Franchise and Toy Industry Oversaturation

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Hello and welcome to Altered Geek I'm your

host Steve Megatron Phillips and in this episode

I am joined by Mike Booth and your powers. Yes.

Yes. Yes, and we're gonna be talking about Something

that kind of came out. I think it was yesterday

today It was yesterday, but it was updated today

having to do with lackluster sales in toys for

fall 2017 as people are getting that movie tie

-in fatigue, you know, with Star Wars and everything

else that's come out. Yeah, I thought it was

kind of interesting because we always hear about,

you know, our fans and friends and stuff like

that talking about how the amount of superhero

movies or Star Wars movies, things like that,

that are being pumped out by these studios is

getting overwhelming and leading to, I guess,

what is it called, superhero fatigue? I think

I'd just call it franchise fatigue at this point.

That's true because I mean it's not just Star

Wars and superheroes and superheroes, but you

know it's it's I found out earlier this week

that There's gonna be five fantastic beast movies

like how do you? It's just franchise fatigue

in general right and we've I've really only ever

Seen it brought up in like, you know, oh a movie

like a sequel to a movie has like a poor box

office in the first one or You usually hear about

it in the box office results for a movie instead

franchise Do you remember back in the day when

when franchises consisted of if you hit a trilogy

you were doing great and then they stopped Yeah,

like I brought that up like in an argument that

I had A long -winded argument. I think I posted

on Facebook and then I ended up deleting it but

it would it went back to the whole like You were

It was it was the nerd rage that came out around

the last Jedi, right? And I brought it up as

like, you know, you were lucky at all to get

three movies let alone a second one, you know,

like now now we're in this we're in this age

where People get mad because something isn't

the way that they want it and it's like they

need to fix it and they expect to be Fixed in

the next movie, you know, like or addressed in

some way like they the fans are now expecting

things to come in threes or or six or What is

that? Six tuplet six something like that. Yeah

some Some little someone will say it somewhere.

But yeah, it's like I do. I very much remember

going and seeing the first X -Men movie and being

like, man, I want more than that. And then you're

biting your nails for the next few weeks until

you read online that Fox has made enough money

for Fox to OK a sequel. And I think for me personally,

I remember the way they announce the movies now,

it ruins Like the the way that movies are announced

now. They're like they're like spoilers in and

of themselves Yeah, especially when you you hear

that Oh Captain America has been on this on the

scene for Avengers 4 and 5 and you're like oh,

so he doesn't die well like I Think I think the

last time It might be the first time that I was

ever like I think the first time an announcement

like that ever ruined something for me was the

first Avengers Because it was like the week before

Avengers was set to be released. They announced

Iron Man 3 and so you're like, oh that scene

at the end is just it's just yeah, it's worthless

Yeah, it didn't it didn't it didn't land for

me at all because they've already announced Iron

Man 3 Which they should have done like weeks

after You know like like give it like a second

and so that you're hearing about all these all

these all these movies all these single character

movies And it's like they're they're tipping

their hand to whether or not these people survive

like the next two Avengers movies, and it doesn't

The same goes for Star Wars right you hear you

know they're shooting episode 8 and they rap

and you hear about I mean, I guess they haven't

really started filming episode nine, but you

kind of heard there was some stuff involving

episode nine about like the cast list and whatnot.

