Spoiled by the Merchandise

So much for the Phantasm's Secret Identity.

When toys or other derivatives of a merchandise-driven franchise spoil upcoming episodes or storylines.

In a Merchandise-Driven franchise, sometimes the marketing department releases toys, soundtracks, or other merchandise related to a key plot element long before the relevant episodes have first been aired or the relevant stories have been published. It is worth noting that, just as Tropes Are Tools, spoilers in merchandise aren't necessarily bad; The Merch is often considered a form of advertising for the show, so merchandise that hints at future episodes helps get more eyes watching the show, which in turn lets the broadcaster charge more for ads that get aired during the show.

Compare Late-Arrival Spoiler, which is when the merchandise spoils previous events in the main work, and Early-Bird Cameo, which is for characters that first appear outside of the main work. A Canon Foreigner that becomes a Canon Immigrant is typically an Early-Bird Cameo and not this, but may become this if Word of God suggests the marketing division introduced the character through the merchandise too early...though beware of Trolling Creators in this case. This might be caused by a Delayed Release Tie-In if a work's release is pushed back. For when a piece of merchandise reflects a plot point that was ultimately removed from the work, see Early Draft Tie-In.

For the similar trope where advertising gives away key plot elements, see Trailers Always Spoil.

It should go without saying that Spoilers follow. You Have Been Warned.

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Examples:

• Pretty Cure

Anime and Manga

• Bandai used the same strategy for Pretty Cure, where the merchandise comes out before the show, with Ojamajo Doremi (which always shows that the girls regain their powers in the new season after losing them at the end of the previous one), Yume no Crayon Oukoku (mild compared to most of these, as this rarely happened due to the series focusing on one main character rather than multiple) and the aformentioned Sailor Moon. Out of these shows, Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi's merchandise was extremely bad with this trope. Promotional material, as well as commercials for the toyline, spoiled that the girls reunite with Hana-chan, which doesn't happen until seven episodes into the series, while a set of candy toys released the week the series premiered spoiled Momoko's fairy, Nini, who wouldn't be introduced until episode 4.
• The quest mode for the Digimon Adventure: (2020) Digivice toy released in the first third of the show reveals a few Arc Villains who were yet to debut like both forms of Millenniumon and still unnamed Negamon.
• Dragon Ball
  • Irwin Toys' Dragon Ball Z line from 1999 featured characters and transformations years before they were introduced in the English dub. Examples include Future Trunks, Cell, and Super Saiyan Vegeta (who wouldn't appear for another year), Goten, Kid Trunks, Majin Buu, and Adult Gohan (who wouldn't appear for two years), Super Saiyan 3 Goku (who wouldn't appear for three years. It's a double-whammy spoiler since the figure has a halo, spoiling that Goku at some point dies a second time), Broly and Android 13 (four years), and quite possibly the biggest gap, Tapion (who not only wouldn't appear for seven years, but his movie was the last animated piece of Dragon Ball media to be dubbed until Dragon Ball Z Kai).
  • This extends to the localizations of the licensed video games from Japan, some of which featured characters and transformations that hadn't yet been featured in the English dub of the show. Among the most notable examples is Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, which made it to America in 1997 (just over a year after the debut of the Funimation DBZ dub) even though Dragon Ball GT wouldn't begin airing on Cartoon Network until 2003.
  • Goku Black's Super Mode, Super Saiyajin Rosé, was first accidentally leaked by an Amazon article you could pre-order.
  • Jiren's name was first leaked by a Dragon Ball Heroes livestream.
• Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama:
  • The merchandise line spoiled all six Cocotamas that Kokoro owns a week before the show's premiere. Some of the other Cocotamas were also spoiled by the toyline this way.
  • The sequel Kira Kira Happy Hirake Cocotama also did this, but worse: A commercial featuring all of the Cocotamas owned by Haruka began airing a month before the actual show did.
• Merchandise for Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Detonation reveals that Yuri makes a Heel–Face Turn. But then again, considering she's only one in a long line of former antagonists that did so in this franchise, that's not much of a spoiler or a surprise.
• The model kit of the Shiden from the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans revealed that Hush would end up piloting one (and thus indirectly confirming that the Gundam Flauros would be piloted by Norba Shino). On the flip side, the Graze Ein's model kit only shows Ein's face, so the reveal that it's Ein built into the body of a Graze isn't spoiled.
• Naruto
  • Kimimaro's action figure was released a month before his episode aired in the West.
  • In Japan, a figure of Naruto in his Sage Mode outfit was released a year before his debut in the manga.
  • Some of the Shippuden merchandise made their way early to comic book stores and anime shops in North Americe, way before the series debuted in the West, spoiling some of the new character designs, and some of the new characters themselves, like Deidara, Sasori, Yamato and Sai.
  • Deidara's action figure was released before his debut episode in the West, and the back of his box spoiled Gaara's death for those who weren't following the Japanese dub.
  • A keychain of Boruto's design in The Last: Naruto the Movie was released as a happy meal toy in Japan a month before the movie came out.
  • The Curse Mark stage 2 Sasuke statue was revealed online in December 2007, a month before the episode featuring him debuted in the West.
  • Hokage Naruto and adult Sasuke's design were spoiled by action figures that were released a few months before Boruto: Naruto the Movie was released
  • Shikamaru's Chunin vest was spoiled by a gashapon figure of him wearing it that was released a month before he wore it in the series.
  • Madara Uchiha was spoiled by a Gashapon figure of him that released in 2010, a year before he actually debuted in the series.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The soundtrack for Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel (released before the movie) has two tracks close to each other: "Volcanion Dies?" and "From Within The Mist" (which Volcanion uses to cloak itself), spoiling the fact that the character undergoes a Disney Death at the film's climax.
  • Captures and evolutions are regularly spoiled because of merchandise. If a character is going to capture a Pokémon, a toy will usually be released around that time, with that trainer's name (i.e. "Ash's Palpitoad" or "Serena's Pancham"). Evolutions are usually spoiled via group shots on merch, where the evolved Pokémon will be depicted amongst all of the main characters' Pokémon, with their old form nowhere in sight. An extreme form of this happened in 2020, as merchandise featuring Ash with Lucario and Goh with Cinderace appeared at least three months before their Riolu and Raboot actually evolved in the show.
• The toyline for PriPara does this from time to time. Three noteable examples happened during season 3:
  • The Cyalume Jewel Microphone, a toy microphone that reads jewels and is the the item needed to Cyalume Change for season 3, is infamous for not reading jewels properly, which results in it sometimes spoiling upcoming jewels that haven't been released. Some of the jewels mention new "mysterious idol" characters, some spoiled the Jewel Change ability of the mic weeks before said episode aired and one mentioned the name of Falulu, Hibiki and Fuwari's team. Some ideas that didn't make it into the show were also on the mic, such as the Jewel Wedding Coord.
  • Gaaruru faking her own death and not having to be awakened was spoiled by merchandise sold at Prism Stone Shop, as well as a Jewel and Coorde set, a few weeks before the episode's premiere.
  • The Idol Watch toy spoiled Shuuka Hanazono and Falala's younger sister Galala in the PriPara Change mode.
  • The Korean toys spoiled the Paradise Coord months before their dub of the anime got to those episodes.
  • The arcade game of PriPara's successor Kiratto PriChan revealed the song "1, 2, Sweets" 3 days before it appeared in the anime. The second opening, "Go! Up! Stardom!", was also spoiled the same way.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Some Figma releases act as Late Arrival Spoilers.
  • The Figma Homura comes with a smiling face, pigtails and glasses, which look odd for a cold, stoic character. This spoils the existence of her once soft side in episode 10. The Figma was announced in July 2011, after the series finished airing in Japan.
  • There's a Figma of Homura's Devil form, spoiling the Cruel Twist Ending of The Movie.
  • Conversely, there's a Figma that spoils Madoka's ascension to godhood at the end of the original series. This, like the devil Homura, was branded for the movies instead of the TV series.
• Irwin Toys also made some Sailor Moon toys for the Canadian market that introduced wands and characters long before the episodes featuring them were dubbed. A few Sailor Moon S characters were released as dolls in 1997, including Sailor Mini Moon and Professor Tomoe, and the Spiral Heart Moon Rod and Pink Moon Stick were released that same year. There's a bit of justification for these products, as DIC was going to dub the first thirteen episodes of Sailor Moon S the year the toys were released, but only had the funds to complete R at the time.
• Figures of Vash the Stampede with a black coat, silver hair, and Red Eyes, Take Warning existed many years before Dark Shift Vash appeared in the Trigun manga.
• World Trigger: When the manga returned from hiatus, the anime studio drew celebratory poster art—including Hyuse in his Tamakoma uniform, an event that had yet to happen in the anime.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! often runs into this problem, due to the timing of their sets compared to episodes of the anime.
  • The cover card of a main set is invariably a major monster card used in the anime. As most such monsters are printed fairly quickly after their use in the anime, this leads to occasional sets spoiling upcoming surprises due to the lead time required to advertise the next set.
  • Some examples of this during the run of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS include the reveals of Ritual, Fusion and Synchro monsters for some of the main cast, when there was previously no indication that those summon methods would appear in the series at all.

