NEW FOR HALLOWEEN - 2018

[Remco Wolfman]

Universal DOES control what artwork is available to businesses.  There is certain artwork that has been permanently retired, like the 1991 images.

This is also the most complete set of artwork Universal offers up, as the 1997 stock art, with actor likenesses, has fewer poses and such.  It also bypasses the Karloff license, as MrDark has mentioned.  I'm saying this stock art needs to be put to bed like the 1991 images were.  It needs to go and needs to be revamped.

The 1997 stock art is probably still available as it has been seen on the Revel Models.  If nothing else, it should replace this option.  Period.   

Why would they get rid of it if people are willing to pay them money to use it? You can question whether it hurts the UM brand but right now all they care about is a quarterly earnings report. A company that makes calendars wanted a cheap license for some monsters and they got it. I'm baffled by the uproar when Universal licenses something that is not appealing to the collectors market.

[MrDark1]

What is baffling is a Studio that goes out of it's way to tarnish its own brand, less  the small change added to the bottom line.
'The Black Tower' (noted building in LA, housing the Uni Lawyers) created the Generic monsters, in response to Sara Karloff vs Universal.
Even after settling the lawsuit, they continue pushing the generic characters, and weakening the brand. 

Universal has lost control of the Frankenstein image some time ago.  There are so many non-likeness versions available, cartoons, toys, ads- any company can make a character with a flat head, and bolts and everyone knows that is Frankenstein's monster.  Not much more effort in design offerings of other classic monsters, like Wolf Man, Dracula, Mummy etc. that can't be touched by the Uni Black Tower suits, cause it don't look like their brand.
Even the dreaded 'D' (as in Disney, don't mention them in Uni/Blk Tower presence-Thank You), sells Mickey, and Goofy as Frankenstein figs/dolls etc.
Why Universal adds to this mash-up of branding is bad business to me. 

They fully admit, their generic designs do not sell.  They make a small amount on the license, and then the licensee, and themselves see no further profits.
Universal licensing loses a ton of profits each year-starting with Back to School season, they could release school notebooks, binders, etc with Monster Likeness covers, etc.  These could be sold to stores as items for Back to School-through the Halloween season!  Adding a few more designs as the Halloween season approaches- Uni could go to retailers/companies, and makes a special deal for these releases.  Uni Lic did exactly this when they approached Don Post Studios to make their monster masks, and again when they were pushing the 60's Munsters brand, and Post Studios asked to re-up and continue the original monster masks license.   

Its this total lack of caring of the Classic Monster Brand that is so galling!  It is their property, but the duplicity in helping to destroy it, and then turn around and sue others for using their copy-righted characters is well...baffling.   D, er uh, Disney would never compromise their brand like this, can't really think of any other studio, or company that does, come to think of it. 

[Remco Wolfman]

Yeah, that's all been rehashed over, and over, and over. My whole point is one calendar that 99.9% of UM fans will never see in real life is getting a lot of rage. It seems UM fans crap all over almost every Universal Monster item that is released for one reason or another. It seems most of the time the complaint is the product sucks. If the product itself doesn't suck then the color scheme sucks. If the product and color scheme are good then the packaging sucks. If the packaging doesn't suck then the retailer selling it sucks. If that's all good then the manufacturer release schedule sucks. Which of course leads us back to Universal licensing sucks. So much outrage. I think I just need to take a sabbatical of sorts.

[Mord]

Yeah, kids hate monsters.  Hotel Transylvania has probably been a devastating failure for Sony. As an aside, I'm pretty confident no kid has willingly played with a Mego anything in my lifetime.

There are Hotel Transylvania toys available for the kiddies. I'm sure they wouldn't want them if they didn't resemble the characters in the movie. That's understandable. What I don't comprehend, is why someone would so vociferously defend mediocrity. We pay good money for this stuff, and don't want to settle for generic likenesses and green Frankenstein outfits. Is that being unreasonable?

