For the past 8+ years, Lucasfilm basically said no more male hero’s. Well, that a problem when the first two trilogies had males as the leads and a story to believe. Both made money in toys and repeat buying. Until then, not feeling sorry for Disney’s current path.
Disney's Gender theory experiment disaster. Girls don't buy action figures duh. Disney is basically listening to fat chicks and plain janes who despise beauty in women and think they can be successful men.
As a professional that specializes in “geek hobby” merchandise, I can tell you the classic Star Wars and Marvel Merch based on the core trilogy and the original comics still sells very well. Anything done by the Disney company are “shelf queens” that do not sell, and sell only fitfully when we mark them for close out.
The question is who does it sell very well to? Adult collectors are a free spending niche. But they are a drop in the bucket compared to kids seeking toys to play with.
The reason the new characters don't sell is because the new characters aren't well-developed. Instead, they create a one-dimensional character to appeal to a specific group, and make that character stick out in the story like a sore thumb. It feels like the character doesn't fit in the story or the Star Wars universe because they are only there to tick a box. On top of that, they tear or water down other established characters to build up their weak new character. Then, instead of looking at what they've done, they point fingers and blame fans, call them names, and create animosity in the fandom. We all know that Kathleen Kennedy doesn't care about Star Wars. She just wants to hijack it and pass it off like it was all her idea. The question is how long will it take for Disney to realize this and get her out of there.
"It's easy to recreate battles and fights, and get a lot of toy play out of action figures "adventuring." However it's not much fun to play with two figures lecturing each other on social issues! lol
Even if the writing is good overwhelming majoroty of boys do not SEE themselves in the female hero. They don't want the toys. Most girls do not really want to be the hero when they can hang out with the hero at the finish line instead. Gender norms exist for most us as it is in the DNA. Follow the science.
@@sportsfisher9677 I agree. However, part of what I was getting at with the issue of them not being well-developed characters is that people of any gender or age, aren't going to care about them enough to be invested in them whether they buy the toys or not. I had the toys when I was little, but I didn't act out adventures with them. I wanted them because I loved movie and the characters. So, in my very young mind, having the action figures (and books and lunchbox) was as close as I could get to having the movie and the characters around all the time.
I've been in licensing for over 20 years and have worked with Marvel, DC AND Lucasfilm. This is not rocket science. Your most popular characters will sell the most product. Breakout characters are VERY rare. For every "Baby Yoda" you have 20 Jar Jar Binks'. I can't think of a single example where an IP-holder was able to force a character into popularity.
Just imagine how great Star Wars toy sales would have been had they not thrown out all the Legends characters but instead used them as the basis of their new timeline. Think about it. Not only would Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Artoo, Threepio, and Lando have remained heroes. We'd also have a ton of great new and beloved new characters with huge fanbases joining them. Such as Jaina Solo, Jacen Solo, Anakin Solo, Allana Solo, Mara Jade Skywalker, Ben Skywalker, Cade Skywalker, Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors, Corran Horn, Mirax Terrik Horn, Booster Terrix, Iella Wessiri Antilles, Tycho Celchu, Winter Retrac Celchu, Tionne, Kam Solara, Cilghal, Tenel Ka Djo, Lowbacca, Tahiri Veila, Zekk, Jagged Fel, Kyp Durron, The Ganner, Darth Krayt, Darth Talon, Brakiss, Exar Kun (force ghost), Darth Revan (force ghost), Bastila Shan (force ghost), Meetra Surik (force ghost), Quinlan Vos, Khaleen Hentz, Saba Sebatyne, Vestara Khai, etc... all these characters added to the lore and success of Luke Skywalker. Plus it would have been perfectly fine to add in Filoni-verse characters too. So Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger, Hera Syndula, The Mandalorian, Grogu, etc... using Legends as the basis doesn't mean they couldn't create new characters too. As Legends wouldn't be canon, just the basis for a new timeline like the MCU is based on the comics but not beholdent to them. It was the perfect way to do it... and they blew it by throwing out the popular characters with huge prebuilt fanbases.
@@ValliantRenegade Lucasfilm has saved me a ton of money by their poor decisions. If Disney's Lucasfilm had done what I suggested, I'd probably have 5 figures worth of their toys by now.
@@ValliantRenegade The Licensing for Paramount Star Trek is in similar disarray. But they were warned by the Licensees who straight up told them that fan / customers did not want this new version of Trek and they were not going to give Paramount money to make products they could not sell.
I was at the Glasgow Comic-Con recently and the overwhelming majority of Star Wars stuff on sale there was OT vintage toys. Posters were OT. Collectibles were OT. Even the little kids in cosplay were all OT characters. NOBODY likes or wants the Disney-era garbage.
This was a great video. I'm a woman and I've been a fan of Star Wars since it came out in 1977. I still have my action figures from childhood when the original trilogy came out and I've continued to buy, the prequel figures, the original EU figures, and the newer figures for the original trilogy characters. Even though I'm a female collector of action figures and my favorite characters tend to be women, I do realize that the majority of people who buy action figures aren't like me. The fact that women heroes don't sell doesn't have anything to do with sexism. It's just a fact of life. Males tend to like action figures more than women and they tend to like male action figures more than female action figures. There's nothing wrong with that. You can't bully people into changing what they like and don't like. When I see a Princess Leia figure, or Wonder Woman, or Batgirl figure that I like, I'll buy it to show the manufacturers that there's a market for the product. Unfortunately, the people who are shouting for more "inclusion" & "diversity" are not the people who buy action figures. I wish that Disney and other companies would start to realize this.
With numbers that bad for these low-tier characters, when are the toy manufactures going to say, "no thanks" to any contract forcing them to ship these unsellable toys?
@@Neekotronus well yeah thats because their products have already been purchased at wholesale. The retailers are the ones taking the hit in that example. It’s the worthless catalog of garbage characters and brands that clog the supply chain. Its the products they have to spend millions making while knowing 80-90% of them will go unsold
well with the many reshoots of TFOS there were not any products released that would eventually be in the movies, Black Series action figures based on PT-OT sold way better then ST, and many of the new Marvel and some of the Star Wars figures, end up in clearance bin even before a movie/show is released. Knowing they wont be popular enough and sell (check out Worldclassbullshitters they have done great reviews on toysales the past years since TLJ)
@@ValliantRenegade As a toy collector and toy photographer, it's been frustrating to say the least. Garbage into major retail, clearance to discount retail (ollies, 5 below, ross, big lots) and they sit. And collect dust. Target all but obliterated their Marvel legends section. In my stores they used to have a dozen + pegs, now, 3.
Almost every toy store in my city here in Australia still has unsold sequel trilogy toys. Lots of Force Awakens and Last Jedi 3.75 inch figures in beat up boxes with clearance stickers covering years worth of other clearance stickers. I live in a capital city with millions of people and they can’t give this garbage away.
I’m a full time reseller and had a supplier offer me a pallet of Star Wars toys, all sequel trilogy garbage, 5k units for 25 cents each. Sounds like a good deal to most right? Lmao nope, nobody buys that Lisney era trash. If I did buy it I probably would of made more making a video of all that merchandise burning than actually selling them.
I wonder if Disney is still selling Captain Sparrow action figures. I imagine how much money they'd have made if they had kept JD. His trial win as well as his concert tour and album would have only made him more popular, which might have made up for some of the losses in Marvel and Star Wars action figure sales. Another Pirates movie would have brought a billion, if not more. That said, I hope JD never does another movie for them regardless of how much money they throw at him..
Well, considering the responses are being s-banned*, you're not going to get much of an answer. I've already tried to answer what's actually going on, but RUclips is preventing any from being shown. You can see the number of replies that shows up are less than the number of replies listed. No point in getting answers from a censored channel.
Bottom line: Valiant Renegade is ultimately only scratching the surface of what is going on here - Financially and Culturally. Because if he really got close to the Evil that is at the root of this trillion-dollar scam, he would have been banned from RUclips. The fact that he isn't is proof enough that he's basically just distracting from the real issue at hand, at best.
Walking through my local Target I saw exactly what the team at WCBs saw, the same eternals toys have been there for over a year now, they didn't even move through Christmas, the same exact Lego sets getting dusty on the shelf. I remember seeing an old interview with Walt Disney, it was about Davy Crocket, you watched the show after school, wanted the hat and the rifle and then came to Disneyland to explore the river in a canoe just like Davy Crocket, and Lucas got rich selling toys and funded the rest of the movies and everything else off of merch rights. To see how the mighty have fallen and how completely they have lost the story is amazing
If Disney wanted to fix this in a hurry, they’d make Merch sales a key portion of KK and Feige compensation. KK and Fiege keep pushing silliness because it doesn’t cost them anything
Star Trek went through the same thing under Alex klutzman nobody wanted to buy figures from bad robot Star Trek. Back in the 1990s Barney the dinosaur was huge but you couldn't buy Barney without his little sister... some pink dinosaur that didn't sell. So you had to buy both or none. sounds like Disney is going down that road with marvel.