Comic Books

• Late in the run of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel), the Joe team's Ninja Force encountered a group of Red Ninjas with a mysterious leader. A few issues later, the mysterious leader turned out to be Firefly. This would have been an effective surprise (Firefly was supposed to be dead at the time) if Hasbro hadn't just introduced a new action figure of the character.
• In 1998, the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game revealed that Hawkeye had become the leader of the Thunderbolts before that had actually happened in the comics.
• Initially the identity of the new Batman from Earth 2 was deliberately kept secret. However, a Tweet advertising the line of Earth-2 action figures from DC Collectibles clearly labelled one of the toys "Batman (Thomas Wayne)^note In this world, Thomas Wayne survived being shot in the alleyway all those years ago.," ruining the mystery.

Films — Animation

• The King Pig's Castle set from LEGO's The Angry Birds Movie toyline spoils the reveal that Leonard the pig is actually the King Pig himself.
• Barbie movies:
  • Commercials for the standard and My Size^note a now-discontinued line of Barbie dolls sized up to three feet tall, with clothing that the target demographic, young girls, can fit into dolls based on Barbie in the Nutcracker spoil that Barbie's character, Clara, is the Sugarplum Princess.
  • At least one commercial for Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper spoiled the double wedding epilogue.
  • Many commercials for toys based on the first Barbie Fairytopia movie (and even some ads for the movie itself) weren't very subtle about Elina getting her wings at the end of the movie.
  • Downplayed; some commercials for Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses show brief clips of Genevieve and Derek's Dance of Romance in the climax and Genevieve and Derek's wedding in the epilogue.
  • Like with the Barbie Fairytopia example above, some commercials for Barbie as the Island Princess failed to conceal that Ro is the long-lost Princess Rosella.
• Kenner's figure of the titular villain from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm revealed that "he" was actually Andrea Beaumont, Bruce Wayne's Love Interest.
• Dolls and plush toys for the film Brave blatantly revealed the identity of some of the bears seen in the trailer as Merida's mother and brothers.
• There were two toys made of the truck from the climax of Finding Dory that Hank drives. One is a playset from the Swigglefish line-up that comes with a ramp that the characters can slide down, spoiling the fact that the fish on board escape the truck when it falls into the water, while the other is an RC toy that spoils the truck containing fish inside that were going to Cleveland, including Marlin, Nemo and a group of blue tangs.
• There are two sets of Barbie-like dolls made based on Disney films, one set by Mattel and the other by Disney themselves. Rule of thumb is that, when there is any form of merchandise made based on Disney films, the villain dolls won't be made by Mattel but exclusively by Disney. This actually spoils the plot twist in Frozen since Hans doesn't have a Mattel doll.
• Frozen II:
  • The day the movie hit theaters, the Disney Parks updated the costumes for Anna and Elsa to match, with Anna wearing her queen outfit from the end of the movie, and Elsa wearing the outfit she changes into during "Show Yourself".
  • A display at Saks Fifth Avenue also spoiled the "Show Yourself" outfit.
  • No less than a week after the film's release, a Twitter ad for the soundtrack used footage from the "Show Yourself" sequence, including the aforementioned costume change. To make matters worse, the ad appeared in every other ad slot on the site, and autoplayed when you scrolled past it.
  • Disney waited to release merchandise featuring Elsa's "Show Yourself" outfit and Anna's queen dress, officially called the "epilogue dresses", until two months after the movie came out.
• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World:
  • Funko announced the Funko Pop! figures of the Night/Light Fury babies days before the movie's release. Many fans were not happy.
  • On an even bigger note, Playmobil sets based on the movie not only feature the aforementioned baby dragons, but also adult Hiccup and Astrid with their two children. All released a month before the movie.
• A Funko Pop! figure based on Disney/Pixar's Inside Out depicted a transparent version of Bing Bong, spoiling the fact that he fades away in the Memory Dump.
• Some of The LEGO Movie merchandise revealed details about the movie. Bad Cop's "Scribble Face" minifigure revealed his fate in the movie, and while not an exact interpretation of the scenes, the "Lord Business' Evil Lair" playset revealed many details, including Bad Cop's parents frozen by glue and Princess Unikitty in her "business" disguise.
• The sets for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part tried to conceal as many spoilers as possible by releasing the sets based on later scenes only after the movie's release, but a few details still managed to peek out: first, Sweet Mayhem's helmet-less look is clearly shown both on the back/sides of the box of every set featuring her and on her Happy Meal toy. And second, one of the minifigures included in the blindbag set based on the movie is Lucy with her true hair color and dressed as a pop star...which is literally the last thing you see in the actual movie.
  • A rather odd example being that a pack of girls’ underwear has images of Sweet Mayhem’s helmetless look on it.
• One of the sets for The LEGO Ninjago Movie reveals the alter ego of Lloyd's mother, Misako, the Lady Iron Dragon. It didn't hit shelves until some time in between the movie's theatrical run and its home video release, but pictures came out earlier than that.
• The Moana's Ocean Voyage LEGO set spoils her unconventional method of saving the world from the fire demon Te Ka, via a play feature in which after Moana returns the heart of the life-granting goddess Te Fiti to a compartment underneath Te Ka's mountain, the mountain rotates as Te Ka changes back to Te Fiti.
• My Little Pony: A New Generation: Sunny Starscout's "Sing N' Skate" toy released by Hasbro completely spoils her alicorn form at the end of the movie.
