Toy OTD: Applause Jetsons Doll: Elroy (1990)

This is an older toy that I've had since my days at Tiny Toons (we're talking early nineties). Warner Brothers TV Animation was in the Imperial Bank building, right next to the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Naturally, we'd pop down there at lunchtime to shop and play video games. One of the neastest stores in the mall was part of a chain called Cartoon Junction.

Animated features and television shows were getting better again after a big dry period in the late sixties through to the mid-eighties. They also started to make money, and a new generation of cartoon geeks were growing up and began earning disposable income. The means to manufacture toys had improved drastically since the last peak in the late fifties/early sixties. The success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? inspired many studios to re-examine their classic licenses. The time was right for a new wave of animation-based merchandise, so chains like The Disney Store and Cartoon Junction began to emerge.

Anyway, this is one of the toys I bought at Cartoon Junction when merchandising began to pick up. Applause released a line of vinyl/plush Jetsons toys, and though the line was pretty uneven in terms of quality, I snapped up George and Elroy!

It's an appealing combination of materials, the vinyl allowing for a far more accurate facial sculpt. The plush body makes it a bit cuddlier, plus it gives the feeling of a cloth costume, since the extremities are vinyl, too. In the minus column, it's not all that posable, plus it doesn't balance very well. The plush collar is very thick, so it might have been better to cast it with the vinyl head, and then segue to the cloth body. Otherwise, it's a cute, affordable toy.

This figure isn't in big demand, so it shouldn't cost you a lot of money to buy. There's an auction for one on eBay right now starting at $9.95 + shipping, complete with its original tags. Good luck!

Remake OTD - DOUBLE FEATURE: The Jetsons, Land Of The Lost

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Future or past for Rodriguez?
By Borys Kit - May 9, 2007

"Grindhouse" might have taken a drubbing at the box office, but director Robert Rodriguez is very much in demand. He is in talks to direct a live-action feature version of futuristic 1960s cartoon "The Jetsons" for Warner Bros. Pictures, being produced by Denise Di Novi and Donald De Line.

At the same time, the helmer has met with Will Ferrell and Universal execs for helming duties on "Land of the Lost," based on the 1970s Sid and Marty Krofft fantasy TV series to which Ferrell is attached to star.

While no offers have been made, sources say "Jetsons" has the edge because its script, whose latest draft is by Adam Goldberg ("Fanboys"), is further along. One possible hurdle the studios will have to contend with is Rodriguez and the DGA.

Rodriguez left the guild in March 2004 when it refused his request to share the director's credit with Frank Miller on "Sin City."

Rodriguez could direct a studio movie if he declared himself under "financial core" status with the DGA, paying partial dues but remaining a nonmember.

The whole production would be done under the DGA auspices, with a DGA supervisor on the set. For Endeavor-repped Rodriguez, who is less concerned about such matters, the question is whether he wants to do a space movie or a dinosaur movie.

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Wow - I've been hearing about a Jetsons movie for a long time. I think Chevy Chase was attached to it at one point.

I'm kind of surprised a Land Of The Lost movie is being considered before a H.R. Pufnstuf movie, though I don't want to see either one of them, so I'm not sure why I'm thinking about it. Looks like this TV-to-film-thing is going to keep going no matter how many of them fail.

Which film do you think started this? Star Trek - The Motion Picture? That's my guess. Even though it initially tanked, it did start a ten-film franchise, and jump-started a five-show television franchise.