They have Rey figures at our Ollies from the force awakens and TLJ That showed up last August October I can’t remember what month but they’ve been there for about a year now. And they just sit there and no one buys them. These were buyouts from Walmart Also if you guys ever get any information from insiders on book sales for the high Republic and Marvel like the comic books it would be very interesting to me.
I don’t know if it’s Hasbro, LF or Disney but also the choices being made are STUPID! EVERY RETAILER has tons of Lando Calrissian figs in 6in & 3 3/4 in! Whose idea was that?! As well as Carl Weathers from Mando! At Ollie’s they’ve tons of the Jar Jar Binks figs which were sold as a deluxe $30 figure! ALSO STUPID!!
The incompetent top level decision makers at Disney are driving the company to the ground. They seemed to ignore any opinion from the subject matter experts down the line. The toy makers and toy sellers can easily tell them with great confidence which character is selling better than others. Disney seemed incapable to learn from the failures of toylines related to SW ep 8 & 9. On the other side, Disney marketing have been doing a bang up job alienating and insulting on the older fans / collectors who also buy the toys and merch. Even if Disney can course correct they would need to work harder to get these fans back to the fold. Excellent company synergy :D :D :D
I doubt they can get the fans back, they’ve been given one too many chances and have already burn way too many bridges, I no longer care about star wars anymore other than the PT,OT, and clone wars.
It's not that a female lead can't work -- my wife and I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed Agent Carter. As a character, though, she's *too* feminine and well-written for the blue-hairs at Disney to entertain putting at the front.
That it exactly. But Peggy Carter wasn't a SuperHero. She was a female lead for sure. Peggy Carter never really sold toys and merchandise, and ... this is key... she was never intended to. Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel, Wanda, etc... THOSE were the headliners Marvel expected to sell to little girls... didn't happen.
Kids don't want to play with unlikeable superhero's and boys don't want to pay with unlikable superhero's that say boys are pants. Well who would have thunk it?
With lack luster TV shows and Movies and no matter the spin. If you don't provide what the audience wants, they will not watch your programming and even less want to spend money on merchandise that no one cared to watch in the first place. It all goes together.
Nice to see you giving Jeff from WCB's a shoutout, lot of youtubers have abandoned that dude, he was there at the start making absolutely top tier content on the Disney/ Starwars insanity. Would be great to see maybe you two, doomcock and Jeff do a colab some time.
@@ValliantRenegade NICE! Tell him if he cleans up his potty mouth a little and made a bit more consistent content he'd be doing a lot better, hoping this collab works out for you both.
wait... u mean... when u try to reprogram boys' natural inclination from wanting action figures (i.e. _male_ figures) to female figures it doesn't work? huh... it's almost like we've known this for decades & that the data to prove it has equally existed for decades. Valliant, who could possibly be so arrogant & shortsighted into thinking they could ignore this reality, i wonder? 🤔
and yet, Cara Dune toys, whose portraying actress was cancelled by KK, sold out within hours after they announced Gina Carano would not be returning to Mandalorian
when I go to Waterstones I always move the Thrawn books onto the best shelf and move the High Republic stuff down. Naughty I know but for people buying gifts or whatever and don't know what to buy, I'd rather they pick something good!
VR: Just watched this video. Very informative and valuable as usual. You and WDW make a great team to tackle these topics. The only thing that tops this tandem is when Kamran Pasha joins. Keep up the great work! 👍🏼
Ike Perlmutter the former president of Marvel Comics famously said that female superhero toys generally don't sell, he got a lot of flak for that statement but it turns out he was right all along. @Valiant Renegade just wondering, with Christmas right around the corner will toy manufacturers try push out more of the OG characters in order to offset the cost of the new ones? As a layman, the best indicator of what did not sell is to check out the discount rack and bargain bins in late January and February.
All I can think of when I see this type of decline is that ritual suicide the Japanese used to practice. I think Seppuku. That's what Disney, or some in the company, are basically committing at the altar of "current thing." Someone needs to get a grip before the katana plunges all the way in
This is interesting since Hasbro announced a new merchandising plan a few days ago for their in-house brands like Transformers. I wonder if the poor sales and the red tape dealing with Disney were part of the decision to change up their in-house brand flows to maintain a more consistent cash flow. I would not be surprised to see even more store exclusives than we see now.
So funny. Despite being on a mostly Disney boycott I've actually did buy a Moff Gideon Black Series figure because he one of my favorite Mandalorian characters next to Cara Dune. You know if they ever wanted to get those toy sales up, just release limited edition Cara Dune figures.
I collect both Star Wars Black Series and Marvel Legends 6inch action figures, but only Original Trilogy and Comic book faithful Marvel characters, mainly due to the way Disney has handled both those IP's creatively. Although many other collectors also buy any/all Star Wars/MCU characters just because its SW and Marvel very very few collectors, if any, buy only non OT/comic based characters. OT and Comic based Marvel always sell because those are the definitive/classic representations of those IPs for collectors and so will always sell.... unlike the current wave of characters we are seeing from the latest iterations of the Disney SW and the MCU.
Star Trek is in basically the same boat. No one is buying New Drek. No one is going to give Abrams/Kitzman a single penny for the bastardization of Star Trek. You can tell Abrams is involved when you see Original Characters packaged together with Rey or another Sequel character or someone from Star Drek. So next time you see a box with Luke, Han, Leia, C-3PO, R2D2, Lando, Yoda and Vader and a sequel character walk past it. I got fooled by a Star Wars anniversary T-shirt with autographs that I bought from FB. It had all the Prequel & Original Trilogy characters but they snuck in BB8.
I work at Walmart and I remember one Easter, there are these candy dispensers that are in the the shape of various characters like Hello Kitty, Spiderman, Darth Vader, ect... After Easter, all that is left are Baby Yoda. Nothing but tiny Baby Yodas.
Todd McFarlane said the same thing not too long ago and the internet and SJW's got all unglued and reee'd racistisms and sexistisms at poor Todd and toy collectors that agreed.
1m rubbernecks, 400k hate watchers, 70k still hoping for pre Endgame Marvel (those numbers going down every new Disney+ shows). The 30k left are free friends & family viewers of the She Hulk production team. Way to go Disney!
I've been wondering about this. The financial priority on sports is obvious, but how many countless billions is Disney losing on Toy sales vs. those properties being healthy? How much does that close the gap on sports profits?
Depends on the licensing agreements, but it's definitely trending the wrong direction. If you can't drive people to get excited over characters in a film then the merchandise is going to suffer. Live Sports are still more lucrative and largely insulated. They dont need much else to drive traffic.
The solution to Lucasfilm’s toy sale woes is as simple as - produce toys for characters and stories from the Expanded Universe (relabeled as ‘Legends’). Produce stuff that multi-decade fans, with purchase power, actually want. It’s really that simple. For toys, shows, movies, books, games, comics, etc… 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah the idea is the licenses come with stipulations that they can produce the popular stuff, but they also have to produce X number of "low rent" (think High Republic and whatnot) for every 10 units of the good stuff, for example
@@ValliantRenegade Yes. But if Disney went outside of the occasional Gaming Greats and actually gave us fan-favorites like Kyle Katarn, Geand Master Luke Skywalker, Jedi Leia, Corran Horn, Talon Karrde, Nomi Sunrider, Exar Kun, etc… they could print the money they’d make, not only from the toys, but from the new interest in the EU stories they could now sell. The (cynical) drawback, is that the more new fans become aware of the EU, the more comparisons they will make to Disney’s Canon. 🤷🏻♂️
You could be right about Hulk being the draw. But they set about assassinating his character like they have done so many others. So, now, having Hulk show up will have a diminishing effect. I want to see Hulk! But I don't want to see him just trashed, so I sit this show out.
Women don't buy super hero toys because, from the female perspective, toys are for little girls, not for grown-up women. It's a public statment: I'm not a child anymore, I'm an adult. I now buy shoes and bags, not toys. Men, on the other hand, buy the toys for collectible reasons, not to play with them. And if they don't look powerful and pretty, they won't buy them. Clearly these people have no idea how women think. Women Prefer Bridgerton and Dr House, not She-Hulk. And I happen to be one of the very few women who actually loved science fiction ever since I was a little girl.
I can confirm Walmart is decreasing the amount of Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars merch. I'm more interested to see what items are going to be available for Black Friday. Alot of the lincesed toys, books and pajamas for that sale tend to be from those franchises.
