My first taste of rejection

When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of He-Man and Masters of the Universe. I loved Star Wars, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundarr The Barbarian, The Amazing Spider-Man (the 1967 series (I even left my own 5th birthday party to walk downstairs to watch it)), all that. I was also an avid lover of drawing. I made my own comic books based on the TV and movie heroes and villains I fell in love with.

At some point in 1985, I came up with a great idea for a Masters of the Universe action figure. I drew it up and wrote some kind of explanation of how it would work and then mailed it on in to the folks at Mattel. In my 8 year-old mind, I figured I would just sit back and wait for them to send me my action figure. That's how it worked, right?

Well, I finally did hear back from Mattel, and the letter was on that super tough and super official Mattel letterhead, but it wasn't the response I had been hoping for:

They weren't going to make my action figure. I was heartbroken. I poured everything I had into that drawing and they just decided to hide it for the rest of time. What was so great about those professional designers and how did they get to be the ones to come up with all of the toy ideas? I didn't let this letter discourage me. If anything, it just inspired me to work even harder.

Now I have to wonder... where is this sealed box of ideas, this mysterious vault, this graveyard of childhood dreams? Was that their covert way of saying "paper shredder" ??? Can somebody at Mattel dig up my idea and send it back to me? I'd really love to take another look at what I sent in!

* * UPDATE * *
I have a sort of detective on the case looking into where my 30 year-old drawing (and perhaps other drawings like mine) might be! Stay tuned!