Even during the creation of the original Pac-Man, it was always believed the game would have plenty of merchandising potential.
Toru Iwatani created his own homemade T-shirt and plushie before licensed merch was ever conceived.
Daily Pac-Man
@dailypacman.bsky.social
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Daily facts, news, trivia, and other enlightening tidbits about Pac-Man! Owned and run by @RyanSilberman.bsky.social. Not affiliated with Bandai Namco. Pac-Village discord server: discord.gg/zzEmRts
![How did Toc-Man and Orson come about?
The original villain of Pac-Man Ghost Zone was called the Ghost Lord. He had a great Darth Vader meets TRON design. (You can see him here) Inside his big suit of armor was a tiny ghost operating him. I really liked that idea, so I transitioned it when the story changed for Pac-Man 3D.
“Orson” is named after the famous film director Orson Welles. In the original story of Pac-Man World, Orson was a ghost who tried to replicate Pac-Man’s success and failed. So he went into the pac-dot manufacturing business and makes a fortune. But he ends up a recluse living in his mansion on Ghost Island (like how Welles does in Citizen Kane) and he builds a clockwork suit so he can pretend to be Pac-Man. I think at one point he even had an inflatable Ms. Pac-Man wife that he talked to. Now that I think about it, that’s pretty dark for a kid’s game!
[Totally!]
Also, the name “Orson” sounded funny and wimpy.
The name “Toc-Man” has a double meaning. It refers to the “tick-tock” of Orson’s clockwork suit and backwards, it spells Namcot, which was Namco’s original name. I thought since Orson is like this Bizarro-version of Pac-Man, he should have a backwards name. Back then, this nonsense made sense to me and everyone else just assumed I knew what I was doing!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wl56rgtqzmoiioppnhunqzkj/bafkreicu7x4gwbehhedykfvv3pw6spcn2mr64kyaztl4pfm7khina745ta)
