Wasted opportunities or: Why wasn't this a video game??

[Rob2600]

I grew up in the 1980s and was heavily into the NES from 1988 to 1991. I always wondered back then why extremely popular things were never turned into video games, at least here in North America. What a wasted opportunity for publishers to cash in! A couple examples:

The Transformers
Voltron
The New Kids on the Block

Not that I wanted an NKOTB video game, but it always confused me why something as huge as NKOTB was never turned into a video game, but things like 7 Up's Spot and Where's Waldo were.

What other bits of pop culture should've been turned into video games, but never were? (Keep in mind, I'm not saying the games would've been good or even made sense. I'm talking publishers cashing-in.)