Why Does The Official Warrior Cats Merch Suck?
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Thank you to @showtunecockatoo for editing and proof reading my script
This video took me 3 months to edit and I've honestly fallen out of love with it- so please do not look at it took seriously. Consider it more of a fun thing to talk about rather than a serious topic. Thank you everyone!
linktr.ee/beeonthyme
Guys, please, DON’T BUYTHE BRACELET CHARM.
I bought it last year, the material is THE WORST. I have no clue of what it is, but while wearing it it obviously rubs against your arm. What happens? The covering of it scrapes off, showing a odd pink shade under it. It also colors your arm of blueish.
I’ve brought it in a jewellery shop and asked “hey is this normal?” the woman in the shop looked at me with a dead stare. “This thing is toxic.”
I now use it as a keychain. If you buy it, don’t wear it please.
I doubt it's really toxic XD
But yeah, it probably did leave plastic residue or something on you. Don't lick your arm or the bracelet and you'll be fine
@@bloomingdaemon Yeah, probably. But it’s still not very safe.
Lol it's not plastic. It sounds like the "nickel free plating" wore off, exposing copper (and possibly nickel because it specified only the plating doesn't have it). Both copper and nickel turn skin green/blue. It's common in cheap jewelry. Copper has a pinkish "rose gold" color, so it sounds like it fits. Nickel can be considered toxic because it's a fairly common metal allergy (that's why they bothered to plate it), and repeated exposure to it can eventually cause allergic reactions.
@@ZafurZif Ah! Thanks, I didn't know that
@@ZafurZif thank you! And yes, under the cover there’s a pink-gold color so it’s most likely that.
Warrior cats casually having the most art driven fanbase on the internet with tons of insanely talented artists who would be happy to make official merch at their disposal and then not utilizing it. It's so odd, like it really wouldn't be hard to find someone to design merch that, ya know, is good.
I've seen so much unofficial merch by fans, some you can buy, and it's amazing. Why the official merch looks SO BAD alludes me
Maybe if some of those artists reached out and offered to design merch, they might get somewhere because I have a feeling that the Erins just accept any company who offers no matter what the product looks like.
@@rikoea6530doubt there probably has been plenty of artists who have offered their skills to the publishers and have been shot down. We are talking about a fandom in the millions here not 20 people and their Scrappy Doo.
More likely than not they don’t want to have too much to deal with fan created content because they don’t want to be associated with any sort of drama that comes with the atmosphere for something like that. Granted they’ve also associated themselves with WCUE but WCUE is a fan project first before it was ever an official partnership. More than ever my theory is that the partnership was solely made to avoid copyright issues and only that, rather than actually have a quality transaction.
Yeah and there’s a whole high-quality roblox game based off it, multiple of them in fact
I'd design merch for free if they'd let me, I'd probably be able to come up with better stuff than a multi billion dollar company
I deliberately never bought the plushies because they look so janky. It would almost be endearing, if they weren't so expensive.
I own the brightheart mini and the yellowfang mini, and the really stupid and unusable brightheart mug. Its a terrible mug and it stabs you in the face if you attempt to use it so she just sits on my shelf.
I think the mug was made to sit on people's shelves anyways, the official website pictures only show it being used to hold things.
Gosh, what you said about the plushies i feel 100%. The material on mapleshade i hate sm! My plushies getting dirty are so stressful for me, and I try to avoid the material like the plague. The minis feel like the only thing they put effort in, and i like most of them. As many have said, I just wish they'd collaborate with fan artists as there are so many beautiful designs. On the plus side, the official merch being mostly bad has led to finding so many fan artists such as you! Whether it's pins, plushies, charms, or whatever, i feel like I'm really getting my moneys worth. That and it opens the door to so many characters they'd probably never make merch for like Brambleberry or goosefeather. I feel fortunate that even after all this time, we have such a strong community here in the warriors fandom.
screaming over mapleshade THEY MASSACRED MY GIRL 😭😭😭 how is making a CAT PLUSH hard?????
She looks like the old Webkinz Yorkie but without the charm of the Yorkie's bow or beady eyes.