A recent case in point is the Hasbro Haslab Obi-Wan show Reva's lightsaber which dramatically failed to get funded. Haslab is basically a way for collectors to get their dream item which wouldn't be available via the normal means through retail. It has seen crazy success for the most part with the items they've put out but Reva's lightsaber did not even come close to what many would class as a dream item. I suspect that Hasbro's hand was forced and they were made to produce the lightsaber as part of the Obi-Wan promotion thinking that Reva would be a popular character....... but she wasn't, and not for the reasons Disney would claim. I very much doubt that the Star Wars Hasbro department would have risked a second failed project (after the Rancor) unless they were moved in that direction from the license holder. On the subject of the Rancor, that failed not because of the price point, but because the stretch goals in combo with the price point didn't seem like value for money. That would have been a very different story if the stretch goals included a fresh new Princess Leia in slave outfit and Oola dancing girl along with the no brainier rancour keeper which they included at the last minute in an attempt to save the project. However, no matter how popular and a must have items both Slave Leia and Oola are as collectibles modern Disney will never green light theses items for ideological reasons. The same reason why they have mandated toy companies to rename Boba Fett's Slave One.
My kids are all teens now and all their lives I have acquired Star Wars toys for them from the 80’s and 90’s at local comics & collectibles stores and occasionally Target if they had some good vintage-line toys. Have often taken delight in wcbs’s videos on the rotting TLJ action figures, knowing that at least Lucasfilm can’t sugarcoat that very visible blunder. (And of course have seen it myself every time I go through the toy aisle)
Very insightful Valliant. Thank you. I had Business101 YEARS ago in college, but most times I’m bored to tears when some “expert” drones on and on and on, even if the topic is interesting. You both explained the issue in clear, concise terms that kept me fascinated the entire time. It’s all a tad clearer why Disney sequel-era and post-Endgame stuff sit on shelves gathering years of dust. Much appreciated and smiled at your shoutout to WCBS too. 🙂
I heard that snicker on 'strangle hold' on little girls toys lol. Yeah. This basically confirms our suspicions for a long time. I figure hunt fairly often and it is something i can corroborate in the south east region i live in. I frequent the targets and walmarts and gamestops of our tristate area and Eternals does sit taking space with no movement. Transformers, GI Joe, and OG/Prequel/ Filoni/Favreau Star wars stuff moves very well. Also, another thing that i dont see move often are the Kevin He-Man stuff either...
Oh ho! I kept hearing the wails and screams of "Racism!" and "Sexism!" throughout this whole article. Lots of people are going to be melting down over this article.
She-Hulk Barbie.... would have made many millions, but they can't feed the "Barbie" stereotype. Maybe a She-Hulk Dr. Sues mashup... Green Lawyer with Gams? SO many missed opportunities.
Very simple formula from the old Mattel days: girls = fashion, boys = action. If you follow this simple formula, youll succeed. But this is based on a good movie, great characters and no agendas.
No one at Dsney/Marvel should be surprised. The shows/movies are terrible and most ppl hate the characters so why would they wnt the action figure? How did Falcon Cap put it? "You need to do better!"
I still don't understand how KK still has a job...but yeah all movie goers are not equal. The ppl their new/expanded base mocks for being too uptight about kid's movies are the ppl that will spend 40-60 dollar apiece on multiple pieces of tiny plastic, I mean action figures. These studios think their new base will magically start acting the same as the old base and that's not how it works. For most, toy collecting is a thing that begins in childhood. All the new ppl they're catering to most likely have no idea or interest in that hobby.
I can speak firsthand that I know a friend who used to work in Hasbro and has friends connected to the toy makers and they are NOT happy with LF. Especially with the ST because let's be real; if SWs were doing well, their old and new stuff would be selling. The only thing LF can bank on now is nostalgia and Baby Yoda and even that latter guy has a time limit alongside the old stuff which has been hurt by the new stuff. As for Marvel, they have no one to blame but themselves for Toy sales. The old Legends stuff will sell to older collectors, but the new characters they are trying to market, simply do not have a foothold. Why? Because they aren't compelling. This is purely anecdotal, you which marvel Legends figure I pick up? Firestar. Why? I really adored her as a character from Spider-Man and his Amazing friends and was given depth in the comics. Angelica Jones was a cool character with a neat costume, cool superpowers(microwave manipulation is neat), and a good personality/ motivation. You compare her to MCU She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel(I hate picking on Kamala, but jeez Marvel screwed up that character) and it is night and day. Feige and company want to focus on female-centric characters? Fine, WRITE THEM WELL. They will sell well when you write them well.
Thanks for passing that along!! We have more to discuss that didn't make it into this video with more details. Hopefully cover that on the Sunday live show!
I used to spend lots of money on star wars toys until recently. Got tired of being called a racist misogynist because I didn’t liked Kenobi. Why should I spend money on products while Disney don’t respect me? Its like a music band or a singer or a sports team who call you this and that would you still be interested to buy their albums or jersey? Im not really surprised to see Disney having problems to sell their merch
Parents don't have much help finding toys for their little boys anymore. Iron man, Cap, Spiderman, Hulk...they were the money makers. Now with them being sidelined for woke females, it's no wonder that toys aren't selling!
The only way to show these idiots their wokism doesn't sell is for sales to fail, I'm just amazed it takes industry titans so long to figure out what is popular and what is not. Of course they finally did find a female character that would sell and they mucked that up spectacularly! To be fair I don't know how well she would have sold without the cancel thing but I'm sure better than their other non sellers.
Coming from the retail industry, everything you presented today is what I've been talking about for years inside the industry. It's a shame a narrative has to be pushed rather than focusing on the best bang for the buck!
Just look at Bandai, Mafex, Hot Toys and what they put out. Asian Toy companies always go with what sells. They even released a 70s Japanese Spiderman!
It would be simple to go back to the drawing board, look at what George Lucas did with not only his movies but how he created such a toy juggernaut. History has shown that KK really didn't know what she is doing and has cost the brand very dearly and now Kevin Feige is falling down the same disastrous hole with Marvel.
I started talking last year when Phase 4 launched that it looked like Feige was going down the same rabbit hole as Kennedy did with Lucasfilm and the results would the same. We are seeing it now
Is there a reason a WHY? It's obvious that All New All Different Marvel characters NEVER took. Comic sales are in the gutter; merch sales are lagging. It's been OBVIOUS since The Last Jedi that Lucasfilm's Sequel characters never really grabbed fans with staying power and merch sales reflect that. Other than Porgs and BB8 it doesn't even look like anyone making the ships, droids, and characters for the movies even thought about making them into toys (whereas Lucas always seemed to have toy potential in mind when making a new character, droid, or vehicle). Mandalorian is the ONLY Disney Star Wars vehicle that appears to even try making "toyetic" characters, vehicles, or droids. It doesn't take a toy marketing expert to figure this out. And as Yogurt says, "moichandising! Moichandising! Where the REAL money of the movie is made!" Was this a case of people hoping these noodles would stick when throwing them at the wall? (If so, why didn't they change when the noodles fell to the floor FOUR YEARS ago?) Was this a case of feminist/woke ideologues wanting to create characters intentionally unappealing to "traditionally male" customers of the franchises when Disney acquired these franchises SPECIFICALLY to get into the male merch market? Did they really have that much pull? Were they really able to convince their bosses that there was this HUGE woke market out there just waiting to jump on all their new woke-ish characters that would dwarf the already significant fanbases these franchises already had that made them worth the BILLIONS Disney spent to acquire them? Is Disney so fundamentally keyed into creating IP lines that appeal to girls that they've just tried to turn Star Wars and Marvel into brands that appeal to girls instead of boys at some instinctive corporate level? Was this a case of not wanting to pay royalties and residuals to old artists, writers, and actors by creating entirely new characters they could claim full ownership of? It's better to pay out a few pennies on the dollar of royalties for classic Star Wars and Marvel characters that rake in gazillions of dollars than pay out no royalties on the stacks of Rey and Rose Tico and Ms. Marvel toys that NEVER SOLD. Are they playing some sort of "long game" thinking that if they just keep telling people that Rey and Kamala Kahn really are the "future" of Star Wars and Marvel that in four or five or ten years (after losing money on these franchises for four or five or ten years) people will eventually forget how much nobody likes these characters and accept it (and literally BUY it)? That instead of killing the future profitability of these franchises a "new" market will arise who will like them (someday, eventually, we hope)? The failure of Lucasfilm and Marvel since Disney bought them has been OBVIOUS since 2017-18 when The Last Jedi toy sales tanked and Last Jedi hate made Solo flop at the box office and the All New All Different Marvel line (comics, merch, and even the Marvel Rising RUclips videos) had FLOPPED. That was FOUR even FIVE years ago. And Disney still shows no signs that it intends to change course either at Marvel or Lucasfilm and it's becoming more apparent that this push away from their established market and their long-time fans is KILLING. these. brands. Brands that Disney has sunk BILLIONS of dollars acquiring and developing - yet there is no sign I can see outside of the Mandalorian series (and that was THREE YEARS AGO now) that Disney has any plans to change course away from the cliff. Like Thelma and Louise, they're hitting the gas as they approach the canyon. Thelma and Louise were committing suicide. Is Disney TRYING to lose money? Do they not like profits? How long before stockholders start filing suits claiming that Disney is intentionally losing their investors' money? Because, at this point, it looks like they're TRYING to lose money on Marvel and Star Wars; like they are TRYING to suicide these brands.
