"There's some splendor, but a whole lot of warfare in the grass, in A Bug's Life, the latest computer-generated insect film of the year. Did I ever think I'd ever say that sentence? And who ever thought we'd get two in one year?"
This page is a list of similar works (similar genres, similar media categories, similar plots, etc.) made by different creators during the same period of time. Sometimes one work intentionally copied another. Sometimes it's part of a wider trend in which that type of work became very popular all of sudden and others are made. Sometimes it's total coincidence: the creators just had the same idea. Which is the original and which is the imitation is not always completely clear; sometimes, however, it is painfully so.
Sometimes, rather than home-brew a knock off, a company will license a foreign work, and adapt it to be more like its competitor. Occasionally, creators will be forced to war with one another when they simultaneously produce similar works which are subsequently released within a short time from each other.
To qualify as a duel the two works must meet the following criteria:
- Within the same media category. A TV show cannot be in a duel with a video game or a book, for example.
- Within the same genre (or in a closely related genre).
- Must have different creators.
- Released within one year of each other. The sole exception to this are works that are Long-Runners, in which case the two works must have overlapping runs. A series running from 1999-2009 cannot be in a duel with a series made before or after its run, but it could be in a duel with a series that ran from 2004-2006 if the first two criteria are met.
One thing to remember regarding Dueling Works is that Tropes Are Not Bad — while many Dueling Works appear to be blatant rip-offs, the competition between two shows (or simply the desire to set each other apart) often spurs each other to develop in quality. The result is a grateful television audience.
See also The Mockbuster. Not to be confused with Dueling-Stars Movie.
Again, just to be clear: The works have to be produced during the same time period (within one year of each other or with overlapping runs in the case of series), otherwise you've got either Follow the Leader or Serial Numbers Filed Off. Also see Fandom Rivalry.
Examples:
- Anime & Manga
- Films
- Live-Action TV
- Radio
- Video Games
- Web Original
- Western Animation
- Other
- Cross-Medium
open/close all folders
Advertising
- In Australia, the Nine Network commissioned the song "C'mon, Aussie, C'mon" in 1978 to promote World Series Cricket, which inspired the Seven Network to create the song "Up There Cazaly" in 1979 to promote their main sport, Australian Rules Football. Both songs became hits, and anthems for their respective sports.
Art
- In 1504, the City of Florence hired Leonardo da Vinci to paint a mural of the Battle of Anghiari on the wall of the palace where the government of the republic met. He was taking too long, so the city officials — possibly including Niccolò Machiavelli himself — hired his arch-rival Michelangelo Buonarroti, to paint a mural of a more popular battle on the facing wall. The kicker? Neither of them ever finished. (The episode is depicted in the gaiden of the manga Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto).
- On the Champ de Mars in Paris during the 1937 World's Fair, the Soviet Union's pavilion and the sculpture Worker and Kolkhoz Woman on top of it directly faced
◊ Nazi Germany's pavilion and its eagle on top, symbolizing the clash of Communist and National-Socialist ideologies (which would eventually turn very deadly, materializing into the Eastern Front of World War II).
Asian Animation
- Pleasant Goat Fun Class and Boonie Cubs are both spin-offs of long-running Chinese cartoons (Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf and Boonie Bears, respectively) and are both Edutainment Shows about younger versions of their main casts learning about the world around them. Fun Class premiered in 2016 while Boonie Cubs premiered in 2017.
Comic Books
- Marvel had dueling works with itself, with 2016's All-New Wolverine and the 2015 Old Man Logan over which is the "rightful successor" to previous Logan-led Wolverine books. Points in All-New Wolverine's favor are the title, and the fact that Laura is actively using the Wolverine name. Point's in Old Man Logan's favor the are that it stars a Logan, and has generally more mature and violent content.
- This was practically a company-wide theme for Marvel in 2016-2017. Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson each got a Captain America title, Riri Williams and Victor Von Doom got "Invincible" and "Infamous" Iron Man, respectively, and for a brief point while the Unworthy Thor miniseries was running, Jane Foster Thor and Odinson Thor had a book each (and afterward the main Mighty Thor title featured both of them plus the new War Thor). The Wolverine example is distinct in that each character there had a different writer; the other "dueling" titles were orchestrated by the same writers. (Nick Spencer for Captains America, Brian Michael Bendis for Iron Men, and Jason Aaron for all your Thor needs.)
