Star Wars Toys Don't Sell - Bolshevik Marketing and Marketing in Reverse

[@TushantMirchandani]

Here's the thing about toys and boys: I used to be pretty enthusiastic about action-figures as a kid, and the ones that I always bought were the designs that immediately invoked fantastical stories in my head. The ones I'd buy are top-of-the-class spies, soldiers, bombers, ninjas, etc. Why on earth would I buy a toy that looked like somebody's aunt trying to cosplay?

[@jakes1566]

I feel like this is a really underrated roast

[@ryanl8730]

Amen! Even the purple haired feminazi in the last Jedi. Talking down to Poe. I’m sick of it

[@s.p.q.rreborn2080]

You know what I want. A Rose action figure with her taser. Said nobody ever.

[@Lv-sl3rm]

Well I did once, when looking for targets to shoot with my AK.

[@pikppa]

@@Lv-sl3rm underrated comment

[@bwtv147]

I suspect Queen Amidala figures sold fine to girls. In spite of what Kathleen Kennedy thinks girls should aspire to, most girls would much rather be a princess than a tom boy.

[@ethanpecci5229]

bwtv147 Ahsoka figures probably sold fine as well, because she was a cool character to both boys and girls

[@MissPumpkinJuice]

*Correction:* The badass princess with blasters and gorgeous outfits, who is also married to the young Vader. Unlike Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas knew what girls actually want :3

[@Lady_Yuna]

Yomayo I agree 👏🙂

[@geraldchurchill5576]

I'm a male and I hade a Padme action figure as a kid. I think I lit her on fire but it had nothing to do with it being Padme I did that to most of my toys eventually.

[@Grubnar]

"most girls would much rather be a princess than a tom boy." And Leia was both.

[@MrOrmanley]

I work as a Kindergarten Teacher. The girls and boys are both exposed to stereotypically male AND female mediums/franchices, including star wars, frozen and more. Guess as what they dressed (today) on carnival? Boys came as Firefighters, Annakin Skywalkers, Cowboys, Stormtroopers, Knights, Wolves Princesses (Elsas in part) and Fairies...that's it Boys want to be masculine, women want to be princesses, that's how it works, progressive agenda, feminism, pc culture or whatever be damend, children's natural decisions fall in line with traditional thinking. I think anyone should be able to make their own decisions in life, and not be judged or prosecuted for life-style choices, race and otherwise which are no one else's buisness really. Being tolerant towards minorities's being different is ok. BUT Trying to twist reality into accomodating those minorities or even pushing society towards them because apparently that means equality, is just stupid. I work as a man in a female dominated job and everytime some mother comes and says: It's good that there's more men in this line of work, I sigh internally. Not because she said something stupid content-wise. But because I feel like a threatened species being oggled at a zoo or something. I can imagine other minorities feeling the same. Dont make a big deal of anything. And oh yeah: Women are not even a minority! Work for success, and you will be rewarded. I've yet to see an actual hard-working women complaining about not receiving a fair reward to their fruits of labor. Nor do I earn more than my female colleagues (pay gap's a myth)

[@MrOrmanley]

instead of "sign" I meand "sigh", sorry

[@steeltrap3800]

TL;DR? It's called biology and clear sex differences. Richard Feynman at the end of his report on the Challenger Disaster said "....reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." Add George Orwell with "“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” Put those two together and then ask how modern discourses on all sorts of topics rate. Sad, isn't it?

[@ABaumstumpf]

"children's natural decisions fall in line with traditional thinking." I think that statement could be worded better. Cause it is pretty much the other way around: the "traditional" gender roles are formed after the natural occurrences. They are the result of observing what is natural - and forming a coherent description of behaviours that are true for most of humanity.

[@Java9393]

That first part is so demonstrably wrong though. There is nothing natural about what we perceive as masculine or femenine, they ARE social constructs. Has a manly individual looked the same through history? Of course not, high heels used to be something a man would wear for example. Even now, in different cultures you can see a difference. Im not going to discuss the later part, as i dont think we live in the same place, so your reality about that subject can be different than mine, my point is that biology has nothing to do with masculinity or whats consider femenine, those are cultural notions

[@litjellyfish]

Java it depends on what we perceive as social. Fashion. Shoes. Visual symbols. Yes that is more short term social constructs (that moves quicker and quicker in this digital era) but body language, motion, acts that are more aggressive vs defensive. Nurturing vs attacking have over and over been tested and not found have any real shorts term social dependencies. Instead they are more biologically long term controlled and instinctively hard wired into us.

[@hp9mm]

"Rose" is the worst character iv'e seen in the Star Wars franchise, Jar Jar was an alien so he has an excuse, she has none

[@ATSucks1]

Jar jar could jump and swim and even be funny sometimes,.... rose tico can give a gender studies lecture.

[@OriginalOrigins]

Jet li, tony ja... Anything manga or anime samurai ninjas kung fu ps4 nintendo kpop honda civics lexus... Asian culture is huge in america

[@unclest1nky]

I don't know why everybody picks on the actress who plays Rose Tico. She was just doing what she was told. She's an actress playing a part in a movie. Whatever problem there was with the character was 90% the writers and directors fault. Maybe she wasn't the best actress I don't know I didn't watch it, I refuse to watch it! But whatever the case the actress Tran doesn't deserve to be humiliated for something that was the writers and directors fault.

[@skipintroux4444]

unclest1nky because the actress blamed the audience as being racist and misogynistic for the failure of the role and her acting.

[@unclest1nky]

@@skipintroux4444 Ok, she's a typical left wing liberal Hollyweird nutjob then. I haven't really paid much attention to all the Press that what was said about her. I refuse to watch Disney Star Wars after the force awakens it's just total crap! Thanks for the info.

[@combeechan]

Highly agree with the points you've provided. Additional Info: 1) Hasbro doesn't ship containers full of equal amounts of characters. They purposely put multiples of lesser-popular (expected) figures to stock shelves, hoping to drive parents to make multiple trips to the store to buy the popular/desired figures for their kid. This shelving strategy has been around since the 80's when retail giants such as Toys R Us were giants. The result was parents not being able to find that super-popular figure and, instead of dragging a crying kid home, would buy him/her something else that they normally wouldn't have purchased. Strategy was also a bit less offensive for the consumer during the years before Just-In Time Inventory--- where having stocked shelves in a store was not considered financial ruin by accountants. Unless we bought the statistics from a marketing research giant like Garnter, it is safe to conclude that Hasbro likely padded the shipping containers with Leia and Rose as those types of figures. 2) Female figures at that scale typically do look awful. Its a bit of a meme for toy collectors. 3) Hasbro and Disney still make money even if inventory rots on retail shelves. Retailers take the hit. God damn, why I did I bother typing this. I hope the three of you who read this learned something.

[@DVSPress]

I read it. I should have mentioned in the video the way toy lots work. It's been that way, especially with Star Wars, since the beginning, but the "padded" toys were usually things like storm troopers, which you could always have more of. From a retailer's perspective, they just have a glut of star wars toys; having a no-sell sit on the shelf for literally years is a liability, not an asset since purchases are usually made on credit. So for the next round, they order half as many star wars toys. A toy maker (or an IP maker like Disney), really wants to keep selling toys; having the product be so unwanted is a bad sign.

[@amfitness5598]

Combee Chan true about Retailers taking the hit, but they will eventually wake up and stop absorbing that loss. Then the shit will hit the fan...

[@combeechan]

Oh, good morning David! Indeed, indeed. Any chance you or some of your contacts know a person who works at a retail chain? Would be interesting to hear which specific characters were chosen to be the padding.

[@Trollificusv2]

Thank you, I did.

[@MrJaha35]

Lucas made most of his initial money on Star Wars from the toys and I wonder if he saw this downward trend in the toy market drove him to sell high. Just a thought anyway. A culture change of girls buying action figures is going to take generations so pushing all these undesirable toys out will just upset retailers who have to eat the losses. The free market isn't sexist. Unfortunately Hasbro and Disney have more power than the retailers and push them to buy this stuff if they want to stock the toys that DO sell. On an ironic note I was a kid in the early 80's and I had Star Wars toys and was a HUGE Star Wars fan but I spent most of my allowance on GI Joe which were much more functional toys. The toys today aren't much different than the early 80's figures and I don't see how they are competing with the more functional and diverse Toys from other lines.

[@MiniatureMasterClass]

I wouldn't want a Rose figure even if it was free.

[@randymagnum6680]

MiniatureMasterClass I bet the actress that played her didn't even buy any

[@legacyorganizer7119]

That Rose is so un important.... useless character.. jar jar bink even better...

[@pdooley730]

Amen

[@lawrencejelsma3937]

MiniatureMasterClass ... Not the only character one that will be proudly shown in a Star Wars collection of action figures on shelves in the future! Someone needs to find out what marketing agent in Hasbro had okaying toys that toy stores have to get cluttered with by their decisions to go ahead and make the shit toy! It's called firing those people for okaying faulty toy designs and trying to sell it off to only a kid that was not smart! Shouldn't there be some sort of civil law suits going on by the parent for "a company" not held responsible for the damages resulting from their product? 🤔 ... Not just the kid wasting and losing their parents money but also all the stores having to absorb the loss in their inventories? 🤔 ... Never mind ... I see many other weekly unbought garbage on toy store shelves too at Walmarts, Targets, etc. and ... Ohhh yeah Toys 'R Us R.I.P. with all those Rose figures going down on your ship now at 60+ percent off!!