When i first saw the warrior cats plushies somewhere online, i thought they were cheap scam merch from some shady 3rd party drop-shipper 💀 they look like something you'd win at a carneval booth, I'm sorry 😭
i don't have a lot of warrior cats merch but the stuff i have is all fanmade for the reasons you've just mentioned, the official merch just doesn't have much going for itself. the only things i've liked are the clan emblem pins but those are the easiest to conceptualize, and i'm actually kind of surprised they added more detail to them. it's nice that this fandom has people who do make good merch, but it's to the point where the offiical merch is just something people laugh at
mapleshade’s whisker pads look like a domino 😭😭
i have been OBSESSED with WC since they came out. consumed like EVERY fan media there is, as well as a WC being my first OC and username everywhere!!!
I have NEVER once wanted to buy official merch ;o;; its sucks so bad that I only ever consider fan merch with fan designs of the characters (since even the authors cant seem to keep consistent designs)
If they outsourced a single time to have a fan design merch they would have such a successful time ;o;;
I started laughing uncontrollably when I saw the Brightheart head mug thing 💀💀lol wtf
Also I love Mapleshade's plush... She's just so silly, like she fell into a river or something lmao
That doubloons shirt feels like a shitpost and it’s so funny
I think your Panda Webkinz is one of the Signature (premium) plushies. Either way, the price was totally justified because you also got a freaking game code along with it. Warriors is just a regular stuffed animal, and they're not even cute 😂
I remember the Signatures being around 25-30 dollars back in the day. Normal size was around 15 and the minis were 8 or 9.
Yep, golden W means it’s a signature plush! And those prices were spot on. I remember going to an Ollie’s and finding the big bin of Webkinz, then begging on my hands and knees to get more than one 😅
@@FairFeline Getting new Webkinz was always SO fun 💕
I just got the new graphic novel!!! I gushed over the art of every page!!!
the funniest thing to me is that it calls the queer artists a “comic making duo”
@@whoppertism Yeah that was awesome ^^
I've just ordered the graphic novel it's arriving in a couple weeks
@@Dirtycoyote12 Tell me what you think when you get it!!
@@thatenbyartist517 ok sure
When I was about 7, I wanted a warrior cats plush, so I asked my mom to help me make one. I made a highlighter orange Firestar with green button eyes and a button nose. If I could pay 35 dollars for him, even with his eye currently missing, or an official plushie for free… I’m gonna be down 35 dollars.
Child me would have loved official merchandise so much. Almost 30 year-old me is just deeply underwhelmed. In modern times, the lack of free shipping on any website is absolutely ridiculous. Especially considering I live somewhere where shipping is a minimum 10 USD tacked onto any order.
I do kind of want the Brightheart notebook or the mug [flip-flopping as to which would be more useful for me realistically, I barely use notebooks] and at least the RiverClan art deco pin.
@@hawktalon7890 if it helps ur decision. I think the mug is impractical as serving as a mug cause of the ears. But if you're planning to use it as a decoration or holding pens then I'd say go for it if u don't use notebooks!
@@BeeOnThymeStudios Yeah, I was planning to use it to hold pens/pencils. :)
The craziest thing is that by making good merch they could make SO MUCH money
The problem with the merch is that they charge a collectors price, but the plushies are of regular toy quality. While I am not into warriors cats and didn't get these plushies, I have gotten collectors plushies before, and yeah these plushies are not collectors quality. I have plushies that were the exact price of these guys and they're are so much better. Also I just think making them more cartoony/stylized would work much better, realistic plushies are just so difficult to execute well when mass producing them. Mapleshade is just.. Not good. I don't think they should've used the long fur, you can shape plushies to make them look like long furred animals, idk why they went this route.
I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything you’ve said here! I don’t want to disparage the artists behind the updated covers or the design of the mini-figs, because the quality of the artwork itself is fine in both cases, BUT, there is so much missed potential on both fronts, and by extension, the Warriors merchandise as a whole.
The covers are great in terms of realism, but Warriors is animal xenofiction with fantasy elements, and the characters have human emotions and expressions. A realistic painting of a real-world cat isn’t very visually interesting or appropriate for these books. Not to mention, it’s very difficult to recognize who is even on the cover when they’re all depicted as a generic tabby cat- and they’re usually just sitting there, not even doing anything!