- Earlier, Brian Michael Bendis had launched the New Avengers, which after the events of Civil War, saw the team split up with the anti-registration side going on the lam to become the Secret Avengers, and the pro-registration side forming the Mighty Avengers, thus creating two dueling Avengers books. Further still, Bendis launched a third book with Norman Osborn's intentionally dark mirrored take on the teams, called Dark Avengers.
- DC's Doom Patrol and Marvel's X-Men. Both teams consisted of super-powered individuals shunned by the world, were led by a man in a wheelchair, and premiered within months of each other in 1963. The X-Men would rise to prominence and become one of the biggest franchises in comics, while the Doom Patrol would struggle to maintain a series. However, the two series diverged: while the X-Men focused on traditional superheroics with a lot of focus on the soap opera side of stories, the Doom Patrol, under Grant Morrison, eventually became a much more strange and experimental title focusing on more mature and artsy themes. While the X-Men do dip into some weirder stuff — particularly when Morrison himself revamped the franchise — along with all manner of magic and sci-fi, the Doom Patrol have largely stuck to the more "out there" tone. The two are very rarely compared these days.
- It may seem strange, but for a while in the eighties, Green Lantern and Iron Man were seen as this, even internally. In the planning phases for Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC even considered revamping or replacing Hal Jordan to avoid comparisons to Iron Man, so it was a prevalent enough sentiment to influence the company's decisions at the time. The revamp would eventually take place with Emerald Twilight, but it seems the rivalry wasn't forgotten, since the two were merged into the Amalgam hero, Iron Lantern.
- DC's Who's Who and Marvel's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe have competed with each other a number of times. During the original run of Who's Who in the mid-1980s, Marvel released the second volume of OHOTMU (also known as the Deluxe Edition). After releasing updates for Who's Who in 1987 and 1988, OHOTMU received an update in 1989 (that same year, DC included Who's Who entries in a number of their annuals). When DC revamped Who's Who in 1990 as a customizable loose-leaf edition, OHOTMU followed suit with their loose-leaf Master Edition before the end of the year.
- DC's Swamp Thing and Marvel's Man-Thing premiered around the same time in 1971, by writers who were roommates at the time, and both became quick cult favorites. When Swamp Thing received his own series in 1972, his origin was changed and became much more similar to Man-Thing's, who also received an ongoing feature in Adventure into Fear at the same time. Since then, Swamp Thing has gone on to have many successful comic runs and a number of appearances in other media, whereas Man-Thing, while still successful, as of 2019 has yet to break out of his cult status.
- DC's Superman and Fawcett's Captain Marvel, so much so that when Captain Marvel's books sold better than Superman's, DC sued Fawcett over similarities between the characters. DC would eventually buy the rights to Captain Marvel from Fawcett. Ironically, these days Superman and Marvel have Friendly Fandoms due to their similarities.
- This was succeeded by DC's (formerly Fawcett's) Captain Marvel and Marvel's Captain Marvel, as the latter laid claim to the name after Fawcett ended its run but before DC picked up the original character. DC's resultant inability to name its comic after its lead character ultimately led to a trope.
- DC's Archives and Marvel's Masterworks series of hardcovers for reprinting classic runs.
- DC's Justice League of America and Marvel's The Avengers, both teams consisting of the biggest superheroes from each company.
- Champions and Teen Titans (Rebirth) were both launched within a few months of each other as flagship teen-superhero team books of Marvel and DC's respective waves of comics in 2016. Both feature very diverse cast, both (initially) featured Animesque art styles, and both were the subject of a large Broken Base (mostly breaking on each respective writers interpretation of the characters). Their main differences are that Champions features mostly characters with solo titles of their own while Teen Titans doesn't, and the Champions team initially tries to tackle social issues while the Titans focuses more on battling supervillains.
