Collectibles > The Force Awakens

Where is Rey?

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Nicklab:
There's been an ongoing discussion in social media and now the broader media about the relative lack of Rey merchandise at retail over the past month or so.  It came to a significant head when the discussion turned to the Star Wars Monopoly game, which didn't feature Rey as a playing piece in the game.  These licensed merchandise decisions also seem to go against the general narrative of THE FORCE AWAKENS, since Rey is the central character in the film.

Well, check out THIS ARTICLE.  Specifically, these paragraphs about how Rey was not going to be the central focus of licensed merchandise marketing efforts dating back to meetings in January of 2015:

In January 2015, a number of toy and merchandise vendors descended on Lucasfilm’s Letterman Center in San Francisco. In a series of confidential meetings, the vendors presented their product ideas to tie in with the highly-anticipated new Star Wars film. Representatives presented, pitched, discussed, and agreed upon prototype products. The seeds of the controversies Lucasfilm is facing regarding the marketing and merchandising of The Force Awakens were sown in those meetings, according to the industry insider.

The insider, who was at those meetings, described how initial versions of many of the products presented to Lucasfilm featured Rey prominently. At first, discussions were positive, but as the meetings wore on, one or more individuals raised concerns about the presence of female characters in the Star Wars products. Eventually, the product vendors were specifically directed to exclude the Rey character from all Star Wars-related merchandise, said the insider.

“We know what sells,” the industry insider was told. “No boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it.”

Lucasfilm did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The industry insider went on to describe how excluding female action characters has been a common yet frustrating trend over the past few years. “Diminishing of girl characters is common in the industry. Power Rangers asked us to do it. Paw Patrol, too.” (Update: we’ve learned that Paw Patrol is currently working on a new line of toys for girls.)

If this is indeed true, it gives some insight into the institutional thinking about the marketing of female characters VS male characters.  The fact that nobody would openly go on record is telling as well.  Because it seems more and more like this general discussion about how female characters are represented in licensed merchandise is getting some legs.  This general issue started getting more traction with the REBELS toy line and the relatively light representation for Sabine and Hera.  But now with THE FORCE AWAKENS, where Rey is the focal point?  This is a much bigger deal now.

JediJman:
I have really mixed feelings about all of this.  On one hand, it feels very discriminatory to me.  If you have a female leading part, but only make toys for the male leads, then that feels wrong.  It's the same to me as only making the white characters versus African American or Asian characters.  We saw a lot of this with the Avengers too where they skipped Widow in various lines, right down to a pack-in where Cap takes her place as the motorcycle driver in a toy when Widow clearly owned that whole scene.  As a collector and a father of a young girl, I find these old-guard decisions to be frustrating and narrow-minded at the very least.

On the other hand, these companies have a right to make whatever they want.  If they have some kind of data or research that has convinced them that their core consumers do not want female action figures/toys then it is absolutely within their rights not to make one. If I was making toys and my research showed that green/blue/red/orange/yellow toys sell great, but purple do not - I'd probably skip making a purple one, even if all six colors where equally represented elsewhere.   I had the Leia figures when I was a kid, but they were among my least favorite vintage figures and I never really played much with them, so I can see where their core "boy" audience today might not be clamoring for female toys either.

In this particular case, Rey is really in many ways the focus more so than any other character.  She certainly has more screen time than anyone else and most of the story forms around her as the central catalyst.  She finds the droid, finds/pilots/fixes the Falcon, saves Finn, brings the map and Han back to the resistance, discovers Luke's saber, Learns the force, defeats Kylo Ren, AND tracks down Luke Skywalker.  As the most prominent character in the movie, it's really tough to understand why they would want to exclude her from the merchandise simply from the self serving aspect of selling more product.  I think it's a bad business move, but not sure where I stand on anything ethically wrong beyond that.

Qui-Gon Jim:
I can say that generally, my boy identifies with "boy" toys. He knows that the Barbies and Ponies are "girl" toys in the "girl" aisle.  We don't teach him this stuff, but I assume it is a mix of marketing, talking with friends and emulating my excitement over the things I like.  This is a regular topic of conversation around the house.

That said, he's got the Lego Rey Speeder and he loves it.  Would he love a Rey figure?  I dunno.  Rey isn't really a very feminine character compare to, say, Padme. 

Dave:
The part that I don't get is the whole Monopoly piece thing.  I'm not sure how many characters they provide as Monopoly pieces, but lets assume its only four.  Not having Rey be one of those four is nuts. 

I get it that boys buying action figures will generally be less interested in girl characters, but we're talking about board games which I assume are much closer to 50/50 in their gender share.

Maybe it was an easier call to make a year ago when Poe had a larger role and Rey's didn't seem as prominent as it is in the final cut.  But hindsight being what it is, I can't imagine not having Rey be all over everything associated with Star Wars.  As Jman pointed out, the whole movie revolves around her.  She is probably in 80% of the scenes.

McMetal:
I have two daughters and the question for me isn't so much about boys playing with girl figures, but girls playing with girl figures. What if my girls want a 20" Sabine or 12" Hera? If you can't find a way to connect with that part of your audience you're just not trying IMO.

Just like JJ Abrams wanted a diverse cast to represent the world we live in today, I think it's fair to expect equal representation on the toy aisles.

I've never liked the idea of gender specific toys or that kind of marketing anyway. Instead of resigning yourself to "only boys care about these toys" maybe try figuring out a way to engage other demographics too. It's good business and it shows a respect for the property as well as the customer I think.

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