Author Topic: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?  (Read 11689 times)

Offline Brian

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #15 on: March 26, 2010, 03:39 PM »
I saw the same giant Dragon display at my WM and jaw hit the floor.  It's very cool in a retro way, and maybe the movie will be big, but I don't know.  Avatar didn't translate into toy sales.  An AMP suit sat for 75% off for a week before someone finally took mercy on it.



Its funny, I just made a stop at Wal-Mart this morning and thought the same thing.  The "Dragons" movie has taken over there.  Not just the toy area (which has several sections, as mentioned), but now there is a big display in the clothing area including shirts, toys, etc.  Like Scott said, someone at Wal-Mart must think this thing is going to be huge.

Offline Jeff

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2010, 03:51 PM »
The Dragon movie stuff at Walmart is actually prety interesting.  Walmart and Dreamworks entered into an exclusive arrangement, where a good majority of the movies product will only be available at Walmart.  They even have an exclusive Happy Meal toy promo that will only be found at the McD's found inside Walmart stores.  It's sort of nuts just how many companies did up Dragon packaging just for Walmart just for this promo.

It's going to be a huge success or a huge flop, but either way, it's only at Walmart.
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Offline Scott

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2010, 05:36 PM »
The movie is getting decent reviews but at least at my local store, product has been collecting dust for at least 3 weeks now and not moving at all.  I smell flop...and like I said...this doesn't seem like the type of movie to hitch your wagon to

Offline JACKOFTRADZE

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #18 on: March 31, 2010, 10:51 AM »
I concur.
I did not get the whole buzz about this movie being a huge hit for toys. This is an unproven property to bank this much product on. Another aspect working against this is it has Gerald Butler (I am sure I spelled his name wrong) involved in it. So far his box office track record is pretty horrible since 300.

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Offline Scott

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #19 on: April 2, 2010, 08:19 PM »
We saw Dragon today...it was actually pretty good.   It has some pretty deep concepts though...and not nearly as funny as a lot of Pixar or other Dreamworks movies.   I agree on the bomb factor at retail though.  There really is no way all of that product is going to move

Offline Scott

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #20 on: April 7, 2010, 06:31 PM »
So...my son has a birthday coming up and he really liked How to tame Your Dragon.  I was at WalMart* today and thought, what the heck I'll take a peak and maybe pick up a Hiccup and Toothless the dragon for him.

There were tons of Hiccups, even more tons of the other dragon and Vikings.  Not one Toothless Dragon in the entire store.  Large size, small size...nothing.  So, at least something sold...good lukc on the rest though :P

Offline Brian

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #21 on: April 9, 2010, 01:13 PM »
You know, looking back at movie lines over the past 10 or so years, it seems like the "successful" ones are few and far between.  We keep seeing several each year, which is understandable, because when it comes down to it the lines with current movies or tv shows are really the ones that grab kids for the most part.  Aside from Star Wars, there don't seem to be many that could be labelled as successful...

Lord of the Rings (at least while the movies were out)
Iron Man (first movie seemed to do very well here, although it was a more conservative approach)
Transformers (the first movie seemed to do better than the second)
Toy Story (that stuff seems to be doing well locally, at least the "normal" action figures)
Cars

Then you can look at the list that were either complete failures, or didn't do very well:

G.I. Joe - The Rise of Cobra
Indiana Jones
Hulk
Spider-Man 3
Batman Begins/Dark Knight
Superman Returns
Fantastic Four/Rise of Silver Surfer
Star Trek
Avatar
X-Men/X2/Wolverine
Harry Potter
Pirates of the Caribbean

There are others that are borderline (for example, Spider-Man 2 seemed to do well enough here locally - although much still ended up on clearance), and each line probably has its fans (I mean we all liked the Indy line to some extent, but I don't think anyone outside of fans did).  This doesn't even list all the animated movie lines, since I really don't follow those at all, but the majority of those don't seem to do all that well.

The one that always boggles my mind is Harry Potter.  Here you have a movie series, much like the original trilogy, that has a broad fanbase appeal - but still has a focus on the younger generation.  It has a potential long shelf-life with 8 movies when it is all said and done, not to mention the books themselves.  It has a broad character base, as well as deluxe/beast potential, and even playsets (if they wanted to go that route).  I didn't really follow the first couple Mattel lines, and there hasn't been much at mass retail since then.  I think they had a fairly nice line in the U.K. recently, although I'm not sure if that is still going or not.  Just seems like a lot of potential missed there.

Offline efranks

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #22 on: April 9, 2010, 03:02 PM »
I've been baffled by Harry Potter since Mattel wrapped up that first 5" line of figures.  It seemed relatively successful at the time but then they started changing up scales and it went downhill quickly.

I have to wonder, though, if maybe the demographic of the fans for HP has something to do with it.  Where Star Wars is a boys property, with action and adventure and fantastic creatures, HP seems, and I could be wrong, to tend towards female fans even though there is action and adventure and fantastic creatures.  And if that is true, it doesn't really lend itself to an action figure line.

