By Maraya Figueroa
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Attention kids of the 90’s. Remember all those hit cartoons that seemed to always play on Nickelodeon?
There are numerous Facebook pages dedicated to 90’s Nickelodeon shows full of people remembering “the good days.” One of which is called “I want my 90’s Nickelodeon back” and it has over 1,115,299 people who “liked” the page.
Among those shows is one that only lasted two seasons called “Invader Zim.” It’s a series about an alien who poses as a human child to not only learn about Earth, but to conquer it. It was a show that was cancelled 10 years ago but on Feb. 22, “Invader Zim: Operation Doom” was put on sale for the first time.
Fans, for years, have fought for the re-airing of shows, even the revival of some. Invader Zim is one of those shows loyal fans will not give up on.
“Operation Head Pidgeons” is not an official group, but they believe that if enough DVDs are bought they will green-light new episodes of “Invader Zim.” Their website states “we are trying to resurrect the show Invader Zim. It aired on Nick up until 10 years ago, when it was canceled due to lack of fan-base.”
It’s not common to see a cartoon that was cancelled 10 years ago with a new DVD release. What is the reason behind this? Is it because of its small, but persistent, fan base?
Despite whether that’s true or not, fans have something to say about it. “When I first found out about the DVD I thought we had little to no chance of bringing the show back. But once I got the DVD, I realized that it was because of us this got released,” said Billy Olivas.
“In my opinion, Nick didn’t spend much money on making the DVD. Although the quality of the episodes is great!” said Maegan Crew.
Some others are more skeptical about the matter, maybe this sudden burst of popularity isn’t about satisfying the loyal fan’s wishes but about what they will pay up for it. “Some people are just trying to make money. If they think people are going to buy it, they’re going to sell it,” said Matthew Vetterick.
Most of the “Invader Zim” merchandise can be seen at a store called “Hot Topic,” but out of all the cartoon merchandise which one has the most sales? Does “Invader Zim” rank among the top?
Kristina Hilton is an employee for “Hot Topic” and said “for the past several years Invader Zim sales have done the best, well, besides Hello Kitty.” The age group who buys the most “Invader Zim” merchandise tends to be ages “10-20, but mostly 13-15.”
Mostly 13-15 year-old teens are buying it, yet the show was cancelled when they were 3-5. And it wasn’t a toddler show. Perhaps “Invader Zim” was not released during the right time and if it had premiered recently, the future of the show would have been different; maybe even lasting for more than two seasons.
