Real Monsters Nickelodeon YouTube

"Aahh!! Real Monsters" and Mel Birnkrant's "Creatures"

"Aaahh!!! Real Monsters!" debuted on the children's network Nickelodeon in October of 1994 and was
the fifth of their original animated series or "Nicktoons." The show revolved around the daily lives of
three young monsters, Ickis, Krumm and Oblina, who attended an underground academy where the
short-tempered Gromble taught his students how to startle, nauseate and generally terrorize humans.
The cartoon put Klasky Csupo's lumpy, ugly art style to its most logical use to date, and was packed
with imaginative creatures in a surprisingly vivid world of garbage, sewage and slime.

Only a year later, a line of twelve different action figures were released by Mattel: Ickis, Krumm, Oblina,
the Gromble, and eight mysterious characters who had never appeared in the cartoon show, and never
would. Though it's not necessarily surprising that a toy line would invent its own characters, this isn't
quite what we're looking at here. Originally, these distinguished monstrosities were pitched along with
scores of others as their very own, self-contained property by legendary toy designer Mel Birnkrant, the
sort of toy property I collect in my happiest dreams:

Unfortunately, most toys from the eighties and onwards are only manufactured with regards to a
"pre-sell;" a film, video game or television show that has already proven commercially viable. A line-up of
completely original, never-before-seen characters can be quite a gamble for even a giant like Mattel,
and after they purchased the rights to this marvelous idea, it was faced with the question of how to sell
it. Birnkrant was kind enough to answer a few of my questions himself, and tells a tale quite typical of
how the toy industry functions:

"When Batman sells a hundred million, Star Wars 500 million etc. Kenner really can't afford to introduce
an unknown property. The other problem was what were they? My best attempt at a solution was.
You've heard of the Bride of Frankenstein, the Son of Frankenstein, the House of Frankenstein, The

Source: bogleech.com