[Monsters For Sale]

Yeah, that's all been rehashed over, and over, and over. ...   ... . Which of course leads us back to Universal licensing sucks. ... 

Yeah.  That's what I said.

(Enjoy your calendar.)

There are Hotel Transylvania toys available for the kiddies. I'm sure they wouldn't want them if they didn't resemble the characters in the movie. That's understandable. What I don't comprehend, is why someone would so vociferously defend mediocrity. We pay good money for this stuff, and don't want to settle for generic likenesses and green Frankenstein outfits. Is that being unreasonable?

Preach it, Brother Mord!  Us boys in the choir are behind you.

[horrorhunter]

There are Hotel Transylvania toys available for the kiddies. I'm sure they wouldn't want them if they didn't resemble the characters in the movie. That's understandable. What I don't comprehend, is why someone would so vociferously defend mediocrity. We pay good money for this stuff, and don't want to settle for generic likenesses and green Frankenstein outfits. Is that being unreasonable?

I think it's being very reasonable.

We certainly have the right to express our opinions on a monster message board of all places...that's what it's here for. If Uni didn't have such a long track record of questionable (or just plain tasteless) marketing decisions then so many of us wouldn't have so many negative comments regarding them. I don't understand the blind defense of dreck like the new calendar either. It's somewhat amusing and baffling at the same time.

[Monsters For Sale]

...  We certainly have the right to express our opinions on a monster message board of all places...that's what it's here for. If Uni didn't have such a long track record of questionable (or just plain tasteless) marketing decisions then so many of us wouldn't have so many negative comments regarding them. I don't understand the blind defense of dreck like the new calendar either. ...

I love Universal Studios as an idea (the history and the heritage), but I am mystified by the modern incarnation (the questionable practices and corporate myopia as concerns their older properties).

It's not just their attitude to the Classic Monsters licensing.  They even do it to themselves.  With an area of some 400+ acres, the Powers That Be could think of no better place to build Whoville than cheek-by-jowl with and in full view of the Bates Motel - sans even creative landscaping to divide the separate worlds.

Universal could put a stop to lousy product by updating their generic stylebook monster images (even generic could be closer in tone) and demanding that private impressions adhere somewhat closer to the classic original designs - if they cared.


Universal Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights for 2018 is incorporating a "Monster Maze".  Here is a trailer.
 
      https://youtu.be/UIHrS6V2RA0

If this is how they treat their own official, in-park Monsters' images, how little must they care about what others do with them?

[aura of foreboding]

Why would they get rid of it if people are willing to pay them money to use it?

That about sums it up.  People settling for mediocrity. 

They SHOULD get rid of the art because it is 20 years old and NO UM stock art has ever been available for use THAT long before this.  They literally stopped caring about the Monsters 20 years ago and never bothered to update the images for the characters in their oldest brand, something they did every 3 to 5 years in the 1990s. 

Universal set the precedent and then stopped.  They stopped bothering to market their monsters shortly after introducing these images.  That's why they are still on the books, because they hardly ever get used.  The 1997 art was on everything from Nabisco cookies to Jack In the Box bags.  The 1991 art was all over Pepsi, Doritos, and Mars Candies.  This art got a few cardboard displays in the Pepsi aisles in the early 2000s and then... nothing.  It disappeared, much like the classic monsters themselves. 

If they are trying to reinvigorate the monsters, you would think they would at the very least update the images, freshen the look.  Do something other than just dig up some images from 20 years ago and call it good.  That is the problem. 

As someone who fell in love with the Universal Monsters through the marketing of the monsters in the early 1990s, I take this very personally.  It's more than just having collector-friendly merchandise.  It's about marketing these characters in the best possible way, which Universal hasn't done for decades. 

[aura of foreboding]

Went to Target today to see the cards.  They are nice.  Passed on them for now...  Went across the street to a Kroger-owned grocery store.  Also looked at their cards... and BEHOLD!  The most gorgeous Universal Monsters stock art you have ever seen since the 1960s... 

