Marketing is what killed it. Boys followed “He-Man” and girls “She-Ra”.
Come to think of it, those are the most heavily gendered characters in existence. Look at their freaking names!
Growing up I watched both He-man and She-Ra, in fact I thought She-Ra was the better show since it had a somewhat darker tone than He-Man did, but I didn't know any boys who owned She-Ra toys.
Jem and the Holograms was supposed to sell fashion dolls sold in the pink aisle (competing with Barbie), but the show itself was specifically written with lots of action to keep boys interested so they wouldn't change the channel and prevent their sisters from watching.
Marketing was responding to toy stores gendering the aisles; can't get on the shelf if the store doesn't know where to put your product.
I'm not sure what stores were responding to. Possibly the public.
To Lego's credit, they did seem to make a point of putting both girls and boys on their advertisements.
