A Collection of Essays About Kenner?
With Transforming Collections about to ship to the backers I’ve started thinking through possible projects for another book about toys and this afternoon, on Twitter, I started thinking out loud and am starting to think through a book devoted to the Kenner toys of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. This would be written by multiple authors, with each one writing about a different Kenner line from that period.
I’m thinking these would be less about the facts and figures of the various lines and more a collection of childhood memories. Combined with photos, of course.
Does this sound like a book you would find fun? Does this sound like a book you would support if it were launched as a Kickstarter project? I’d love to hear your feelings on this rough idea.
That would be totally awesome. I don’t know much about Kenner in the 70’s other than the Star Wars stuff at the end of the decade but I know I love what Kenner had in the 80’s and 90’s. Star Wars, Aliens, Robocop, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Sky Commanders. So much great stuff. Didn’t they also do the Police Academy toys? I loved those too.
Not sure if it would work as a physical copy (not sure how much interest there would be) but maybe something online or digital would be nice.
I would also like to submit something if it comes to fruition hehe.
@Court – The only way I would do this is as a book. I’m a bit of a book fan. That’s what makes Kickstarter so much fun; people can vote with their dollars on whether or not they like the idea behind a project.
@T-Rav – The variety of Kenner lines is a lot of what makes this a good idea for a group of authors. I don’t think any one person could bring the fun that a group would be capable of pulling off.
Absolutely! This is definitely the type of book I would read and support. Kenner was a huge part of my childhood. My father managed retail stores and worked with some of the Kenner reps while we lived in Cincinatti (where Kenner was headquartered) so I would always have those big catalogs of the next years product.
This would be great! I would love to see some of the short lived lines like Centurions get featured. Don’t take this the wrong way fellow toy lovers, but I personally would not want it to be overwhelmed with Star Wars.
@Dave – I think each contributor would write about a different Kenner line. So while the “Star Wars Collection” would be in there, it would be just one essay in the book.
@Barbecue17 – You would have to contribute an essay then! Your perspective is going to be very different than many of us since you were closer to the toys’ source.
YES. Kenner was always my favorite toy manufacturer and it deserves a wonderful tribute! I agree with Dave about making sure more than Star Wars is featured. There were so many great series: MASK, Centurions, Silverhawks, Super Powers, Batman (multiple series), Superman, etc.
I remember accumulating a fair-sized “used spaceship lot” from several different lines where Lando Calrissian sold beat-up cruisers to unwitting members of MASK. Ah, those were the days…