on the otherside you don't want the toys to reveal spoilers before the movie comes out, like the Batman Mask of the Phantasm figure did. It unmasked the villian on the bubble for the whole world to know who the phantasm was

Did… did anyone not know Rey was the main character from the very first teaser? I mean, she was completely coded as the ‘Luke Skywalker’ character from both costume and setting right from the get-go, she occupies the focal point of the poster. Her picking up the lightsaber was the least surprising part of the whole movie when it finally happened given the build up throughout the story.

This same thing happened with the third Transformers film, Dark of the Moon, in 2011. Several action figures were held back until the final waves of the toyline. They included a new version of Soundwave, done preserve a twist in the film where he'd been hiding in plain sight for most of the story in his new altmode. These tail-enders also included a bunch of the film's brand new characters in general (Que and Leadfoot), for whatever reason. What wound up happening was the first few waves of product were filled with a combination of Optimuses and Bumblebees (which everyone already had), characters who only had minor roles in the film (like Ratchet), and characters that weren't in the movie at all (Jolt, the Twins). And then, those first few waves shelfwarmed so hard, that the later waves containing all the more sought-after figures wound up cancelled outright in the West (some stuff still made it out in Asia), so almost no one got to own those figures anyway.

I disagree very strongly. These movies are movies first, the merchandise comes second. If the merchandise spoils a twist or surprise in the movie, it should absolutely be held back from the first run of merchandise. I remember how the big twist of Padme/Amidala's identity was spoiled by a 12 inch figure for The Phantom Menace. The real problem here is that the toy companies can't be trusted to prevent leaks and keep these secrets to themselves.

Good vid. Thanks and sorry for your troubles over the past few months. I'll do my best to support you via views/shares/comments.

I remember the Dick Tracy movie toys .the card back showed all the figures but no one never could find The Blank anywhere except later on it was found up in Canada.apparently the figure wasn't released with the other figures while the film was new was because the figure's mask comes off to reveal The Blank was Breatkless Mahoney and they didn't want to spoil the surprise .a case of the toy actually ruining a movie's surprise was how when Batman Mask of the Phantasm released the Phantasm figure they had the figure not wearing the mask to hide who it was .

Since the merchandise is based off of the movie, and the companies have a pretty good idea-- if not the exact date-- when the movie hits theaters, just schedule the release of the merchandise for a week after opening weekend. Doesn't seem too difficult.

At least with Baby Yoda, they were able to run a hype train for upcoming merchandise.

Hold backs are like when an author writes an incomplete synopsis for an agent or publisher. This isn’t a “fan” who cares about spoilers. They are bus bees entities who need the information for marketing purposes.

Scott is a worm. Spread the word.

Considering the most of the figure toy market was created on the back of Star Wars and how they released their figures I’d say so.

The previous Spider-Men coming back was the worst kept secret since the resurrection of Jon Snow. It was all over KZread long before the movie’s release.

The reason the actress who was playing Cara Dune, was like going because of the stuff she was posting on Twitter lucasflim just decided not to renew her contract plain and simple.

The studio can tell the toy companies that so and so will appear so have the toys ready to go a month after the movie premiers…but I suppose that would be hard for the company to hold back that information. I am glad the newest Spider-Man wasn’t ruined for me even though we all had a hunch the past Spider-Man’s would appear

The domestic box office is still the most important for a studio. The studio gets about 1/2 the sales of the domestic gross while they get less then that in most other foreign countries esp. china. And remember for most movies it is nearly a 50/50 split between foreign and domestic- that means the US, a single country, spends more, almost as much or a little less on going to the movies then all the other countries combined.

This happened a lot with the transformers movies. Figures and waves were never released in the US because the movie hype died and stores weren't interested in the product.

The figures and show or movie coming out at the same time would be best. I saw all the figures for the acolyte up for preorder but didn’t do that since I feel no connection to any of them.

Good morning everyone!

Oh Dear God! So much wrong here Scott. Disney bought Lucasfilms and Star Wars specifically because they were weak in Boy Brands. They were making bank with Princess crap, but were not reaching the lucrative Boys Market in movies or merchandise. So they bought Star Wars and Marvel to fill that needed niche. This is how they sold it to the Shareholders. This was the purpose. That they then attempted to flip these into Girls brands destroying the decades of baked in brand loyalty amongst the desired consumers that they had bought the properties to get is just a sign as to how badly Disney is managed these days. Expanding Star Wars to girls was never the goal of mandate. Expanding Disney to Boys was what it was all about. And China is not and never will be the largest share of the box office. Because Studios are lucky if they get 10 cents on the dollar out of the Chinese Box office. The Chinese Box Office is a nice to have for some extra bucks, assuming your movie gets paid for out of the Domestic and European Box Offices. Which give the studios a better than 50/50 split of the till. No Western Movie has ever found its point of profit in China, save perhaps the Transformers franchise. And even that dried up fast.

Your making me think of the Dick Tracy --- The Blank action figure.