[@shadowfoxcorp]

MiniatureMasterClass not even to shoot with a bb gun or a 22lr? Not even to set on fire? Come on dude, fire. FIRE. *FIRE!!!*

[@Moodymongul]

Poor Rose (and the actress who played her) - They literally gave her the 'Lego' haircut :) ..It honestly looks like you could unclip it from the top of her head! And then they added insult to injury by paired that hair piece with the baggiest, frumpiest, yellow/orange workers overall in the entire galaxy. The costume department must have hated her or something ;)

[@cerealkiller195]

I say the same thing, it wasn't her fault that they wrote her lines so horribly bad. It's like they had a bag of suggestions that had to be cleared by the PC committee and she had to read off the prompt screen.

[@pietrayday9915]

That's exactly the problem with that character: who on earth thought they could sell a frumpy character design to a bunch of sci-fi geeks? The marketing research they should have done would have been to go to a comic convention or whatever to see what kinds of characters the ladies there are cosplaying as, and get some clues from there: I guarantee hardly any sci-fi geek, male or female or LGBTWE, is going to get excited about frumpy characters of any sort. Get some colour, style, and drama in there, if not just a dash of sex: sure, not everyone's going to be in the market for Slave Bikini Princess Leia, but you'll find a lot more success in the middle ground than you are in wrapping Frowny Lego Girl in a bland yellow burrito shell of a jump suit and calling it 'cool'....

[@niamhmorrissey2187]

Kids are more allured to toys that look cool. Tell me, when you were a kid, would you rather have owned a Darth Vader toy, or a Rebel Fighter toy? A Boba Fett toy or an Imperial officer toy? The Original Trilogy and even the Prequel Trilogy had awesome looking characters and they stood out in the films, making people want to buy their toys, their costumes and their Lightsabers. Most of the characters in Star Wars after Disney bought them just look "casual" There's nothing visually interesting about the way they look, characters like Kylo Ren are exceptions. He looks visually interesting and has a unique Lightsaber, that'll sell well. But almost all the other characters don't have any stand outs. They look fine in the movies, but in the eyes of a child who wants to play with an action figure, a normal looking person in a jumpsuit isn't that great. Plus part of the problem stems from how the characters are portrayed in the films. While there are some good ones, most of the characters are kind of boring and uninteresting.

[@Coksaugenatbrockhausen]

you are so fucking right!

[@ABaumstumpf]

Nick M - ah yeah, the "combat experience" of teenager quarrels - way better than years of training under the guidance of a master :P

[@MoeSlislack]

I remember in the 70s being at the day care center and kids loved boba fet because he did in fact look really cool. he was a back ground character but we loved the jet pack and the outfit. I had boba fet underoos. sjw just don't get it and they are trying hard to manipulate the way people think and really trying to destroy anything that is white male Christian conservative. they see boys wanting to emulate male heroes as a really bad thing unless the boy is black.

[@toby7504]

Bobafet and darth vader...do have the figures from the 80's....

[@tylersingleton9284]

Justa Person I think you mean "laser sword"

[@nagsdeadfilms7024]

Disney killed the magic of Star Wars. Prequel toys actually sold.

[@Grubnar]

I know of people that collected whole ARMIES of Clone Troopers.

[@antonmasters8626]

Hell yeah they did.

[@jrcrash4644]

I would buy an Admiral Holdo action figure just to throw it at walls yelling "LIGHTSPEED!!!"

[@metadude1234]

The only reason i'll ever buy a Holdo figure, is because of Laura Dern

[@ako3379]

Bopkins Plays Doom Hodor is better

[@RogerTheil]

Apparently she didn't even get a toy made for her. Good, she doesn't deserve one.

[@BuceGar]

ROFL

[@SolaceV9]

Hey, Holdo wasn't that bad. Rose and Rey are true cancer but i think that Holdo was kinda cool. To be honest, there was only one really cool scene in the entire movie, this being Holdo crashing her ship into the Supremacy.

[@Winzlohw]

Jar Jar > Rose

[@salsaspartan7]

#DicksOutForJarJarBinks

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

#MesaStandWithJarJar

[@poisoncontrol4488]

didn't that film have a flying jew?

[@alduintheanti-dragonborn]

Didn't Rose almost single handedly doom the Resistance? As far as I know, she didn't have any mental conditions, while Jar Jar was practically born mentally retarded. I say Rose is a traitor.

[@wilde4945]

Jar Jar himself blows this whole trilogy away. Agreed.

[@thebreedinghousewife8818]

They’re not selling cause the last Jedi SUCKED.

[@thebreedinghousewife8818]

And Rose was the worst part of the film. By far. And snokes death. And that pointless subplot. Shall I continue?

[@SwiftNimblefoot]

Same here in Hungary, except we still have SW7 toys and Rogue One toys too. It's not just Rose, or that people hate the character though - SW toys look BORING now. Remember the prequels? We had all sort of crazy aliens, cool robots, hot starships, lots of new Jedi, cool looking villains like Grievous and Darth Maul, animals and walkers... What do we have now? A white dude in pilot uniform, a black dude in a leather jacket, a white girl in generic clothing, and an asian girl in an overall. Of course people are not interested. Kylo and the stormtroopers sell because they are cooler looking, plus for the second one, troopbuilding. Same goes for old Luke, and old Leia. But we got nothing else for sale that looks even slightly cool.

[@boeingnz]

In Soviet Russia shoes choose you.

[@Wheeler590]

LOL!

[@wilde4945]

boeingnz Not one step back LOL.

[@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681]

I want bolshevik shoes, they sound awesome.

[@vladkornienko7889]

As i citizen of former USSR I can concur this statment. You can't imagine how your words close to the thruth.

[@tanveerhasan2382]

well, it could be worse!

[@MrSohrab76]

This is absolutely true. I have an 8 year old boy and on three separate occasions (playing in the neighborhood, soccer practice and at school) I've heard him and his friends talking about Star Wars. The subject of the "favorite" Star Wars character came up. Now remember I am not participating in the conversations. Hands down every single time the boys agreed the coolest character is Boba Fett. This is a character that is not featured AT ALL in the new movies. Nobody cares about the lame characters they created.

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

"Why won't anyone buy these toys? Racist sexism, probably." -Disney and Lucasfilm execs

[@unicornonthecob4302]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXbKaWp5qN9_fdU

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

@unicornonthecob Yeah, pretty much lol

[@unicornonthecob4302]

They're literally insane.

[@unicornonthecob4302]

Can't happen soon enough!

[@InternetHydra]

Jay Yagebu Too bad that by the time that happens these people will have seized so much institutional power that it won’t matter. They’ll just float it at the taxpayers expense alongside the welfare for the millions of islamists they’ll import in to kill democracy.

[@amberhon]

My sons don’t want the “girl toys”. They want clone troopers or Darth Vader toys.

[@magnusanderson6681]

Atakuzi Family I'm guessing thats because Darth Vader is a cool character. Idk about clone troopers.

[@thereisnopandemic]

Magnus Anderson I'm guessing because normal Boys do not like feminine toys. When I was a little boy I would not be caught playing with rainbow bright, carebears, she-rah toys, I wanted Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man and Battlecat, ThunderCats, Voltron, G.I Joe etc... All these toys where cool to me because they are masculine toys.

[@magnusanderson6681]

Joseph Mauricio Flores Well duh. No one would be caught dead with a barbie doll. But Princess Leia is not exactly feminine usually, and characters like Ahsoka are universally thought of as cool. The new star wars characters have far more of a generic feel I think than the previous ones.

[@thereisnopandemic]

Magnus Anderson Didn’t help that the movies suck as well

[@pietrayday9915]

When I was a pre-teen during the original Star Wars years, it was the monsters and aliens that we were interested in. There really weren't a lot of girl characters, and it was kind of weird to want girl figures. My sister and mother were big on the Ewoks and Chewbacca, so I guess that, anecdotally, the aliens and monsters sold better to the ladies, too. Someone in another comment said that it was the action figures that looked cool enough to inspire stories to tell that they buy, and I think that sounds accurate: that would be exactly the sort of aliens and monsters that interested me....

[@MarsTheDoomer]

I just want some damn clone troopers to buy

[@jasonfenton8250]

Kyros Droztamyr Dark Troopers were awesome, I loved them in SW: Battlefront, but sucked as them, I did best as the standard rifleman.

[@ThickGrayson]

Amen to that

[@simpleclonetrooper2740]

Preach it!!!

[@Welv1987]

I want SturmTroopers

[@jaysway9251]

Seriously

[@earthdate3495]

"If you sell something you think people need, you might do OK. If you sell something people want, you'll do much better." - Napolian Hill

[@princessleiaorgana7238]

I didn't even buy my own toy.

[@kaguscon]

Princess Lea Organa well you're dead soooooo....

[@andrewjohnston4127]

Princess Lea Organa 😂

[@justindysinger]

Princess Lea Organa That makes sense. There is no “Lea Organa” figure presently being sold.

[@berenthebear8953]

Disney has lost alot of money in the toy market. I always thought they wanted to make as much money as possible. But ever since they bought Star Wars, Disney seems to want to market the franchise in wrong ways. I suspect Kathleen Kennedy is to blame for this maybe.