• The toy of Midnight Sparkle, Human Twilight Sparkle's One-Winged Angel transformation from the climax of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, was revealed at the New York Toy Fair in February 2015, 7 months before the film's release.
• Following in its predecessor's footsteps, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree had a few plot points spoiled in the 2016 Toy Fair: at least three of the protagonists will get crystal wings at the end, there's going to be a "Crystal Gala" at the Crystal Cave, and Rarity gets to do a fashion show at the camp. A downplayed case was with their new powers for the movie: One of the first synopsis for the film (part of the dolls' product descriptions) mentioned the girls' "newfound magical abilities", but otherwise left it vague. And in what is probably one of the more extreme examples of this, the novelization of the movie was released...in September, just a few days shy from being literally a whole month before the film's Netflix premiere. And, the icing on the cake: the novelization actually got released even earlier (by a few days, but still) by mistake in some stores. It goes without saying that the entire plot and its details got leaked to the Internet in short order.
• Shrek:
  • The Burger King toyline for the first movie had a Fiona toy that shifted from her human look to her ogre look.
  • Plush toys of Shrek and Fiona's triplets were in stores and on shelves at various different retailers long before the release of Shrek the Third, in which Fiona breaks the news to Shrek that she's pregnant.
• The "What You Lookin' At?" figurine set◊ for The Simpsons Movie depicts the scene where Bart Simpson and Ned Flanders discover the mutant squirrel. The officially solicited photos of the set at least had the decency to censor the spoiler itself.◊
• While the trailers and commercials for Smurfs: The Lost Village try to hide that the titular village is entirely inhabitated by female Smurfs, the promotional artworks used in multiple pieces of merchandise often feature one of the aforementioned female Smurfs (the bow-wielding one).
• The back of the box of the Prowler action figure from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse line spoils his true identity (albeit anyone knowing enough about Miles Morales should already know that).
• The toyline for Spirit Untamed spoiled the dress that Lucky wears at the end of the movie.
• One toy of Slade made for for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies that first appeared on Amazon a week before the film's release spoils that he is the true form of Jade Wilson.
  • Non-merchandise example: some countries got the episode "Tower Renovation", which spoils the fate of Titans Tower in the movie, before it was released in those countries, most notably in Japan, which wouldn't get the film until a year later.
• For the most part, Pixar was able to keep Toy Story 3 spoilers under wraps, avoiding Trailers Always Spoil. Unfortunately, the LEGO toyline outright revealed the incinerator scene with an entire set based upon it, even including one of the Little Green Men operating a crane to save the other toys. While not explicitly spoiled, Lotso's true nature was heavily hinted in his LEGO minifigure, which always bore a mean-looking smirk.
  • Some of the Gabby Gabby plush toys made for Toy Story 4 depict her in the art style of the book she reads throughout the movie that motivates her to get her voice box fixed.
• Trolls:
  • Most merchandise spoils the twist that Branch's skin and hair were originally blue before he became Deliberately Monochrome.
  • The first doll ever released of Poppy, which came out in September 2016, spoils her gaining status as the queen at the end of the movie. The same wave of dolls also included one of Bridget in her Princess Glittersparkles disguise.
  • Merchandise of Poppy and Barb in their "Just Sing" outfits was released weeks before Trolls World Tour premiered on video on demand.
• A series of pillows for Wonder Park that are arcade prizes spoiled that the Wonder Chimps are actually evil characters named the Chimpanzombies, with the latter name being what was printed on said pillows.
• Wreck-It Ralph:
  • In the movie, it was a huge twist reveal that King Candy is in fact Turbo, and is the villain of the piece, having broken into Sugar Rush, usurped the throne, and re-written all the citizens' memories to make them oblivious. But then Disney released their "Villains" O-ring line with slip-covers depicting the villain of each movie, and they put King Candy on the cover. In other words, anyone who buys this is treated to the whole movie's big twist reveal, on the cover no less.
  • The official coloring book went through the entire plot ^note sans cameos from non-Disney video game properties. A coloring book that was released two weeks before the movie debuted.
  • The Wii game released a few days before the movie is set after the events of the movie and spoils several plot points in its first cutscene.
  • Its sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, also had merchandise with spoilers a month before the movie came out. This included a storybook compilation of the two movies, as well as an official Disney Store pin set of Vanellope's "You're my hero" medal depicting what would happen to the medal over the course of the movie, which can be seen here.
• The building manuals of many 2004 BIONICLE toys advertised the 2003 movie Mask of Light by exclusively showing stills of the film's climactic reveal, the main character Takua donning the titular mask and becoming the Seventh Toa he had set out to find. The 2005 LEGO product catalog also featured a peculiar promo image of the villan Roodaka spewing "venom" into Vakama's ear, revealing prematurely that Vakama will be the much hyped turncoat of that year's movie, Web of Shadows. For his part, comic and book author Greg Farshtey tried to dismiss the image as meaningless marketing fluff to retain the twist.
• One piece of merchandise for Turning Red is a T-shirt that features Mei with money and red panda-related merchandise that says "Respect The Hustle". This spoils the fact that in the movie, Mei's friends profit off her ability to turn into a red panda by selling red panda merchandise so that they can go to 4 Town's concert.

