[[{{Transformers}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MerchandiseInDisguise_copy.jpg]]
[[caption-width:463: Megatron must be stopped, no matter the [[CrackIsCheaper cost!]]]]

->'''The Nerd:''' We know what the real message is... \\
'''Both:''' BUY OUR FUCKING PRODUCTS!
-->--'''[[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Critic]] and [[TheAngryVideoGameNerd Nerd]]:''' ''[[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/8124-cntmnt The Making of "Coming Out Of Their Shells"]]''

->"How can ''{{Transformers}}'' possibly 'sell out'? It ''started'' as a 20-minute toy commercial."
-->'''Ethan''', ''[[http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20090624.html Shortpacked!]]''

The MerchandiseDriven show, otherwise known as the "half-hour commercial", is not merely a television show with a line of toys, but a line of toys that created a television show, created for the purpose of making so much money for the producers' pockets, that they probably need to hire two people just to keep their trousers from falling down.

The show has a full symbiotic relationship with the toy company or other manufacturer of licensed show-themed products, which is usually the primary or even the only sponsor of the show. The program only exists to sell products, and is most commonly associated with cartoons and {{anime}} targeted at a younger audience. Some shows can start out independent, and with too much success become MerchandiseDriven.

The key difference between a show with merchandise and a MerchandiseDriven show is that in the latter, the toy manufacturer will actually have [[ExecutiveMeddling some degree of creative control]], often able to demand the insertion of characters which are already toys, or even require that any new characters in the show must be capable of being made into toys. Military- or paramilitary-themed shows and HumongousMecha anime are particularly prone to this. Another sign of a toy manufacturer exerting influence is the shoehorning into episode plots of merchandisable accessories such as a TropeMobile. Often you've GottaCatchEmAll or you are ''a failure as a human being'', or so the show informs your kids.

MerchandiseDriven shows are not limited to a young audience either. Many anime are adapted from manga or video games only if there's an existing lucrative market, and older anime fans are known for their loyalty and willingness to part with cash. That so many late-night anime can maintain a decent budget is due to this small but vocal group of fans.

Can be halfheartedly avoided with the use of a SegregatedCommercial. Still, this sometimes produces a FranchiseZombie. However, TropesAreNotBad -- some fandoms even like the merchandise more than the show itself.

Many musicals ensured that potential hit tunes were reprised a few times. This was as much for the sake of the song publishers as for dramatic opportunities like the DarkReprise. The revues, which were formed around SketchComedy and had little to no plot, could get quite shameless: some of them explicitly introduced song reprises as a ploy to sell sheet music.

'''Note that a show can have a line of licensed merchandise without being MerchandiseDriven''', and once the requirements are met the writers are basically given free rein to script what they want. ''{{Peanuts}}'' creator Charles Schulz was famously quoted as saying there is nothing wrong with using characters in marketing, so long as the quality of one's work stays refined. That said, Bill Watterson has famously taken no chances, and limited ''CalvinAndHobbes'' to the print medium, to prevent any decay in quality. (Unfortunately, this caused people to just make offensive unauthorized merchandise...)