[@unicornonthecob4302]

You are correct, and here's the proof. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXbKaWp5qN9_fdU

[@deriznohappehquite]

Chad Reisman the force is female.

[@MikeSidious]

I've been a collector of the Star Wars line, for most of my life. When George Lucas retired, I noticed a decline in the quality, of Star Wars action figures and toys. Disney's approach is all about a decline in quality and maximizing profit, for both the toys and the films.

[@DVSPress]

With 47% reduction in orders, they sure ain't maximizing profit. The profit-seeking explanation is, in my view, inadequate.

[@MikeSidious]

Absolutely correct. If they don't course correct immediately, they will sink this ship. The Vintage Collection will return this year - while many will be happy, expect the RRP, to be more than it was, when the line ended in 2012.

[@MotoroidARFC]

You have to check each figure as best as you can before paying for it because quality is hit or miss. Some figures are wall eyed or one of their feet is twisted or their paint job is messed up. Throw in their design and you wonder why even bother? Back in the Revenge of the Sith movie era, the same sized and priced figures had knees, ankles, waists, elbows, wrists and heads that can tilt in addition to the standard shoulders and hips. Most of the current figures just have standard joints and are nowhere near as articulated as those available during that movie.

[@BungieStudios]

Revenge of the Sith was the peak of quality and variety for Star Wars toys. You had OT toys, Prequel toys, plenty of vehicles and accessory packs, and great quality but affordable lightsabers to boot. I'd include the Clone Wars. They maintained the same quality but their design was stylized to match the show. Between the two, I'd pick the film style, personally. It would match better with my old 90s and Kenner era toys than the stylized Star Wars figures from the show. None of the new toys have vehicles or accessories, maybe one gun. They lack articulation because Disney wanted to appeal to the nostalgia of collectors except neither kids nor collectors want this crap. The paint jobs are laughably bad. The 3 inch figures look like they're easy to break. They're super expensive too. The 6 inch figures are to big to be used with anything. They're worthless. Every article I read states they were built for poseability to compete with MacFarlane toys. Booooring.

[@captnebulace]

I have a cousin who collects star wars toys. He has said the same thing. The quality has gone down hill fast and the prices have risen as well.

[@DragonZelda]

All of the characters in new SW movies are terribly written. I don't care any of them. The new SW movies ruined the franchise and killed my love for SW. I was depressed after watching TLJ, so I tried to watch TNH to cheer myself up. I can't look at Luke, Han and Leia the same way I used to. I closed the movies in 20 min. SW fans are too obsessed with SW. They are like Stockholm Syndrome who can not leave their abuser. We should move on. SW is simply a Disney product now. It has no soul. We've had an exciting journey and spent good time with these beloved characters and SW will always have a special place in our heart. It's okay to say goodbye and let this franchise die.

[@chaotixtrekker5789]

Kermit's teatime Amen! But don’t let go of the first 3! I still only watch them to this day!

[@StonexxDemonmaggot]

I just consider the new trilogy as non canon. I refuse to accept those shitty movies.

[@Iridium_yt]

I was just fine what the movies we used to have. Lived for years "knowing" that finally the rebels won and everyone was good etc. Now they've made everyone die. They could've just created new characters, but no, let's use the old ones and make them die horribly.

[@dushikorsou1]

To be fair the return of the jedi ain't that amazing compared to the other 2. The empire gets beaten by a bunch of teddy bears rofl.

[@jancz357]

Rose's character looks like she just fled some chinese factory, she would be perfect fit into 1984's anti sex league

[@matthewpinon8515]

bloodygentleman I don’t think there’s a better way of summarizing Rose like you did. 🤣

[@shanecuster7006]

I'm dying!! 😂

[@atomicdancer]

Boys are only interested in buying toys of their male heroes. Unfortunately, there are no male heroes in The Last Jedi.

[@sharkdentures3247]

Hence the abysmal toy sales. Great job Disney.

[@Nethan2000]

They can always start rooting for the First Order. Guess that's why Kylo Ren sells.

[@manofthewest5395]

For the first order!

[@domehammer]

Is also the toys are shit, in that picture you can see no articulation in knees or elbows. What kid would want to play with that? The G.I Joe toys have a ton of articulation. The star wars toys are made for collectors to go on a shelf, not for children to play with. When you stack no male heroes and really shit designed toys it's a recipe for nobody buying them.

[@allewis4008]

Phasma was cool, she's the one I have any interest in buying, especially as a Game of Thrones fan.

[@MartinNewton1981]

Destroying *beloved characters* and creating *shallow non likeable ones* and making expensive toys out of those people just dont like is... a stupid move!

[@lawrencejelsma3937]

Kyros Droztamyr ... Actually for the "Force Link" movie sounds buying the "Original Trilogy" ones again makes better sense than trying to buy ones related to two movies I doubt people will replay at home as excited as showing the 1977-1983 Star Wars as being Star Wars! I doubt, in 20 years, people displaying a Star Wars collection will have Finns, Poes, this and that figures that just look to plain for a Star Wars collection! Even Hasbro in 1996-7 was intelligent enough to realize Mon Mothma was as "fugly" as Emperor Palpatine (and Imperial Royal Guards) and made a bunch of bookend only figures of no legs because no kid is gonna role play with them like they will for other figures of action! Ohhpps Hasbro does it again in 1999 with some kid actor figure and "Portman as a Hand-maiden" figure of ... Gee why are they missing in my action figure collection representing "The Phantom Menace" movie! In fact, why had I collected all the "Dark Side characters" in the Prequel movies (displaying them proudly) representing what I enjoyed about the Prequel movies on my room shelves? 🤔 ... Anyone showcasing the Prequels will show "Darth Maul, Count Dooku (maybe but possible squeeze in), General Grievous and Darth Sideous" with all the battle droids on one shelf ... And on the other shelf? ... Ewan MacGregor "Obi-Wan" and Liam Neeson "Qui-Ginn Jinn" with only alien character Jedi (Maybe a Samual Jackson "Mace Windu" also but should have been seated like the 1996 deluxe seated Emperor Palpatine one)! By the way? ... Who plays with Mace Windu action figures when there was hardly any movie action with that character? 🤔

[@averybaumann]

agree, each film has dropped and people are boycotting not only star wars but all of disney over this movie.

[@cliffhanger5753]

I think you made some really good points about how they made Rose look unattractive. That haircut doesn't flatter the shape of her face, and her costume is also unflattering. Looking at what she normally looks like she's cute. It's like they went out of their way to make her look unattractive.

[@Darkko88]

Cliff Hanger Look at Rey, sometimes from behind she even looks like a guy with her clothes and her muscular body.

[@SPTX.]

You're going at it backward. It's her promo pictures that had effort put into making her look good. The point is she CAN look good with some effort.

[@amfitness5598]

Cliff Hanger yes how dare you make a female look pretty. They have brilliant minds you know! (Sarcasm) u aren’t supposed to objectify them.

[@matthewcobb6210]

Rose sucks

[@MrGeocidal]

They gave her clothes appropriate to her occupation.

[@shaggytheshaman]

I bought a Princess Leia toy with my own money when I was 13 years old. If the reason Star Wars toys arent selling is because there are women in Star Wars now, that's an issue with society, not with Star Wars. Our Asohka Tano Pop Vinyls flew off the shelves where I work. Our Orson Krennecs are still rotting on the shelves. I think the issue is uninteresting characters. Rose and Rey are just kind of uninteresting compared to Kylo Ren and Asohka Tano. And while Orson Krennec is an interesting character, its no mystery to me why an old man with a government job didn't sell as well as Jyn Erso, who was much less interesting. I don't think the problem with Star Wars toys is representation of women. Women are half the population of the planet. Black Men are less than 12% of the American population if I remember my numbers right, and yet Lando and Finn toys sell. Droids represent 0% of the population and their toys sell too. I think it has more to do with the way Disney is oversaturating the brand and making it uninteresting.

[@bwtv147]

You remember your numbers wrong. People whose ancestry includes sub Saharan Africans are about 12% of the population. Half of them are men, i.e. 6%.

[@SpaceElf]

Don't bother. People are no longer addressing issues like gender rationally this side of the fence. Lysenkoism took hold in the right just as the left and now all they want is something to blame on TEH MARXIST SJEWS!

[@jeffwells641]

bwtv147 Last I checked 6% is less than 12%. Considering Nathan said "less than 12%", he's absolutely correct. I felt I needed to spell that out for you, since your reading comprehension seems a bit lacking.

[@rickhimdersun769]

This comment is a month old and has been edited. It's been fixed since bwtv147 corrected them. I felt I needed to spell that out for you, Since your reading comprehension seems a bit lacking.

[@gator7082]

The answer is simple. Asohka is popular for very obvious reasons. She kicks ass, and she is attractive. The younger version was obviously designed to meet young boys fantasies, and the older version meets older boys/men's fantasies.

[@charlesw5919]

This SJW nonsense is getting old. There have ALWAYS been popular female characters: Princess Leia from the original trilogy, Ripley from Aliens, Wonder Woman, Cat Woman, Lara Croft, etc. What agenda pushing idiots don't understand is that fact that in order for a character to be popular, that character has to be INTERESTING. Bland, agenda preaching caricatures of identity politics aren't interesting to the general public.