Meanwhile, the mini-fig designs are more stylized and COULD be used to make fun merchandise, but like you said, the same assets are used over and over, making it all feel very flat and boring. Even just a change in expression could make a difference! Or a different pose for godsakes. Exaggerated poses and expressions would make the art feel so much more animated and lively!
It’s so frustrating that we have this problem with the official merch, when so many fan artists are able to make their versions of the characters almost instantly recognizable, even when they use very unique or unconventional designs! Why can’t the official art be like that!! 😫
That is a really good video! Goes into depth about a lot of things that I don't see talked about often. The plushies are horrible, they really are. Like other commenters have said, it's insane to me that warrior cats has one of the BIGGEST most DEDICATED art drive fandom. Yet the company can't find anyone to make merch that fans would like?
I was very disappointed when the various merch was first revealed, and still am. The only thing Warriors has pushed out in recent years that has actually pleased me as a consumer was the new Into The Wild Graphic Novel! It was made by wonderful people who actually had passion and love for the characters and knew what the fans wanted! I've never bought any of the physical merch, because it's just UGLY from a design standpoint. But the Graphic Novel? I was ready to cash out as soon as I saw how much passion and love that was put into the book, It's BEAUTIFUL and the artists did WONDERFUL work. I hope they paid them well.
Typical corporation vs fans disconnect, honestly. I doubt most of the people making it have ever even read the first book, they only see money and profit without care for a good product or how pleased the consumer is.
I really agree! I hope they go the same route as the graphic novel (i bought it, reccomend it) and hire some people to make merch too
the mouse cursor... im crying
@@avalonianJester gotta do whatcha gotta do when ur RAM is too weak to render
@@BeeOnThymeStudiosyou couldve scribbled over it with Paint or some other photo editing app
@@elatee it's a video recording of my editing software preview. The mouse cursor is there cause it was recording it so I don't think paint would've worked
5:20
In my opinion its ever weirder that the TOP of the tail is as fluffy, too, t would already be way better if the top was short and the bottom long like in quite a few cat types with half-ling fur like squild
I love your plush design concept sm
I hate how long restocks take. Take the merch off the store if you arent going to restock it, instead of giving people hope. Like the bracelet charms for my store, haven't been instock since i joined the fandom in 2022! But you can still by the bracelet, I understand costs but make a buyer aware that like the charms you may been waiting ages
SAME
I’ve been waiting for the Firestar plush to go back in stock for four months now.
HOW is he still out of stock 😭💀🙏
i bought the mapleshade plush just because of how funny it looked. i put it right in front of my bed so when i wake up i see her face staring at me and it’s hilarious.
I personally really like plushes having fur, but I think shorter fur could certainly be better!
I honestly need that doubloons shirt it makes no sense
(also love flat soda I hate anything fizzy it makes my mouth uncomfortable)
SAME…..
You know, they should totally collab with DirtyNoodles! They make cute and lovable plushies, and might I add, very high quality. I hate the material of the current plushies and the designs are kind of souless.
Excellent video! I'd add that besides the design issues, the plushies have abysmal quality control. I don't know exactly which manufacturer they use, but I'm certain they just chose the cheapest one they could find with no regard for quality.
For starters, the airbrushed markings often fade within months, so a lot of Jayfeathers end up solid gray instead. That's not normal for tabby cat plushies - I have a Douglas "Smokey Gray Cat" where the stripes are actually a part of the fur, so there's no chance of them rubbing off. I also have a SOS tiger plush from 2003 with airbrushed stripes that have never faded even after _20 years_. WC clearly cheaped out.
Speaking of "not normal for plushies", I've owned 3 official WC plushies over the years (Firestar, Brightheart, and Squirrelflight) and all 3 have gotten ripped seams despite me being a teen-turned-adult who handles them very gently. I can fix it with a ladder stitch, but I shouldn't _have_ to for a factory-produced children's toy that cost me $30+ and I've only had for a week! I've never owned any other plush with stitching this flimsy, not even collectibles aimed at adults.
Brightheart's product page - but none of the others? - says "Not suitable for children under 3 years old," a common liability disclaimer, but there's no mention of testing/certification for child safety standards. I assume WC just doesn't care enough to jump through any hoops, despite being _toys_ for a _children's_ series, but it's extra questionable when the plushies are consistently so fragile they're borderline defective.
