>>11377514Yeah, the development cycle behind She-Ra was wild.
Justine Dantzer, who was working in the Barbie department in 1984, has talked about Mattel executives noticing demand for Teela was far more units than they expected and the famous customer survey where respondents said 25% of MotU figures were purchased for girls and were like "What if this popular character had a long-lost twin sister, and was sold with clothes like Barbie?"
I can't even keep track of who it was at Mattel or Filmation who said "her being He-Man's twin sister is a better premise", but Dantzer was responsible for the unused reindeer steed, Bow and Catra, as well as one supporting heroine you might call Glimmer.
Catra's lycanthropy in the cartoon was based on an abandoned plan to give the action doll a fur-lined cat mask and shirt with matching fur, making her look like a lycanthrope from the waist up.
