Hasbro possibly doing Tron?

If Hasbro would allow unlimited purchases and there was a billionaire Tron mega fan with a spare $2.25 million dollars lying around to act as an angel backer...then this will fund. There it is, that's the path to funding.

When are the 1/12 figures scheduled? How far out are they? I'm thinking about times when Hot Toys showed off a figure prior to a movie's release and box office bomb. Those figures don't go into production.
 
Damien said:
The 1:12 figures are going to come out. They're already at the factory. Now.. will there be more waves? I'd bet no.
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What's the wider reason synching these media things up stopped happening? I'm surprised McF is keeping it up for the new Avatar.

It seems like everyone else stopped trying or actively just coming in late. Curious how Mattel handles MOTU the movie.
 
altcunningham said:
What's the wider reason synching these media things up stopped happening? I'm surprised McF is keeping it up for the new Avatar.

It seems like everyone else stopped trying or actively just coming in late. Curious how Mattel handles MOTU the movie.
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It's a wildly difficult decision that toy companies have to make; you either wait to see how the media does, and risk missing the desire for product altogether, or you get stuff out immediately and risk the media being unpopular or being something no one wants toys for.

The only chance you have at a right answer is for decision-makers to be REALLY plugged in. Which they are not.
 
altcunningham said:
What's the wider reason synching these media things up stopped happening? I'm surprised McF is keeping it up for the new Avatar.

It seems like everyone else stopped trying or actively just coming in late. Curious how Mattel handles MOTU the movie.
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Part of it is what @Damien said, and also a lot of times there's not enough final art to do toys until later in the process. Remember Endgame where the time travel suits were totally done in post and likely were tweaked until months if not weeks before final release. You can do Legos in synch with anything because Legos are going to adapt either way and don't need to be that accurate. For 1/12 collector figures? Different story.
 
Years ago I read that tie-in merchandise for summer blockbuster type films sold on average 40% of their product before the film even hit theaters. That would have included sequels for established franchises, but it is interesting how much is sold before anyone has actually seen what they are buying toys, shirts, posters, etc. for...

I suspect that number has dropped some?
 
fac said:
Years ago I read that tie-in merchandise for summer blockbuster type films sold on average 40% of their product before the film even hit theaters. That would have included sequels for established franchises, but it is interesting how much is sold before anyone has actually seen what they are buying toys, shirts, posters, etc. for...

I suspect that number has dropped some?
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Yeah, that was what I was thinking of. I don't really remember when MCU stuff shifted from Before to During to After. Also seems like the only movie tie-in toys we get lately, at least for adult collectors.

And if it is for adult collectors then the point does make sense to me that the accuracy is going to count more than timeliness. But still, still there was definitely a shift when they could get that stuff correct to how last minute they're fudging these things thanks to computers.

But for Tron specifically, I don't know why you would do figures based off the older movie but still hold them until after this new movie is basically gone.
 
Another thing to factor in is that a lot of these movie tie-in toys are for movies that people actually care about, and whether or not that caring extends to an audience that collects toys. Tron was never a huge success, but to me it's always just been a blockbuster popcorn flick and not something that truly sticks with you.

I think toys could have SOME appeal, but it's a hard sell for an IP where I haven't really met anybody who likes it in its entirety, only the niche animated show, the niche shooter game, and the cameo appearances like in Kingdom Hearts. Never the actual movies, outside "Rinzler is cool!" and "I like Quorra!!"

How have the Avatar toys been selling? I've seen them discounted quite a few times online, but rarely pop into in-person stores for toys, so I wouldn't know.
 
There's new ones for the new Avatar movie.

Just this afternoon at EB there were four different people in front of me, unaffiliated, asking about the new figures and whatever chases Todd has. I'm always surprised when fans of that movie series come up, because I never see hype for it.

But turns out it's Star Wars to a generation, and there's a deep love for the lore and media. It's not my flavour, that's for sure
 
It's odd - Avatar fans must live online, but there seems to be no online presence for that franchise. But - four billion and counting. Maybe they talk quietly, or are happy/content? I'm going to see the new one.

I think it's a multitude of factors including all the ones listed above PLUS I think the average age group for movie product has matured past crap tie-in toys - but Hasbro won't stop making crap toys. Do people really want Shang-Chi with arm flinging action, or defintely-not-Black-Panther-Shuri with arm cannon? NO. The product itself has improved but the audience has moved on.

So then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - movie toys don't sell but not bc Hasbro fucked up. Oh no! Then the media production timelines being squeezed from principal photography to release to sometimes less than a year means 3D product is racing to the retail shelf and can't get there early because it doesn't exist - and then it's inaccurate. And then it doesn't sell. Rinse, repeat.

It's a bad cycle that really got exacerbated by the COVID shipping delays, then the movie schedule shifting ALL over the place for every company/studio, then the overproduction of 2021/2022 (Hasbro at least).

And then - the Grogu of it all. The secrecy of Grogu worked out in the long run for merchandise sales because the audience formed a genuine connection to the *character* in real time, NOT having merchandise ahead of time. But now SECRECY means filmmakers/studios don't want to share anything when sharing is how movie tie-in product was so successful for DECADES.

It's really sad to me to see the state of tie-in merchandise these days. Hasbro, who wants all of my money, got so burned by media tie-in merch that now they are leaving surefire sellers unmade, and markets untapped.
 
Oh yeah I totally forgot about baby Yoda and how they learned about it during the premiere. Insane. I guess as a child of the '80s and '90s that doesn't make sense at all to me that you wouldn't have the merch ready to go for a midnight launch on a random Tuesday.
 
Tron:


1,095 / 10,000 (+0) 10.95% of funding goal with 21d 18h left.


Well at least it didn't lose any backers today. Let's see where it goes this week.
 
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