Star Wars: The Force Awakens Toys Currently Represent the First Third of the Movie.
Steve Evans, Hasbro’s design director for their licensed Star Wars toys, recently conducted an interview about his job. In the interview, it is noted that the merchandise released so far is almost entirely representative of the first third of the film.
From Fast Company – Design:
“Star Wars is such a great movie, that the director and Lucasfilm, quite rightly so, want to keep the surprises for the fans controlled,” says Evans. “It’s like any great marketing campaign. You release when it’s right for the story. And in the case of Star Wars that story is not just the movie—that story is the whole brand and the whole way it’s portrayed and played out to the audiences as well.
Matter of fact, if you thought you had seen all The Force Awakens merchandise previewed on Force Friday, think again. While dozens of new action figures were shown off, those were carefully selected to be only from the first third of the film so as to not give away anything which hasn’t been already seen in the trailers.
“As we lead up to December 18, there’s a certain amount that gets released,” says Evans. “There are certain surprises from our product line that no one knows about, that we’ll release leading up to the movie, at the movie, and beyond the movie.”
There are a few exceptions to the rule, such as the presence of Snowtroopers and their Snowspeeders, but everything else seems to fit into place with his statement. Something else worth mentioning is that Hasbro is estimated to generate $5 billion in merchandise sales a whole year after The Force Awakens is released. Hasbro is sure to start up another big wave of toys closer to the release of the movie, so we at Star Wars News Net will keep you covered with more news on that as it breaks.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Just keep the new lego sets rolling and ill be happy
Not sure how Hasbro will generate $5 Bil US without actually having stock on the shelves to sell. Force Friday is pretty much universally regarded as a force flop as there wasn’t near enough product.
Universally regarded as a force flop? By whom? Did you research yourself to come to the “Universal” part, or just regurgitate an article looking to sell advertising?
Exactly. It’s (almost) universally regarded as a Force Friggin’ Win, Mr. Tervlon.
Wouldn’t the lack of stock be more indicative of how well they’re doing? I know a bunch of times I keep missing when stores will re-stock items so I the things I’m looking for keep slipping through my fingers.
Kind of like star systems slipping through your fingers…Gov. Tarkin.
Plus they’ll all be released in the middle of winter. That is, after Halloween, Christmas and other major reasons for buying toys and costumes.
where I live the stock wasn’t worth spitting on, there wasn’t much and its still sitting there and mainly for kids, especially the t shirts.
In most of the world the bigger holiday for present buying is new year not christmas – and then there are all the kids with christmas spending money that will head towards the stores – they can’t lose. There is enough merchanise out there for pre-christmas sales.
So i suppose we’ll get a dead Han Solo action figure then.
LOL. “He can lay down and make an impassioned speech before fake blood pours out of his chest” *sells 5 billion figures*
Hahaaa, nice
lol. hey if han truly does die, and i think most of agree he will we better get lando for film 8.
So Kylo Ren and his fight with Finn in the snowy forest landscape takes place in the first third of the film? But buying that. I figured that was part of the climax of the film.
Uh, that was teaser footage. We’re talkin’ toys here.
What I’m wondering is: Who wins the fight? I don’t think they are going to want to kill one of their main characters that quickly, but then how will finn escape? Also, will someone get their hand cut off? It sure seems like it, due to the fact that at least one person in every movie haas had their hand cut off, as well as that Finn holds his lightsaber two-handedly, and Kylo Ren’s lightsaber has the cross guard at the bottom.
Mr Finn won’t escape because either Ms Rey or Mr Skywalker appear to help him and Mr Kylo will be the one who runs away.
Yeah, Finn is getting wrecked and then Luke saves him by showing up at the last minute like Han did for him in Episode 4
I think Luke is confined to the scenes shot in Skellig Island and a flashback in TFA, so it’s more likely Finn is saved by Rey or some other event. Luke will become a main character in episode VIII.
Yeah. I’m still hoping luke will have other scenes, but you are likely right. My only desire is just to at some point in this trilogy have luke totally UNLEASH the force on someone.
No it takes place towards the end….BECAUSE the TOY they released only shows Finn with a blaster (not yet a lightsaber). We’re going by the toys now remember.
this rule applies to toys not trailers.
Sooo….yet unreleased figures are as follows: Finn w/ a lightsaber / Luke / Han / Leia / C-3PO / Snoke….cant WAIT for all those.
3PO has a figure, but not a great one.
C3P0 has a can-thermos-thingy, with 2x points of articulation! Available at Mexican black market stores near you!! 😀
i want to get excited about snoke, i just havent seen anything. are people excited because of the mystery?