- Champions would then be relaunched with a Retool to duel Young Justice (2019). This was a mistake, as the relaunch did more harm than good sales-wise and going against highly anticipated return of classic series, even if both received similiar critical and fan reception, ended in utter defeat in direct market that almost became a Franchise Killer.
- Wonder Woman #161 presents an In-Universe example with two rival films based on the "Curse of Cleopatra" in production at the same time which Countess Draska Nishki tries using to disguise her involvement in the murders of a few cast members.
- Subverted with Marvel & DC's comic book adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, in a situation reminiscent of the production of The Towering Inferno. In 1975, both Marvel and DC were planning comic book adaptations of The Wizard of Oz. While Marvel was going to adapt the original novel, which had fallen into the public domain by then, DC had obtained the license for MGM's film adaptation. When the editors from the two companies (Stan Lee and Carmine Infantino) learned about each other's plans, and realized the risk of cannibalizing their own books, they decided to combine the projects as a collaborative effort, marking it a special event and paving the way for Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man the next year.
- In another case of Marvel doing this within itself, 2002's U-Decide event, where a reboot of Peter David's run on Captain Marvel and the infamous Marville were spawned because of an argument David had with the latter's equally-infamous writer, then-Marvel president Bill Jemas. Lesser known, to the point that both Lewis Lovhaug, during his reviews of Marville for Atop the Fourth Wall, and Chuck Sonnenburg, during his The Rise and Fall of the Comics Empire series, didn't even bother to mention it, is the third title in this stunt, Ultimate Adventures, a parody of Batman set in the Ultimate Marvel universe. For the record, not only did David's Captain Marvel win, but Marville came in dead last in sales, even against Ultimate Adventures, though as stated, Ultimate Advetures is often forgotten.
- Circles (2001-2015) / Heathen City (2008)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two mid-2000's gay furry comics, both premeering significantly at cons and in direct competion (see below).
- Implementation: Circles deals with mature themes but ultimately is relatively optimistic and light-hearted, with no pornography and a strict emphasis on character development. Heathen City is essentially a pornographic Film Noir in comic form, with violence, cynicism and sex gallore. In spite of these extremely different angles, the premiere of the latter severely disrupted the former's line-up: previously going strong, Circles plummeted in sales in 2008 upon Heathen City's release, effectively killing it as a comic. Ultimately, Circles would continue as a semi-illustrated novel, concluding several years later in 2015; the authors also expressed interest in a reboot of sorts. Heathen City and its three issues lasted a solitary year before cancellation; perhaps fittingly, it lived and died young. Neither work is particularly well known even in the modern furry landscape, but Circles is fondly remembered.
Fan Works
- Leaving Town and Of Blood And Steel are a pair of Girls und Panzer fanfics with a remarkably similar premise- Erwin leaves Oarai as a result of her father's death and goes to school in another country- that have similarities beyond those of two works with a Fandom-Specific Plot, and that were published within a week of each other.
- Candy for Your Thoughts? and A Codette World Tour are both popular and highly-praised Total Drama World Tour fanfics that have extremely similar premises about Cody being shipped with an attractive Killer Bass girl he has little canon interaction with. Furthermore, the finale features the same teams (Cody, his girlfriend, and her ex vs. Alejandro, Heather, and Owen) and many divisive and unpopular elements of the season are fixed (like the Duncan/Gwen/Courtney Love Triangle, Alejandro's Invincible Villain qualities, the handling of many contestants, and the finale's outcome). The latter fic even makes a few nods to the former.
- Change of Plans is another Cody/Courtney fic, and was published around the same time that Candy expanded from a one-shot to a full season rewrite. The authors recommend each other's work.
- In-Universe: in The Battle of New York: Take 2, two different films based on the titular battle of New York are being released around the same time, made by two different directors — David Fincher and Michael Bay. Fincher's film, Zero-Sum Game, focuses less on the battle itself and more on what was going on behind the scenes, taking an introspective look at the heroes; Bay's film, The Tower, is...well, a Michael Bay movie. Both movies are due to come out in 2014, and the fic notes that they'll also be competing with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and the then-unnamed Spectrenote .
