Good Morning POU!
As we get closer to the season of elves, flying deer and big scary ass balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I thought it would be cool to feature African Americans that were pioneers in creating toys and games and companies that create and distribute toys geared towards African American children. I had no idea it would be so difficult! There is very limited information and the big toy companies are notoriously protective of their turf. Hasbro and Mattel might as well be named Gambino and Genovese.
But, I found a few to highlight this week, both past and present. As you look for interesting and creative toys for young children, you might want to give these companies a try or look for the vintage toys on auction sites!
Olmec Toys – the creators of Sun Man
How many of you remember Sun Man? My younger brother had the whole line up! LOL Sadly you can only find Sun Man and the other Olmec Toys dolls..oops…I mean “action figure” on ebay and amazon, or other auction sites. The company is now owned by Hasbro.
He`s “more powerful than Spider-Man, more awesome than Superman and mightier than He-Man,” it says here, in addition to which he`s black. It`s Sun-Man! Five-and-a-half inches tall, muscles bulging, his massive chest encased in a removable vest with which he can harness the sun, turn evil into illusion, and travel out of his body.
Like any superhero worthy of the name, Sun-Man has an evil arch-nemesis, Pig Head, who looks exactly as you would expect him to look from the neck up. Otherwise, Pig Head is about the same bulging configuration as Sun-Man.
The two characters were born on a beach in Jamaica, where in the spring of 1985 Yla Eason and her husband, Milton Puryear, were relaxing until their 3- year-old son, Menelik, came to them with a problem. He wanted to be like He-Man, the muscular leader of the Masters of the Universe characters, but knew he couldn’t be because his idol is a blue-eyed blond and Menelik is black.
Determined to show her son that you don’t have to be white to be a superhero, Eason shopped the toy stores back home in Tulsa, looking for a black action figure. All she found were villains and sidekicks to white superheroes.
So Eason and her husband, both Harvard MBAs, went into the toy business. With $350,000 from 180 investors, they founded Olmec Corp. Eason hired artists to make prototypes, which she took to the Orient, where the figures are manufactured.
“These are not white figures dipped in chocolate,” says Eason, by way of pointing out Sun-Man’s facial characteristics and short Afro.
“At first some toy stores resisted, thinking no one would buy the toys,” says Olmec’s promotion director William Key, “but now all the major toy chains have them.”
This year, with nine characters — including an American Indian, an Oriental, a Hispanic and three black superheroines (called Butterfly Women) — the company expects to sell $800,000 to $1 million worth. (1986)
Sun Man is truly a cult figure. The action figures are collectibles now and there have been more than one petition to bring the figures to the big screen. Check out this youtube video created to teach everyone the story of Sun Man: