STAR WARS: Return of the Toy Factory

Disney unveiled their new STAR WARS toy line this week with flash sales at major retailers like Target, Toys R Us and Amazon. Most of the products sold out.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11844113/Star-Wars-toys-represent-all-thats-wrong-with-film-franchises-and-gullible-infantile-men.html

Quote :

If you’re searching for the source of the current proliferation of Hollywood merch – the yellow tsunami of Minion toys, or the fact that every young girl wants to dress up as Frozen’s Elsa come Halloween – you only need look back to a (not so) long time ago in a galaxy (not very) far, far away.

With film merchandise a virtually untapped market beforehand, Star Wars creator George Lucas wisely kept a large chunk of merchandising profit upon the original film’s release in 1977, which in turn spawned A New Hope (ahem) for film-related products. The difference then, of course. Was that it was just kids buying the toys.

Unlike the 70s, infantile adults are now flocking to the toy stores to pick up this merchandise. Numerous social media posts accuse grown men of robbing kids the opportunity of picking up some of the new toys. In one instance, a greedy man-child bought out some of the remaining figures in the store, leaving nothing to a kid who stood in line all day.

Many grown men took to Twitter to complain about not being able to get the toys that they wanted, too:
http://io9.com/force-friday-was-a-disaster-for-many-star-wars-fans-1728765957


Astonishing, really. But great for Disney. They're going to make a killing with these films.

If I had kids, I wouldn't be comfortable with single, grown men hanging around the aisles in the toy store, drooling over action figures and Legos. Is this odd to anyone else?

I can understand playing with Legos, at least if you want to use that as a recreation with your children or young relatives. Other than that and buying items for the sole purpose of selling it later at a much higher price, I don't really get it.

Even as a fan, I'm never buying any SW merchandise again, and all the Man-Children out there doing so need their heads examined. Nobody will ever be able to complete a SW collection of any kind, because the toys just keep coming and coming. Between 77 and 85, it was a case of collecting around 80 figures in the space of nearly a decade. It was do-able and nowhere near as exploitative as it is now. And men grabbing toys for themselves ahead of kids in toy stores? That's beyond wrong.

Control wrote:

Disney unveiled their new STAR WARS toy line this week with flash sales at major retailers like Target, Toys R Us and Amazon. Most of the products sold out.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11844113/Star-Wars-toys-represent-all-thats-wrong-with-film-franchises-and-gullible-infantile-men.html

Quote :

If you’re searching for the source of the current proliferation of Hollywood merch – the yellow tsunami of Minion toys, or the fact that every young girl wants to dress up as Frozen’s Elsa come Halloween – you only need look back to a (not so) long time ago in a galaxy (not very) far, far away.

With film merchandise a virtually untapped market beforehand, Star Wars creator George Lucas wisely kept a large chunk of merchandising profit upon the original film’s release in 1977, which in turn spawned A New Hope (ahem) for film-related products. The difference then, of course. Was that it was just kids buying the toys.

Unlike the 70s, infantile adults are now flocking to the toy stores to pick up this merchandise. Numerous social media posts accuse grown men of robbing kids the opportunity of picking up some of the new toys. In one instance, a greedy man-child bought out some of the remaining figures in the store, leaving nothing to a kid who stood in line all day.

Many grown men took to Twitter to complain about not being able to get the toys that they wanted, too:
http://io9.com/force-friday-was-a-disaster-for-many-star-wars-fans-1728765957


Astonishing, really. But great for Disney. They're going to make a killing with these films.

If I had kids, I wouldn't be comfortable with single, grown men hanging around the aisles in the toy store, drooling over action figures and Legos. Is this odd to anyone else?

Not really. My comic book dealer and myself are cashing in on these grown men since we invested quite a bit in Star Wars merchandise and have some good turf in the local cineplex to sell it. Our stock of bed comforters is already 2/3 sold and we have another shipment coming in.

Control wrote:

Is this odd to anyone else?

Odd but not surprising. Just the latest iteration of a youth obsessed culture. Thankfully it seems to be peaking. It's already bordering on counter-cultural to be 'adult', and it will surely filter down into the mainstream.

Hopefully by the 2030s people will start dressing well in public again, grooming themselves and maybe even try not being fat.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/20/star-wars-stormtrooper-merchandising-margaret-thatcher-auction

David Mitchell on the merchandise of STAR WARS:
"Star Wars, it turns out, is the most ambitious, enterprising and impressive exercise in the marketing of crap ever conceived by man."

I caught the new STAR WARS release a couple of weekends ago. Kind of a mess of a film, but I do enjoy how a brand new direction for the franchise is angering every man-child on Twitter.

The strangest aspect of the production was the scoring. Apparently, Rian Johnson gave John Williams (you know, the guy who has written the music for STAR WARS for 40 years) a temp track to work with. The score, as it was edited, works alright in the film, but the actual soundtrack album was odd to listen to, especially the end credits tracks.

That's all I honestly care about re: STAR WARS, and they kind of fucked it up by not letting Williams do his own thing. THE FORCE AWAKENS had a great, fresh score. This one rehashed a lot of old themes or borrowed from the previous film, which is odd, as Johnson's entire script is about letting go of the past.

Oh well. It's only STAR WARS. Williams' THE POST sounded awesome, on the other hand.

Mr Brown, good to see you