- In Your Wildest Dreams and Dream Weaver are both RWBY AU stories that feature Jaune developing a semblance that allows him to go into other people’s dreams, diverging from canon sometime during Volume 1, and had their first chapters posted around the same time. The author of the latter claims they had their take on the concept on the backburner for a year while he worked on other stories, only for the former's author posting their version prompting him to prioritize writing his.
Franchises
- Disney's Frozen franchise and DreamWorks Animation's Trolls franchise could be considered this. Both franchises are major cash cow franchises aimed at girls that are set in fantasy worlds and have a major focus on music. They both also have Christmas specials that were released the same exact weekend, and have upcoming sequels slated to be released in the same 3-month timeframe. In terms of DVD sales, Frozen is the more popular film, but Trolls has moved more merchandise than Frozen ever since it was released to theaters, to the point where it was the second-biggest licensed property the year it came out, only beaten by Star Wars.
- In 2016, two different toy companies came out with toys based on the "unboxing" craze: Hatchimals, which were made by Canadian company Spin Master, and L.O.L. Surprise! by MGA. Though the first had a very strong start with being 2016's most popular toy and some pieces of branded merchandise, L.O.L. Surprise!, on the other hand, beat out Barbie as the top-selling doll brand by 2017 and has had sold more products since than Hatchimals ever since.
Literature
- In the 1960s and even today, Dune series and The Foundation Trilogy, have been compared and contrasted many times due to their similar focus on space civilizations. Both were released during the "New Wave" science fiction craze where there was more focus on stories and characters rather than just being about science. That rivalry was later revived in 2020 after live-action adaptations of the two were revealed.
- The fantasy genre also has its own dueling works in 1960s in the form of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. Both take place in a fantasy setting and both use folkloric and religious themes in their stories. The authors J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were colleagues and close friends who both shared and exchanged each other ideas, hence to why some themes were similar.
- The 1990s had a rare intra-franchise example between The Thrawn Trilogy and the concurrent Dark Empire comic book series written by Tom Veitch. Both series were conceived as immediate sequels to the Original Trilogy, and although Dark Empire was conceived first, Heir to the Empire was released a few months earlier. Zahn was purportedly dismissive of Dark Empire and refused to incorporate references to the storyline into his Thrawn books, but since both series were set in the same universe, Veitch's comic had to be pushed forward six years in the in-universe timeline to accommodate the events of Zahn's novels. The fact that both Zahn and Veitch had many of the same basic ideas caused some incongruities (e.g. both authors wanted to write a major plot point of Han and Leia having Force-sensitive children, but the twins Jacen and Jaina are only briefly seen in Dark Empire) that had to be ironed out in later works. Ultimately, while Dark Empire made a big splash initially due to its great artwork and crowd-pleasing elements, the runaway success of Heir to the Empire ensured that Zahn's trilogy would become much more influential to the formation of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (both the old and the new).
- In 2004 and 2005 respectively, two vampire romance books were released, Twilight and Let the Right One In. Both had stories about humans falling in love with mysterious vampires, and tackles themes about family and loneliness. The differences are the age of the protagonists between the books, and the fact that one focuses on heterosexual romance while the other focuses on homosexual romance. The rivalry came to a head in 2008, when both books had their film adaptations in the same year.
- Stephenie Meyer's book and film(s) ultimately earned more money, but John Ajvide Lindqvist's garnered more critical acclaim, with Rogert Ebert calling the film adaptation the "best modern vampire movie".
- Two famous examples of battle royale literature, Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, have been compared with each other due to having almost identical premise with minor differences. Both take place in a dystopian world where the government is oppressive. Both have young boys and girls made to fight a battle to the death for society's entertainment (as well as to make dissidents docile). And most importantly are the protagonists, Shuya Nanahara in Battle Royale and Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, would later become revolutionaries after surviving the game. The only differences are the obvious country setting, and the fact that in the Japanese book the students face off against their classmates, while the American novel has strangers fight each other. There is also a lack of guns in the American book (which is ironic).
- Suzanne Collins herself admitted that, although she has never read Battle Royale, she was stunned to find out that someone had already done the whole "youngsters killing each other" theme. Her editor encouraged her to publish it anyway.
- Two of the most famous geek culture literature, Ready Player One and Escapist Dream, fit this bill. Although the two books are separated roughly nine years apart, Escapist Dream was released two years after the more popular Ready Player One film adaptation. Since then both books have been compared and contrasted because they both tackled geeks and pop culture references, inside a virtual reality world no less. The major difference is that Ready Player One referenced the 1980s while Escapist Dream referenced modern 2010s culture.
- Everything came to a point when one reviewer by the name of Carl Hannigan pointed out that Escapist Dream was "better than Ready Player One" in his article. For the most part, Ernest Cline's novel seems to have the better writing since it is a traditionally published book compared to its self-published counterpart, but Louis Bulaong's novel is noted to have better likeable characters and references that made sense.
- On March 19, 2018, there were two children's books written about the pet rabbit of Vice President Mike Pence's family, Marlon Bundo, written from different sides of the political spectrum. The official version was written and illustrated by two of his daughters and was little more than a fluff promotional piece for them. Meanwhile, the other version was created by the team behind Last Week Tonight with John Oliver satirizing his more controversial views while still being for children and containing An Aesop about acceptance and the power of democracy, as well as all of the proceeds going to gay charities. While they both entered the bestseller's list on Amazon, John Oliver's won out by selling more copies (even reaching the #1 spot) and gaining way more positive reviews.
- Survivors, Dogs of the Drowned City, and The Last Dogs are three similar series that came out around the same time. They're children's xenofiction literature about a group of dogs surviving on their own in a city after their humans evacuate due to a natural disaster (an earthquake and a hurricane respectively in the first two) or a disease sweeping throughout the country (in The Last Dogs). Dogs of the Drowned City was a trilogy, The Last Dogs was a tetralogy, and Survivors has twelve books and three novellas.
- The 2010s have the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and the Shadow Police series by Paul Cornell, which are both stories about Metropolitan Police "magical crime" squads written by former Doctor Who writers.
- 2020 saw the release of three books that were revivals of young adult series that were popular in the late 2000's-early 2010's: Midnight Sun (2020) (a Perspective Flip of the first Twilight book), The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a prequel to The Hunger Games focusing on President Snow), and Hawk (a Spin-Offspring sequel to the Maximum Ride series).
Music
- Blur and Oasis. Both are popular BritPop bands that rose to prominence in the 90's. Both bands even competed in the "Battle of Brit Pop". Both would also eventually move away from the genre once it started to die out.
- Halestorm and The Pretty Reckless, both being 2010s Hard Rock bands with female lead vocalists, get compared a lot, e.g. this video. The two groups toured together for a month in 2015 and from the sound of it their respective frontwomen Lzzy Hale and Taylor Momsen actually get along pretty well.
- Whenever an artist releases multiple albums on the same day, there can be a competition to see which one will sell the most copies (examples: Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and II, Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch and Lucky Town, and the solo albums of all four KISS members).
- The classic example for this trope in music would be The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. However, their rivalry was quietly a friendly one. Furthermore, the former's acrimonious break-up apparently inspired the latter to reassess their own band's group cohesion and take steps to ensure they stay together in reasonable harmony. As a result, while the Beatles' legacy has been unmatched in influence over the decades, the Rolling Stone's longevity as one of the great rock bands of all time is near-legend.
- Speaking of The Beatles' breakup, 1970 saw the release of dueling solo albums by the former bandmates: McCartney, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. John and Paul's albums featured a stripped-down sound and emotionally raw songwriting, with McCartney featuring an almost DIY aesthetic, while George's album was an elaborately produced three-disc set clearly intended as a tour-de-force. Despite the differing sounds, each musician explores new personal ideas in an attempt to find his own independent voice as an artist. Ringo Starr also released a solo album in 1970, Sentimental Journey, which was…. a laid-back Cover Album of Big Band standards. Because, well, Ringo.
- In 2008, there were two highly anticipated releases by dormant bands just one month apart: Ac Dc's Black Ice, after eight years away, and Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, which had become the go-to example of "album that wouldn't come out" after over a decade in development. Both struck exclusive deals with big retailers, Walmart for Black Ice and Best Buy for Chinese Democracy. In the end, Axl Rose's Australian idols won handily as Black Ice was the second best-selling album of the year while Chinese Democracy couldn't even top the American charts (better marketing and promotion certainly helped).