Compare MisaimedMarketing, where this sort of thinking is applied where it shouldn't be. See also {{Defictionalization}}, where the licensed merchandise is also merchandise ''inside'' the show. Contrast with TheMerch, where the merchandise sales came ''after'' the work, in order to support it.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* The ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' anime usually advertises for games, with the main characters always catching the more marketable Pokémon from the current generation with increased spotlight towards older generations when the remakes are released. This originally led to complaints about Ash's team looking weak, though he has since moved towards catching and evolving the cooler Pokémon while the girls pick up the slack with the cute ones.
**In an example of TropesAreNotBad, one two-parter is a blatent advertisement for the second PokémonRanger game... and also happens to be a fan favourite.
* ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!'' (although when it was originally created, the trading card game was not around) Its sequel series, ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'', is even more so, causing some fans of the original to complain. Ironically, there's a rumor going around stating that the cards were wiped of text not to eliminate the Japanese language from the dub, but because a rule in children's television prevented "in-show advertising" to be shown (which [[{{ExecutiveMeddling}} the executives]] felt the show would skirt if the cards were left untouched or translated). Evidence for this is seen in ''Yu-Gi-Oh: TheMovie'', in which the cards look like the real cards, and are even translated into English.
* ''{{Digimon}}''. Notable as the marketers didn't care about anything except the merchandise and gave the writers a free hand.
* Probably the most ludicrous example would be ''{{Beyblade}},'' which focused on [[SeriousBusiness a wildly popular world dominating sport]] where competitors play with little spinning top toys and try to tip each others' toys over.
* Though ''{{B-Daman}}'' had a similar premise, based on increasingly ludicrous games involving marble-shooting chibi robots.
* In the same gamut, ''{{Bakugan}}''. At least it has a better justification (parallel universe and all).
*''OjamajoDoremi'' showcased magical accessories that were not only gaudy and colorful, but even in the anime looked like cheap plastic, and featured sounds, lights, and actions that were easy to replicate via the magic of mass production. This [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/415PW38R1JL._SS500_.jpg Dreamspinner]], for example, is ''precisely'' as depicted in the show, right up to the point where it fails to spit out a magic wand and costume -- they're sold separately.
* Savagely attacked (both literally and figuratively) in the final episodes of the {{Humongous Mecha}} series ''BraveExpressMightGaine'', which up until that point had been a fairly straightforward merchandise-driven show. The titular Brave Express team and their boy genius creator discover that their entire world is the creation of a malevolent alien... toy company and their entire lives up to this point have been one long commercial for the company's line of toy trains that turn into robots. Our heroes are understandably upset about this and go on to fight against their creators for control of their own destinies. This is said to be a case of {{Writer Revolt}} due to a breakdown in relations between Sunrise, the studio that produced the anime and the Takara toy company.
** The entire "Yuusha" series was heavily MerchandiseDriven; the franchise was essentially a knock-off of {{Transformers}} when Takara was having difficulty with its other contractors about that franchise and so turned to Sunrise, then already famous for ''MobileSuitGundam'', and asked them to animate several toy-driven kid's shows. The brand never did as well as Takara had hoped it would and they eventually stopped caring, which led to both the above example and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome pretty much everything that ever happened]] in ''{{GaoGaiGar}}''.
* The "success" of a ''{{Gundam}}'' anime series is often considered to be measured by the number of Gunpla models it sells. The fact that many of these series are either good, great, or mind-blowing, seems completely unimportant to its production company.
** Ironically, Tomino made the original Gundam series in an attempt to make the Giant Robot genre something other than a toy commercial. It [[ExecutiveMeddling hasn't always worked.]] For example, the color scheme of the titular mech was drastically altered to be more visually appealing (even though it was much, much less realistic). And all of the other modifications to the original story.
** Gundam is usually better about this than most, though. Rather than trying to shoehorn more Mobile Suits into the story just to sell toys & models, Bandai has the MSV models, whose main selling point is that they're original designs that didn't appear anywhere else, usually given the in-universe explaination of being prototypes or specialized variants that only saw limited production. They occasionally show up in later anime or manga, usually only in the background during a major battle scene.
** It seems that merchandise reasons (to a certain degree) affected the writing for ''GundamSEED'': did you know that, apparently, [[spoiler: Dearka's HeelFaceTurn]] came because the Buster models were selling poorly, and they wanted to give the character more focus on?
**Generally, the merchanising angle has increased as time goes on with execs favouring as many marketable Gundams as possible (shows like ''{{GGundam}}'' were only saved by the actual production teams having the backbone do more than a year long toy commercial. Probably the ultimate extension of this is ''{{SD Gundam}}'', where the robots are an entire living species of roughly human scale with various designs, power ups and gimmicks in more traditional 'heroes save the world' plots.
** It is further proven in the AlternateUniverse Gundam storylines, you know why it is Gundam Vs Gundam in the end? To sell models
* ''{{Zoids}}'' is unusual in this respect, as the original model line from the 80s had no supporting media, aside from a few video games and a comic series produced by Marvel. The second model line, however, had numerous anime and manga adaptations, though only the first three (''Zoids: Chaotic Century, Zoids: New Century,'' and ''Zoids: Fuzors'') saw distribution outside of Japan.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* {{That Guy With The Glasses}}' Linkara reviewed a comic called [[http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2008/12/us-1-1.html "US-1"]] used to try and promote a line of toy trucks. It failed miserably.