Because snow troopers are on Jakku, right?
Haha! You should Tweet that to him.
The director of Lucasfilm is responsible for the secrecy? I think JJ’s ego just took a little blow.
Directors don’t tend to have that much control over marketing, they have teams – read, TEAMS – dedicated to marketing. It was never in JJ’s control.
Which is why this is such a special situation. JJ, tempered by Kathleen, Disney, JWilliams, etc. will be his saving grace. It’s the cinematic equevelant of taking him out of his comfort zone, which will be one of the main reasons this film will be great.
Guess that means no Luke in the first third…..
going by rumours, the last minute! But I think it will be the last third 20-30 mins
i hope so. i like this idea floating that they are searching for him most of the time. i just hope hes not in the the final 2 mins. that would be a little bit of a let down.
Exactly! I think saving luke for the last ACT is brilliant!…I think saving him for the last MINUTE is a major buzzkill.
.. except that those Luke and Vader Bespin figures are part of the TFA line, albeit with the title of the film removed.
Some of you are taking his comments too literal. I’m pretty sure that he meant that most of the toys in Wave 1 represented roughly the first 1/3 of the movie. You also need to realize that a lot of the Wave 2 toys have been released at certain stores (such as BS 6″ and TFA 3″75 figures on Amazon) which show some of the stuff further down the line in the movie. As with anything else online, take it with a grain of salt.
Just give me my Maz Kanata and Snoke action figures NOW.
Translation: We have a potential turkey on our hands and want to sell as much product as possible to ravenous consumers. I’m not expecting something like Empire or Jedi judging by what we know about the film so far but if it’s at least as good as Revenge Of The Sith then I’ll consider it a victory. The cynic in me thinks we are getting another Attack Of The Clones but I hope the original cast and Kasdan offset any of Abrams bad ideas. Just hope that Kasdan and co. don’t suffer from the same creative brain rot that Lucas and his directorial peers seemed to be infected with in the 00’s.
If it sucks though, I hope that Rian Johnson can salvage the trilogy or maybe he can pull off a Kershner. I have very litte faith in Colin though unless he takes some directing classes between now and 2019. Preferebally NOT where Micheal Bay, McG, and Brett Ratner learned their “craft”.
No offense to Richard Marquand (God Rest Him) but he did what before Return of the Jedi? What exactly were his qualification other than not being part of the Directors Guild before Lucas hired him? A war movie i’ve never seen and only know about it because of documentaries. Yet with that in mind one could argue that Jedi is the second best film in the original trilogy. No one back in 83 were ripping apart Marquand and accusing him of being a bad choice for Star Wars, fans just wanted more Star Wars. One does not have to be the best director to direct a good movie as long as the story is good and the characters have depth to them.
Comparing Colin Trevorrow to Ricard Marquand is not fair and i apologize, but Jedi works because the writing and the characters were there to make it work (Okay that and George Lucas) but the point is still the same.
The Richard Marquand film is Eye of the Needle starring Donald Sutherland and it’s one of my fave films lol. I even have the original cinema quad on my front room wall 😀 see it! 😉
If i came off harsh i’m sorry. Like i said no offense was intended. May have to check it out someday.
It’s well worth it. 🙂 no offence taken. it’s just a movie after all 😉 😀
You are right, but Michael Bay has a known style of directing. Would you really like to see thıngs blowing up, and women objectified in Star Wars?
Hello Slave Leia and Midriff Padme. Lol
The people who objectifies them are the fans, believe me. Drawing them in their most helpless times. Beats the shit out of me, I hate it.
Hasbro too if you remember the Unleashed figures.
Actually, yes
What is wrong with you.
Marquand was George’s puppet. Nice man but Lucas did all the real directing. Check out The Making Of Return Of The Jedi for more.
Colin Trevorrow has me worried. Jurrassic Park wasnt good, and isnt the direction i want the franchise to go. i hope he proves me wrong, and produces a story with heart.
Am I missing something or is that ^^ the complete opposite of the entire point of this article?
If it’s not screened for critics then we will know the mystery box is a PT sized steaming turd. It wouldn’t be the first time Kinburg delieverd one.
No movie like this is going to be screened….IN SEPTEMBER.
I meant a few weeks before the film and sneak previews have happened earlier but usually they are great films which this will likely not be but it will make shitloads of money from the curiosity factor.
Whoa whoa whoa jesus calm down.
Ahem…. Attack of the Clones was a lot of things, but one thing it wasn’t was “paint by the numbers.”