Newspaper Comics
- Buck Rogers (first published in 1928) and Flash Gordon (first published in 1934) were both adventure stories about a brave young man in a science fiction setting. The two works together helped codify the Raygun Gothic aesthetic.
- The Katzenjammer Kids, one of the oldest American strips, was at the height of its popularity in 1912 when its two creators, Rudolph Dirks and Harold Knerr, got into a legal battle over the rights to the strip. The judge, whose verdict contemporary commentators likened to King Solomon, essentially gave both men the legal rights to continue the strip, so long as only Knerr used the name "Katzenjammer Kids". So Knerr continued the strip as always, and Dirks started a "new" strip, creatively titled, "The Captain and the Kids", which was essentially the same. Both strips ran contemporaneously for 65 years (Knerr in papers owned by Hearst and Dirks in papers run by Pulitzer), and the writers of each strip would blatantly study the other and try to outdo each other's stories and gags. As the rivalry pushed both strips to be their absolute best, it's clear that the true winner of the legal battle was the readers.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition / Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
- Capsule Pitch Description: d20 System tabletop RPGs.
- Implementation: D&D 4E was a dramatic rework of Dungeons & Dragons, often described by players as an attempt to have MMORPG-like combat gameplay on the tabletop. Pathfinder 1E, created by the former publisher of Dragon magazine after 4E's debut, is a rules update of D&D 3.5E, sometimes jokingly described as "D&D 3.75E".
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition / Pathfinder Second Edition
- Capsule Pitch Description: d20 System tabletop RPGs.
- Implementation: D&D 5E backwheels a lot of the more controversial gameplay changes from 4E and is designed with an eye towards ease of play compared to earlier editions and having fewer Game-Breaker abilities possible. Pathfinder 2E streamlines a number of mechanics compared to its predecessor and works to address inter-class balance, reducing Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards.
Theatre
- An Older Than Steam example: in 17th century Paris, the two only permanent theatres (Théâtre de l'Hotel de Bourgogne and Théâtre du Marais) would compete via "dueling pieces", sharing the same themes (and often adapted from the same foreign plays) and tailored for the "stars" of the respective troupes.
- Rival choreographers Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett may not have intended Chicago and A Chorus Line as duelling works, but as Ben Brantley (chief theater critic for the New York Times) argued in his review of the 1996 revival of Chicago, both are Broadway musicals that opened in 1975 and center on aspiring stage performers, but while "A Chorus Line was built on the premise that if you scratch the surface of an entertainer, you'll find a trembling, vulnerable child; Chicago scratched that same surface to uncover a manipulative egomaniac." Additionally, while the original production of A Chorus Line held the record for longest-running Broadway musical for many years, the revival of Chicago has since surpassed it, and is now second only to Phantom of the Opera.note
- The SpongeBob Musical and Escape From Margaritaville could be considered this, as both are tropical-themed musicals based on well-know pop culture icons that deal with the main characters facing a disaster and trying to stop it. While SpongeBob has received glowing praise, the reviews for Margaritaville have been negative. To make matters worse, there had been reports of the audience at the latter show acting very rude (doing thing like acting drunk and singing along to the songs). However, neither of them were big successes at the box office, with both shows closing the same year. However, the soundtrack for the former became a Billboard Kids' Audio hit, even after the show closed.
- Disney Junior Dance Party and Nick Jr.'s Move To The Music are two dance party-themed touring shows based on popular preschool blocks that are touring around the same time (however, the Disney show has seniority over the Nick once, premiering a year and a half before). While the first version of the Disney show was poorly received because most of the characters were just screen projections and not costumes and because most of the time was spent with the DJ hosts, the second version was seen as better in the eyes of most fans. As the Nick Jr. show has yet to open, it's unknown how well it will do.
- In 2018, two musicals focusing on LGBT issues, The Prom and Tootsie, opened on Broadway. While Tootsie received glowing praise and 11 Tony nominations, The Prom has been met with mixed reviews, although it did receive seven Tony nominations.
