So, I'm tooling around online and come across this image...
Evidently, the character's name was The Incredible Elastika and she was used as part of a promotion for Skechers in 2008. The yellow strand things are supposed to be elastic cords that she can mentally control. The tie-in gimmick here was that the sneakers she was being used to promote did not have traditional laces, but elastic ones that never needed to be tied; they would just stretch to fit as you put your foot inside the shoe. The statue was given (sold?) to shoe stores as a means to promote the brand.
But lest you think the company was just borrowing off the superhero trope without really understanding its origins, they produced two Incredible Elastika comic books that were given away with the shoes! (A third issue featuring Z Strap was also produced.)
As near as I can tell, the shoes sold poorly and both the line and the mascot were soon retired.
But doing some internet searches on the character leads one to a short-lived cartoon series from 2010 called Zevo-3. Elastika, with some slight re-tooling, has now been joined by Kewl Breeze and Z-Strap and the fight the evil mutants of Dr. Stankfoot, voiced by fan favorite Mark Hamill. Elastika, meanwhile, was voiced by Kari Wahlgren, who's also lent her talents to Young Justice, Steamboy, Naruto, Ben 10 and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Despite much smoother animation and more coherent -- which is to say "some" -- plots than the commercials, Zevo-3 lasted about as long as the original Skechers promotion and was officially cancelled in early 2011.
What I find interesting is that, even after the failed initial promotion, Skechers felt they still had something worth pursuing in the characters. In fact, I understand that it was the success of the comics themselves (in spite of the shoe sales!) that led to the creation of an entertainment division within Skechers.
What I don't understand, though, is why they didn't continue the comics, which they now had some experience with and had seen some success with, and instead moved over into animation, which is notoriously laborious but with equally slim margins as comics.
1 comments:
WEIRD.
Way to come up with something both new, and novel... I can't imagine where ELSE I would ever have read about this!
I can think of a long, long list of current big-publisher productions next to which Elastika looks pretty fun, fresh and appealing, too...
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