Films — Live-Action

• The merchandise line for Barney's Great Adventure spoiled that Twinken was the creature that lived inside the egg a couple months prior to the film's opening.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • The YouTube page for DC Collectibles accidentally posted videos showing off their line of statues for Aquaman (2018), which provided the first look at Aquaman and Black Manta's new costumes. WB subsequently had the videos removed, but by that point the images had already been spread around the web.
  • It was revealed that an upgraded version of the Batwing from Batman (1989) would appear in The Flash (2023) after an image of a new Batwing toy leaked online. Similarly, the appearance of the Dark Flash was spoiled by packaging from the movie's tie-in toyline from Spin Master.
  • Since Black Adam was being Adapted Out in favor of having a movie of his own, it was unknown how faithful SHAZAM! (2019) would be to the 2012 comic storyline it was based on, other than that Billy would be adopted into a foster family as its sixth child, as well as he and Freddy getting into mischief after Billy gets his powers. Then a product listing was leaked, containing an activity pad with stickers highlighted on the cover, showing Billy's foster siblings empowered by the Living Lightning, just like in the climax of the comic. The Funko Pop! tie-ins further spoiled the Walking Spoilers with figurines of Eugene and Darla in their Shazam Family forms. The general toy line from Mattel outright included the entire Shazam Family, not even bothering to try and hide that plot point.
    • Happened again when Black Adam got his own film. Funko and McFarlane Toys both let slip that the villain Sabbaac would be among the cast of characters a few months before he appeared in the trailer.
  • Wonder Woman (2017) went a surprisingly long time without revealing many plot details or who the villains were, until some action figures from Mattel and a LEGO set confirmed Ares was the Big Bad.
  • Similarly, Wonder Woman 1984 kept Cheetah's transformed appearance out of the trailers, only showing the character in her initial human form. However, while the movie itself ended up being delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the toys were still released months earlier. This meant that Cheetah's true form was revealed by stuff like the tie-in Lego kit and Funko Pop line well in advance of the film's actual release. The trailers also don't outright say how Steve Trevor was brought back to life, but the junior novelization came out to coincide with the film’s missed June 2020 release. It revealed that Steve was brought back to life by the dreamstone which grants wishes. However, this plot point had been floating around on the internet for about a year after a test screening, the novelization only confirmed it. The trailers also heavily imply this is the case if you know what you’re looking for.
• Ryan Reynolds jokingly tweeted about a LEGO set that supposedly spoiled key plot points of Deadpool (2016).
• Dick Tracy: Similar to the Batman: Mask of the Phantasm example, Playmates Toys' action figure of Anti-Villain The Blank revealed that "his" Secret Identity was Breathless Mahoney, the nightclub singer played by Madonna.
• Defied with the LEGO Dimensions tie-in with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, whose Story Pack levels based on the movie weren't available to download for two weeks after the movie launched in cinemas, and for a brief while in the actual levels before an update, replaced the reveal that Grindelwald was masquerading as Percival Graves with an alternate ending where the story's events were of the latter's own doing.
• Ghostbusters (2016) had Rowan's demonic possession of Kevin spoiled by the latter character's LEGO minifigure, whose head turns around to reveal a face with glowing red eyes and an angry grimace. Some other toys depict Rowan after becoming the Icon Ghost (though some people just assumed that it was the 2016 version of Mr. Stay-Puft).
• The action figures for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra include The Doctor. Not bad, except that they give his full name: Rex "The Doctor" Lewis.^note For those who haven't seen Rise of Cobra, Rex was Duke and Ripcord's old military buddy who was thought to have died in a mistimed airstrike several years prior to the events of the movie. The revelation that he'd actually survived the blast and joined the villains was meant to be a third act twist.
  • The action figures for G.I. Joe: Retaliation include Storm Shadow even though he was supposedly killed in his battle with Snake-Eyes in The Rise of Cobra.
• MonsterVerse:
  • Godzilla vs. Kong had Funko Pop! release a Mechagodzilla Funko Pop before the film debuted, effectively spoiling the character's existence. Similarly, the Mechagodzilla action figure from Playmates Toys leaked out on websites like Walmart.com several weeks before the debut of the trailer that was meant to provide the first look at the character (somewhat ironically, this specific toy never actually released). Downplayed as it doesn't explain the real twist behind Mechagodzilla: he's actually a reborn, roboticized King Ghidorah.
  • Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire: Leaked photos of toys spoiled that Godzilla goes through a metamorphosis into a pink "evolved" form in the movie, several days before the first trailer officially unveiled it, as well as the name of the new ape kaiju antagonist, Skar King. Other toys also revealed a second major antagonist kaiju which the trailers and advertising kept hidden, a reptilian, ice-breathed quadruped named Shimo (Japanese for 'frost').
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron:
    • Marvel went to great lengths to avoid showing off The Vision's look, to the extent that he was kept out of the trailers and his appearance was obscured on all the posters. Despite this, multiple action figures and promotional items were released in the months leading up to the movie that showed exactly what he looked like.
    • The toy line spoiled that Rhodey would suit up as War Machine at some point, hinting that his role was bigger than the mere cameo appearance many initially believed he would be making.
    • The bio for the Ultron Fathead decal revealed that the character is granted sentience by Loki's scepter, which may or may not be an Infinity Stone months ahead of the movie's release.
    • An online retailer temporarily pulled a listing for a two-pack featuring Hawkeye and The Falcon, presumably to avoid spoiling that Falcon joins the Avengers at the end of the movie.
    • Quicksilver was vastly underrepresented across all the product lines for the movie, which some took as an indication that he'd be the Avenger to die in the movie. They were correct.
    • Funko was going to produce a Gray Hulk Pop! figure as a Hot Topic exclusive, based on a planned scene in the movie where Bruce Banner would transform into the Gray Hulk after being bewitched by Scarlet Witch. Hot Topic store managers were told to destroy all the copies of Star Wars #1 that contained ads for the toy, presumably to hide the spoiler. Ironically, it ended up being for nothing, since the Gray Hulk was cut from the movie and the toy ended up being repainted.