- Two musical adaptations of The Wild Party came out in 2000, with Michael John LaChiusa's running on Broadway and Andrew Lippa's Off-Broadway. However, both flopped.
- Jesus Christ Superstar came out in 1970 and Godspell came out the year after. Both feature Jesus in a version of biblical times with modern technology. They were then both turned into movies in 1973.
- When The Great Gatsby entered the public domain in 2021, two different musical adaptations were announced, both aimed for Broadway. One, with music and lyrics by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen and starring Jeremy Jordan as Gatsby and Eva Noblezada as Daisy, premiered in New Jersey in October 23 with a Broadway opening set for April 2024. The second, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett, is scheduled to premiere in Cambridge in summer 2024.
Theme Parks
- In 1935, the first themed attraction in the United States, Santa's Candy Castle, was opened up in Santa Claus Indiana to capitalize on all the attention the town was getting for its name. Across the street from the Candy Castle, a rival Santa Claus themed attraction called Toy Town was also created. The conflict over the similar attractions and disputes over the land on the park led to years of lawsuits, which went all the way up to the Indiana Supreme Court. In 1946, a third competitor opened up Santa Claus Land in the town, which was later rebranded as Holiday World.
- In 2011, both Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights and Busch Gardens' Howl-O-Scream had a haunted house based around Edgar Allan Poe, and both houses were even titled Nevermore.
- Disney Theme Parks / Universal Studios
- Capsule Pitch Description: Very elaborate and high-tech theme parks, owned by a major entertainment company.
- Implementation: Disney is widely associated with a family audience, while Universal skews slightly older (and has the added appeal of real movie sets and props on display). Universal Studios technically came first, since the studio tour began in 1915, but it didn't make the transfer to a theme park until 1964 — nine years after the opening of Disneyland.
Toys
- Barbie / Bratz
- Capsule Pitch Description: Fashion dolls for girls.
- Implementation: Barbie was meant to be a revolutionary new way for little girls to play with dolls. Much later, Bratz took the "glamourous" lifestyle and ramped it up.
- LEGO / Mega Bloks, Tyco, Brix Blox and Coko, among many others
- Capsule Pitch Description: Construction building toys using interlocking "studs and tubes" blocks
- Implementation: Lego began marketing interlocking bricks as a construction toy as early as 1947, with the modern-style "stud and tube" brick sold in 1958; sales began in North America in the early 1960s, handled initially through Samsonite, but later began marketing on its own. Rival companies, most notably Mega Bloks, introduced their own construction-type toys as early as the late 1960s, typically selling their sets at a lower cost; Mega Bloks was acquired by Mattel in 2014. Many of the rival brands are sold in discount stores and stores such as CVS, Walgreen's, and Shoppers Drug Mart, while Lego often commands a presence at the national superstore chains. A listing of Lego's numerous rivals, along with reviews of recent products from these companies, may be found here. (Incidentally, the only genre Lego has not delved into, which rival manufacturers have, is military/warfare-type sets; this was a conscious decision by Lego, although some consumers have created their own after-market sets using Lego products.)
- Lego / Entex's ''Loc Blocs"
- Capsule Pitch Description: Construction building toys using interlocking blocks
- Implementation: One exception to Lego's presence at major stores was at Sears, which sold Entex's Loc Blocs under the house name "Brix Blox" in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The brand itself claimed to have more bricks available at the same cost as Lego. Like Lego at the time, Entex sold a power control unit for motorizing or controlling vehicle creations and so forth. While similar in concept, the major difference was that Loc Blocs used a tall stud and short channels on the bottom of bricks, as opposed to Lego's "studs and tubes" – meaning they were incompatible.
- LEGO / Kre-O
- Capsule Pitch Description: Construction building toys using interlocking "studs and tubes" blocks
- Implementation: What makes this bout stand out is the Kre-O is owned by Hasbro, most likely to satisfy the demand for Built with LEGO toys of their IPs, such as Transformers and G.I. Joe. Transformers seems to be the star player for Kre-O, thanks to a series of humorous animated shorts and a series of humorous Manga pages loaded with Mythology Gags.