The very dated CG certainly was. It was worse than Episode I.
i dont know man, you may be right, we’ll know dec 18th, but i think its at least gonna be pretty darned badass. i have faith in kasdan. i dont think we’re gonna be as misled with the tone of the movies as much as with the prequels. (Not bashing – I enjoy them, while admitting some of the things wrong/misleading about them.) I remember the phantom menace seeing the battle droids in the trailer and thinking man, those things are evil; they looked skeletal, sinister, and something about something thats small in stature but strong is kinda frightening. when the movie hit, and they were more comedy relief and “roger roger”, it belied the impression i had of these skeletal robotic warriors. So far what ive seen of episode 7 trailers, and by all accounts, we’re not gonna end up with poopoo jokes…
I think the fact that these movies are moving forward in the timeline is a huge benefit, too. cool investigating the past sometimes, but when you know the fate of all the major characters and story, it takes a bit of the impact away, and dissolves some of the mystique of the story. episode 7 were treading on new ground.
jj’s good with characters and energy, just leave most of the story to kasdan and dont shake the camera too much..
meh, my rambling take….
I agree with you. In the trailers I thought JarJar was going to be a somber character. (Which I think would have made the movie work better ) But instead we got a peeyusaah ! Over the top physical clumsy character which I realize now was Lucas telling us “look what I can do” as opposed to telling us a great story.
I have to say I’m glad Disney is playing things close to the vest. I know some of you guys would like more spoils but I for one am very happy with the rate of information thus far. I think the marketing team has really earned their pay restraint-wise.
Yeah, star wars leaks are like candy, sweet and addictive, but best to be kept in moderation no matter how much we cry for more.
That is the greatest metaphor I have heard in a long time.
I’m also okay with how slowly they’re feeding us things HOWEVER….we’ve been in a bit of a drought lately…time to change that here soon….
yeah, it is great, take Terminator Genisys.. whole movie was in the spoiler and it was boring as f*** to see the “big reveal” already in the trailer.. imagine a star wars trailer for TESB where it starts with “No, I am your father” …
Also the toy stuff, they’re really doing their work.. Disney is making loads of money in merchandising and they only realease small tidbits about themovie. to keep us hungry. They’re doing an excellent job.
to me it shows they care about the product. most trailers give it all away on the first date. they take all the build up, and excitement out of the films. to me show as little as possible, and use the trailers as a vehicle to make the audience guessing, and wanting more.
Makes sense. I mean all the figures and marketing seem to come from two sequences: The Jakku speeder chase and the large assembly of the first order, both of which I’m sure will happen with in the first half-hour of the film. There are most likely exceptions (I doubt Ello Asty is in the first act). I think the point of this announcement was just to mollify people who are scared to buy coloring books out of fear that it will spoil the movie for them.
I just hope they release a wave of 3.5 inch figures with the 14 point of articulation we’re used to seeing (as well as being decently painted). The last wave of 3.5 inch figures were terrible, especially the resistance trooper.
They’ve already done some, but they were Walmart exclusives and they seem to be sold out. At least we know they exist.
http://www.rebelscum.com/story/front/Hasbro_Walmart_Reveals_More_3_34Inch_The_Black_Series_Figures_165965.asp
well that depends on whether your going to play/use them or keep them packaged. I hope you want to do the former otherwise wanting them to have lots of articulation is poinless.
This is surprising and devastating news, to my wallet.
Amen to that!
A couple of ESB deleted scenes I’ve never seen before…http://www.theforceawakensblog.com/the-empire-strikes-back-deleted-scenes/
The quote above confirms what I was told by a Disney Store manager this weekend – the majority of the merchandise isn’t going on sale until December 18th. I think the strategy has been good – we need to get to know the new characters and will get a bigger buzz seeing Leia, Luke and others from the OT the week the movie is out.
This is actually good news. Thank you Disney for being such a cruel and smart company. You hade us fooled for a bit there.
New canon timeline http://www.theforceawakensblog.com/new-canon-timeline/
I hope they have the lando line in time for EP 8 😉
I doubt Lando will be in it. I watched a Comic Con interview with him and he is not looking or sounding good.
Oh man, now i have to see all trailers and oficial photos again to look for Resistance trooper with helmet , Constable Zuvio and Toowers…
Look at the BTS comic con reel, and freeze frame it when they pan in front of the Falcon where the squadron and resistance fighters can be seen
Hasbro doesn’t have to worry about spoiling the film with its figures since I’ve never seen a single one on the pegs at any store in my region.
Me too, are they shipping in Europe?
They did show about 20 characters at Maz’s castle pub whatever it is location…