The Promise of a New Day hit number one.
1993 - The song Yakko’s World debuted on the second-ever episode of Animaniacs.
1994 - MLB commissioner Bud Selig cancelled the World Series in the strike-shortened baseball season.
1996 - Primitive Radio Gods’ one hit, Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth, peaked at number 10.
1998 - TRL premiered.
1999 - US magazine changed its name to USWeekly.
2000 - Windows ME was released.
2001 - The Nintendo Gamecube was released in Japan.
September 15th
1982 - The first issue of USA Today was published.
1984 - Muppet Babies premiered on CBS.
1986 - The final Apple II computer, the IIGS, was released.
1986 - L.A. Law premiered on NBC.
1990 - Captain Planet and the Planeteers premiered.
1990 - Wilson Phillips’ single Release Me hit number one.
1993 - Meat Loaf’s single I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) was released.
1998 - TQ’s single Westside was released.
1999 - American Beauty hit theaters.
2000 - Almost Famous and Duets hit theaters.
2000 - The summer Olympics began in Sydney, Australia.
5 ‘80s and ‘90s trivia facts
The Mask was Cameron Diaz’s acting debut.
And her part almost went to Anna Nicole Smith.
The founders of Compaq computers almost went into an entirely different business.
As they were planning their next move in 1982, they’d narrowed down their options to two businesses: Computers, or a chain of Mexican restaurants. They went computers.
The mood ring and Thighmaster were invented by the same person.
That person was Joshua Reynolds, one of the heirs to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
The first text message ever was sent on December 3rd, 1992.
It said, “Merry Christmas.”
Fruitopia barely survived the ‘90s in the U.S. — but still lives on in other countries.
While Fruitopia was discontinued in the U.S. in 2003, it’s still available in countries like Canada and Australia.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
The first images are out of the Milli Vanilli biopic, Girl You Know It’s True, which is currently filming.
There’s currently a bidding war over the rights to reboot The NeverEnding Story.
Netflix has rebooted Teletubbies. The show premieres November 14th.
McDonald’s is bringing back a forgotten ‘80s menu item, the cheese Danish, for a limited time.
Spencer Elden, the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album, lost his child pornography lawsuit against the band. The judge ruled his complaint was outside the statute of limitations.
September 17th is (apparently) Batman Day, so the two Michael Keaton Batman movies will be airing at Cinemark theaters.
Tom Hanks says there was talk of a Forrest Gump sequel “that lasted all of 40 minutes. And then we… said, ‘Guys, come on.’”
A video game collector in France is selling every single gaming console ever for $1 million. You can see pictures of the collection on the eBay listing.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here’s a look at the history of the Trapper Keeper, from its nationwide release in 1981 to today.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
This seems apropos considering the passing of another prominent member of the British royal family. Here’s the story of how Elton John’s Candle in the Wind ‘97, in honor of Princess Diana after her death, was the best-selling single ever… then seemingly vanished. Like… it was played exactly one time on all of U.S. radio stations last month. It has a mere 17.9 million total streams on Spotify. Why? How? Here are some answers.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Here’s a painstaking video compilation of every music reference and sample in They Might Be Giants songs. Here’s a direct link to their most famous album, 1990’s Flood, which contains references from Spider-Man to Twisted Sister to Frank Sinatra.
Have a great week!
-Sam