Vecto: underutilized

[VectorX]

Vecto was supposedly the official Vectrex mascot, but unfortunately he only showed up in the only issue of the Vectrex Passport magazine, and that was it for him, I do believe. And then Spike severely passed him up in popularity, especially with homebrewers using him a bunch, and for years to come too, probably.

It makes you wonder what could've been done with him, especially if the Vectrex was more popular, since Pac-Man had his own cartoon, even. Granted, even if the Vectrex did better I doubt it would've been big enough for there to be an animated show, but that would've been neat, as we could see Vecto's home planet, plus it could be one big long commercial for the Vectrex as well

Any thoughts?

[VECTREXER]

As much as I like the Vecto for the sake of nostalgia, I never was, and still am not, that enthusiastic about the character. Mainly because he seems like just another take on the wizard like characters that were associated to gaming at the time. Both electronic and role-playing. With just enough weirdness, but not too much, to be acceptable with being an over the top in a negative manner for a market where kids were involved. I would have like to see a character more distinctive a lead character for the Vectrex.

But even with my lack of enthusiasm I still would have liked to have seen more back story for Vecto in new issues of Passport. As long as his personality didn't go to far astray.

As far as lead character goes my personal vote would be for Spike. But still in the context of a universe of characters for the Vectrex. It would be hard to see Spike in issue of Passport without Vecto and other characters to flesh out the look and feel.

[VectorX]

Jul 1, 2014 12:31:03 GMT -5 VECTREXER said:

With just enough weirdness, but not too much, to be acceptable with being an over the top in a negative manner for a market where kids were involved.

Plus he's also older, alien, and has pointy ears...all of that might not've helped either.

[50tbrd]

He's definitely a benign entity. So, I really don't see him being a character being a negative influence on children. Disney definitely portrayed good wizards such as Merlin in the Sword and the Stone.

I don't see him as a character that translates well into Vector games just as I'm not sure Spike would translate well into literature, which is probably the reason that Vecto was used rather than Spike. But I think they're both kind of weak mascots compared with contemporary game characters. But I wouldn't say that either couldn't have had their own shows. There were some less than stellar game characters that were featured in their own TV Shows. Just look at The Power Team.

[TrekMD]

I didn't really know that Vecto was the Vectrex mascot. I guess, in concept, that is pretty cool. It is too bad that nothing more came of it.

[VectorX]

Jul 1, 2014 13:09:57 GMT -5 50tbrd said:

I don't see him as a character that translates well into Vector games

Didn't he crash-land on Earth? His ship could be used in a game, like a space shooter.

[hcmffm]

Didn't know that GCE (or MB?) had tried to introduce a mascot. Could someone please post a picture of Vecto?

[50tbrd]

[binarystar]

Rubbish mascot, imo. No wonder he didn't catch on. Spike is a much more likely candidate.

[TrekMD]

Jul 2, 2014 10:23:02 GMT -5 binarystar said:

Rubbish mascot, imo. No wonder he didn't catch on. Spike is a much more likely candidate.

I think the fact that Spike is an actual vector-drawn character makes him a better mascot.

[VectorX]

Jul 2, 2014 10:23:02 GMT -5 binarystar said:

Rubbish mascot, imo. No wonder he didn't catch on.

He didn't have much of a chance to catch on!! Two years isn't much, and he might've been around less than that.

[vectrexrc]

vectorman should be on vectrex

[TrekMD]

When I first heard of Vectorman, I was expecting some sort of vector game on the Genesis. The game, of course, isn't a vector game but I can see the character working in a vector environment.

BTW, I edited your post, vectrexrc, so the video embeds.