Emily Laird @ Playmates
 

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That...is not helpful. If you have a question, I would be happy to field it.

i did'nt understand your post... at all... Who is Emily Laird? Pete's daughter?

The first sentance of the post was:

I thought it would interest many of you to know that Emily Laird (the charming and talented daughter of Peter Laird) is now a Public Relations intern for the Marketing Department at Playmates.

Ug. The only reason the company still had the licence as it was were peter's laziness and Gary's nepotism and double dealing. now we have pete's possible nepotism to deal with too.

Hopefully, if she's as much of a fan as you say she is, this can only spell good things.

Jumping the gun much?

Or alternately, it could be because she applied to be an intern there herself? Who cares how they got in there anyway? If the person in the job is doing a good one, what's to complain about? It was Gary's son that organised the NECA deal, it's just that NECA dropped the ball. Why's everything gotta be such a negative? We're getting the canceled Comics figures, and Movie Star Turtles! I don't even collect the toys and I want those movie star figures!

Emily's a cool cat. This is a good thing. Besides, it's a PR/Marketing internship, it's not as though she's in control of the entire brand over there at Playmates (although that might be a good thing). Emily might be able to answer questions people have about the line(s).

in Stephan, we trust??!!!!!!

I'm certainly a safer bet then some others around here ;-)

But seriously, I just spread the news, each of you can decide for yourself if I'm full of **** or not.

I'll wager $1K on Stephan then. Don't let me down, kid.[/high-rolling]

I think what they meant by the comments about nepotism is that now Pete nor Gary can decide to hand the Turtles off to another toy maker without risking their kids' positions. It has little to do with whether Emily or Gary's son are good at their jobs (I'm sure they are) but it gives Playmates a lot of power over Mirage (Playmates can just pull the "we did you a favor" card if Pete or Gary disagree with their ideas.)

Playmates is in the stone age when it comes to the toy business. Great sculpting and articulation are what today's kids are used to. Wish Mattel could get the license, because like NECA, they could get the 4 Horseman (best toy sculptors in the business) to do fantastic Turtle figures from various eras of the comics and cartoons with the same kind of poseability as the NECA Turtles.

Existing contracts would prohibit that anyway. Besides, shes just interning...

I'm almost tempted to call this not newsworthy. It's just an internship. She probably wants to go into public relations. Parents use networking to set up internships for their kids all the time. That may or may not have happened here, but I wouldn't put any particular weight on it either way.

Suppose it's all point of view. Remember, the vast majority of the things we talk about on a daily basis 99% of the globe could give two ***** about :-P

In all seriousness though, youre right, I didnt put it up as a "HOLY ****! THIS IS HUGE" kinda thing, more like a "hey this is kinda interesting" kinda thing.

Anything even closely related to TMNT is good to hear/read about... Whether its a canceled movie, upcoming toy line, review of a comic, a new edition to the staff, Peter Laird's crazy bike adventure he wrote about on his blog a few days ago, etc...

8)

Erg... Exactly. She's NOT controlling the entire brand. She's an intern, meaning she doesn't have alot of say, or influence in the situation. She could be there just as another thing to keep Laird happy without seeing any actual competence from Playmates. And as to the alleged "un-cancelling of the toys, well

1. Sounds to me like reprints of the old movie star turtles. cool, but nothing new or laudable.
2. Comics figures -pushed back a year and a half, and no evidence of which figures will actually be released. NOt hoping too much.
3. Still shows that Playmates is playing small league game, rather than trying to modernize their business strategy OR their toy making.

Also, this. And as to contracts, well... I've found that even if you get to your contract running out, getting a mysterious non committal reference can hurt you.

Guys, I'm sure She's great, and would like to help the franchise. That doesn't change the fact this is as likely a bad sign as a good one in the short term.

Well, obviously.

I meant it in more of a "people will try to infer things that aren't there and blow it out of proportion."

See, like this?

On the list of things that affect the Turtles franchise even remotely, this is probably on the very, very bottom. I can only think that Ms. Laird might be slightly offended if she knew people on the internet were bickering over where she interned.

It's an internship, guys. In media relations. Media relations does not affect the toyline. More than that, interns do not affect major decisions in their field. More, more than that, it is not at all uncommon for internees to apply at companies that their parents have some connection to. You need some amount of networking to even know the position is open. It does not put Laird any more or less "in bed" with Playmates.

D-do you guys seriously think that somewhere in a cartoon underground lair a Playmates CEO is silently laughing and saying, "Now we can lord his daughters internship over him so that we can keep the TMNT line forever"? And hell, maybe throw some lightening in there for good measure. Because if you do, your vision of toy companies is significantly more awesome than mine.

If it makes you feel any better, I asked her if i could post it before i posted it ;-)

Oh. That's cool then; I actually was a bit concerned about it. Rest of post still stands.