* Marvel's ''{{Micronauts}}'' comic book series was created specifically to sell the action figure toy line, but the writers successfully turned it into a well-written and sometimes deeply philosophical science fiction epic, while doing all they could to avoid some amazing similarities between the toy line and the recently-released ''StarWars''. The comics outlasted the toy line, but since Marvel doesn't own the trademark, the Micronauts have rarely reappeared in the MarvelUniverse, and their more familiar aspects, and name, have been suspiciously absent when they did appear.
** Bug still appears without the rest of the team, since he bears so little resemblence to the "Galatic Warrior" figure on which he was very loosely based, that Marvel can claim him as their own original creation.
** MarvelComics had ''several'' toy-based series in the late 70s/early 80s: in addition to ''Micronauts,'' there was also ''[[SuperRobot Shogun Warriors]], RomSpaceKnight, {{Transformers}}, GIJoe'' and others. All of these (except ''Transformers'' and ''Joe'') were considered part of the main Marvel Universe, meaning they could interact with Marvel characters. In fact, even after losing the rights to the main characters, Marvel still owns the ones they created (such as the Dire Wraiths from ''Rom'') and they still show up in the comics occasionally. Marvel also created a few series that were ''intended'' to be adapted as toy lines, such as ''Crystar, Crystal Warrior'' with Remco.
***More recently, after merging with a toy company, Marvel produced a comic based on its own "[=MegaMorphs=]'' TransformingMecha toys. Fans seem to regard the resultant comic as SoBadItsGood.
*Marvel's SecretWars minseries was created to promote sales of Mattel's Marvel toys.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory,'' a feature length movie widely regarded as a classic. Quaker Oats Company agreed to underwrite the production in order to help the launch of a new line of candy.
** While Quaker failed, Nestle, the eventual owners of the Wonka license, did succeed with the re-releases of the film, as well as the remake...
* Possibly the most blatant was the movie ''Film/TheWizard'' which was basically a 90 minute infomercial for the Nintendo Entertainment System. They not only include showing characters playing popular video games at the time, they also showed the Nintendo hint line, and most (in)famously the Power Glove (which never worked as well as advertised, making one character's TotallyRadical statement "it's so bad" more true in the literal sense). The climax of the movie has them going to a video game championship where it's revealed that they will be playing a secret game. The not released at the time [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome SUPER! MARIO! BROTHERS! 3!]]. The climax of the movie is the new SuperMarioBrothers game!
* ''[[SingingInTheRain Singin' in the Rain]]'' is a rare example of a merchandise driven product that turned out beautifully. The studio had the rights to a catalog of songs, and asked some filmmakers to make a movie with those songs in it for promotional value. A more crass motive you could not imagine, and yet ''Singin' in the Rain'' is considered one of the best movie musicals of all time.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''WinkyDink'', one of the earlier examples.
* The degree to which ''CaptainPowerAndTheSoldiersOfTheFuture'' was merchandise-driven actually drove producer JMichaelStraczynski off the show.
*''SuperSentai'' and ''KamenRider'' have devoted whole episodes to new merchandise, and ''PowerRangers'' takes it further. A particularly bad example is when, in ''Power Rangers Mystic Force'', the debut of the Red Ranger's motorcycle overshadowed the debut of one of the show's staples -- the team's HumongousMecha.
** Notable examples of [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands awkwardly introduced]] pieces of merchandise: the Accel Watch in ''KamenRiderFaiz'' and the Zect Mizer in ''KamenRiderKabuto.''
** And to be fair to ''Power Rangers'', regardless of the quality or ratings of individual seasons the main reason the show has been on the air after all these years is because it's still a successful merchandising franchise for Disney. The American-made battlizers/future action figures are probably a fair price to pay.
** The Heisei ''KamenRider'' series do this more often, with Rider vs Rider specials among all things.
* Every single episode of ''MadanSenkiRyukendo'' is devoted to the introduction of some new toy. The main character has four different forms (with four different action figures) each with its own robot sidekick -- that's eight episodes to introduce everything. Then towards the end of the series he gets a SuperMode that upgrades ''everything'' he has, meaning another eight episodes to introduce all of his new powers. And then at the end of that, he gets an Ultimate Form. With equally Ultimate robot sidekicks. This isn't counting the episodes where he gains a new piece of barely-useful equipment (Madan Dagger, anyone?) or one of the two other main heroes gets a new upgrade/robot sidekick/finisher. God forbid he use the powers he already has in a new and interesting way.
** The show's {{Spiritual Successor}}s, ''TomicaHeroRescueForce'' and ''[[TomicaHeroRescueFire Rescue Fire]]'', actually have a toy company's name in the title.
* ''ExtremeMakeoverHomeEdition'', sponsored by Sears, Roebuck & Co.
* This Troper to this day has no idea why they aired commercials during ''Supermarket Sweep''...