  • A novel called Thanos: Titan Consumed was announced as a tie-in to Avengers: Infinity War, with the book promising to explore the villain's origins ahead of the movie. After the promotional blurb made its way online, Marvel suddenly tried to backtrack and claim the book was non-canon, presumably because the promo accidentally spoiled the film's ending:
    Learn the origins of the most formidable foe the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther have ever faced—a foe whom even a group of remarkable people, pulled together to fight the battles nobody else could, will fail to stop…
    • In general, merchandise depicting Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet can be considered a spoiler for Infinity War, since they're usually decked out with all six Infinity Stones. Not only does this insinuate that Thanos gets all six, including the one sustaining Vision, but it also insinuates the order in which he gets them (since he slots them into the Gauntlet in a certain pattern that one can figure out from trailers).
  • Avengers: Endgame:
    • The team's Quantum Realm suits were revealed well in advance thanks to them appearing in all sorts of action figures and promotional images. The directors attempted some light damage control by claiming that the toys may not be accurate, but the suits ended up being confirmed by the second trailer anyway.
    • Valkyrie's return was spoiled months in advance after someone stumbled upon some official Endgame action figures overseas and posted pictures online.
    • If it wasn't already a Foregone Conclusion that the heroes killed in the finale of Infinity War would be resurrected in the follow-up, the inclusion of characters like Black Panther and Spider-Man in Hasbro's Endgame action figure line likely removed any lingering doubt.
    • Perhaps the biggest spoiler is Hasbro's "Electronic Gauntlet" toy, which depicts the custom gauntlet the Avengers create to restore the populace of the universe and wipe Thanos and his forces out of existence.
    • Pepper Potts suiting up in the Rescue armor was spoiled after a promotional image featuring a Rescue toy was leaked online.
  • Nearly all of the early Erik Killmonger action figures released for Black Panther (2018) depicted him in his own evil version of the Panther suit, even though Killmonger's coup is a key second act plot point that was deliberately kept out of the initial trailer and promos.
  • The various toy lines for Captain America: Civil War, spoiled that Scott Lang becomes Giant-Man months before the movie was even in theaters, with Hasbro, Lego and Funko all doing figures of the character. Funko soon asked sites to remove any images of their toy, but by that point, the damage had already been done.
  • The identity of Jude Law's character in Captain Marvel was kept tightly under wraps, with early reports indicating that he was playing Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel. Then the movie's Funko line leaked out, revealing that he was actually playing Yon-Rogg, Captain Marvel's nemesis from the comics.
  • Due to the immense delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the first look at the villains of Eternals came from the tie-in Lego kits and Marvel Legends figures, the latter of which leaked out online a full six months before the release of the first trailer.
  • The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailers gave almost no detail about Peter Quill's father, Ego the Living Planet. However, the soundtrack Awesome Mix, Vol. 2 premiered two weeks earlier than the movie did, complete with the original song "Guardians Inferno." People who heard it that early would have at least realized Peter's father's species, thanks to the line, "...my daddy was a planet!"
  • Due to the film being heavily delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first official look at Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, including both the title character and the Mandarin, came from leaked Lego kits and Marvel Legends action figures that were produced as tie-ins.
  • The Shocker's presence in Spider-Man: Homecoming was accidentally revealed at a Comic-Con panel for Diamond Select's toyline.
  • Due to how long it took for a trailer to actually be released (with the first look at Spider-Man's new costume even coming from officially revealed merchandise), this occurred for Spider-Man: No Way Home. The fact that the film revolved around The Multiverse was meant to be a closely-guarded secret, but product listings for some tie-in toys that used phrases like "Blast your way into another universe" and "multiversal consequences" went up online a few weeks before the first trailer dropped.
• The toyline for Spider-Man 3 released a few months before the movie was released, and spoiled several characters, including Venom and New Goblin.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Two weeks before release of the original film saw the release of the track listing for the movie's soundtrack, which was to be released the same day of the movie. One of the tracks listed is titled "A New Home". Welp...
  • Some of the merchandise for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) spoiled the appearance of Super Sonic, including the McDonald's Happy Meal tie-in, and the Giant Eggman Robot Battle playset by Jakks-Pacific.
• Star Wars:
  • The soundtrack to The Phantom Menace was released before the movie itself came out. Anybody who picked it up got treated to tracks called "Qui-Gon's Noble End" and "The High Council Meeting and Qui-Gon's Funeral". Oops.
  • The action figure line for Attack of the Clones spoiled that Count Dooku was actually a Sith Lord and Palpatine's new apprentice, even though the movie only reveals this at the very end.
  • The Force Awakens tried to avoid a repeat of the Count Dooku situation by deliberately holding off on releasing any merchandise indicating that Rey is a Jedi and the film's true protagonist until after the film was already in theaters. However, a trailer for Disney Infinity 3.0 contained a brief scene showing Rey fighting Kylo Ren, though most viewers missed this and even those that caught it could easily dismiss it as something possible in the game that didn't reflect the actual movie.
  • LEGO Star Wars was released a few weeks before Revenge of the Sith, and contains a playable version of the entire movie (albeit shorter, more comedic, and lacking any decipherable dialogue). The same thing happened with LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
  • During the build-up to the release of Solo, a French trading card accidentally revealed that Enfys Nest is a woman.
  • In general, efforts to keep merchandise from giving away plot points have increased significantly in post-Disney Star Wars productions, with toy and collector designers saying they've been limited in what they can make during launch periods and sometimes only learn of such moments (and future product potential) alongside fans during release. With increased production timelines and limited chances to release some figures, it saw scenarios such as figures of Luke from the end of The Force Awakens only getting released 2 years later during The Last Jedi product launches.

