HASBRO'S TRIBES (1990) UNPRODUCED TOYLINE PITCH ART LOT.
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Starting Bid:
$236.00
(Includes 18% Buyer's Premium)
Bidding Ended:
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 9:00:00 PM (20 Minute Clock Begins At Wednesday, March 20, 2024 9:00:00 PM)
Item Description
During the 1980s, a boom of action figure lines exploded onto the market, often bolstered by an accompanying cartoon. Out of this animated assortment a few strong market dominators arose; He-Man and the Masters of the Universe being one of the strongest. Naturally other toy companies racked their collective brains trying to unseat Mattel's golden child, resulting in a vast array of interesting toys that performed to various degrees. One such attempt came during the late 1980s from Hasbro (maker of G.I. Joe and Transformers), an attempt to throw their hat into the realm of fantasy - Tribes.
The brainchild of toy inventors Jose Longoria and Ann Jasperson and Adam Kislevitz (of Kiscom design representatives), Tribes featured a mask-centric theme - with various characters either belonging to the Thunderbear, Firehawk, Wild Cat or the Evil Screaming Skull Tribes. It could be argued that with the primeval fantasy feel of the toyline in addition to the bulging muscles of the designs, Masters of the Universe had more than a passing influence. But by the time the Tribes brand was purchased by Hasbro and put into the early stages of design and development, He-Man's empire was in decline. The toy market had moved onto newer ideas and Hasbro's Tribes display at the 1990 Toy Fair failed to garner the attention needed to move on.
However, the Tribes line had gone as far as tooling prototype figures, animal mounts and an impressive tower playset, all of which were rediscovered in 2016 when Kiscom (now The Obb) sold its New Jersey office space and was in the process of clearing out storage. We are proud to offer these prototypes to the collecting world, offering a glimpse into what might have been.
Lot consists of archive of pitch art created during the development of the toyline that was to become Tribes. While not actual art but various copies in different configurations, these copies feature the original art by toy inventor Jose Longoria. "I Started Sketching These Huge Masks," recalled Longoria in Blake Wright's Toys That Time Forgot Vol. 1. "We Wanted To Make It Kind Of Scary. We Started Doing Illustrations On Tracing Paper. Then We Printed Them On Blueprint Paper In A Diazo Printing Scheme So We Would Get These Dark Images. Then We Filled It In With Colored Pencil. It Made For These Really Strange-Looking Environments." This pitch art was then used to secure the deal w/Hasbro, who bought the concept almost immediately. 12x18" presentation binder w/"Tribes" logo sticker on front contains 13 different 8.5x11" glossy stiff pages featuring different aspects, from action figure card designs to the masks to the Tower playset (see lot #1305). These images are repeated in 26 smaller photographs and 13 Kodak film slides. Five glossy sheets feature contact prints of these slides along w/six examples of "Star Wars" action figures store displays. Large cardboard sleeve w/Kiscom mailing label and large handwritten "Tribes" name contains ten 16.75x22" cardboard presentation boards w/10.75x16.25" high quality prints of Longoria's art mounted at center. These were used for display purposes by Hasbro at 1990's Toy Fair. All content is Exc. to NM overall. Final item in lot is 24x36" poster-like print featuring Longoria's art in a collage-style layout, including some images clipped out. Poster has been rolled and shows even moderate aging w/scattered handling wear. VG/Fine overall. Interesting archive related to the promotion of this iconic unproduced toyline.
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