Anyone Find The Lack Of Muppet Merch Disturbing?

[frogboy4]

i'm perplexed. Once again, we did get a healthy amount of items, not just snuggies. However we did not get a windfall. Few things are getting a windfall.

Star wars toys may not excite the people here, but they rake in a lot of sales from faithful customers of all ages. Disney's Cars and Princess items are very, very, very big business all year-round.

The Muppets will just take a little longer for general retail interest. That will come with the success of the movie. Such general retail interest has nothing to do with Disney and everything to do with people who want to pay for the license to make their products. If anyone's embarrassed, it's the companies that passed on an opportunity to partner with Disney to make some Muppet stuff. I'm sure they're making plans now.

Also, keep in mind that products don't spontaneously happen. They can take 4-12 months from conception to store shelves depending on the type of item. I hope they'll do something with the DVD push. We'll see. I just don't see the point in complaining. I think the point is that there just aren't figures. That's 99% of the gripe and I'm disappointed in that too.

 

[Drtooth]

I was at Target, all the Smurfs toys and playsets were in the 50-75% back of the store aisle. They should just pay people to take it. Sadly the only thing on toy aisles these days are overpriced shrimpy comic book figures, bakubentenmon, dubya dubya wrasslin,
and OH BOY! Star Wars. how exciting!

The Targets I was at were clearing out the larger playsets, but not the smaller 4 dollar carded figures. Even then, it's seasonal clearance. Even the solidly selling Sonic Generations figures were on clearance, to which, there was only a Tails and a Sonic left, and when I went to grab the Tails after deciding to get him, the Sonic was gone. Still, the Smurfs movie toys did gangbusters in late July/August when they came out. But the Playsets didn't move that much.

Still, I feel the Muppets could pull that off, small, carded, minimally posible figures that go for 3-5 bucks each. It would be the best way to get as many characters as possible if nothing else. Kids would snap up that kind of Muppet figure.

I had predicted, or at least feared we wouldnt get any merchandise. I mean people are getting excited over Muppet nail polish, rubber bands and "snuggies"...that shows you how hard up people are for *any* merchandise. I was surprised they released a beaker, walter, and pepe plush. I think the Walter plush is the only movie specific thing released. At LEAST with past films, we had quite a lot of movie fast food tie-ins.

That's basically the market the retailers felt the Muppets could crack... generic crummy general retail merchandise. We're getting bandaids and kids books and stuff like that... it's only on that foundation that we'll get something grander in the long run. Sure, it's a shame that Arthur Christmas has a huge, full line of TRU exclusive merchandise... action figures, smaller figures, plush, ornaments... but NO ONE was biting. On the one hand, how sad is it that a 50+ year old franchise can't crack the market and a throwaway holiday movie can, but on the other hand, what if we had excellent Muppet toys sitting on the shelves on deep clearance with no one touching it.

Sure, I think they were FAR too cautious on this end... but no one actually buys merchandise anymore other than collectors. Everything has to be digital crap.

That said, there's no excuse that they didn't release the unfinished iPhone apps to co-incide with the movie.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

Jamie, brother.......Beaker and Tooth WILL and always will whine as far as im concerned about "oooh not enuff stuff boo hoo!" on the MC boards. We did get a healthy amount of items like you said (ive also seen em myself & bought some!) but they rather pout "oh well i wish Mcdonalds had toys" or "its not enuff for me" and blah blah blah...I take it Beaker that DOESNT know how Disney stores are run ( LOVE "Nightmare before christmas") and they always have "a little area in a corner" of "Nightamare stuff"! Christ dude!!!

i swear SOMETIMES when i see they post whiny crap like this i wanna leave the MC boards....but i aint gonna!

 

[Drtooth]

Don't lump me in with that. I completely understand BOTH sides of the problem. Merchandise doesn't move the way it used to, and things have to be different and done smarter.

I could care less about Nail Polish, Snuggies, and feetie pajamas, BUT they're not made for me, they're made for a more general retail. THAT'S who we have to hit up for merchandising, and as far as that stuff goes, it proves the market is slowly starting to get saturated. The Valentines, kid's books, sippy cups and Bandaids are proof they're branching out. Will I buy any of those? Maybe the Bandaids and the Valentines... but it really shouldn't matter if these things appeal to me if the general public buys them. Heck, if the general public buys that stuff, it sets up a foundation of more merchandising, INCLUDING some collector's friendly stuff.