Live-Action TV

In General:

• Some tokusatsu properties like Super Sentai (including its American adaptation Power Rangers), Kamen Rider, and the Ultra Series tend to share similar regular spoilers due to their Merchandise-Driven nature:
  • The toys for the Transformation Trinket are usually two-part affairs, where little collectibles interact with the main unit to play lights and sounds; said main units often include sounds for later powerups that haven't been revealed yet. It's usually pretty easy to manipulate them into playing those sounds without the collectible, thus giving some indication of what sort of upgrades are coming along for the heroes. However, the toys will usually include several extra sounds that never actually get used, and this is avoided completely when the collectible item has its own speaker, allowing the toymakers to introduce new sounds not programmed into the main toy.
  • The fandom generally keeps a close watch on the quarterly retail toy catalogs. Although not meant for the public, they always get leaked and show off exactly what upgrades (and even new characters) are coming down the pipe in a few months. That said, the manufacturer has since cracked down and limited the information fans can get to just character and item names (and not even that if they can get away with it), no more pictures or descriptions of gimmicks. (Power Rangers doesn't get hit with this so much, if only because it's an edited translation and therefore already spoiled in this manner simply by paying attention to Sentai.)
  • Toku magazines such as Televi-Kun usually run "coming this month" articles, which lovingly detail the new developments (especially the toyetic ones) a few weeks before they appear on TV.

By Series:

• The Battlestar Galactica (2003) Blu-ray release came with a little booklet giving a little bio for all the main characters, including call-signs and aliases... including if they're a Cylon or not. This was a major driving force of the series as Cylons are sleeper agents and many were not exposed until near the end of season three.
• Doctor Who is occasionally notorious for this.
  • In 1973, a weekly comic magazine associated with the series blew the secret that the Doctor's home planet is named Gallifrey, months before it was scheduled to be revealed on screen.
  • In the 1980s, John Nathan-Turner's Doctor Who staff attempted to avoid spoilage in the Radio Times TV listings by feeding the then-BBC-sponsored publication false actor names for its listings, most notably crediting actor Anthony Ainley under pseudonyms so that the return of villain the Master could be kept a surprise. The producers went so far as to arrange for Matthew Waterhouse, who played a recently killed-off character to make a cameo in the next episode so they could get him listed in the credits and maintain the surprise of his death.
  • When the second half of Series 7 was released on DVD, it hit store shelves before the series had finished airing. So those who bought the DVDs had an early meeting with the War Doctor, whose introduction was the cliffhanger of "The Name of the Doctor". The damage was contained, however, quite well, as Steven Moffat promised a special treat for fans if they did not share the spoiled information on the Internet. The fans who'd learned the truth kept the secret, and Moffat released a special interview for the upcoming episode "The Day of the Doctor" featuring Matt Smith and David Tennant.
  • Series 9 in 2015 had some doozies, including: an issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine running a cover story that revealed the apparent survival of Clara Oswald, before her death scene was broadcast, and information about a spin-off novel being released prior to a certain character's reveal (Ashildr) on the series, blowing the mystery of her identify after months of keeping it quiet.
• A listing for the Inai Inai Baa! DVD "Yaho" spoiled the name of a then-unaired "Poupo's I Did It!" segment called "Good Morning Poupo".
• The Mandalorian subtly committed this before Season 2 premiered, when Hasbro unveiled action figure bundles of Din Djarin — the titular Mandalorian — and the Child. The Black Series Din comes with a removable helmet, while the Vintage Collection Din's head can swap for one showing his unmasked face. Even though everyone who finished The Mandalorian Season 1 already knew how Din looks without his helmet, these bundles helped some fans correctly guess that by the end of Season 2, the Child would know as well.
• Even if it was already a Foregone Conclusion to fans familiar with the comics, Sam Wilson becoming the new Captain America in the final episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was spoiled when a Titan Hero action figure depicting Sam's Cap outfit was leaked online. Likewise, John Walker being stripped of the Captain America title and having to take on a new identity (again, something most comic fans likely already expected) was spoiled by a Marvel Legends figure depicting Walker in his black U.S. Agent uniform.