[@rodneyleong3787]

Leia was one of the guys (in the original trilogy), Ripley was a badass who worked with men, not put them down every other scene, Wonder Woman (TV), Catwoman, Lara Croft were all strong and hot. What femnazis want is for Rose and Holdo and Rey to be worshiped and obeyed.

[@Tim5corpion]

I wholeheartedly agree.

[@MrMarinus18]

To me many of the "strong female characters" pushed by SJW's don't really feel like strong females. They feel more genderless than anything else. A strong female character I feel should still be female. That they have a empathy and care for others. Maybe even moments of maternal care.

[@ganjiblobflankis6581]

Boys are playing with action figures, girls are playing with dolls. They are essentially the same thing from a manufacturing, distribution and shelf-space perspective. The same company can make both of these types of toys to saturation point. Somehow, some people thought that they could double sales by getting both sexes to play with both categories... They see the solution as a problem and make a loss by trying to exploit it.

[@DVSPress]

Well said.

[@Avalami]

Hell, I'm no longer a little girl and I would buy Padme doll with all her dresses. xD

[@ramons8908]

I disagree, Lego realized it was missing out on 50% of the market, so instead of feminizing boys Lego, they made a separate line of Lego for girls. What's going on with Star Wars isn't marketing, it's ideology. If it was marketing, we would be seeing some really sexy female Characters in Star Wars who are bad asses too, maybe a Mara Jade Skywalker, instead we get characterless cardboard cutout wamen like Mary Sue Rey and Plain Jane whatever her name is.

[@Axterix13]

Yup, young girls go see Star Wars. They get introduced to it by their parents and aunts/uncles. And speaking as one of those uncles, I actually like the Star Wars: Forces of Destiny dolls, the girl line. Decent quality figures, plus it includes Sabine from Star Wars Rebels. Gave three of my nieces (the three that like Star Wars) one each for Christmas ;)

[@MJDahling]

I'm a girl and I never played with dolls. I liked playing with stuffed animals and cars. But honestly what girl would play as old Leia?

[@cliffhanger5753]

World Class Bullshitters have done a few videos on this subject and they have video of these stores with all these unsold star wars toys. A recent one they did showed several toys marked down to $1.

[@ryangettig274]

A 30-year old man doing price checks on toys?When I was 30 I was following Bob Dylan on tour in Scotland&England.WCB make valid points but if I found 'em in the perimeter of say my nieces they'd get yolked.

[@Nowhereman10]

In some retail chains, if product falls far enough in value, they will either be last-ditch sold as grab bag items or just thrown away into the dumpster. I suspect that will happen with these toys and there will be no further orders of Star Wars toys, except very specific ones.

[@Nasmr1]

Did you see the "buy one get FOUR free"? Pretty bad.

[@scanspeak00]

Ryan Gettig You sound like a real tool.

[@collegeman1988]

Cliff Hanger And my guess is these toys still won’t sell when they’re sent to places like Dollar Tree or a local thrift store.

[@Richard-oo6pc]

It's telling how they put out female action figures for the female demographic but boys are expected to give up their male toys and play with female action figures. It's almost as if feminism is not about equality...hmm

[@samueljackson3512]

Rich There are still male ones...

[@HughGRekshin]

So Qui-Gon Ginn has gone from being a well respected Jedi Master, to reviewing the state of Star Wars toys? Life hits hard sometimes 😥

[@sirbillythekid627]

My Son who’s 9 and “WAS “ a huge Star Wars fan literally cried in disappointment when his Grandma got him the Rose toy this past Christmas. Fun Fact: We actually came across the same $15 toy last month at a Goodwill last month selling for 75 cents

[@ajsommer1]

I noticed the Kelly Marie Tran thing as well. I was shocked at how attractive she is outside the movie. Why would you purposefully make somebody uglier in a big budget movie when they're supposed to be a hero? This isn't Napoleon Dynamite where the characters are supposed to be nerdy losers.

[@rafaellago172]

Because people just can't really look that good anymore in movies because that would be in detriment to ugly people in real life; it creates "unrealistic expectations in young people" thus contributing to issues of self esteem. That's the "logic" involved. I really wish I made all that up.

[@gumdeo]

SJWs consider valuing beauty as "lookism", so ugliness is promoted.

[@atomicdancer]

The picture of her they used on the toy packaging makes her look grumpy, like she's about to complain to me about something that I'm doing wrong. I don't want to buy that :/

[@robokill387]

There's an entire idea in academia and feminism that "beauty" is a facist social construct and is fundamentally oppressive.

[@Nathan-tz5fr]

I think the lack of sales also has allot to do with the quality of the characters in the films. Star Wars fans want to buy action figures that represent characters that they find interesting. That might just be a character that has little more than an interesting aesthetic, like Darth Maul or General Grievous. However, more often the not it's because the character is compelling and well written in the films. People want to buy Luke action figures because he's a good character and a strong protagonist. People don't want to buy Rey or Rose action figures because they aren't. Kylo Ren is probably the most compelling character in this new trilogy, so it makes since that he would also sell well, in addition to other factors.

[@simplythebest2k]

Yeah if you are like 20 and older, kids don't give two excrements about that. However, there are selfish parents that will not buy their kids toys because they don't like it. So what you said could come into play in those scenarios. I know a lot of parents wouldn't buy their kid Jar Jar binks because they didn't like Jar Jar. Infact I once ran into this guy that was trying to convince me kids don't like Jar Jar I feel sorry for his kids if he ever does procreate. Kids love Jar Jar a lot.

[@iwpoe]

Nathan Kendall You treat kids like lit critics. Girls want few action figures and boys usually want male figures who are "cool" because of how they understand play. This is obvious if you've ever watched kids with toys and at toy stores.

[@die1mayer]

+Simply the Best Nonsense, JarJar never appealed to me as a kid and i liked stupid characters like Goofy. Kids want cool action heroes, not bunnies or whamen.

[@simplythebest2k]

You are one person, and probably just want to make a point for some unknown and unprovocated reason. That said, I probability I have to take your word for a grain of sand on a beach. Why you might ask??? You have no point considering I didn't use a percent or said anything like all kids like Jar Jar. That would be like me saying Nonsense there are adults that like Jar Jar for no reason whatsoever if some one had made a general statement unrelated to the reply.

[@mjl1966y]

The entertainment media offering inane arguments about the dearth of love for Star Wars is one thing. But when mainstream business publications miss the boat on cold hard business facts, I fear for the future of capitalism. This is a Back to Basics problem. For those who think kids don't understand basic story mechanics, a careful viewing of Mulan (1998) is in order. Or any movie from made by Disney back in the days when they still knew how to do this. In order to merchandise a movie with toys, you have to make a movie wherein the characters appeal to the kids. And kids are the most vicious critics of bad story form because they know when it fails, but they won't bother to tell you. Unfettered by peripheral considerations like politics, kids are only looking for a good story with memorable characters who play their roles properly. Simply because good story conforms to how our brain actually works. They don't know any better. This is why every memorable Disney movie has a clearly defined hero, clearly defined villain and a properly noble quest 'twixt the two. They often get theme, too, but only if the story captures their imagination in the first place. Not everything can be reduced to waterfall charts and other MBA goodies. Sometimes you have to remember what's at the core of your business. In the case of movies and attendant merchandising, heeding the words and actions of Uncle Walt would go a long way in moving merch off the shelf and into bedrooms around the world. Or just go talk to John Lasseter. You can't skip a step when your primary business is to appeal to the emotions of your audience. Everything else follows. Fail that primary mission and the rest falls apart. Including the theme parks, btw - I'm kind of waiting for that to hit the news later this year.

[@cattrucker8257]

It's not even capitalism, it's bloody human sanity regardless of any political/socioeconomic creed that seems to be on the decline in the high-flying circles.

[@dynasty0019]

Frozen didn't push anything SJW. What happened was that the writers of Frozen (Jennifer Lee deserved the big praise) finally cracked the code of what a heroine supposed to be: beautiful, powerful, yet vulnerable at the same time. Elsa is a beautiful, tall Scandinavian royal with beautiful hair and a wardrobe of beautiful dresses, she is also a powerful sorceress with magical powers that can hurt/kill yet can also bring life and beauty, but beyond these facades, she is traumatized by her childhood and she is also fearful of others. All of those combined made Frozen, especially Elsa popular with girls and the toy market. Unfortunately none of the new Star Wars female characters even come close to what a heroine is. Girls will simply not buy action figures of boyish looking, bland color-wearing Rey and Rose because they're uninteresting, un-relatable, and totally boring characters.

[@timothyvarney4750]

The big reasons are that Rose is a terrible character who has no relevance to the plot and was put in the film for diversity reasons like admiral SJW Holdo instead of Admiral Ackbar. Its also because of president cancer Kennedy the SJW warlord in charge of star wars ruining the franchise as she is trying to push the francise to more female audiences. It was actually good the first 2 years with episode 7 and rogue one which were good but now they're trying to make it even more anti male and its failing. Star Wars is mostly young male audiences which don't give a fuck about Rose or Holdo and like you said are more interested in male heroes. The marketing for star wars right now with the new films and trilogies, toys and games is to slap Star Wars on the cover and people will buy it. In these next films they're still gonna have the white male bad guy against the female and ethnically diverse good guys. Its not working. Kennedy out.