That said, the toy industry is a freaking mess anyway... even if we had something new with the Muppets, they'd find a way to screw it up somehow.

 

[frogboy4]

I must admit to have seen the nail polish display in store windows a lot while walking from place to place. I wasn't even looking for it. I'm sure others have seen it and are buying the product even though I passed on it.

My guess is that Disney did shop The Muppets film products around to manufacturers and retailers and many passed on making Muppet things. I hate hearing how Disney somehow dropped the ball. They have done so much right with this film. Not all of the design was to my liking, but it worked! They dominated Film, Television, Tee Shirts, Radio, and live appearances like the Lighting of the White House Christmas Tree! There are products. It's a solid C effort. I'll admit that, but there is much stuff and more likely to come.

Disney did what they could in their stores. Kids and adults alike could have their choice of Muppet plush, shirts, Vinylmation figures, mugs and other items under their Christmas trees. I think this does boil down to Muppet figures. Not a lack of product. Figures.

 

[Drtooth]

My guess is that Disney did shop The Muppets film products around to manufacturers and retailers and many passed on making Muppet things. I hate hearing how Disney somehow dropped the ball. They have done so much right with this film. Not all of the design was to my liking, but it worked! They dominated Film, Television, Tee Shirts, Radio, and live appearances like the Lighting of the White House Christmas Tree! There are products. It's a solid C effort. I'll admit that, but there is much stuff and more likely to come.

Disney did what they could in their stores. Kids and adults alike could have their choice of Muppet plush, shirts, Vinylmation figures, mugs and other items under their Christmas trees. I think this does boil down to Muppet figures. Not a lack of product. Figures.

I came to understand that too. Disney hit the market first with products the nostalgia crazed general public would buy. The kid's stuff had to come out closer to the movie's release. The toy companies would rather jump on some throwaway CGI film than something that has a stable presence before and after a film, that's not Disney's fault.

Heck, the plush toys at the Disney Store were the third top seller at Disney locations right after Princesses and Cars, right above more Princesses and more Cars. Now, The Disney store is seasonally clearing out half the Cars stuff, The Muppet section (at least at the store I was in) was coffee Mugs, a few shirts, and a lone Fozzie. I think that while Disney had a nice presence in the stores, they underestimated how well these would do. Even the Lion King Plush didn't move that fast (I blame the fact they had the generic giraffe). That's a good thing that leads to more Muppet Stuff down the line.

Plus, every time I go, Muppet Vynalmations are the only ones that actually sell.

 

[Writersright]

I'm surprised that we didn't get to see a tie-in video game. Disney loves to release games to tie in with movies, although the quality of these games is disputable. Still, a psn/xbox live remake/port of RaceMania with online functionality would be pretty swell.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't know if the Little Big Planet costumes counted or not...

But The Muppets never had any really good video games. It is strange there's no tie in... even Up got a game, and that was a very under-merchandised movie. There's rumblings that one's going to happen on the horizon, even though we haven't had any word other than a voice recasting of incidental roles. There's going to be a Muppet expansion pack for Disney Universe. That's all I know.

I do think we should have got a re-release for digital download of the Muppet Racemania game. Maybe a couple others. I don't see why they couldn't also finish the 2 iPhone apps they announced a couple years ago.

 

[Oxyriffs]

I don't care whose fault it is I am just very sad that I can't add to my collection.

 

[Drtooth]

Something occurred to me.

It isn't so much Disney dropped the ball (I've never been one of those people), but I feel they (as well as retailers, who technically are more at fault) grossly underestimated how well Muppet merchandise would do.

Everywhere I've been that carries some of the Muppet stuff either has 3 or fewer left on the shelves. I saw a lone box of the Bandaids when it looked like no one was touching the Cars ones. Unless the Valentines were short packed, the places I've seen carry them only have one or two boxes left....There was an ad banner a couple days ago that said the Pepe plush from Disney was going on Amazon for 99 bucks!

On the plus side it means we don't have a sad clutter of unwanted, unsellable Muppet merchandise (like several kids movies I know), but on the negative side, there should have been just that much more, especially along the lines of Christmas products.

But if this is any indication, we might just get more and better Muppet stuff throughout the rest of the year. I'm hopeful we will. I stress this post is written with optimism.