And it's like, well, great. Now, you know, like

who survives, but maybe you don't know in which

way they survive, I guess. So, like, technically,

even if Mark Hamill's listed, he meant, you know,

he's obviously like a force ghost or some kind

of a force entity at that point. Right. Which

we know now, but you don't know that, like. You

know going for like before before you see the

result You know like and yeah like Captain America

that could be like a flashback sequence or something

like that like all these things have like There's

stipulations or things that can happen with them,

but just the sheer amount of the sheer announcement

of like the next movie is like a Spoiler in and

of itself, and I felt that way for a long time

You know, which is why it's just like, you know,

I don't want to know any more about these movies

like other than the title so that I know when

I need to go see it. But anyways, that. So we're

talking about franchise fatigue as far as going

to the movies, but now it appears that it's hitting

the toy industry now. So like Hasbro, Mattel,

they're all getting hit hard because people are

not. You know, there's warning signs going off

that people have just kind of had enough of,

you know, these multitude of different figures

being shoved down their throat. Yeah, well, and

it looks like according to this article, which

was on Bloomberg, I mean, at least the one that

I found, it was like, it also seems like oversaturation

in general, like you don't know which toys to

buy. Like you're you're splitting your money

between you know, like a Star Wars or cars or

like spider -man And I think that's just because

them the market is so flooded Yeah with with

I mean think about it, you know 20 years ago

We we had you know select, you know, maybe one

or two big movies a month That we're like, you

know really big and and then the rest of them

were kind of just you know, you know Media vehicles

they weren't toy. No, they weren't toy vehicles

and everything that comes out now It's a toy

vehicle and so you get five or six movies and

you know to two to three months span and they're

all toy movies and Then they've got every size

figure known to man, you know, 12 inch, you know,

the six inch, the four inch, the, you know, and

then they've got variations of the same figures

and it's just, it's gotten too confusing for

parents in general trying to figure out which

blasted figure that their kid wants. So I mean,

I can definitely see the various sides of it.

I feel kind of like, you know, we just, I just

got done watching the documentary on Netflix

about the toys that made us. And obviously the

big one in there, uh, given, you know, that the

last Jedi just came out was like their coverage

of the star wars toys. You know, they, they talk

about how only one, you know, one specific retailer

at retailer, uh, manufacturer had the star wars

license, but like, That's not the way it is anymore,

right? Like so it's like Legos Lego has a Star

Wars toy line Hasbro has the majority of it,

right? But like so there's that it's not just

one company that can reap reap the reward for

like selling these toys Like they had the not

only do they have to make a toy to tie in they

have to make a better toy then like You know

the the next toy manufacturer that has the same

license, you know And so you've got multiple

manufacturers competing with the same license

to sell toys, but then you've got other manufacturers

that are also competing with trying to sell transformers

and stuff like that. It was very interesting

to see this come back around because you had

the toys that make the cartoon. To sell more

toys and then you've got like and then there's

a period where the you know, they aren't around

anymore And then you've got the toys Then you've

got the movies that come out based off of the

toys And now the you know, the toy lines are

back but now now all of it is suffering because

none of them are going away Yeah, it's you're

not creating that demand because it's constantly

in your face instead of it's like oh the the

toy well dried up you're gonna have to wait until

the next film do you also think that it becomes

more when you release stuff like this rapidly

do you think it becomes more um yeah i didn't

i think the first time i ever heard about this

or kind of picked up on it was Was it going from

Transformers to Transformers 2 where it was like,

we just need to change this character a little

bit so we can release a new toy? Yeah, that was

what Transformers was notorious for. Yes, I feel

like that's what - But that's a Hasbro stick

because they do that even with Star Wars figures.

They'll release them with a new box or they'll

add one little extra piece of plastic in the

box to say that it's something new. Yeah, but

when you release like stuff like at least with

transformers There's like three years between

movies right two or three years between movies

But they also have three to four different types

of toy lines go right time for it But now just

take a look at Star Wars right where you've got

one to two movies of Star Wars Like every year

every year now from like starting with like 2015

right so how fast can you recycle a toy or a

or a model before someone realizes what's going

on, right? Like... Well, and that's kind of happened

with some of the Transformer people, too, though,

because I know a lot of people that, like, Hasbro

would just repaint the figure and resell it as

a new character, and people were like, okay,

like, I'm a completionist, but, like, I have

to draw the line at, you know, this, this, and

this, you know, and... would have to have cutoffs

because it was so much of the same stuff. Right,

which is what I'm saying, but it's all jammed

up now, so more people can see what is actually

going on with the toys, right? How fast can you

recycle? Before it was Transformers and you had

to wait two or three years between movies, but

now you've got stuff like... The Star Wars stuff

where they try to release new toys to go along

with every movie and there's a movie every year

or Pretty soon here. It'll probably be every

six months. So like You know like it's probably

pretty easy for a kid to go This character looks

like this character when you're still playing

with that same character you bought six months

ago You know what I'm saying? Yeah, there's not

gonna be that big of a change to where it warrants

another figure of it Right, so it's just well.