[@Conefed]

So I returned to this thread after seeing my son in action. He's a young boy who thinks star wars is cool. I haven't lead him to this. this is just who he is. also his favorite colors are black and pink, so really. I'm letting him decide. He received presents. even though he's never seen Boba Fett to my knowledge, he exclaimed with "cool!" he picked up and set aside c-3po, poe, and yoda, smiling, he ran into the other room to tell mom about Kylo Ren, but when he revealed Rose, he literally said "meh" and essentially tossed her aside.

[@Shorjok]

The problem isn't gender. Boys can be interested in and relate to and like female characters just as girls can male characters. The problem is that none of the female characters in TLJ are remotely interesting or likeable. Rose was a useless character who achieved nothing in terms of plot and cockblocked finn's heroic sacrifice. Leia may have been a major character in previous films but not anymore, and she barely did anything. Holdo was an unlikeable bitch who kept everyone in the dark about her plans and comes from a hilariously safe-space-like planet [check the wiki.] Rey is a mary sue. The issue isn't gender, it's shitty writing and forced womyn power.

[@Tuzszo]

Also the lack of cool factor. As a kid, I didn't really care what gender a toy or character was, I cared if they were cool. Samus from Metroid was my favorite game character. The problem with Rose and Leia and all the rest isn't that they're women, it's that they aren't cool. Nobody wants an action figure of an aging politician or an incompetent maintenance worker. As a kid I probably would have wanted a Captain Phasma action figure, just because she looks like a badass. The other big factor that people seem to be forgetting too is that most kids these days probably don't give a fuck about action figures anymore. 7 year olds these days don't want Star Wars toys, they want a new iPhone or shit like that. It's the digital era now and physical toys just aren't as appealing anymore, not compared to the competition.

[@Dragonrider1227]

^ THIS!

[@StijnEngels]

Tuzszo omg best comparison, samus is the perfect example of a female character that is cool 😊

[@f11122]

Galt's Gooch Exactly. People project themselves onto characters. What they are and what they want to be. The fantasy self image.

[@f11122]

Galt's Gooch I don't know when Hollywood started to really cater to the SJW set but it must've been less than 10 years ago. Definitely started to get more of it starting in 2009 or so. This is when the SJWs were complaining a lot about games. Considering that the lurch toward appeasing the SJW crowd hasn't reaped huge profits for anyone, I would have to say that it has to do with propaganda. The studios turning out this crap have to know that it's turning the majority off and hurting sales across the board. Like what is being highlighted in this video. They have to know this, it's not rocket science, but they still continue to turn out this junk. Baffling. The rules for profit dictate that the majority demands have to be met to the best that the profiteer can muster, but Disney is flying in the face of the regular rules. I don't really understand them. It has to be political on what they're doing. No other way to describe it. I have no problem with having a diverse array of characters but Disney is checking off every PC-SJW checkbox to put some character like Rose onscreen.

[@rattelv426]

Obi Wan Kenobi Marketing "You do want this toy that nobody is buying" *waves hand

[@DVSPress]

Love it.

[@Battleship009]

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

[@jamesthrice2253]

I totally liked girl action figures as a kid. But I mostly had comic book heroes and those ladies looked either more mammalian or bad ass than these Star Wars women. Depending on what her toy looks like, kid me might've wanted a Rey toy, but the old ladies and dumpy sidekicks are for someone else.

[@darkcoeficient]

James Thrice the implications of human female toys not looking mammalian.... Yikes.

[@jamesthrice2253]

And they never break eye contact . . .

[@happyjohn354]

ya i remember when i was small there was a french/american show called Totally Spies it was a kid friendly Charlies Angels basically... its main demographic was young girls but i remember that it managed to split the viewership between boys and girls 50/50...

[@CY3ERUS]

Ouch a film that's bad enough that even the toys barely sell. that's bad

[@Darrylizer1]

I would buy a Rose doll to burn it.

[@kevinhasch3097]

I hated Holdo even more

[@beliasphyre3497]

I don't want to by a dumpy downsy dumb toy. Rose fucked things up more than anything, why do I want a representation of ineptitude over a Mary Sue?

[@ComeOnIsSuchAJoy]

She looks more like a live-action interpretation of an anime character. : P

[@pilotamurorei]

If that was the case, she'd be super thin. You can't even bash modern Japanese animation properly, go learn a little something before bringing that shit in here.

[@Armageist]

So you can pretend she gets a lightsaber through the chest on her first "play" adventure??

[@davfree9732]

I found Paige and thought... yeah alright. I found dozens of Rose and turned my nose up at it.

[@davfree9732]

Maintenance Renegade At least we would have had the pretty sister to look at. Not much but it’s a marginally marked increase in quality in the larger scheme of things.

[@ABDR4]

I went a different route when I was a little girl. The Luke Skywalker I had didn’t look like him, which bothered me. My solution: Playmobil. I had a guy who had all black clothing from a dragon set, and he was Luke. Another guy with a white shirt & blue pants I could add a vest to...Han. They had cinnamon bun women hair, and I found a figure to use as a Leia. They just had to be close enough, and my imagination did the rest. Then again, I also played with toys & dinosaurs and wasn’t terribly into dolls at all. Stuffed animals were more my thing.

[@Trollificusv2]

Heh. That's pretty awesome.

[@robertdoucette1557]

Your commentary was SPOT ON David. I'm 54 and saw the 1st movie in theaters (1977) when it came out originally and have been a huge fan since. Have raised 3 sons, all STAR WARS fans (many dollars on toys). Their mother never understood what we saw in the franchise. In all my years, very few women/girls had this attachment to the movies or characters. I have 30 years of business experience and am somewhat of an expert on Russian history and post revolutionary ideology (been there twice and even married a Russian woman) so your analogy of "Bolshevik Marketing" is exactly what Disney is trying to force upon us consumers. The social justice twist that was forced on us Diehard fans, and terrible storytelling will turn the next generation away. My sons (in their 20s now) will not be wasting their money in the theaters or buying the movies. BTW...thanks for the HEADSHOT in your video. I am so sick of "Faceless voices", or just hands monologues that is getting so popular here on KZbin.

[@DVSPress]

Thanks for the comment. Oddly, I get people telling me to hide my ugly face, when I know, objectively, that I am, like, totally handsome and stuff. There's already some contention with my choice of terms, specifically "Bolshevik," which fits my study of communism, but that might be part of the rhetorical power of it. If your term is only mostly accurate people will then debate its proper usage, thus spreading the idea further than it might otherwise go.

[@sidjtd]

Robert Doucette Man I would love to marry a Russian lady, they’re so gorgeous!

[@NcrXnbi]

Did somebody say Russian Women?

[@waszkreslem9306]

N3cr0 X3n0bi4 just no... German women are looking like german cars. You wouldnt fuck a car ,would you?

[@NcrXnbi]

+Waszk If is a Porsche Car, yes. I would fuck the living headlights out of it.

[@wilmagregg3131]

if the characters were good id say boys would buy a badass girl character the only one I see boys liking out of the new movies is just captain Phasma and that's just for her armor

[@swmark78]

Female GI Joes had no problem selling in the 80s. When they introduced a Mara Jade action figure, it sold. As did Jyn Erso, Asoka Tano as well as Hera and Sabine from Rebels.

[@wilmagregg3131]

Agreed Asoka Tano was one of my favorite Characters as a kid and Even now. I just wish she survived to help the rebellion

[@randymagnum6680]

Wilma Perkins and we can all agree that phasma was created just to sell toys, like 2 minutes combined screen time in two movies wtf

[@Bleeperblopper497]

@@wilmagregg3131 Did you like, NOT watch Rebels at all or something??

[@Slowly_We_Rot]

Wished more people thought like this. Honest, and redpilled, and 100% truthful.

[@wallybiii]

So true. My two boys have zero interest in the new SW toys. Even after TFA, which was certainly flawed, we spent at least $200 on toys if you include Lego. Along comes TLJ; we've spent $0.

[@Sorain1]

Honestly to me it's all about insane pricing. They're trying to price as if these are for a collectors market. It wouldn't matter if they were of the right characters, because the price points are absurd. You can't convince most eight year old kids to get a $200 walker toy when they could get 3 video games instead. Kids aren't stupid. You can't convince many kids to buy 2 action figures for the price of 2 video-games. You are not selling in a vacuum people.

[@amfitness5598]

wallybiii good! Vote with the only language Disney understands when it comes to making a change ...$$$$$$

[@DancerVeiled]

Sorain1 Good point, when you price them against videogames it looks pretty darn awful.

[@cesareborgia1251]

Wait. Boys and girls are different? WHAAAAT!?

[@WCBs]

Care to collaborate on a sad state of SW toys video?

[@gavindehler]

sheev voice - DO IT.

[@battletoads22]

WCB!

[@sulev111]

things are heating up

[@RogerTheil]

Do it! Best anime crossovers 2018!

[@gigachud666]

Aw, shit! Two of my favorites on the franchise I love to hate.

[@DanielEarl]

Rose: am I a joke to you? Literally everyone: YES. YES YOU ARE.

[@pigboykool]

Kids don't like Star Wars, adults fans now hate Star Wars. Of course it's not selling.

[@salokin3087]

Yet its still incredibly successful?