- LEGO Friends / Mega Bloks Barbie / American Girl
- Capsule Pitch Description: The interlocking brick toys develop specialized lines for girls
- Implementation: Lego Friends – not the first female-oriented line from the iconic toy-maker, as lines for girls were introduced as far back as the early 1970s – was introduced in an effort to draw more girls to the toy. A new line of characters – in fact, new mini figure styles, called "Mini-Dolls" – was introduced to go with the set. When the Friends shook off early controversy to become a huge success, Mega Bloks collaborated with Mattel to introduce a lower-cost "construction set for girls" line using the iconic doll line as its basis, hoping to draw customers who wanted a more familiar doll line to play with – girls who've been around for years instead of unfamiliar characters. Like regular Mega Bloks and other Lego rivals, they're often seen in discount and non-superstore stores.
- Lego Toys/Bionicle and Lego Galidor
- Capsule Pitch Description: Buildable action figures from series filled with sci-fi elements with easily exchangable parts meant to be the center of multimedia franchises.
- Implementation: Lego found itself competing with itself in the early 2000s with two separate ideas meant to expand the company outside of the traditional "lego bricks" with ideas of story driven franchises that would promote lines of buidable action figures. Bionicle relied on the building system of the earlier Lego Technic design (particularly the short lived "Lego Riders"), with the multimedia aspects focused on tie in books and games. Galidor was instead built ground up to have action figures with swappable limbs/heads, and the focus of the toy's promotion would be the Series/Galidor tv series. Bionicle would have an over decade long run as a toy/media franchise, while Galidor was quietly shelved after about a year.
- Stompeez / Silly Slippeez
- Capsule Pitch Description: Cute slippers made mostly for children.
- Implementation: Stompeez came first.
- Cloud Pets / Lulla-Pets
- Capsule Pitch Description: Plush animals that record sound (and has apps).
- Implementation: Lulla-Pets does everything that Cloud Pets does, and as the name suggests, it also utilizes music.
- Tamagotchi / Giga Pets
- Capsule Pitch Description: Battery-operated virtual pet toy.
- Implementation: Tamagotchi was introduced in 1996, Giga Pets in 1997. Many other brands soon followed, such as Nano Pets.
- Challenge Of The Go Bots / Transformers
- Capsule Pitch Description: Rebranded western exports of Japanese transforming robots toylines. Both lines had a syndicated cartoon airing at the same time.
- Implementation: Most Gobots were sized at 2/3 inches, with a small subset of larger "Super Gobots", while the Transformers scale was essentially the reverse.
- GI Joe A Real American Hero / The Corps!
- Capsule Pitch Description: Military action figure toylines produced in a 3/4 scale.
- Implementation: The original The Corps! line was an obvious low-budget clone of G.I. Joe, enough that Hasbro successfully sued Lanard over the original name of the toyline, Gung-Ho!. The main differences were that the original Corps line did not have any "bad guy" characters and that the line was slow to introduce new toys, instead rereleasing a small number of figures and vehicles over and over. Going into the new millenium, The Corps! started to differentiate itself with a more colourful and futuristic style.
- Hatchimals / L.O.L. Surprise!
- Capsule Pitch Description: Toylines inspired by unboxing videos on the Internet where children get to unbox mystery toys.
- Implementation: While Hatchimals has the toy unbox itself, LOL Surprise! has a ball with seven layers of toys, with the main item being a baby doll.
Visual Novels
- Echo (2015-2021) / Repeat (2015-present)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two 2015 furry horror visual novels focused on the themes of recursion with a supernatural influence and drowning.
- Implementation: Both visual novels started more or less contemporarily in 2015, with Echo eventually reaching its full conclusion in 2021 while Repeat entered a hiatus in 2020 (though the author's patreon contains a version with updated artwork released in June 2022, and has expressed interest in releasing new story content in the near future). Echo, originally intended as a spin-off of Black Gate, underwent a few tonal revisions and different writers in development, resulting in among other things a complete divorce from outright pornography and an emphasis on tragedy. Repeat is more Animesque and still contains sex scenes, but similarly focuses on drama and identical topics of recursion and loss.