Yeah, She-Hulk is the #2 worst TV show on Disney+, just wondering what the new #3 show is that it and all others got a promotion. 😁 I'm watching "The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." for the first time now that it's on Disney+ plus and loving it. I can't believe it's made by Marvel because it's a much better show than anything Marvel or Lucasfilm has released on Disney+. It's not perfect but she shows are much better written and I'm actually interested in the show. So far I think the first two seasons were the best, but I'm only halfway through season 5, so don't know if the show gets better, worse, or stays the same, but I'm willing to watch and find out. Great video as always and looking forward to your next one. 👍✨🔥💥
Have a very young niece. She has friends. The girls never talk about Marvel. They like Barbie or Elsa and the princesses period. It’s the little boys who buy action figures, legos, and Captain America backpacks. Not girls.
Sobering. So, there's been financial strong-arming on major toy manufacturers by these major Hollywood studios, to ensure that their political aims and agendas are represented in the toy market. At this point, well in to The 2020s, I'm not surprised. Yet, the merchandise for (non-politics-based) Star Wars characters created by Lucas, Filoni, and Favreau (inc. one Marshal Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan, who's been a bestseller over the last 2 years) HAVE sold very well. I'm willing to bet, EU character, Jaxxon has had better sales than Holdo. I wonder: Has Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd. allowed licensing for the (supposedly non-canon) characters from Star Wars: Visions to happen, going forward in to Season 2? I will say, again, as an avid reader of The High Republic multimedia initiative, there ARE devoted fans of its output, and there have been reprints of some of its comics, since it launched...I've seen them, and put in orders for them. As I've also said before, it's a (for the most part) quality project that has only gotten better since its release. Very unfortunately, a portion of the writers (along w/ the extremely polarizing faces and voices of Pablo Hidalgo and Kathleen Kennedy) involved in the project are too monochromatic in their politics and argumentative and dismissive in the social media interactions with the overall SW Fan base (over the years), and it resulted in alienating a good swathe of the SW audience, resulting in THR becoming only a cult hit, instead of a giant, popular hit. Counterproductive, bass ackwards thinking, yet again. I'm about to finish up Ms. Marvel, which I've (somewhat surprisingly) thoroughly enjoyed (thank you for the storyline alterations, Mr. Chapek), due to its lack of wokeness. Regarding She-Hulk: Later this weekend, I'll step my toes in its problematic waters; though, I'm really not expecting much. Last I looked, the mantra was: Money talks, everything else walks. Thanks for the insights and insider information, Valliant and WDW Pro. Till next time...
you can look at it as strong-arming, but it happens in manufacturing all the time. i've seen it myself 30 years ago where to get the big contract the company had to also take on a job or two that they'd basically break even on. i see it as no different, it's just how business goes. i'd do the same were i on either side of the table.
John Byrne She-Hulk and Vampirella sale !! Potato sack Rose Rico and the amazing wonder Rey Skywalker 🤣 was what the brain trust of Disney came up with?😆
Another fascinating episode from Valiant and WDW Pro! The horrible thing about this situation is that it increases pent up demand. Even under the current economy, collectors are willing to shell out $ for characters they like. But if nothing likeable is available, then demand keeps growing. Have you seen what Hot Toys is doing in the high end toy market? They are releasing "version 2"s of popular characters, and I presume best sellers, such as iron man and OG Cap. They release the token Eternals figure to barely a whimper amongst fans. I have always thought they must be under some contractual obligation to do so such that, if they want to release figures that really sell (i.e. iron man) then they have to release an occasional kate bishop or ylana black widow. So what you are describing is probably being perpetrated by Disney widely across their licensees. Best to both of you!
A question VR, If kids today are all about online and digital things why are the making action figures for children and not making limited runs of them for a more mature (leaving it in box) audience???
Because kids ARE still buying. And its not just toys. Its general merch. Branded Avengers stuff. Branded classic Star Wars. But its being impacted heavily by the dying Disney brands at the first tranche (Level 1) which are the movies and shows
Marvel and DC have been doing a lesser version of this order structure crap to comic stores for variant covers for decades, little wonder someone decided to scale that up. Makes me wonder if that is what sped the demise the likes of Hastings multimedia stores among others. I'm thinking it was a WCBS clearance vid that was my introduction to Jeff and the gang. Excellent coverage and making the complex understandable. Kudos to you and WDW Pro! I have gone out of my way to make any toy/book/movie purchases from the local trade in shop or other 2nd hand vendors for many years now and I encourage others to do so as well. VR, could you take a stab at a similar breakdown of how current Star Trek Disco is getting its funding via Playmates? Thank you gentlemen!
Valliant, You can see Marvel and Star Wars toy's in the bargain bins everywhere. The other problem you can see every couple of weeks more new Marvel/ Star Wars. characters that you have no interest in. Don't hit the shelves but are added straight away to the bin. You can see that all this Disney merch is not "Cabbage Patch Dolls" Sad for me, I don't think now I will be getting my "She-Hulk, Barbie Doll." And also Lego's " She-Hulk, Courtroom" construction kit won't be making it to the shelves anytime soon. Cheers, Chris Perry.
A sample size of 1: My 4 year old daughter loves classic original trilogy Princess Leia, Classic Lady Jaye, Scarlett, Cover Girl and Zarana. She also likes Master Chief and Kai from the Halo Paramount series. But only at the action parts. When my kids ask me to buy toys, it's almost always classic characters. And I am the classic toy company demographic: Middle aged, Middle class parent with small children and disposable income for toys.
They aren't just forcing the purchase of these unpopular characters, they're also forcing their acceptance as equally significant... which is, of course, the whole point.
For the past 8+ years, Lucasfilm basically said no more male hero’s. Well, that a problem when the first two trilogies had males as the leads and a story to believe. Both made money in toys and repeat buying. Until then, not feeling sorry for Disney’s current path.
Me neither not surprised at all
Disney's Gender theory experiment disaster. Girls don't buy action figures duh. Disney is basically listening to fat chicks and plain janes who despise beauty in women and think they can be successful men.
"Female heroes do not sell merchandise" wow who could have had the business acumen to have possibly predicted that! 😅
I know right…. 🤣
I bet $1 they teach the opposite nowadays to the recent MBAs who work as low level analysts at Disney :P
It's almost like there is biological sex differences which drive behavior in children and adults...
Todd McFarlane
just as female pro sports, don't sale tickets for there games . but these women want equal pay ..........that's beyond laughable.
As a professional that specializes in “geek hobby” merchandise, I can tell you the classic Star Wars and Marvel Merch based on the core trilogy and the original comics still sells very well. Anything done by the Disney company are “shelf queens” that do not sell, and sell only fitfully when we mark them for close out.
Not surprising at all. Toy makers know this too obviously.
The question is who does it sell very well to? Adult collectors are a free spending niche. But they are a drop in the bucket compared to kids seeking toys to play with.
Destination for Disney merchandise: the Island of Misfit Toys.
@phillkilgore6154 And of course the merch is where the money is.
The reason the new characters don't sell is because the new characters aren't well-developed. Instead, they create a one-dimensional character to appeal to a specific group, and make that character stick out in the story like a sore thumb. It feels like the character doesn't fit in the story or the Star Wars universe because they are only there to tick a box. On top of that, they tear or water down other established characters to build up their weak new character. Then, instead of looking at what they've done, they point fingers and blame fans, call them names, and create animosity in the fandom.
We all know that Kathleen Kennedy doesn't care about Star Wars. She just wants to hijack it and pass it off like it was all her idea. The question is how long will it take for Disney to realize this and get her out of there.
Bad writing doesn't build a solid fan base that will buy merchandise
"It's easy to recreate battles and fights, and get a lot of toy play out of action figures "adventuring." However it's not much fun to play with two figures lecturing each other on social issues! lol
Even if the writing is good overwhelming majoroty of boys do not SEE themselves in the female hero. They don't want the toys. Most girls do not really want to be the hero when they can hang out with the hero at the finish line instead. Gender norms exist for most us as it is in the DNA. Follow the science.
@@sportsfisher9677 I agree. However, part of what I was getting at with the issue of them not being well-developed characters is that people of any gender or age, aren't going to care about them enough to be invested in them whether they buy the toys or not. I had the toys when I was little, but I didn't act out adventures with them. I wanted them because I loved movie and the characters. So, in my very young mind, having the action figures (and books and lunchbox) was as close as I could get to having the movie and the characters around all the time.
I've been in licensing for over 20 years and have worked with Marvel, DC AND Lucasfilm. This is not rocket science. Your most popular characters will sell the most product. Breakout characters are VERY rare. For every "Baby Yoda" you have 20 Jar Jar Binks'. I can't think of a single example where an IP-holder was able to force a character into popularity.
Just imagine how great Star Wars toy sales would have been had they not thrown out all the Legends characters but instead used them as the basis of their new timeline.