[@karasoth]

What actions did Rose do that would make people want to play as rose?

[@metadude1234]

If you perceive Rose as intentionally trying to cause problems, she can be an acceptable sub-plot villain XD

[@amfitness5598]

Larry Bernard she emasculated Finn and sexually assaulted him at the end with an unwanted kiss.

[@TheJadeFist]

She was a bad driver.

[@TheJarric]

only way to redeem her is to make her imperial spy

[@GenJuhru]

if only her sister didn't die...

[@witters85]

RIP Star Wars

[@SeaOfTides]

Boys like action figures with muscles, that look tough and awesome. Girls like dolls that look CUTE, that look pretty and beautiful. Rose is neither. Playing pretend is about being who you want to be, strong/hero for boys and beautiful/mother for girls.

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

Boys generally like figures that look awesome, creepy, strong, etc. Girls generally like figures that look pretty, cute, etc. So for example a boy might be interested in a Rita Repulsa figure from Power Rangers because she looks evil, similar with Raven from DC comics as she has the whole hell spawn/witch look going for her. But a character like Rose Tico or Holdo are a much harder sell.

[@SeaOfTides]

Actually, boys could easily like female action figures simply out of lust. Rita and Raven generate that, Rose and Holdo don't lol. Boys might even like awful action figures (like Jar Jar), just to laugh at them or tie firecrackers to them. Rose and Holdo aren't even good for that.

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

Also a good point. I think Rose and Holdo's main problem in terms of marketability is that their designs don't know what they're trying to go for. Rose has a relatively cute hair style, baggy work clothes, and a preachy personality. All three of those are contradictory to each other in terms of marketability. Is she trying to appeal to the Kawaii girls with that cutesy bob? Blue collar workers with the engineer outfit? Or the activists who likely wouldn't buy nerdy things like Star Wars anyway? There's no direction or focus towards any sort of demographic that'd actually be willing to buy her merchandise. Holdo's in a similar boat. She's an older woman (not super old or anything, but definitely not in her 20's) who wears an evening gown - so formal, okay. But she has light purple hair, which means either punk/goth/alternative (still can work with formal wear), or screeching SJW (which doesn't work with the formal look). Then there's Holdo's personality and onscreen characterization, which is petty, not trusting, and ultimately incompetent - *this does not work with formal attire.* Leia was also a little preachy and elitist in Episode 4, and she even wore fairly modest clothing in almost the entire OT. But she was also competent, and witty, and she developed into a less preachy & elitist character throughout the films (all 3 of the OT in fact, not just episode 5 or 6, but in each film she developed and evolved naturally). Dear Disney Star Wars, you're not going to be able to market to anyone effectively, if you can't decide who to market towards lol.

[@Chud_Bud_Supreme]

Great video, and sadly very contiguous with how the Soviet Union tried to fill needs within their own markets. They just made one type of product and excepted everyone to buy it despite people needing varieties of products. May as well be selling square pegs to people with round holes, then blaming them for having said round holes.

[@zcorpalpha2462]

Son of Tiamat Very intelligent & smart comment. Is thus the future of the United Stares of America ? Like in the year 2030 ?

[@Emanon...]

Dude, you just described Apple iPhone

[@magnuscritikaleak5045]

Son of Tiamat that's apple iphone.

[@nopenope846]

Nigga are you everywhere

[@tanker9987]

Don't need marketing when you're the only shoe factory in the soviet union. Don't need to be competitive either.

[@danschkeeper4076]

So nice to see your video was linked at Breitbart today!

[@DVSPress]

No wai

[@s13gouf60]

You can get it and all the rest of the diseny star wars crap at your local kroger for a dollar or less. It will be in the discount cart or shelf covered in dust and disappointment.

[@Thalanox]

I ended up buying a few of the small space ships they had on clearance at the dollar store. There's just something about the Clone Troop Transport design that's fantastic to me.

[@alexvieira7945]

s13 gouf i went to 3 local krogers and none of them had toys! Im pissed.

[@ScreamingGreenMan]

Maybe they will all end up being buried in a garbage dump, like the Atari "E.T." game cartridges.

[@TehComs]

ScreamingGreenMan yo but ET had historical value.

[@randymagnum6680]

s13 gouf "dust and disappointment" is gonna be the title of my autobiography

[@IvorMektin1701]

Boycott Solo

[@SPTX.]

Joke's on you I stopped paying for starwars after TFA.

[@gatejunky5496]

And then it made a billion dollars.

[@wolfnipplechips3857]

Nuke Disneyland

[@JB-1138]

Ernest Hemingway Genius.

[@Kim_Jong-un1356]

Yeah, I didn't watch the latest SW movie and I won't pay to watch any of the following ones until the SJWs have been eliminated from the franchise.

[@robinthrush9672]

Looks like things are selling better in your area than in the area of WorldClassBullshitters'. His area has 90% off and buy 1, get 4 sales and nothing's selling.

[@hellishhybrid1839]

"Buy 1, get 4" Jesus. Next they'll be trying to pay us to take them.

[@Lukiel666]

I just bought a Mace Windu bladebuilders electronic lightsaber. Now that is a Star Wars toy.

[@DVSPress]

I heard Jackson wanted his saber to be a different color so his family could identify him in the fights scenes.

[@quorthonsinferno5119]

It's because little kids aren't interested in sjw, political, social garbage. They want what's fun and cool. Movies are only made for the merchandise, because the toys reflect the movie. The new Star Wars has no story for little kids to follow. Just a horrible platform of political references they don't understand. Collectors aren't interested in this stuff for the same reason, plus quality and price. It's just an over-saturated market to begin with.

[@clemsonalum98]

Yup in the 80s when I was coming up Star Wars toys were for sure boys toys, maybe one of the big 3 along with gi joes and transformers. Girls had Barbie, strawberry shortcake, and my little pony. But the stores don’t even have boys and girls sections anymore so they? What’s a boy and whats a girl, we are all genderless. Omg we are so screwed.

[@DVSPress]

+clemsonalum98 the stores still have different sections, even if they don't say boys and girls. Businesses have to sell to people, not ideas.

[@wil.d_sage]

What I don't think some people understand is that it's not like there's an invisible wall preventing boys from going to the girl aisle and girls going to the boy aisle. There's nothing wrong with the company marketing to their major buyer. Are some girls going to play with G.I. Joe toys? Absolutely! But that's such a small minority that it is more profitable to cater to the boys. When I was a little kid I was big into dinosaurs, most of the toys were marketed towards boys and I was one of the few girls interested. That didn't stop my mom from buying me a dinosaur toy. I just don't understand why they have to make such a big deal about it

[@clemsonalum98]

David Stewart you would think, but I can give example of example of agenda running businesses and not the bottom line. Look at the NFL falling on its sword as ratings tank, look at awards shows and late night comedy. Look at the rest room sample. Logically you are right, but we aren’t living in logical times. Agendas are running amuck, this entire video speaks to it.

[@tyrranos9688]

Target is intentionally moving towards no boys and girls divided sections.

[@dragonknightleader1]

Businesses can't ignore the consequences of reality. The virtue-signally NFL teams are doing poorly since their fans are at least indifferent to outright annoyed, Hollywood shows aren't fun to watch anymore since everyone is mean-spirited. As any telemarketer will tell you, how the seller feels gets picked up on the phone, and that's what actors are, salespeople.

[@s.p.q.rreborn2080]

Rey should've been Finn's character in this trilogy. It would have been the best fit for her both boys and girls would have bought her. But Disney had to put in their propaganda. Imagine her as ex Trooper.

[@s.p.q.rreborn2080]

Bolaji Jabez he's such a joke just like all of the new characters.

[@brianfuller5868]

At one time, in a universe not far away, people liked Star Wars movies and bought Star Wars toys. In this universe TFA was mediocre, Rogue was mediocre and TLJ was a wreck. Star Wars merchandise is not moving, going back to TFA. Why? Collectors are buying less. As well the new characters are not good and fans have not invested in the characters. Generally, if not invested in the characters, much reduced toy sales. Simply stated, people don't buy toys based on characters they don't like or respect. Darth Vader was respected and the real Luke Skywalker was liked. Neither Kylo or Rey are respected or liked. And fanz. The maligned OT fanboys were invested and bought the merch. The 'New' fans that Disney seems to want are not.

[@rknight4304]

True. They released some original trilogy characters (Yoda, R2D2, Ben, etc) in the same set as TLJ ones, and they sold like hotcakes, while the TLJ figures are still peg warming.

[@mar1no12]

Here in Southwest Arizona, they have tons and tons of unbought Marvel and Star Wars toys...no, there are not restocked toys. I've seen them also on clearance or rolled back prices.

[@emancoy]

Thunderfoot said feminism poisons everything. The star wars franchise puts that to the test, and star wars got poisoned. Therefore, the feminism poisons everything hypothesis graduates into a theory.

[@emancoy]

Indigo Rebel the new trilogy makes the prequels looks like a masterpiece by comparison. And the prequels sucks.

[@waterdamnaged]

The prequels had other issues, mainly because they were prequels.

[@emancoy]

My Art Page your not paying attention on the details of episode 7 and 8.

[@jakes1566]

The prequels are just a big old collection of memes

[@dsadik666]

Thunderfoot was right.

[@emperorlondomollari5511]

People dont buy toys of shit characters.

