Moggy wrote:The alt-righter you were agreeing with said that The Last Jedi underperformed and that's why toy sales were down. That wasn't true.
I must've misread the comment originally, my mind immediately recalled the toy situation and that's what I was on about from the start. I completely agree TLJ didn't underperform, even if I disliked it.
Moggy wrote:Are Star Wars toys sales down because of girls and black people, or are sales just down anyway as kids want iPads instead?
Marvel toys are still selling well so it's not that kids don't want toys these days. Obviously the prevalence of tablets and phones and videogames has dented physical toys but that's nothing new. Star Wars toys
in particular though are underselling. I also think Marvel toys sell better because they have a far larger stable of characters to draw from, whereas with Star Wars it's either the original trilogy or the new trilogy, that's it. They don't have this wide pantheon of characters (that the general public is aware of anyway, I know they have an extended universe), and there's a definitely staleness there in my opinion.
I don't think people aren't buying Finn toys because he's black, but because he's a rubbish character from an average film. I haven't seen Black Panther toy sale figures but I'm sure they're performing well because he's a cool character, doesn't matter what his skin colour is. Female characters aimed at boys though rarely sell well. People aren't buying Rey and Rose toys because boys don't want to play with them. Young girls aren't buying them either though so again it's probably not even an issue of gender but of character strength. Rey is a boring character, Rose is a painfully boring character. You can even buy a Princess Leia figure from TLJ, just her in her old lady robes. What kid (boy or girl) wants to play with a figure of an old woman that's had too much botox and drugs? They're making toys without checking first if they'd even sell.
Realise this has all totally blown your rule of no discussion in the Comments thread but strawberry float it, it's an interesting discussion and something I've kept my eye on as a relatively new parent - my kids are going to be asking me to spend money on all this gooseberry fool (although more likely Marvel than Star Wars
) in the near future!