Think about it. Not only would Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Artoo, Threepio, and Lando have remained heroes. We'd also have a ton of great new and beloved new characters with huge fanbases joining them. Such as Jaina Solo, Jacen Solo, Anakin Solo, Allana Solo, Mara Jade Skywalker, Ben Skywalker, Cade Skywalker, Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors, Corran Horn, Mirax Terrik Horn, Booster Terrix, Iella Wessiri Antilles, Tycho Celchu, Winter Retrac Celchu, Tionne, Kam Solara, Cilghal, Tenel Ka Djo, Lowbacca, Tahiri Veila, Zekk, Jagged Fel, Kyp Durron, The Ganner, Darth Krayt, Darth Talon, Brakiss, Exar Kun (force ghost), Darth Revan (force ghost), Bastila Shan (force ghost), Meetra Surik (force ghost), Quinlan Vos, Khaleen Hentz, Saba Sebatyne, Vestara Khai, etc... all these characters added to the lore and success of Luke Skywalker.
Plus it would have been perfectly fine to add in Filoni-verse characters too. So Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger, Hera Syndula, The Mandalorian, Grogu, etc... using Legends as the basis doesn't mean they couldn't create new characters too. As Legends wouldn't be canon, just the basis for a new timeline like the MCU is based on the comics but not beholdent to them. It was the perfect way to do it... and they blew it by throwing out the popular characters with huge prebuilt fanbases.
The toy people arent happy AT ALL with what Disney has done to Star Wars
@@ValliantRenegade Lucasfilm has saved me a ton of money by their poor decisions. If Disney's Lucasfilm had done what I suggested, I'd probably have 5 figures worth of their toys by now.
Weren't Disney Star Wars toys the final nail in ToysRus coffin?
@@diersteinjulien6773 well that certainly didnt help lol. But TRU problems were years in the making and far deeper
@@ValliantRenegade The Licensing for Paramount Star Trek is in similar disarray. But they were warned by the Licensees who straight up told them that fan / customers did not want this new version of Trek and they were not going to give Paramount money to make products they could not sell.
I was at the Glasgow Comic-Con recently and the overwhelming majority of Star Wars stuff on sale there was OT vintage toys. Posters were OT. Collectibles were OT. Even the little kids in cosplay were all OT characters.
NOBODY likes or wants the Disney-era garbage.
No the Sequel Trilogy merch didnt even sell very well (compared to Real Star Wars) when the ST was IN theaters
@UncleFeedle isn't it nice to know that little boys are standing up for America. Not sure about little girls, but the boys clearly are.
This was a great video. I'm a woman and I've been a fan of Star Wars since it came out in 1977. I still have my action figures from childhood when the original trilogy came out and I've continued to buy, the prequel figures, the original EU figures, and the newer figures for the original trilogy characters. Even though I'm a female collector of action figures and my favorite characters tend to be women, I do realize that the majority of people who buy action figures aren't like me. The fact that women heroes don't sell doesn't have anything to do with sexism. It's just a fact of life. Males tend to like action figures more than women and they tend to like male action figures more than female action figures. There's nothing wrong with that. You can't bully people into changing what they like and don't like. When I see a Princess Leia figure, or Wonder Woman, or Batgirl figure that I like, I'll buy it to show the manufacturers that there's a market for the product. Unfortunately, the people who are shouting for more "inclusion" & "diversity" are not the people who buy action figures. I wish that Disney and other companies would start to realize this.
Thanks for watching!!! They cant keep it up at this pace
Awesome post! Thank you for the insight!
With numbers that bad for these low-tier characters, when are the toy manufactures going to say, "no thanks" to any contract forcing them to ship these unsellable toys?
Because they can still turn profit enough on the stuff that DOES sell
@@ValliantRenegade this is true. In fact Hasbro is still making a profit when their items are 75% off.
@@Neekotronus well yeah thats because their products have already been purchased at wholesale. The retailers are the ones taking the hit in that example. It’s the worthless catalog of garbage characters and brands that clog the supply chain. Its the products they have to spend millions making while knowing 80-90% of them will go unsold
well with the many reshoots of TFOS there were not any products released that would eventually be in the movies, Black Series action figures based on PT-OT sold way better then ST, and many of the new Marvel and some of the Star Wars figures, end up in clearance bin even before a movie/show is released. Knowing they wont be popular enough and sell (check out Worldclassbullshitters they have done great reviews on toysales the past years since TLJ)
@@ValliantRenegade As a toy collector and toy photographer, it's been frustrating to say the least. Garbage into major retail, clearance to discount retail (ollies, 5 below, ross, big lots) and they sit. And collect dust. Target all but obliterated their Marvel legends section. In my stores they used to have a dozen + pegs, now, 3.
Almost every toy store in my city here in Australia still has unsold sequel trilogy toys. Lots of Force Awakens and Last Jedi 3.75 inch figures in beat up boxes with clearance stickers covering years worth of other clearance stickers. I live in a capital city with millions of people and they can’t give this garbage away.
Burn it.
@@ValliantRenegade and contribute to the sales of sequel toys? Not a chance.
I’m a full time reseller and had a supplier offer me a pallet of Star Wars toys, all sequel trilogy garbage, 5k units for 25 cents each. Sounds like a good deal to most right? Lmao nope, nobody buys that Lisney era trash. If I did buy it I probably would of made more making a video of all that merchandise burning than actually selling them.
@@Westcoast10 oh I believe it
I wonder if Disney is still selling Captain Sparrow action figures. I imagine how much money they'd have made if they had kept JD. His trial win as well as his concert tour and album would have only made him more popular, which might have made up for some of the losses in Marvel and Star Wars action figure sales. Another Pirates movie would have brought a billion, if not more.
That said, I hope JD never does another movie for them regardless of how much money they throw at him..
There have been McFarlaneToys Captain Jack figures on the shelves for the entirety of the year. They have been selling well. Walmart & target.
Well, considering the responses are being s-banned*, you're not going to get much of an answer. I've already tried to answer what's actually going on, but RUclips is preventing any from being shown. You can see the number of replies that shows up are less than the number of replies listed. No point in getting answers from a censored channel.
Bottom line: Valiant Renegade is ultimately only scratching the surface of what is going on here - Financially and Culturally. Because if he really got close to the Evil that is at the root of this trillion-dollar scam, he would have been banned from RUclips. The fact that he isn't is proof enough that he's basically just distracting from the real issue at hand, at best.
Walking through my local Target I saw exactly what the team at WCBs saw, the same eternals toys have been there for over a year now, they didn't even move through Christmas, the same exact Lego sets getting dusty on the shelf. I remember seeing an old interview with Walt Disney, it was about Davy Crocket, you watched the show after school, wanted the hat and the rifle and then came to Disneyland to explore the river in a canoe just like Davy Crocket, and Lucas got rich selling toys and funded the rest of the movies and everything else off of merch rights. To see how the mighty have fallen and how completely they have lost the story is amazing
DISNEY
20th Century: “We entertain your kids.”
21st Century: “We groom your kids.”
If Disney wanted to fix this in a hurry, they’d make Merch sales a key portion of KK and Feige compensation. KK and Fiege keep pushing silliness because it doesn’t cost them anything
Star Trek went through the same thing under Alex klutzman nobody wanted to buy figures from bad robot Star Trek. Back in the 1990s Barney the dinosaur was huge but you couldn't buy Barney without his little sister... some pink dinosaur that didn't sell. So you had to buy both or none. sounds like Disney is going down that road with marvel.
I believe they are already doing that, there's Star Wars figures pack that includes the classic characters... + Rey.
What’s funny is that Lucasfilms best selling female toy ended up getting fired for wrongthink.
Comment of the DAY right here.
Are you talking about the moron who compared herself to holocaust victims?
@@kellymoses8566 I suppose Pedro Pascal calling 85M Americans “Nazi’s” was perfectly fine with you, right?
@@crazyralph6386 He isn't wrong. Trump is very racist and that is one thing his supporters really love about him.
@@kellymoses8566 so it’s only acceptable when it’s your team doing it? hypocrisy at its finest….you must be a leftist!
Disney failing and losing money allways makes my day
They have Rey figures at our Ollies from the force awakens and TLJ That showed up last August October I can’t remember what month but they’ve been there for about a year now. And they just sit there and no one buys them. These were buyouts from Walmart
Also if you guys ever get any information from insiders on book sales for the high Republic and Marvel like the comic books it would be very interesting to me.
I don’t know if it’s Hasbro, LF or Disney but also the choices being made are STUPID! EVERY RETAILER has tons of Lando Calrissian figs in 6in & 3 3/4 in! Whose idea was that?! As well as Carl Weathers from Mando! At Ollie’s they’ve tons of the Jar Jar Binks figs which were sold as a deluxe $30 figure! ALSO STUPID!!
The incompetent top level decision makers at Disney are driving the company to the ground. They seemed to ignore any opinion from the subject matter experts down the line. The toy makers and toy sellers can easily tell them with great confidence which character is selling better than others. Disney seemed incapable to learn from the failures of toylines related to SW ep 8 & 9.