[@4TheWinQuinn]

Anal Krapstain haha nice take on Anna kasparian

[@VixTwenty]

The film is so poor it doesn’t inspire or evoke imagination which is rather essential for children of all ages.

[@cattrucker8257]

Heck, essential for any film, period.

[@nitaigauranga3849]

In Tesco (in the UK) what little they had was on sale.

[@elguinolo7358]

They secretly binned the whole stock nightly to pretend the next day that everything had been sold out.

[@Xane875]

"Ooh! I can't wait to go home and play with my Rose Tico action figure!" said no one ever.

[@dragonknightleader1]

Rose Tico finally found a customer! Ethan Van Sciver! Just him! Now that I think about it, that episode of the Simpsons with Malibu Stacy was a case of Bolshevik marketing. Recap: Lisa thought Malibu Stacy was a sexist role model, so she got funding to design Lisa Lionheart, a strong, independent role model type. Lisa Lionheart quickly got outsold by the new Malibu Stacy figure. The episode ended with just one girl buying a Lisa Lionheart doll, which Lisa thought all the effort to inspire was worth it, which her venture capitalist muttered, "Only if she paid $1500 for that doll." At the time, I took the interpretation of that episode the way the writers wanted; Lisa was right and Smithers was wrong. Now, I'm thinking that Lisa was in the wrong for trying to tell little girls who to like rather than understanding that it wasn't what Malibu Stacy said, but rather the wardrobe and accessories. Look at the Lisa Lionheart doll; her outfit looked like a golfer's outfit. Gender neutral? Yes, but little girls like fabulous hair and outfits to model. That's why Smithers was excited about the new Malibu Stacy hat. For him and the other little girls, it's about the modeling and the aesthetics, not the morality that they buy dolls. Back to Star Wars, what do parents of little boys like? They like low to mid-priced toys like Hot Wheels and guns/swords. Note that this stuff needs to not cost so much. For example, how much do Bladebuilders costs? $15-30. I'm somewhat iffy buying it for something that's likely to break under a boy's general lack of care. So, let's look at adult collectors since they're the other big customer base. Collectors like speculation, scarcity, and interesting art designs. Old Boba Fett figures hit that trifecta. Rose Tico is the diametric opposite of Boba Fett for reasons David Stewart already said. To the same extent, so is Rey, even though Daisy Ridley is a lot prettier than Kelly Marie-Tran. Rey absolutely is a Lisa Lionheart, who we're told we should like for being a strong, independent woman who don't need no man. Little boys don't connect to Rey or Rose Tico because they're trying to find their identity as men. Little girls don't connect to Bolshevik females either. Who would like Rey/Rose/Jyn? Tomboys? There aren't that many Tomboys out there with parents willing to buy them mid to high priced Star Wars toys. Now the stuff's on clearance, but that means the price point is now at cost or even lower than that. World Class Bullshitters, RetroBlasting, and ComicArtistsProSecrets grew because of the Star Wars toy crisis.

[@XellDincht]

Disney made a toy of Paige Tico, (the sister of Rose), a character that only appeared in Last Jedi for 5 minutes and died after that. WTF Disney?

[@ako3379]

Xell Does it come with a coffin?

[@thechapelperilous]

"The wall was filled with Rose Tico toys" is such an evocative and succinct opening line..👏🤣

[@cosmicerror2682]

I'm moist with the thought.

[@GigaTrope]

There is nothing of interest to this jumpsuit wearing character. In the OC even random background characters like Wedge were interesting.

[@theringmaster3684]

I wouldn't give a cup of piss for any of the new star wars toys.

[@kivie13]

Gratz David, you made Breitbart. Well done.

[@Silver_Warden]

The Rose character as a whole is such a misfire. They've got a pretty actress who can look both cute and attractive, yet they've decided to purposefully make her look as plain, dull and unappealing as possible for the part. But... why? It's a part of human nature to be attracted to things that are aesthetically pleasing. By artificially making someone or something look less appealing, they're going against that aspect of human nature, and we can easily tell when it's done on purpose. And naturally, it turns a lot of people away. I understand that people aren't all beauty queens and kings in the real world, but Star Wars is not a real world documentary, it shouldn't be viewed as such. Also, here's something I still find extremely hypocritical: apparently, we can no longer have pretty women in our media (which is freaking mind blowing), but perfectly buff and extremely fit guys who look like models are still a-okay. Meaning, it's bad for men to want to look at pretty and attractive girls, but it's absolutely cool for women to drool all over the oversexualized guys. Makes sense.

[@jacobs4545]

That dumpy looking zipperhead is an erection killer. Compared to Natalie or ROTJ Carrie?? Fuck off haha

[@justinokraski3796]

Lest we forget that weird topless scene with Kylo Ren in this movie

[@seandetente1817]

Jesus Christ, I had never actually seen the toys up close. I can’t imagine any kid wanting an action figure of a pudgy Chinese woman.

[@cattrucker8257]

Not even pudgy Chinese girls would.

[@MrGeocidal]

They should just make her hair shorter and then they can sell her in North Korea as a Kim Jong-un.

[@fortis3686]

Victor Csr No sh*t dude. I actually have a friend who’s the son of a vietnamse refugee.

[@MrGeocidal]

Yeah he shouldn't make jokes about Vietnamese but North Koreans are an acceptable target.

[@fortis3686]

Luke Beauchamp Kim Jong un? Yes. The people who suffer because of him? No.

[@hiraxm]

Here’s another possibility. Kids today have parents like me, who teach them about how China has cheapened almost everything found in stores and how it’s just mass produced to take their money. Also, they know the importance of protecting and saving their hard earned money. Finally, these mediocre movies had nowhere near the impact that the original trilogy had and therefore do not create the desire to purchase toys based on characters they don’t care about.

[@maxeisenhardt8800]

Excellent analysis. It's so informative and it has given me a wider perspective of the marketing of the new SW movies. Now that Rose Tico has been confirmed to be back in Episode IX, I wonder what approach they'll take with that character, especially considering that she has been a commercial failure. Will she follow Jar Jar's way? (having a considerably reduced screentime). Rose didn't leave any loose ends in TLJ. There's nothing else we could expect from her. Rey is growing as a Jedi student. Kylo as a Dark Side adept. Finn as a warrior. And Poe as a leader. But Rose lacks any kind of conflict or character arc. Her purpose was only being a sidekick/plot device. Furthermore, she's not an "action character". She doesn't engage directly into battles since she lacks any combat skills (she took part in Crait only because of the lack of Resistance personel), so that leaves her doomed as a commercially unappealing character.

[@ProMonarchyGenius]

Here is a fun fact: there are more boys buying My Little Pony toys than Star Wars toys.

[@wilde4945]

ProMonarchyGenius Very colorful quality collectables. Much better workmanship.

[@BallNuts]

Low T.

[@JK-sm7ni]

Those boys in their late 30's

[@Wolf9of9Odin]

I call BS on this "fact"

[@hereb4theend]

MLP is a fun series :D

[@richardjones8846]

I feel bad for rose’s actress. Make you look terrible in a huge film and have to be rebound to ape escape who they’re clearly trying to promote interracial relationships like ffs push it somewhere else. Star Wars fans aren’t racist we love lando. However character assassination star wars we don’t. If Disney doesn’t change their prick directors and story for star wars it’s basically dead to the fan base they ought to be marketing to.

[@troglodytezero1697]

Richard Jones to be honest I am curious to see what comes next after episode 9. It will basically be episode 7 without a 30 year time skip. I am guessing like in the books they are going to want to move pass the evil empire/ bad force users to introduce villains from the outer rim.

[@highkingfingolfin9773]

I'm a literal Nazi and I don't have a problem with lando because he's actually a good character and fits. Modern diversity in movies and games is just so shoehorned in I can't stand it.

[@reverendjigglesby6678]

I'm not racist at all, but honestly I just can't stand seeing interracial relationships.

[@jake-of-all-trades3126]

It's gotta be a feminist thing to make Rose all plain and rough looking. I've seen the actress who plays out of her Rose character and thought she was actually pretty cute. If I was kid, I can't imagine I would want any of these characters from this movie. Maybe Poe, Kylo and BB8. Even The Luke portrayed in this film would be a hard sell... and I loved Luke growing up.

[@barbara5807]

Jason Czechowski Phasma is dope. I'd get one of her.

[@f11122]

Min Xia EXACTAMUNDO! You hit it right on the nail. Rose is a representation of communism. That's why she acts and looks the way she does.

[@Dragonrider1227]

I suppose the fact that they're just trying to sell overpriced, overstocked generic toys of uninteresting characters to a shitty emo fan fic of a movie for an audience that these days would rather just play on their iPhones then with toys even to GOOD movies has nothing to do with it. Star Wars for girls might have worked better if they made better movies for the girl they were selling but they didn't. Oh, and we have a "Barbie for girls." It's called GI Joe.

[@ScreamingManiac]

Its amazing how Disney can take the biggest franchise on the planet and make it worthless. In a few years star wars is going to be dead. The games, the movies, the toys, all of them are underperforming they only have a few years left they can milk it for if even they can get that much.