Video Games

• The first indication that Overwatch would receive a Nintendo Switch port was when an officially licensed carrying case bearing the game's logo was put on Amazon in late August of 2019. After being removed within a day, it would receive two further Content Leaks until it was officially announced in a Nintendo Direct in early September.
• The Pokémon trading card game leaked a few Pokémon that debuted in Pokémon Sun and Moon before their official announcement: Mareanie appeared on the side of the box◊, and the Japanese TCG Starter Decks showed off the final forms of the starters (including their names) a day before they were formally revealed to the world. More spoilery, however, is that the Solgaleo and Lunala cards don't hide the fact that they're evolutions of Cosmoem (itself an evolution of Cosmog); a massive twist in Sun and Moon's story.
• Unreleased example; ReSaurus planned to release a line of action figures to tie in with Sonic Adventure 2. The website revealed the names of Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, two characters whose names were previously unrevealed before the game's release. However, ReSaurus went out of business and as a result, the action figure plans were scrapped.
• The boxes for the Super Mario Odyssey amiibo figures ended up spoiling the existence of the Lake and Snow Kingdoms long before Nintendo officially revealed them (thanks to the giant world map printed on the box). Then again, this world map has revealed quite a few things in every piece of media it's been in, since the exact same map appeared in a Gamescom video and ended up giving away the existence of the Seaside Kingdom.
• Raiden, Fortune and Solidus Snake were mentioned in Previews' solicitations for McFarlane Toys' action figure line based on Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty before the characters were even shown in trailers and press releases. Thankfully, only silhouettes of the figures were shown and didn't reveal much about the nature of the characters (keeping the protagonist switch twist a secret), plus fans were already expecting a "Solidus" to show up in the sequel anyway, since he was the unseen mastermind behind the events of the first Metal Gear Solid.
• In 2020, Marvel ran a series of variant covers to promote the "Nexus War" event in Fortnite. These covers included several characters who hadn't yet been confirmed to appear in the game at the time, such as Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Ghost Rider.
• Not exactly physical merchandise, but one of the Steam trading cards for SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is Squidward. As in, the form he takes on when Madame Kassandra fuses him with cosmic jelly for the final boss.
• Prehistoric Kingdom: A couple of details regarding upcoming animals were revealed in the first artbook volume well before they even had renders put up for public viewing.
  • The section for Allosaurus revealed that it has skins for all three species planned, with a fourth skin representing Saurophaganax.
  • The pages for Leaellynasaura included several im-game renders, confirming that it was going to be one of the two animals intended for release alongside in Update 11.