It's it's like the the Obi -Wan Kenobi and Darth

Vader they They keep reselling those even though

they haven't been in the films and forever and

The droids it's basically the same toys over

and over Just with a slight paint redeco or something

that was the arm that was c3po's arm in force

awakens, right? Yeah, that was that they had

been the only reason they changed the color of

the arm in that movie That's what I hear like

when I read like takedowns of The Force Awakens

like the only reason for c3po to have a red arm

was to sell more more figures And then they had

a comic tie -in to make it sound like it was

it had a reason for being there Well, you got

to rebuild the extended universe that you just

trashed so well now that Disney owns Marvel which

does comics and in Star Wars, Marvel's got the

rights back for the Star Wars comics. So all

the stuff by Dark Horse is like dead. Yeah. So

it's it. I think this is the same problem of

why comics aren't as big as they used to be and

why, you know, a lot of the the merchandising

isn't as like, yes, it is still banks, but it

doesn't bank like it used to. Well, I mean, comics

was. The issue with comics was you used to only

print like a run. And now they do like four or

five runs. Right, because it's like they can

track how popular a comic is pretty quickly.

So it's like, oh, well, we'll just do another

printing of this so more people can buy it. They're

able to flood the market to kill the collectors

value like comics being big I don't know if that

had anything really to do with like I feel unless

you're talking about something else to me Comics

being big had more to do with with the collector's

side of it than the actual like comics being

like a big thing Yeah, which that made sense

to do it the I feel like that they've tried to

The toy industry is trying to copy that model

Because if you notice like all the 70s and 80s

stuff and to some extent some of the early 90s

stuff was was was actually worse something and

then you go like early to mid 90s and they started

just kind of mass producing it like crazy and

Then you get into today where there's just so

much of it that none of it has any value Right.

I mean in into a more Although closer to home

for for myself would be like the the SNES classic

and the SNES classic, right? Like the NES classic

like you couldn't find except for like on eBay

or Amazon for like four hundred dollars Right

because Nintendo couldn't make them fast enough

for whatever reason They promised that that wouldn't

be the case with the SNES classic and now I have

two of them So I don't, but I've stopped looking,

so I don't know if they've kept their word on

that. But I also feel like the hype around the

SNES Classic fell off a lot faster than the NES

Classic. But it's kinda like the same, it's the

same idea, right? There weren't a lot of them,

so people, the aftermarket, the collector's market

for it, that's where all the value was, but.

And it's kind of like you see that around video

game console launches to like with the switch

like you the switch release and everyone Napped

up as many as there were available And they put

them on like eBay and stuff for like double the

price. It's the scalping right? But just this

past holiday Every Best Buy I went into this

past holiday was building pyramid displays out

of switches that they had like an excess to sell

like and then and then you see like headlines

recently about how the switch is the fastest

selling console and That it, you know, it sold

this, you know it out So it sold this much in

in this month and it's like well Yeah, when you

flood the market and everyone can get one and

there isn't like scarcity of it. Yes, you're

going to sell, you know, but It's it's interesting

and Don't know the number there's some numbers

in here, but I don't really like just reading

off numbers But basically it's like, you know

cars three didn't sell as well as was expected

and Same thing goes for like the last two Star

Wars movies and they don't expect this year to

be any better given that there's a another Star

Wars movie but a Harry Potter movie and a new

Jurassic Park, you know, like it's just Excuse

me, it'll be interesting to see how they they

try to fix this So it's gonna be a fun chore

for them to to take on to say the least and it's

I feel like If they don't get a handle on it

sooner than later And it's and it's to do with

the movie industry too, but it's I feel like

they're gonna figure out that there's gonna come

a point certain franchises should not have toys

or the abundance that they do have I mean Looking

at the the previous you know since well for instance

the the Star Trek figures Since they stopped

with Star Trek Voyager playmates used to do the

toys back then and granted they weren't that

great a detail until they got to the like the

Star Trek nemesis figures or first contact figures

and then they started getting more detailed but

they were also taller but when they they got

to that point the they kind of Stopped making

toys and then other people started picking up

the rights to the Star Trek toys and and then

playmates kind of got it back when the Abrams

verse came out and The toys went over like a

ton of bricks Like there was no marketing forum.