On the other side, Disney marketing have been doing a bang up job alienating and insulting on the older fans / collectors who also buy the toys and merch. Even if Disney can course correct they would need to work harder to get these fans back to the fold.
Excellent company synergy :D :D :D
I doubt they can get the fans back, they’ve been given one too many chances and have already burn way too many bridges, I no longer care about star wars anymore other than the PT,OT, and clone wars.
It's not that a female lead can't work -- my wife and I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed Agent Carter. As a character, though, she's *too* feminine and well-written for the blue-hairs at Disney to entertain putting at the front.
That it exactly. But Peggy Carter wasn't a SuperHero. She was a female lead for sure. Peggy Carter never really sold toys and merchandise, and ... this is key... she was never intended to. Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel, Wanda, etc... THOSE were the headliners Marvel expected to sell to little girls... didn't happen.
Kids don't want to play with unlikeable superhero's and boys don't want to pay with unlikable superhero's that say boys are pants. Well who would have thunk it?
With lack luster TV shows and Movies and no matter the spin. If you don't provide what the audience wants, they will not watch your programming and even less want to spend money on merchandise that no one cared to watch in the first place. It all goes together.
Nice to see you giving Jeff from WCB's a shoutout, lot of youtubers have abandoned that dude, he was there at the start making absolutely top tier content on the Disney/ Starwars insanity. Would be great to see maybe you two, doomcock and Jeff do a colab some time.
Well… funny you should say that about Jeff and me doing a show together…
@@ValliantRenegade NICE! Tell him if he cleans up his potty mouth a little and made a bit more consistent content he'd be doing a lot better, hoping this collab works out for you both.
George Lucas sold more Gungans than the entire Dinsey lineup of toys combined
wait... u mean... when u try to reprogram boys' natural inclination from wanting action figures (i.e. _male_ figures) to female figures it doesn't work?
huh... it's almost like we've known this for decades & that the data to prove it has equally existed for decades.
Valliant, who could possibly be so arrogant & shortsighted into thinking they could ignore this reality, i wonder? 🤔
Soooo weird. I know
In the UK there are stores with shelves of 'Lightyear' stock that no one wants.
Oh we haven't even TOUCHED the Lightyear junk yet. Might on Sunday
and yet, Cara Dune toys, whose portraying actress was cancelled by KK, sold out within hours after they announced Gina Carano would not be returning to Mandalorian
This isn't the female heroine you're looking for... - KK
It’s almost like none of these Disney types have ever read the “Golden Goose”
when I go to Waterstones I always move the Thrawn books onto the best shelf and move the High Republic stuff down. Naughty I know but for people buying gifts or whatever and don't know what to buy, I'd rather they pick something good!
VR: Just watched this video. Very informative and valuable as usual. You and WDW make a great team to tackle these topics. The only thing that tops this tandem is when Kamran Pasha joins. Keep up the great work! 👍🏼
We’ll have Kamran back again soon. He’s been workin his butt off
Ike Perlmutter the former president of Marvel Comics famously said that female superhero toys generally don't sell, he got a lot of flak for that statement but it turns out he was right all along.
@Valiant Renegade just wondering, with Christmas right around the corner will toy manufacturers try push out more of the OG characters in order to offset the cost of the new ones? As a layman, the best indicator of what did not sell is to check out the discount rack and bargain bins in late January and February.
All I can think of when I see this type of decline is that ritual suicide the Japanese used to practice. I think Seppuku. That's what Disney, or some in the company, are basically committing at the altar of "current thing." Someone needs to get a grip before the katana plunges all the way in
Hara Kire
I'm willing to be kaishakunin
This is interesting since Hasbro announced a new merchandising plan a few days ago for their in-house brands like Transformers. I wonder if the poor sales and the red tape dealing with Disney were part of the decision to change up their in-house brand flows to maintain a more consistent cash flow. I would not be surprised to see even more store exclusives than we see now.
So funny. Despite being on a mostly Disney boycott I've actually did buy a Moff Gideon Black Series figure because he one of my favorite Mandalorian characters next to Cara Dune. You know if they ever wanted to get those toy sales up, just release limited edition Cara Dune figures.
i agree, a limited run would be very little risk for a cara dune figure.
Shows no one can watch , And no one wanted about chars that are second tier at best , and they cannot sell the merch , WHAT A SURPRISE.
I collect both Star Wars Black Series and Marvel Legends 6inch action figures, but only Original Trilogy and Comic book faithful Marvel characters, mainly due to the way Disney has handled both those IP's creatively. Although many other collectors also buy any/all Star Wars/MCU characters just because its SW and Marvel very very few collectors, if any, buy only non OT/comic based characters. OT and Comic based Marvel always sell because those are the definitive/classic representations of those IPs for collectors and so will always sell.... unlike the current wave of characters we are seeing from the latest iterations of the Disney SW and the MCU.
Star Trek is in basically the same boat. No one is buying New Drek. No one is going to give Abrams/Kitzman a single penny for the bastardization of Star Trek. You can tell Abrams is involved when you see Original Characters packaged together with Rey or another Sequel character or someone from Star Drek. So next time you see a box with Luke, Han, Leia, C-3PO, R2D2, Lando, Yoda and Vader and a sequel character walk past it. I got fooled by a Star Wars anniversary T-shirt with autographs that I bought from FB. It had all the Prequel & Original Trilogy characters but they snuck in BB8.
"Men Lie...Women Lie...Numbers Don't" - Jay-Z
Community Theatre Hulk.
Ruffalo is a miracle. He should of stayed in Community Theatre.
I work at Walmart and I remember one Easter, there are these candy dispensers that are in the the shape of various characters like Hello Kitty, Spiderman, Darth Vader, ect... After Easter, all that is left are Baby Yoda. Nothing but tiny Baby Yodas.
Todd McFarlane said the same thing not too long ago and the internet and SJW's got all unglued and reee'd racistisms and sexistisms at poor Todd and toy collectors that agreed.
1m rubbernecks, 400k hate watchers, 70k still hoping for pre Endgame Marvel (those numbers going down every new Disney+ shows). The 30k left are free friends & family viewers of the She Hulk production team. Way to go Disney!
I've been wondering about this. The financial priority on sports is obvious, but how many countless billions is Disney losing on Toy sales vs. those properties being healthy? How much does that close the gap on sports profits?
Depends on the licensing agreements, but it's definitely trending the wrong direction. If you can't drive people to get excited over characters in a film then the merchandise is going to suffer. Live Sports are still more lucrative and largely insulated. They dont need much else to drive traffic.
Mr. Todd Macfarlane, toy company owner, said exactly the same thing…female figures do not sell as well as male figures.
The solution to Lucasfilm’s toy sale woes is as simple as - produce toys for characters and stories from the Expanded Universe (relabeled as ‘Legends’). Produce stuff that multi-decade fans, with purchase power, actually want. It’s really that simple. For toys, shows, movies, books, games, comics, etc… 🤷🏻♂️
Hasbro has a Star Wars gaming greats line and release SW comic book characters from popular arcs as well. I'm sure they know what really sells lol
@@lucarocks7866 Hasbro absolutely knows what sells. But Lucasfilm is the one directing what to sell. That’s who needs the education.
Yeah the idea is the licenses come with stipulations that they can produce the popular stuff, but they also have to produce X number of "low rent" (think High Republic and whatnot) for every 10 units of the good stuff, for example
@@ValliantRenegade Yes. But if Disney went outside of the occasional Gaming Greats and actually gave us fan-favorites like Kyle Katarn, Geand Master Luke Skywalker, Jedi Leia, Corran Horn, Talon Karrde, Nomi Sunrider, Exar Kun, etc… they could print the money they’d make, not only from the toys, but from the new interest in the EU stories they could now sell. The (cynical) drawback, is that the more new fans become aware of the EU, the more comparisons they will make to Disney’s Canon. 🤷🏻♂️
Don’t forget Rose Tico
You could be right about Hulk being the draw. But they set about assassinating his character like they have done so many others. So, now, having Hulk show up will have a diminishing effect. I want to see Hulk! But I don't want to see him just trashed, so I sit this show out.
Women don't buy super hero toys because, from the female perspective, toys are for little girls, not for grown-up women. It's a public statment: I'm not a child anymore, I'm an adult. I now buy shoes and bags, not toys. Men, on the other hand, buy the toys for collectible reasons, not to play with them. And if they don't look powerful and pretty, they won't buy them. Clearly these people have no idea how women think. Women Prefer Bridgerton and Dr House, not She-Hulk. And I happen to be one of the very few women who actually loved science fiction ever since I was a little girl.
Little girls and women are just not into this in enough numbers and when they do show up, its usually for the guys (think drooling over Thor and Cap)
I can confirm Walmart is decreasing the amount of Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars merch. I'm more interested to see what items are going to be available for Black Friday. Alot of the lincesed toys, books and pajamas for that sale tend to be from those franchises.
Do you work for Walmart or just observation?