[@aaronmckinnon6639]

After the initial "thrill" of Phantom Menace merchandising died down, it sat on store shelves. Let's face it: A lot of us thought that Star Wars toys were doomed a year later. IMHO, Hasbro did 4 things particularly well to save the line: 1) Clone Troopers (saved by source material): Kids and collectors love troops. With Clone Troopers, there were different paint jobs and sculpts. Plus, they often had names and were good guys. Clone Troopers were a toy manufacturer's dream, and collectors could troop build the generic Clones. The only peg warmer trooper I've seen in a while is the Imperial Ground Crew from Rogue One, and - while I'm glad that Hasbro made this fig - there are many reasons it didn't fly off the shelves (the Resistance Trooper from FA was a poor army-builder, so that peg warmed as well). All Hasbro can do to replicate Clone Wars marketing now is make old troops (like Clones), or ship a healthy amount of First Order troops in each assortment. (If I find ten Rose figs on sale for $2 each, I might buy one, but if I find ten Stormtroopers for $2 each, I'm buying them all - but Stormtroopers don't typically get clearanced for $2, because they sell well, which is my point, exactly.) 2) Super articulation (and removable helmets): Episode II figures didn't start out pretty. Remember how many were ridiculously posed with 5 POA (or fewer, in some cases). But, as time went on, the quality improved dramatically. Articulation matters to many people, and whatever your preference, you are getting a higher-quality toy. Removable helmets on Clones and pilots were a beautiful thing (notice how Hasbro is getting back to those with TLJ - my only Poe Dameron fig is FA, and his helmet doesn't come off, which sucks). If Hasbro can't sell Black Series quality figs for the basic figure price, the series is in trouble. Look at the Snoke fig that came with the $200 2-in-1 Playset - he can't sit properly. On his throne. That he came with. For $200. Star Wars figs need to be able to sit in a chair or cockpit and bend their elbows. Otherwise, Hasbro gets super lazy, and you end up inevitably with figures like Snoke that become practically unusable for lack of articulation. 3) B-A-D (Build-A-Droid): This was the only add-on Star Wars feature that really ever made sense. We all bought a lame figure or two to complete a B-A-D, which was justifiable, since you ended up with a new droid for your trouble. Force Link is Commtech 2.0, and it's a pretty dumb concept, sadly. I wouldn't mind Build-A-Figure pack-ins in general, even if they weren't droids (consider some larger aliens you wouldn't get otherwise). B-A-D compelled kids and collectors to buy a peg warmer or two, and that is marketing genius. 4) Making any figure at any time. This isn't all about releasing Darth Vader and ROTJ Luke every wave - it's about filling out "meh" assortments with must have characters or figures. Despite the Expanded Universe being relegated to non-canon, Hasbro still clearly has the rights to produce EU characters. So, release a new Knights of the Old Republic character or some Sith Lord from the comics. Update a couple of cantina patrons or Jabba's Palace denizens. Hell, make a two-pack of Ewoks or Jawas or Podracer Pilots. Hasbro learned in the past that it cannot rely solely on the most recent source material if it wants to move figures. It's learning that lesson all over again with TLJ. In closing, all I'm saying is that Hasbro needs to look at what worked in the past. None of my suggestions are cost-prohibitive, no matter what Hasbro claims. My local Wal-Mart store carries Black Series 4" figs for $9, and the only one I've seen move is the Stormtrooper Executioner. Bottom line: Super-articulated Rose with a B-A-D part is not the solution. The solution is to make figures that people are eager to buy in this new era, which isn't easy. I'm hoping Hasbro realizes that a slimmer profit margin is better than no profit at all.

[@gallendugall8913]

In Soviet Disney toys buy children.

[@DVSPress]

If only.

[@TwoHands200]

Breibart sent me. Spot on analysis.

[@grantmitchel]

They made Daisy Ridley look really plain in the film.

[@Trollificusv2]

Well, if you thought she looked good, that was just "male gazing" and it was "problematic". So they wanted to avoid anyone being attracted to her looks. And succeeded.

[@chrissonofpear3657]

She WAS a scavenger though.

[@babyjiren9676]

Marketing 101 Don't supply something there's no demand for. And bare in mind I studied economy for a year before deciding it bored me too much and moved on to health care, and even I know that much.

[@thebigs6405]

I miss the Star Wars action figure section at Hastings

[@jemm113]

This is why LEGO is superior (even though cost is starting to hit hard)

[@UnfaithfulServant97]

jemm13 - I've stopped buying LEGO Star Wars since 2013. I've noticed that the price has been increasing for some time now, but downsizing the remakes of some sets.

[@sharkymcshark3392]

Patriot Cat This a known problem with Lego, it's to do with licensing I think. The regular Lego city sets are very affordable, €20 will get you a pretty large set with lots of pieces, but with Star Wars or marvel, you'd be lucky to even get the smallest set for that much. A portion of profits have to go to Disney, and Lego need to make money too, which results in an inflated price, it's ridiculous. I wanted to get the smallest set with Luke and Rey from the last Jedi because I'm Irish and the scene the set is based on was filmed in Ireland, so I thought it would be cool to have a Lego version of the famous Irish landmark that was used in the film, but the set cost 25€ and that's WAY too much for what you're getting.

[@Nautilus1972]

Starting? Lego was always a rip-off.

[@BionicleFactory]

Sharky McShark Try Bricklink. People resell stuff cheaper on there and soem even offer to recycle the set's box to save you some shipping.

[@enkiduo]

Strong agree on bolshevik marketing being the major point, well said.

[@MusicandGamesandStuf]

I nominate the term Marxist Marketing just for da Alliteration

[@Grim2]

"I nominate the term Marxist Marketing just for da Alliteration" You've no idea what Marxism is, do you?

[@spitefulshadow4846]

I am a girl and I hated Rose in TLJ. She was useless and forced. She even stopped Finn from sacrificing himself for her own selfish reasons. Leia did nothing in this movie either and I've never really liked Rey. For Christmas, I asked for a Kylo Ren action figure and a General Hux action figure because they are my favourite characters from TFA and TLJ. I would have brought a Phasma figure if they're had been one.

[@chrisr3120]

I prefer to call it Lysenkoist marketing. Everyone in marketing knows that the consumer is what decides what is successful, not the marketer. Well... everyone except for feminists, SJWs, and other cultural Marxist types. They believe that it is the marketers and the marketing campaigns that determine what is successful. In short, action figures aren't made to be almost exclusively male characters because boys prefer to play with male characters. Instead boys prefer to play with male characters because action figures are made to be almost exclusively male characters. Cultural Marxists believe that everyone is by default the same and that all differences we exhibit are instilled in us socially. In short that rather than the consumer deciding what succeeds based upon what they want that it is the marketer who decides by influencing what the customer wants. This is rather akin to the work done in Lysenkoism. Lysenkoism was a practice in Soviet agriculture that posited that all life is inherently cooperative, in keeping with Marxist ideology. Therefore they believed that if you planted crops really close together and gave them less water that their root systems would act to distribute the water evenly in a cooperative act to maximize yield for the entire crop. Well, the actual biologists thought this was stupid so they got taken out back and shot (literally), and then tend of millions more died in the ensuing famine. It's the same deal here. Just as the Lysenkoists believed they could change the nature of agricultural plant life to fall inline with Marxist thinking, so too do cultural Marxists believe they can change the nature of human children by shouving dolls in boy's faces at every opportunity.

[@deleteduser121]

your an idiot! that never happened

[@poisoncontrol4488]

ryler05 *you're

[@MrPobanz]

One good thing provided by marxists: laughter.... well, at least as long as you're not the one starving, getting tortured or killed under their rule ofc.

[@buglepong]

its not so simple, marketing is a connection to the consumer that the marketer makes. The marketer can definitely make the market - its true for any new product that broke through in an new market!

[@chrisr3120]

buglepong Even the wording you're using demonstrates a knowledge that this is false. Breaking into a new market implies the product being sold was already something the consumer had a want for, but that it was unknown or if known a risk on the part of the marketer to attempt to supply that demand. The consumer decides what they buy, the marketer can only appeal to their reasons for doing so. That is not to say a marketer has no influence in the consumer's decisions, naturally they do or nobody would hire them, but that influence is limited within the confines of what the consumer already wants. No matter how hard you might try, you cannot sell a product that nobody wants, and you cannot simply trick them into wanting it to rectify this. That is why these products are failing. What people want here is the nostalgia of Star Wars. The stuff based on the original movies are still selling and doing fairly well. The new stuff is what is failing. Not failing at the box office obviously, but I think in part that is because people want to see the movies simply to know how they turned out. I think people are still hopeful they will be good. However, the merchandising is a catastrophe. If the marketer holds so much power, then how come even armed with one of the most recognizable franchises on the planet, more over inflated hype than any other product could hope for, and doing everything in their power to try and peddle them... They can't even get people to buy simple stuff that should have been easy? The porgs, that dark side looking BB-8 clone, the little things they've specifically added to play on things people typically buy like cute comic relief creatures or filling the void of a counter to an existing item that is selling? Those ought to be easy to sell, especially since the porgs were also so closely associated to Chewie to play on the nostalgia. Their interactions were probably the most reminiscent of chewie from the originals that I've seen, yet porg merch is rotting in the clearance section.

[@cryogeneric]

Saturated market and poor quality. Disney basically prostituted the license to anyone who showed up with some cash. Some of the toys make no sense like the Falcon with a giant cannon on top. Did I mention cheap quality, too?