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''{{Pokemon}},'' which actually meets the definition ''more'' since PUSA brought the merchandise rights in-house a couple of years ago.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Parodied in the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Cheat Commandos]]'' in ''HomestarRunner''. The show is not only blatantly market-driven, it doesn't even ''attempt'' to hide this fact. Buildings are routinely referred to as "playsets", "Cheap as Free" (the name of the fictional toy manufacturer) appears every time a new object appears, and the show's theme song includes "[[LampshadeHanging Buy all our playsets and toys!]]" They even sell figurines of several of the main characters in the shop (though all in one pack, and nowhere ''near'' as much real merchandise exists as the cartoons imply.)
*For a concise description of the ultimate MerchandiseDriven show, see [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/1/5/ this strip]] of ''PennyArcade''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''{{GI Joe}}''. This is most blatant with scenes where the plot stops to have the team's bridge layer tank, piloted by Toll-Booth, appear out of nowhere to lay a hinged two-piece bridge on a gap that is ''always'' just the right size for it.
* ''{{Transformers}}''. An odd instance of the fandom ''embracing'' this. Toy reviews abound, fanfic tends to feature toy characters who weren't on the show, etc. Most notably, if a character ''doesn't'' have a toy made, you'll often hear fans clamoring for it... the RuleOfCool applies here, and the RuleOfFun even more so, but they're double-edged swords: a sub-standard ''figure'' tends to garner far more backlash than a sub-par episode. The Transformers Wiki has [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/To_sell_toys a whole page]] about this.
* ''HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse''. Mattel originally intended the toys as part of a Conan line. However, focus groups determined that an alternative design was more popular with children. These were sold each with its own "mini-comic" to establish the He-Man mythos, and the television series followed a couple of years later, coincidentally throwing out most of the established backstory.
** The toy-based version of He-Man appeared in a few DCComics, teaming up with Superman.
* The ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon. Interestingly, it was ''originally'' an indy comic created by two guys who were trying to push the genre as far as it would go, in order to make a not-entirely-serious point.
* ''JemAndTheHolograms'' existed solely to sell "Jem And The Holograms" dolls and playsets.
* So did ''JayceAndTheWheeledWarriors'', which were cancelled after the first season because the toys didn't sell well. That's why the show has no ending.
* If ''{{Ben 10}}'' automatically comes off as a toy deal series by first glance, wait till you see its sales.
* The producers of ''BatmanBeyond'' later confessed that they were ordered by their bosses to produce this series as simply a means to selling more Batman toys. However, the producers, creators of the {{Diniverse}} franchise, worked their talent and created a dynamite television series after all.
** Ironically you would've been hard pressed to find any ''BatmanBeyond'' toys even when the show was still on the air.
* The same thing occurred with ''SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' and its story editor John Semper, who managed to sneak in compelling plot {{Story Arc}}s into the gregariously limited animation cartoon, which was specifically supposed to be designed to sell a line of action figures.
* ''MyLittlePony'', of course, to the point where, because there were costumes and accessories as well as the Ponies in the toy line, there are entire episodes where the Ponies are dressed as cheerleaders and in bathing suits, apropos of ''nothing''.
* Anything having to do with ''TheRealGhostbusters'' cartoon that came out in the late '80s/early '90s. If anything, the [[http://www.freewebs.com/gbta/rgbtoyline.htm toy lines]] weren't exploited ''enough''. There were still several vehicles and ghosts from the series that never made it into toy form (for example, an episode where the team goes to Japan and drives the hovercar 'Ecto-Ichi'').
* Two words: ''TheBatman''. There was even a toy that responded to the on screen appearance of the Batwave, which popped up at least OncePerEpisode. Thankfully, it got a lot better with each passing season.
* An excellent example would be the ''Dino-Riders'' cartoon, designed specifically to sell a line of Tyco dinosaur toys. The Home Video VHS tapes even had commercials during the show.
* The {{Bratz}} doll line has managed to launch several straight-to-DVD disasters and a major motion picture, and a short-lived animated TV series that was actually [[GuiltyPleasure pretty entertaining.]] OrSoIHeard...
** The irony here is that they're selling toys that teach children how to dress up like prostitutes at the age of 5-10. And the parents ''[[YouBastard buy]]'' it for them.
* Since 2001, {{Barbie}} dolls have been the basis for a series of direct-to-DVD films. Because they are based on the idea of Barbie and the rest "playing" characters, each film (including those in the ongoing ''Fairytopia'' series) has its own line of tie-in products.