This is what I am talking about, people...  RESPECT!  The wonderful stock art inside the card came about in 2008 when the party supplies hit the market.  The gorgeous portrait on the front was developed a few years later and was released on a sticker set from Hallmark.  Pretty much the only time we've seen it.  This artwork is what should be out there.  Period.  All of the artwork, whether they have actor likeness rights or not, should be updated to this standard.  The cheap-o 2002 stock art should be put to bed permanently.  This is what we should be seeing on every product.  Even if they don't have Lugosi rights, get a Dracula that is as detailed as this, a Creature, and Wolf Man too.  This is what I'm talking about, people. 

[Monsters For Sale]

That's a nice portrait of Frank on the inside of the card.

Did they have any other Universal monsters?

[Mord]

I love the artwork on that Frankie card. I also admire the fact they used a movie reference in the greeting (villagers, torches and pitchforks). No green jacket. THAT'S how you do it!

[aura of foreboding]

That's a nice portrait of Frank on the inside of the card.

Did they have any other Universal monsters?

The cool graphic inside the card was first seen on the 2008 Window Cling set.  I thought, finally in 2008, we were moving beyond the 2002 art, but then Lugosi and Universal had another falling out, and I guess it sent us backward.

The weird thing about this card is it was the only one of its kind, placed in front of a totally different card (a "to master from dog" card).  There were no other Universal Monsters, no other cards like this one, and there was no place where it logically would go.  It was just stuck in this random spot waiting for me.  I looked all around the card section at all the various Halloween displays.  Nada.  It's weird.  It didn't even have an envelope.  I wonder if there are other cards out there like this and where they might be...  Any place that carries American Greetings might have them.  I'd imagine we could at least get a Mummy like this.

Target did have a similar card, but it was in black and white and used the photo of Karloff in this same pose instead.  It was nice.  I liked it better than the color-splotch ones they also had at Target, but it had nothing on this baby. 

[kapkarrot]

The weird thing about this card is it was the only one of its kind, placed in front of a totally different card (a "to master from dog" card).  There were no other Universal Monsters, no other cards like this one, and there was no place where it logically would go.  It was just stuck in this random spot waiting for me.  I looked all around the card section at all the various Halloween displays.  Nada.  It's weird.  It didn't even have an envelope.  I wonder if there are other cards out there like this and where they might be...  Any place that carries American Greetings might have them.  I'd imagine we could at least get a Mummy like this.

Target did have a similar card, but it was in black and white and used the photo of Karloff in this same pose instead.  It was nice.  I liked it better than the color-splotch ones they also had at Target, but it had nothing on this baby.

I found the card at Meijer, and they had a handful of them.  It was near the "little monsters" stickers I posted about earlier.  There were no other Universal items, but I will update if I see more.

[LordMudd]

I found this guy at Kroger tonight. The jaw opens and closes and the tail is rubber over wire.



CCC.

[AndyFish]

I don't normally comment on another artists work— but that calendar art is bad digital art— bad in almost every respect.  Compositions are bad, anatomy is bad, rendering is bad, lighting is bad, color choices, proportions, all of it.  Were this done by one of my college students in 2002 I would have told them to do a complete redo or take a fail.  Take it through to what we now accept for digital art and this is an embarrassment.

On to the artists defense, its possible they were tasked with an overbearing committee insisting they get the Universal "flavor" without infringing on likeness rights and sometimes you can be art directed to death.   My wife is currently working on something for a major film property with a well known company and she's in the early stages of it, but I've been around long enough to know that the reason these companies usually pay well (or you should charge more than normal) is because you're going to be doing endless revisions and not always for the positive.

They may have also had a ridiculous deadline.  I used to criticize Vince Colleta's inking when I was a kid and then I found out that a lot of the time he had only a weekend to get a whole book done, that puts it in a new light.  It's still bad, and it still shouldn't be published but its not always the artists fault.

With this calendar I agree 100% we should get better than this.  Nice that its an easy pass and do I really want a Monster Calendar hanging in my house anyway?  But if they're going to make one don't put something like this out.