They were like I didn't even know they were selling

them until I ran across them in the store and

then They weren't all that spectacular in the

first place So I didn't want any of them because

they didn't have the majority of the things that

I would have wanted anyway Always thought Star

Trek toys were weird like Like but I think action

figure I don't think Captain Picard, you know

like I See I used to have a lot of the figures

but to me the majority of the figures I wanted

were the original series Well, I get like I get

like why to collect them. I just don't get like

Like I don't get how like they end up being like

a kids play thing, you know, I had a friend I

had some I had some I had them all I had a friend

that had like a lot of me had like and he also

had like the the shuttle I Had all those two

all the ships. I had the the the bridges the

the transporters the see I just I don't get like

how that's Think just think looking back on it

hindsight here. Like those those figures. They

just don't Don't see what I saw in them as a

kid. I guess like but at the same time I I did

I did really get into the the micro machines

those I loved I A little ships. Yeah, I collected

all of those and I collected all of those for

Star Wars as well but like I Mean, that's a completely

different. That's a completely different thing.

Well, but The the figures I like to because when

I had them I used to play all the the different

scenarios and you know Had the majority of everything

and it was fun to play but For me a lot of it

was the ships and I had the micro machine stuff

and actually to this day I still have one of

my micro machine ones left because Wasn't micro

machines by Hot Wheels Or at the time were they

just micro machines? It's Galoob. They were Galoob.

Okay. I think Hot Wheels does that kind of stuff

now. But anyways, they had come out with like

they would come out with those three packs of

the different ships. Yep. And then they came

out with this 30 pack at one point. And the only

reason I got the 30 pack was because they came

with the Enterprise A. and it had all the other

ships I already had and I wanted it for one ship

and so we I got it for my birthday one year for

that one ship the funny thing about it is I still

have that one ship and then a few years ago when

the the Abrams movie came out I got the the Hot

Wheels I don't know it was like the $10 box thing

but the Hot Wheels Enterprise A Starship with

battle damage from the Star Trek 6 and I have

that to this day sitting on my desk It's a nice

small enough model that in in full detail that

it doesn't take up a lot of space and I get it

Without having to get the the giant model that

I used to have of it but yeah, I mean to me I

love I love the ships more than the characters

in Star Trek and I like the like the uh when

they had the communicators and that kind of stuff

like I like the the badges and the okay that's

different like getting the tricorder and the

badges and unlike putting yourself in the role

which I did do when I got older right but that's

more that to me that's a completely different

level of you know um like Because all the figures

are like you you've either got a red shirt or

a blue shirt or a gold shirt like they The they

all serve a different role based on their color.

I'm sure right, but they're not I'm just talking

about from like a a figure design Right. They're

not They're not very unique. Yeah, they're not

unique. They're not cool. But like they're getting

the tricorder I don't even know I love the tricorder

I made a tricorder out of wood like my dad helped

me like craft one I still have my communicator

Which was fun and then I loved the ships loved

the ships So now I and I get playing with the

ships and stuff like that, but just like the

figures, you know, like I never got that whole

thing, you know, like That's the main reason

I play Star Trek online is because I can customize

and I can get the ships and fly them and use

them in in space battle and I can design my own

Starfleet uniform with the variations of the

50 years of the franchise so it's that's the

main reason why i play the game because i get

to insert myself in the scenario without having

to really buy anything so but uh yeah what what

do the listeners think on this what do you think

that the franchises are um just kind of hitting

that that fatigue and and we need to see like

uh slow down of it or It just you know, it's

It's kind of weird that we're kind of getting

to that point now that not only or are we getting

film fatigue and franchise fatigue? But we're

also now starting to see toy fatigue Yep, let

us know some of your favorite toys are too. Yes,

and You can you can use the hashtag Just Altered

toys altered toys. Yeah, I was gonna say something

fatigue and I'm like, yeah That just sounds weird.

Yeah, we'll do our altered toys because that

just sounds cool So let us know and get all of

us on the social media and get a hold of me on

Twitter at SCP 21 and yourself sir. I am at Booth

Ninja 81 So until next time get altered geeky

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