Regarding fabric choices, long faux fur is not _inherently_ rough or uncomfortable to hold; that's a mark of poor quality, probably due to skimping out on the cost once again. In the original Squirrelflight prototype, her tail was a mismatched bright red, but the fur looked significantly softer and higher-quality than the final product. It's likely the superior faux fur just didn't have an exact color match available, but the awful scratchy stuff being cheaper almost certainly played a role too. Case in point: they used the same crap for Cinderpelt's tail even though high-quality faux fur definitely already comes in black, it'd just be more expensive than the crappy kind.
I feel bad for all the young kids who want the official plushie of their favorite character and are offered these things: ugly-as-sin designs, stripes that will fade quickly, cheap low-quality faux fur, AND flimsy construction that will almost certainly rip open with normal play. All for premium prices to boot!
...Whew, this turned out long. Can you tell plushies are a special interest of mine? :p
@@Jade-ti2bc we gotta get you infront of whatever board of merchandising they have so you can make ur case
@Jade-ti2bc I really wanted to talk about the fire test/safety thing but I was 1. Out of emotional bandwidth to keep working on this video and 2. I simply just... don't know enough about the regulations in the toy role
But since the fur is super cheap in quality one can only assume that the poor quality makes em very flammable (esp mapleshade)
I've been wondering about this, ever since I got my jayfeather plush in 2020. I've been collecting plushies for about six years now, arguably longer if we include animals other than wild cats.
In those years, I don't think I have ever felt scammed by an official company.
In terms of warrior cats plushies, I can look past most things about plushies, as long as they're still suitable for their target demographic (in most cases kids or adult collectors) even though I will not purchase them, I can look past the ugly semi-realistic look, the weird design choices (why does jayfeather have bright orange ears?), so long as the plushies are at least suitable as toys. What I cannot look past is the quality being so bad, that even gently cuddling or holding it is enough to cause severe damage/defects in less then a week. The warrior cats plushies are genuinely not suitable for kids to cuddle or play with, despite kids being the peimary demographic.
You couldn't have said it better.
I really think dirty noodles fanmade plushies are such a good example of what they could have done, they're really well made and stylised
I've never brought warriors merch just because of how ugly they are. I agree and disagree with a few things you said, just because I'm biased (I prefer realism over toony, and I especially dislike things that are made to look cute :/)
I think you might have been mixing up some eye terminology. Pupils are the dark hole at the center, iris is the colorful bit, and the sclera is the "white of the eye" around it, though color depends on species/stylization. Like for some reason TLK likes yellow sclera, and chimps have black sclera.
This is a series that had made MILLIONS of dollars, and the fact that the merch they give us is so poor of quality and cheaply made, that's just ridiculous. We, the fans, deserve better.
Genuinely, I’ll answer this easy!! They didn’t start making merch till it became nostalgic and they realized it was a money pit!! :D I wish I was joking. Before Erin handed stuff over it wasn’t about this bs. Same with the roblox game where there is a “pass” for everything and is just full of bullying people and classist stuff if you don’t have the passes. The art style for their merch stuff is always cheap and bare basic. They could have artists from the fandom make art but they refuse, they could take the time to hire an artist LIKE THEY DID FOR THE NEW COMIC to make merch but they won’t, and anything that takes effort isn’t worth their time. Sadly, we’re in an age where it’s not about quality it’s about the numbers. People will buy it whether it’s sucks or not and that’s that sadly..
Edit: fluffnest I feel like isn’t the best example! All their money and time go into the plushies over the GAME they were paid to make from Kickstarter. This is compared to Warriors whose quality and effort is going down and both things. Fluffnests plushies “funds” their game development so that’s why quality is important to them. I may be wrong as I just personally and not a fan of fluffnest due to how they handle everything outside their plushies that have also somewhat have tanked quality.
Genuine question cause I haven't kept up with Fluffnest for almost 2 years. What have they done to make people concerned that they're not handling their game well? Taking a quick glance over it seems like they opened their Alpha for people who were able to snag a key. So I guess my overall question is- what specific thing have they done to betray trust? Cause I know games, esp indie games takes a ton of time and patience to develop even into a beta state. I'm genuinley curious!
Fascinating breakdown!! I’m picky with merch for most things - especially clothing, I want brands to be subtle - so I rejected 95% of all things on the Warriors website. This is excellent insight into the process, especially the third party producer you identified.