@@ValliantRenegade I'm a sales associate. We've been setting mods and getting Fall and winter merch in.
A recent case in point is the Hasbro Haslab Obi-Wan show Reva's lightsaber which dramatically failed to get funded. Haslab is basically a way for collectors to get their dream item which wouldn't be available via the normal means through retail. It has seen crazy success for the most part with the items they've put out but Reva's lightsaber did not even come close to what many would class as a dream item. I suspect that Hasbro's hand was forced and they were made to produce the lightsaber as part of the Obi-Wan promotion thinking that Reva would be a popular character....... but she wasn't, and not for the reasons Disney would claim. I very much doubt that the Star Wars Hasbro department would have risked a second failed project (after the Rancor) unless they were moved in that direction from the license holder. On the subject of the Rancor, that failed not because of the price point, but because the stretch goals in combo with the price point didn't seem like value for money. That would have been a very different story if the stretch goals included a fresh new Princess Leia in slave outfit and Oola dancing girl along with the no brainier rancour keeper which they included at the last minute in an attempt to save the project. However, no matter how popular and a must have items both Slave Leia and Oola are as collectibles modern Disney will never green light theses items for ideological reasons. The same reason why they have mandated toy companies to rename Boba Fett's Slave One.
My kids are all teens now and all their lives I have acquired Star Wars toys for them from the 80’s and 90’s at local comics & collectibles stores and occasionally Target if they had some good vintage-line toys. Have often taken delight in wcbs’s videos on the rotting TLJ action figures, knowing that at least Lucasfilm can’t sugarcoat that very visible blunder. (And of course have seen it myself every time I go through the toy aisle)
Very insightful Valliant. Thank you. I had Business101 YEARS ago in college, but most times I’m bored to tears when some “expert” drones on and on and on, even if the topic is interesting. You both explained the issue in clear, concise terms that kept me fascinated the entire time. It’s all a tad clearer why Disney sequel-era and post-Endgame stuff sit on shelves gathering years of dust. Much appreciated and smiled at your shoutout to WCBS too. 🙂
Thanks for watching! Lots more to talk about on Sunday live show... and Pro and I are scheduled to have another guest...
@@ValliantRenegade God willing and the creek don’t dry 😄 I’ll be there!
Another potentially fun show, destroyed with horrible writing.
She Hulk? Oh yeah. Big time
I heard that snicker on 'strangle hold' on little girls toys lol. Yeah. This basically confirms our suspicions for a long time. I figure hunt fairly often and it is something i can corroborate in the south east region i live in. I frequent the targets and walmarts and gamestops of our tristate area and Eternals does sit taking space with no movement. Transformers, GI Joe, and OG/Prequel/ Filoni/Favreau Star wars stuff moves very well. Also, another thing that i dont see move often are the Kevin He-Man stuff either...
Oh ho! I kept hearing the wails and screams of "Racism!" and "Sexism!" throughout this whole article. Lots of people are going to be melting down over this article.
Tell 'em to get a mop then
She-Hulk Barbie.... would have made many millions, but they can't feed the "Barbie" stereotype.
Maybe a She-Hulk Dr. Sues mashup... Green Lawyer with Gams? SO many missed opportunities.
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Classic star wars. Pre 2012.
Exactly
Eternal toys sit on the shelves eternally.
Very simple formula from the old Mattel days: girls = fashion, boys = action. If you follow this simple formula, youll succeed. But this is based on a good movie, great characters and no agendas.
Pearlmutter was right. How about that.
No one at Dsney/Marvel should be surprised. The shows/movies are terrible and most ppl hate the characters so why would they wnt the action figure?
How did Falcon Cap put it?
"You need to do better!"
I still don't understand how KK still has a job...but yeah all movie goers are not equal. The ppl their new/expanded base mocks for being too uptight about kid's movies are the ppl that will spend 40-60 dollar apiece on multiple pieces of tiny plastic, I mean action figures. These studios think their new base will magically start acting the same as the old base and that's not how it works. For most, toy collecting is a thing that begins in childhood. All the new ppl they're catering to most likely have no idea or interest in that hobby.
I can speak firsthand that I know a friend who used to work in Hasbro and has friends connected to the toy makers and they are NOT happy with LF. Especially with the ST because let's be real; if SWs were doing well, their old and new stuff would be selling. The only thing LF can bank on now is nostalgia and Baby Yoda and even that latter guy has a time limit alongside the old stuff which has been hurt by the new stuff. As for Marvel, they have no one to blame but themselves for Toy sales. The old Legends stuff will sell to older collectors, but the new characters they are trying to market, simply do not have a foothold. Why? Because they aren't compelling. This is purely anecdotal, you which marvel Legends figure I pick up? Firestar. Why? I really adored her as a character from Spider-Man and his Amazing friends and was given depth in the comics. Angelica Jones was a cool character with a neat costume, cool superpowers(microwave manipulation is neat), and a good personality/ motivation.
You compare her to MCU She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel(I hate picking on Kamala, but jeez Marvel screwed up that character) and it is night and day. Feige and company want to focus on female-centric characters? Fine, WRITE THEM WELL. They will sell well when you write them well.
Thanks for passing that along!! We have more to discuss that didn't make it into this video with more details. Hopefully cover that on the Sunday live show!
Another comment, as a life long Hulk fan (he's my fav Marvel character), we are not seeing the "real" Hulk...it's been Ruffaloed.
I used to spend lots of money on star wars toys until recently. Got tired of being called a racist misogynist because I didn’t liked Kenobi.
Why should I spend money on products while Disney don’t respect me?
Its like a music band or a singer or a sports team who call you this and that would you still be interested to buy their albums or jersey?
Im not really surprised to see Disney having problems to sell their merch
I could swear you were reading from a description of the WNBA's business model.
Parents don't have much help finding toys for their little boys anymore. Iron man, Cap, Spiderman, Hulk...they were the money makers. Now with them being sidelined for woke females, it's no wonder that toys aren't selling!
The only way to show these idiots their wokism doesn't sell is for sales to fail, I'm just amazed it takes industry titans so long to figure out what is popular and what is not. Of course they finally did find a female character that would sell and they mucked that up spectacularly! To be fair I don't know how well she would have sold without the cancel thing but I'm sure better than their other non sellers.
Coming from the retail industry, everything you presented today is what I've been talking about for years inside the industry. It's a shame a narrative has to be pushed rather than focusing on the best bang for the buck!
Just look at Bandai, Mafex, Hot Toys and what they put out. Asian Toy companies always go with what sells. They even released a 70s Japanese Spiderman!
Always great reporting fellas. Thanks for the hard work!
Thanks! Please share!
It would be simple to go back to the drawing board, look at what George Lucas did with not only his movies but how he created such a toy juggernaut. History has shown that KK really didn't know what she is doing and has cost the brand very dearly and now Kevin Feige is falling down the same disastrous hole with Marvel.
I started talking last year when Phase 4 launched that it looked like Feige was going down the same rabbit hole as Kennedy did with Lucasfilm and the results would the same. We are seeing it now
@@ValliantRenegade yep, like watching a slow motion train wreck
Zero surprises here for thise off us who know retail... "By their merch shall you know them"
Love seeing undeniable proof that Disney marvel is failing.
Yeah all the new stuff is for sure, but it starting to impact the classic stuff which is no bueno.
I have been on total disney boycott since the Gina Corano situation. No toys, merch, movies and I canceled my disney+
I hear ya
Is there a reason a WHY?
It's obvious that All New All Different Marvel characters NEVER took. Comic sales are in the gutter; merch sales are lagging. It's been OBVIOUS since The Last Jedi that Lucasfilm's Sequel characters never really grabbed fans with staying power and merch sales reflect that. Other than Porgs and BB8 it doesn't even look like anyone making the ships, droids, and characters for the movies even thought about making them into toys (whereas Lucas always seemed to have toy potential in mind when making a new character, droid, or vehicle). Mandalorian is the ONLY Disney Star Wars vehicle that appears to even try making "toyetic" characters, vehicles, or droids. It doesn't take a toy marketing expert to figure this out. And as Yogurt says, "moichandising! Moichandising! Where the REAL money of the movie is made!"
Was this a case of people hoping these noodles would stick when throwing them at the wall? (If so, why didn't they change when the noodles fell to the floor FOUR YEARS ago?)
Was this a case of feminist/woke ideologues wanting to create characters intentionally unappealing to "traditionally male" customers of the franchises when Disney acquired these franchises SPECIFICALLY to get into the male merch market? Did they really have that much pull? Were they really able to convince their bosses that there was this HUGE woke market out there just waiting to jump on all their new woke-ish characters that would dwarf the already significant fanbases these franchises already had that made them worth the BILLIONS Disney spent to acquire them?
Is Disney so fundamentally keyed into creating IP lines that appeal to girls that they've just tried to turn Star Wars and Marvel into brands that appeal to girls instead of boys at some instinctive corporate level?