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Offline Brian

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #23 on: May 26, 2010, 05:48 PM »
I saw a couple more movie lines that could be destined for the clearance aisle while stopping by Target today, Prince of Persia (in two scales) and the A-Team.  I'll admit, I had the "A-Team" and van as a kid, but I just don't know if this one will catch on with kiddos (or collectors) or not.  I didn't look that closely at either of them, but both seemed to have 3 3/4" or 4" scale figures, with PoP having 6" figures as well (and role play stuff).

Offline efranks

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #24 on: May 26, 2010, 07:24 PM »
If someone was looking to flesh out an Indy dio, those Prince of Persia figures could make for some good customs.  The horse and Dastan set looks really nice.  The gate playset had possibilities but I think it may fail because it lacks any real substance.  But, again, could be a good basis for a dio piece.

Haven't seen the A-Team figures but will have to check for them.  I was thinking about picking up the team because they looked like they might be good to go with the Joe team.

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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #25 on: May 26, 2010, 09:45 PM »
The A-Team figs I saw over the weekend...  They're kind of neat.  Some good headsculpts, and the figures are nice for what they are.  I'm probably not going to collect them so I'm waiting, but they're cool I think, and as far as fitting in with Joes I think there's an insane ammount of customizing potential there compared to any line obviously.

Definitely good headsculpts for future stuff.  I'm sorta hopeful they'll make more for that line, but I'm not exactly counting on it.  It'd be great to see though.
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #26 on: May 26, 2010, 10:30 PM »
The big presence at my local TRU today?  Toy Story 3.  That franchise has some serious steam behind it, and the movie hasn't been released yet.  And at TRU they've got the full feature store treatment.

As for other movie properties? 

-Prince of Persia is pretty minimal, but I was surprised to see two different figure scales for that line.

-Iron Man 2 has some space but seems to be selling reasonably well.  But since there are so many different Iron Man figures and barely anything other characters it's tough to tell how much turnover there really is.

-I can't say that I've seen anything for the new Shrek.  But then the other Shrek movies didn't have massive toy lines.

-Percy Jackson & The Olympians has some shelf space.  But I haven't seen it really moving.

-Tron Legacy is supposed to yield a light cycle toy.  It looks like it's got the potential to be kind of cool, but I haven't seen it in the packaging.

As for Harry Potter?  They had a toy line that was collector focused for Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix with NECA.  It looked pretty good, truth be told.  But I don't think the sales were solid enough for them to pursue a toy line for Half Blood Prince.

It just seems that most new movie properties don't have the legs to sustain a high quality toy line.  And some of the great toy lines that have yielded movies (Transformers, GI Joe), haven't exactly led to good movies.
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Offline Morgbug

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #27 on: May 29, 2010, 01:43 AM »


-Tron Legacy is supposed to yield a light cycle toy.  It looks like it's got the potential to be kind of cool, but I haven't seen it in the packaging.


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Offline Brian

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #28 on: February 3, 2011, 02:09 PM »
This year could really be a test with the whole movie line stuff, as there should be plenty of it out there.  With Thor, Captain America, and Green Lantern all having pretty big movie lines the way it looks - retailer space could be thin.  Plus, we still have all that Iron Man stuff hanging out (and continuing in some capacity the way it sounds).  There's also new Transformers stuff to contend with, and possibly Pirates of the Caribbean (not sure if there is a retail line this time around or not?).  I don't think there is anything to accompany the X-Men: First Class movie, so that is one less line to contend with.  Although there is always one or two big "toy" movies each summer, this year (and next) are really starting to get jam packed.

It will be interesting to see what this summer brings about.  There is still a TON of Iron Man 2 stuff hanging around our stores (Wal-Mart in particular), and although I'm looking forward to portions of the other movie lines this year I can't see them overall flying off the shelves either.  I could see an entire aisle full of Cap, Thor, Iron Man, and Green Lantern by the time Christmas goes around (with all supporting characters and villains snatched up or not making it to the pegs).  I know our local WM tends to support the media tie-in lines much more, with things like DCUC, Marvel Universe, and GI Joe falling by the wayside during the big movie pushes.

Offline efranks

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Re: Retailers Scaling Back on Movie Lines?
« Reply #29 on: February 3, 2011, 02:45 PM »
There is a Pirates line coming from JAKKS Pacific and I'm assuming that they'll be at retail because that's the main market for JAKKS.

I actually fear what the toy aisles are going to look like with Captain America and Thor movie lines along with the leftover Iron Man stuff plus the regular Marvel Universe line all competing for space.  Plus Hasbro will have the huge Transformers movie push as well.

One thing is for sure, Hasbro, if they don't **** it up, should make a mint this year at retail.  If the the three new films are good, they should send a lot of people to the toy aisles.

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