** I can't remember any of their titles, but there were Barbie movies before that. I'm older than twenty and I saw them as a small child. There was a comic book series, too.
* ''{{Chaotic}}'' [[http://www.findownersearch.com/chaotic/4314190/ Researching online archives]] suggests that it was ''more'' merchandise-driven before it came to the Americas. Seriously, not even [[{{Four Kids Entertainment}} 4Kids Entertainment]] would license Yu-Gi-Oh roller skates.
** I've got a Yu-Gi-Oh mini-skateboard...
* ''StrawberryShortcake''.
** Parodied in ''{{Peanuts}}'', with a short-lived character named Tapioca Pudding. Her father is a merchandiser who's determined to license her image on an infinite number of knickknacks, including lunchboxes.
*** This Troper always thought Schulz was parodying himself, considering how many Peanuts- (mostly Snoopy-) inspired toys and other memorabilia there was. This Troper had a stuffed dress-up Snoopy and the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine.
**** This Troper's first fishing pole had a great big Snoopy-on-his-doghouse bobber that came with it. It was the one This Troper ''learned'' how to fish with =3
* A more recent example, the Canadian cartoon ''RubyGloom'', despite its charm, was created to promote a line of clothing and stationery; given which, you'd think said clothing and stationery would be a lot easier to ''find''.
* The ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoons were originally designed to promote music owned by Warner Bros (as opposed to the ''LooneyTunes'' cartoons, for their regular starring characters). Eventually, however, that distinction was dropped, with the two names basically becoming interchangeable.
* There was to be an ''Incredible Crash Dummies'' CGI animated series. The pilot was free with several action figures for sale. Sadly it never quite took off. Which is a pity, the show was fairly humorous. Product placement aside. And as they were crash dummies, dismemberment was not unheard of, and in fact was quite frequent, showing just how bad a crash could in fact be. This Troper actually has several of the Crash Dummy toys stashed away somewhere, and they are still epic.
*** [=YouTube=] link [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDHUeGsyPaQ&feature=PlayList&p=3B4C0FE5A52BC003&index=0 here]].
** The safety aspect was given in that the Crash Dummies were one the few franchises that were launched by a series of [[PublicServiceAnnouncement Public Service Announcements]].
*''Visionaries''. The characters in the show could undergo VoluntaryShapeshifting by projecting an image of their [[AnimalStereotypes totem animal]] from their chest. The toys ... had 1980s hologram stickers on the chest where you could sort of make out the animal if you already knew what it was.
* Parodied in an episode of ''Garfield and Friends'' in which Garfield wakes up in the [[NoFourthWall wrong cartoon]], one with giant robots. At one point, when Garfield is wreaking havoc with the giant robots, one of the robots says "The toy company will not like this."
* Parodied in ''TheSimpsons'' when Bart and Lisa's news show gets canceled in favor of a SuperSentai SuperRobot show designed to sell action figures (and chocolate, and "Entertaining Mattel Products").
** And again, with Trans-Clown-O-Morphs.
* Hot Wheels has had three series (''World Race, [=AcceleRacers=], Battle Force 5'') under this trope, all in the same overall storyline. Thankfully, all three series had some [[ReBoot pretty]] [[StormHawks decent]] [[LeagueOfSuperEvil talent]] backing them up, though it is fun to try and figure out which elements correspond to which hypothetical toys.
* ''{{Freakazoid}}'' did a famous parody of this trope in an episode that showcased the [[CoolCar Freakmobile]], even {{lampshading}} the goings on by using and defining the term "toyetic[[hottip:*:The suitability of a vehicle, character, or franchise to be merchandised as toys]]" onscreen.
** Series producer StevenSpielberg popularized the term "toyetic" after a Kenner Toys executive warned him that ''CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' wasn't suitable for merchandising. Spielberg told the executive to licence ''StarWars'' instead... SoYeah.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* Subverted by the energetic Hip hop/Dancehall act Major Lazer with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4SNtFQZF0A the video for their song "Hold the Line"]]. The film is a mostly animated adventure featuring a Lazer-armed superhero fighting vampires, cut with footage of kids playing with Major Lazer action figures. Even down to the video quality it looks exactly like an '80s toy ad for He-Man or similar. Sadly the toys are unavailable, made for the promo only - especially irritating because they look beautiful.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other ]]

* The entire ''{{Bionicle}}'' storyline exists for the sole purpose of selling {{Lego}} sets, since the company figured a line with a story would sell better than one without. They were right -- no other Lego line sells better. (They also figured they couldn't rely on ''StarWars'' licensing forever.)
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