I think having a Rusty plush and a Firestar Plush for sale is a… really weird choice. Why a Rusty plush? Couldn’t they have done someone different…? Like Frostpaw? Maybe Shadowsight or Rootspring? If they were so determined to have a Firestar-based plush, couldn’t they have done Jake instead?
@HenrySoloss I think a smarter idea if they wanted the kittypet collar is just to have it as a seperate add on to buy. Like ya you lose character only feature but in terms of a toy... lots more fun to use for whichever plush when you're role-playing with your friends. Seems more like their way to get more product out without needing to go through more work in designing and producing another product
Frostpaw !!! We need a Frostpaw plush
I love the video, but you will not disrespect Mapleshade pluch, it is the greatest plush in all WaCa collection. And I love this soggy in milk and throw against the wall murder cat.
I agree but also I want both good and horrible monstrosities
webkinz cat webkinz cat webkinz cat
20:53 wait, that's real? I thought it was a fanmade joke?!
I know that the website uses a fan's designs to reference their merch, but what I find weird is how poorly they managed to execute a complex ref with gradients and shading into something like a plushie or mini
Dude that ribcage shirt is awesome don't you dare call it cringe
I still feel upset that the Back Bags they had originally were so much more appealing than the bags they sell now
I will say in the uk character head mugs are super common I actually got a stitch one and they sell quickly in stores
@kirinblirin8734 they're not uncommon here either! More than anything it's the design choices that confused me with her. Whilst I'm sure majority of people use them for their intended display only purpose- the website does hint that she is perfectly safe to use as a mug.
Sharp cat ears to poke you in the eyes ain't exactly the best choice for that lol.
I think your last point is the most frustrating one. Let's be honest, the books are not keeping the fandom alive- it's the artists. Most fans don't even read the books anymore. To know that there are so many talented artists in the community, especially some with their own warriors merchandise- and then seeing the terrible designs that the warriors team puts out just feels like a spit in the face. It's extremely frustrating and disappointing.
I love the lil figurines, but the rest of the stuff is kinda scary 💀
I think the Plushies are... okay(not all but some), for example I love the Jayfeather one but as for others when I saw the Yellowfang and Graystripe ones I remember thinking "That does NOT look like Graystripe/Yellowfang..." but one think I think everyone agrees is especially bad are the T-shirts... I have to agree with you though, Mappleshade is kinda hideous RIP
Great in-depth video! I hope it gets more views!
I recently got the firestar plush and agree they’re definitely not the best.
I feel like making my own plush warrior cats character instead of buying the crappy 50 dollar ones
I have never read Warrior Cats but i will most likely do after i finish Harry Potter, & i have something to say.
WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. HELL.
all of these are so low quality and ugly. i have 0 clue how. its the age of the internet and the wc fandom itself is full of artists that specialize in drawing animals. you have to go out of your way nowadays to get bad products like this. seriously. baffling. none of these things like the mug designs feel like an artist even touched those. its like they were too greedy to pay someone to actually make something good. has the feeling of giving your random employee the task of doing graphical designs. yikes. the boss of my friend acts the same way. he has to do all the graphical designs for the flyers even though that shouldnt be his damn job. the difference is he actually cares and puts a ton of effort into them but isnt even getting paid for it more.
The leaf frost paw is holding does not look like weed. I've shown my mini figure of her to people and no one has thought it was weed.
Do you have any recs for other mapleshade merch? I am so tempted to buy her plush because shes my fave but shes so ugly that I wanna find other things first
I WOULD BUY YHE PLUSHIES IF THEY LOOKED LIKE UR DESIGN!!!
ur panda is a year older than me TWT
Why are YOU crying- I should be the one crying! /jokes
Honestly everything you said is so spot on.
🌹
Any good unofficial merch recommendations?? Been looking for some
been looking forward to this one!!
And this is why the only official merch I have is the Starclan pin and I recently ordered the only available notebook left.
Everything else WC related I have is from Etsy!!
I LOVE HOW STUPID MAPLWSHADE LOOKS
I like the fake eyes they just look cuter
the clip art slapped over top of the hat/mirror is shamefullll
MY FAV RUclipsR POSTEDDDD
@@mothmacks mwah
Quality video