Was this a case of not wanting to pay royalties and residuals to old artists, writers, and actors by creating entirely new characters they could claim full ownership of? It's better to pay out a few pennies on the dollar of royalties for classic Star Wars and Marvel characters that rake in gazillions of dollars than pay out no royalties on the stacks of Rey and Rose Tico and Ms. Marvel toys that NEVER SOLD.
Are they playing some sort of "long game" thinking that if they just keep telling people that Rey and Kamala Kahn really are the "future" of Star Wars and Marvel that in four or five or ten years (after losing money on these franchises for four or five or ten years) people will eventually forget how much nobody likes these characters and accept it (and literally BUY it)? That instead of killing the future profitability of these franchises a "new" market will arise who will like them (someday, eventually, we hope)?
The failure of Lucasfilm and Marvel since Disney bought them has been OBVIOUS since 2017-18 when The Last Jedi toy sales tanked and Last Jedi hate made Solo flop at the box office and the All New All Different Marvel line (comics, merch, and even the Marvel Rising RUclips videos) had FLOPPED. That was FOUR even FIVE years ago. And Disney still shows no signs that it intends to change course either at Marvel or Lucasfilm and it's becoming more apparent that this push away from their established market and their long-time fans is
KILLING.
these.
brands.
Brands that Disney has sunk BILLIONS of dollars acquiring and developing - yet there is no sign I can see outside of the Mandalorian series (and that was THREE YEARS AGO now) that Disney has any plans to change course away from the cliff. Like Thelma and Louise, they're hitting the gas as they approach the canyon. Thelma and Louise were committing suicide. Is Disney TRYING to lose money? Do they not like profits? How long before stockholders start filing suits claiming that Disney is intentionally losing their investors' money? Because, at this point, it looks like they're TRYING to lose money on Marvel and Star Wars; like they are TRYING to suicide these brands.
Star wars is dead Kathleen Kennedy killed it. She burned the franchise straight to the ground. 🔥
Yeah, She-Hulk is the #2 worst TV show on Disney+, just wondering what the new #3 show is that it and all others got a promotion. 😁
I'm watching "The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." for the first time now that it's on Disney+ plus and loving it. I can't believe it's made by Marvel because it's a much better show than anything Marvel or Lucasfilm has released on Disney+.
It's not perfect but she shows are much better written and I'm actually interested in the show. So far I think the first two seasons were the best, but I'm only halfway through season 5, so don't know if the show gets better, worse, or stays the same, but I'm willing to watch and find out.
Great video as always and looking forward to your next one. 👍✨🔥💥
Agents of shield, for all its faults, was a much better show
If you're being 'forced' to by the lower selling items you want to negotiate 'sale or return'. Send back all the stuff that doesn't sell.
Unfortunately is places like Hasbro and Mattel that get stuck with it
Have a very young niece. She has friends. The girls never talk about Marvel. They like Barbie or Elsa and the princesses period. It’s the little boys who buy action figures, legos, and Captain America backpacks. Not girls.
Sobering. So, there's been financial strong-arming on major toy manufacturers by these major Hollywood studios, to ensure that their political aims and agendas are represented in the toy market. At this point, well in to The 2020s, I'm not surprised. Yet, the merchandise for (non-politics-based) Star Wars characters created by Lucas, Filoni, and Favreau (inc. one Marshal Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan, who's been a bestseller over the last 2 years) HAVE sold very well. I'm willing to bet, EU character, Jaxxon has had better sales than Holdo. I wonder: Has Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd. allowed licensing for the (supposedly non-canon) characters from Star Wars: Visions to happen, going forward in to Season 2? I will say, again, as an avid reader of The High Republic multimedia initiative, there ARE devoted fans of its output, and there have been reprints of some of its comics, since it launched...I've seen them, and put in orders for them. As I've also said before, it's a (for the most part) quality project that has only gotten better since its release. Very unfortunately, a portion of the writers (along w/ the extremely polarizing faces and voices of Pablo Hidalgo and Kathleen Kennedy) involved in the project are too monochromatic in their politics and argumentative and dismissive in the social media interactions with the overall SW Fan base (over the years), and it resulted in alienating a good swathe of the SW audience, resulting in THR becoming only a cult hit, instead of a giant, popular hit. Counterproductive, bass ackwards thinking, yet again.
I'm about to finish up Ms. Marvel, which I've (somewhat surprisingly) thoroughly enjoyed (thank you for the storyline alterations, Mr. Chapek), due to its lack of wokeness. Regarding She-Hulk: Later this weekend, I'll step my toes in its problematic waters; though, I'm really not expecting much.
Last I looked, the mantra was: Money talks, everything else walks.
Thanks for the insights and insider information, Valliant and WDW Pro. Till next time...
you can look at it as strong-arming, but it happens in manufacturing all the time. i've seen it myself 30 years ago where to get the big contract the company had to also take on a job or two that they'd basically break even on. i see it as no different, it's just how business goes. i'd do the same were i on either side of the table.
John Byrne She-Hulk and Vampirella sale !! Potato sack Rose Rico and the amazing wonder Rey Skywalker 🤣 was what the brain trust of Disney came up with?😆
True journalism right here! I appreciate this channel!
Thanks for watching!! Please SHARE it out!
You mean Feige's Bait and switch tactics aren't working anymore!?
Who could have e seen that coming?
Oh me! I'm the somebody! I called this.
SMH..
Another fascinating episode from Valiant and WDW Pro! The horrible thing about this situation is that it increases pent up demand. Even under the current economy, collectors are willing to shell out $ for characters they like. But if nothing likeable is available, then demand keeps growing. Have you seen what Hot Toys is doing in the high end toy market? They are releasing "version 2"s of popular characters, and I presume best sellers, such as iron man and OG Cap. They release the token Eternals figure to barely a whimper amongst fans. I have always thought they must be under some contractual obligation to do so such that, if they want to release figures that really sell (i.e. iron man) then they have to release an occasional kate bishop or ylana black widow. So what you are describing is probably being perpetrated by Disney widely across their licensees. Best to both of you!
Been buying 3D printed stuff off etsy, who needs Disney.
Well, Disney was caught using a design for a tiki from an artist who had uploaded his design for free and selling it at a shop inside the parks.
This all begs the question why aren’t they doing a course correction? Do they want to get fired from their jobs or something?
Firing folks at that level isn't all that easy and it's usually VERY expensive to do (like Peter Rice)
Dont they know wokes dont watch the movies!! So why would they buy the toys??
Some may watch, but few buy merchandise. Yup
A question VR,
If kids today are all about online and digital things why are the making action figures for children and not making limited runs of them for a more mature (leaving it in box) audience???
Because kids ARE still buying. And its not just toys. Its general merch. Branded Avengers stuff. Branded classic Star Wars. But its being impacted heavily by the dying Disney brands at the first tranche (Level 1) which are the movies and shows
Marvel and DC have been doing a lesser version of this order structure crap to comic stores for variant covers for decades, little wonder someone decided to scale that up. Makes me wonder if that is what sped the demise the likes of Hastings multimedia stores among others.
I'm thinking it was a WCBS clearance vid that was my introduction to Jeff and the gang. Excellent coverage and making the complex understandable. Kudos to you and WDW Pro! I have gone out of my way to make any toy/book/movie purchases from the local trade in shop or other 2nd hand vendors for many years now and I encourage others to do so as well.
VR, could you take a stab at a similar breakdown of how current Star Trek Disco is getting its funding via Playmates? Thank you gentlemen!
Yeah that's how I found Jeff initially I think. He was covering Star Wars merchandise doldrums after TLJ
This is great information here! Numbers don't lie.
IMDB will NOT post my review! It's been "under review" and it's a 2/10. Yeah - they are being paid to hide the reviews!
Valliant, You can see Marvel and Star Wars toy's in the bargain bins everywhere. The other problem you can see every couple of weeks more new Marvel/ Star Wars. characters that you have no interest in. Don't hit the shelves but are added straight away to the bin. You can see that all this Disney merch is not "Cabbage Patch Dolls" Sad for me, I don't think now I will be getting my "She-Hulk, Barbie Doll." And also Lego's " She-Hulk, Courtroom" construction kit won't be making it to the shelves anytime soon. Cheers, Chris Perry.
I love it when you two get together. Great info. Keep it coming.
Thanks! Will do! Please SHARE!
A sample size of 1: My 4 year old daughter loves classic original trilogy Princess Leia, Classic Lady Jaye, Scarlett, Cover Girl and Zarana. She also likes Master Chief and Kai from the Halo Paramount series. But only at the action parts.
When my kids ask me to buy toys, it's almost always classic characters.
And I am the classic toy company demographic: Middle aged, Middle class parent with small children and disposable income for toys.
A new vid from VR .And with WDW PRO. The evening is perfect. ( I,ll just get some chilled wine).
They aren't just forcing the purchase of these unpopular characters, they're also forcing their acceptance as equally significant... which is, of course, the whole point.
He is not the "real" hulk.
At least they were tending on Twitter for insulting fans.
Unfortunately twitter doesn't pay the bills