Western Animation

• The Ra's Al Ghul figure for Batman: The Animated Series included a demon mask, thus spoiling to non-reader viewers that Ra's was the demon-masked villain from "Demon's Quest".
• When Beware the Batman was pulled off from the air and cancelled, the comic book tie-in started coming out. It only lasted six issues, but since it was meant to be airing alongside the show, it ended up spoiling the appearances of Killer Croc and Man-Bat, as well as Barbara's role as Oracle, long before those episodes eventually aired.
• Most of the marketing for the second Danny Phantom Made-for-TV Movie, The Ultimate Enemy, tried to keep the antagonist of the film a surprise. The one exception was the tie-in video game, which came out before a week before the movie did and revealed their identity to be Dark Danny right on the cover.
• The second Inspector Gadget toyline attempted to avert this with Dr. Claw by hiding his face using the packaging, making it so that you could only see it by opening it. Since his face isn't revealed at any point in the show (and the toy is infamously goofy-looking), its canonicity is questionable. Regardless, this design made it into the SNES video game.
• One of the LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures sets spoils that Naare is actually working for the Empire.
• In Mixels, King Nixel's debut was spoiled by the 2015 Toy Fairs, which were in January and February, while his cliffhanger cameo in the show was in March 2015.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • The Target-exclusive toy sets spoiled some things about the Crystal Empire arc before any clips from the episodes were released.
  • The "Princess Celebration" line of the main toyline, which was released Seasons 3 and 4, shortly before the release of the first My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movie, introduced a new character named Sunset Shimmer whose card said that she was formerly Princess Celestia's student and that she knew about a portal to magical adventures. Amusingly, the fandom completely disregarded the portal tidbit as simple flavor text, choosing instead to debate the canonicity of the first part. Her being Celestia's disobedient former pupil who used a portal to travel to another world would turn out to be the driving force of that first installment.
  • The Flim-Flam brothers' trading card mentioning their Miracle Curative Tonic.
  • The Rainbow Power toy line. Perhaps the most egregious example to date, since they spoil the climax of the season finale and the Key arc.
  • The Cutie Mark Magic toyline was on store shelves long before this was revealed to be a major theme for season 5.
  • Series 3 of the trading cards spoils a lot of events (big and small) from the fifth season. Along with the card for Bulk Biceps stating that he has a part-time job at the Ponyville Day Spa (proven to be true in episode 3), the card for the Cutie Mark Crusaders states that Apple Bloom may get her episode with Princess Luna soon (Bloom and Gloom), the card for Pinkie Pie mentions "griffon scones" (The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone), the card for Maud Pie claims that she secretly dreams of attending the Grand Galloping Gala (Make New Friends But Keep Discord), and the card for Coco Pommel states that she is a costume designer for a play called "My Fair Filly" and that she is attempting to revive her neighbourhood community theater (Made in Manehattan).
  • The secret Pinkie Pie finds out in "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" was spoiled by the toys a long time ago^note Albeit not exactly: the "spoiler" toy was a baby pony doll called Princess Skyla, but the actual baby in the show had a different design and was called Princess Flurry Heart, so the majority of the fandom already knew what it was.
  • King Sombra's design was first revealed by datamining a tie-in Flash game.
  • Twilight getting wings and becoming a princess was revealed by a stand showing upcoming toys.
• LEGO has an unfortunate habit of spoiling important plot points from Ninjago, such as Nya being the first Samurai X. Only natural, since the cartoon is based on the sets and not the other way around.
• Being a Merchandise-Driven franchise, the toyline for PAW Patrol often spoils upcoming power-ups and characters months before the episodes that feature them are aired. There was, however, an interesting case with the figurines of the Mighty Twins, which avoided some spoilers by not having the names of the two characters listed anywhere on the package. When they debuted in the series proper, their names were revealed to be Ella and Tuck.
  • This trope also happened for the Big Damn Movie's character designs, which appeared on a preorder for lunchboxes. They also spoiled that the new character, Liberty, joins the team halfway through the movie.
• In-universe example in the The Simpsons episode, "Steal this Episode". A Krusty Burger promotion for the Radioactive Man Re-Rises movie has toys of characters from the movie, including The Collider, the film's villain. The Collider's phrases are, "I turn out to be a good guy." and "I die, but I come back to life after the credits.", much to the chagrin of Homer, who had not seen Radioactive Man Re-Rises at the time.
• Star Wars:
  • Star Wars Resistance: Both Women of the Galaxy (released during the first half of Season 1) and the Ultimate Star Wars re-release revealed that Torra's mother was a rebel pilot, a fact that was hinted to be a spoiler by Myrna Velasco and is treated as a surprise upon being revealed in "Rendezvous Point."
  • A bio from the Black Series toyline spoiled that the leader of the Elite Squad Troopers seen in the trailers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch was former Bad Batch member Crosshair after a Face–Heel Turn.
• Steven Universe: In February 2018, 3D foam keyrings were showcased at the New York Toy Fair based on character designs that wouldn't be seen on television until May and July: Past Pearl and Pink Diamond's full designs from "A Single Pale Rose", Rose Quartz in a Homeworld soldier uniform from "Now We're Only Falling Apart", and (in what was clearly a spoiler for a major plot point) Ruby and Sapphire in wedding outfits from "Reunited" and Steven's tuxedo from their wedding.
  • A crew t-shirt from 2013 (the same year the show premiered)combines this with Crazy-Prepared and Trolling Creator: the shirt shows off the Crystal Gems' stones, including that of Steven/Rose. Said gemstone clearly has a point extending from the back, spoiling that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond. Again, this was back in season 1, and the reveal didn't happen until season 5.
• A website about merchandise for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) showcased Bebop and Rocksteady from the first cartoon. This not only gave away that Bebop and Rocksteady would be in the show, but various aspects of Rocksteady's design showed strong similarities to a character named Ivan Steranko. Later, the show introduced Anton Zeck, who wears the same outfit that the website's render of Bebop wears.
• Thomas & Friends does this a lot with merchandise based on its various movies and specials. Specifically:
  • In the Hero of the Rails merchandise, while not an exact interpretation, Hiro's "Patchwork" model revealed that the engines used spare parts from the Sodor Steamworks to repair him. There was even some merchandise spoiling the fact that he says farewell to the engines at the docks before heading home at the end of the film, including a Take-Along 4-car pack, and a Wooden Railway playset.
  • The Wooden Railway, Take-N-Play, and Trackmaster models of Yellow Rheneas reveal the fact that Rheneas gets a yellow coat of paint in The Stinger of Blue Mountain Mystery. Victor's Wooden Railway, Take-N-Play, and Trackmaster models that tie in with the same special depict him in his yellow livery, indicating that he was the yellow engine that Luke inadvertently knocked into the sea when they first came to Sodor.
  • The Wooden Railway "Treasure At The Mine Figure 8 Set" depicts the scene in King of the Railway where Stephen finds the lost crown of King Godred in an abandoned mine.
  • Some of the Tale of the Brave merchandise reveals the fact that the engines find dinosaur bones in the China Clay pits towards the end of the movie. These include the Wooden Railway "Oliver's Fossil Freight" model, which depicts Oliver pulling a freight car with a fossilized dinosaur skeleton, and the Take-N-Play "Roaring Dino Run" playset, where Thomas finds dinosaur bones and delivers them to the museum.
  • Skiff's Wooden Railway model depicts him with his "Skiff's Railboat Tours" signs, indicating his Heel–Face Turn at the end of Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure. The Little Golden Book adaptation also spoils the ending, wherein Sailor John steals the treasure, but loses it in the sea.
• Transformers:
  • The Transformers: Animated toy of Shockwave shows his Autobot alter ego of Longarm Prime.
  • The Tiny Titans subline of Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) included figures of Bisk and Quillfire, one-shot Decepticons in season 1, sporting the scratched Decepticon insignia of Steeljaw's pack, thus spoiling that they would join the pack in season 2.
  • Subverted in War for Cybertron Trilogy, Ultra Magnus is killed by Megatron in Episode 4 of Siege, but as the Kingdom toyline features a new figure of him in his Earth altmode and a promotional poster showed him alongside the other characters, but as with Earthrise the contents of the toyline didn't match with the actual characters appearing in the show: Ultra Magnus appears but only as a ghost, while the figure was mostly made as part of the celebrations for the original G1 film's 35th anniversary. The above mentioned promotional poster spoiled anyway the fact that the Ark itself is a Transformer.
    • The War for Cybertron Trilogy subline (a secondary line of store exclusive redecos and retools depicting more show-accurate versions of the characters, plus some extras such as Earth mode versions of Bumblebee and Soundwave) also deliberately haves its Leader Class figures sold as "Spoiler packs": not only the actual character inside each is usually unveiled only a few weeks after the first announcement, but the packaging features writings in Cybertronian language that feature spoilers about the character. The first one included Ultra Magnus and implied his death; the second features Nemesis Prime, a character whose involvement in the series was unveiled only in the second trailer for the second season and became actually relevant to the plot only in the third one; and the third one included Megatron with the chest harness he wears to carry the Matrix of Leadership in the first half of season 3 (plus a completely unrelated retool of Paleotrex in translucent purple that is not in the show and is there just to fill up the Leader pricepoint, since Megatron is actually a Voyager figure).
• X-Men '97:
  • Magneto joining the X-Men as their new leader was clearly meant to be a twist, with the first trailer instead portraying his return in a more sinister and antagonistic light. However, Hasbro produced a Marvel Legends figure of Magneto in his new hero costume, which wound up being revealed a few months before the premier of the show.
  • Likewise, the second episode's twist of a second Jean Grey appearing was somewhat deflated by the same Marvel Legends assortment also including a figure of the Goblin Queen, Jean's clone from the comics.
• Despite being a series noted for having an air of secrecy around just about everything, Young Justice got hit with this when packaging for the show's toyline revealed that new characters like Blue Beetle, Lagoon Boy and the Tim Drake version of Robin would be joining the cast in the second season.

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