First off, I’ve got to thank my pals at Mattel Creations for helping to keep the Street Sharks alive and still kicking some ass - especially at the cash register. Clearly the folks at Mattel recognize the size and power of the Street Sharks Community. Good on them for that.
(Photo Credit: Mattel)
No doubt the designers and marketing peeps were drinking Pina Coladas in Key West Florida during Carnival time when they came up with these Miami Vice colored characters. Why not? Sure, all the original Street Sharks are from California. But okay by me to give Florida their own Sharks squad. That state needs all the help it can get!
(Photo Credit: Mattel)
As for the new figures, I dig Karkass and congratulate Mattel for getting the word “ass” in the name as well as the reference to “kick ass” and especially using a word that means the dead body of an animal. Bloody perfect name. And I dig the way he looks too. Kind of terrifying. Fantastic!
(Photo Credit: Mattel)
On the “Not Terrifying At All But Looks Like Fun At A South Beach Pool Party” scale is the newly reimagined Ripster. Not Ferocious at all but SO festive. The Goldfish Gym name is a groaner of a Dad joke and the helmet is uninspired when it could have been so much more. The football tipped missile is a nice touch, but every other Ripster who came before him could kick this one’s teeth in and he looks too stoned to care.
(Photo Credit: Mattel)
My least favorite new figure is the clam who doesn’t know whether he’s really an oyster, Clambo. I’m sorry but this looks like a design that was originally rejected for all the right reasons. The two guns this Barbie pink punk sports look they came from a Big Box O Boring Guns carton you can buy in China for one cent a gun.
The boys in design had the chance to actually produce a Tentakill and Clambo is what they came up with instead? Big miss. I never met a kid who was jonsing to play with a clam.
I found the spotlighting of the designers’ stories by Mattel Creations quite amusing. It’s the kind of stuff I used to write for Mattel. It certainly wasn’t really what either Alton Takeyasu or Bill Benecke actually said to anyone.
(Photo Credit: Mattel)
I especially enjoyed the Benecke‘s story about being in college when the Street Sharks came out and his nonexistent connection to the line with no reason given why he was involved. Okay. I smell you, bro.
Then there’s my old pal, Alton, who I worked with on the developing the Street Sharks characters and backstories in 1993. He’s mostly known for his Hot Wheels designs and he’s been at Mattel a very long time. He was a young man when I met him almost 30 years ago. But then again, so was I.
Today Alton’s memory must not be so good because he seems to have completely forgotten me and our development work together back in the day. Hey, it happens. He and his Mattel Creations pals also seem to have misplaced my address to send me a set of the new Street Sharks to check out when they sent sets to different bloggers and influencers recently. Where’s the respect for the creator who brought the Street Sharks to Mattel? Why, I’m still in the same house I created the Street Sharks in just 7.8 miles from the Mattel Design center. They could have bicycled a couple over.
Sure, it sucks to be forgotten, and to have corporate types try to rewrite history, but it’s fun to have all the records and files and easy proof of what really happened and be able to share all that with my Street Sharks brother and sisters. And that’s exactly what we’ll do in my next blog post.