[46 Zone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdewater

I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on why merchandise for the Hobbit has not been very successful? Supposedly the lego sets flopped, and obviously Bridge Direct pretty much totally gave up on it. Of course distribution and variety is part of the issue, but it definitely seems like a lack of interest has to be a factor here too... which seems strange to me, for such a popular and succesful franchise to not get much toy interest.

I think the market has changed so much from 2001-2003 to now. Video game consoles and games have become more advanced. Kid's attention spans have decreased so much with the use of mobile technology. Kids are using smartphones and tablets for their main mode of entertainment more and more now. They can play games, watch TV, read, and look up stuff all with one device. I think most kids forgot there was supposed to be a 2nd and 3rd movie given that they had to wait a year for the next movie. I don't know if the data supports this but the Skylande's model seems to be the most viable way to market action figures to children, by keeping the toy somewhat tied to their media.

The reason why this line died is due to a few reasons:

1. BD treated this like the GI Joe ROC line, in that they overproduced and released so many single hero figures, and not troop builders, that once someone got their Gandalf, there was no need get another one. Thus, he pegwarmed.

2. They had too many hero repacks. Bilbo came in 3 separate packs.

3. Not enough troop builders. Of course, this is not really their fault since PJ and weta where changing the designs of the characters, that they could never get get the figures made in time.

4. BD didn't do the Toybiz model by releasing several waves throughout the year. This also lead to slow sales.

5. BD needed to stick to one scale I think. They should have stuck to the 4" figures as they would be cheaper to make, and then go back and make the 6" figures to be special release figures like con figs, or online collector figures.

I don't know exactly, but I just hope we are able to get the rest of the dwarves at some point.