IO 9 has some articles on the ships
and stormtroopers in Rogue One.
Hey, look who actually has an action figure! Nice to see that we won't be needing a "Where's Jyn" hashtag campaign.
it's a living
How that happened (Rey not getting a toy) still baffles me. Princess Leia got a toy, and that was 1978.
Especially since Rey is indisputably the main character of TFA. And their "oh we didn't want to spoil anything" excuse doesn't really hold much water for me.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
it's a living
Yeah, I've heard that. How is that even a spoiler? It's not like she suddenly becomes the main character at the end of the movie. That would be quite a trick if you could pull *that* off.
I know, right? Pretty much everybody who was paying attention to the film's development knew she was the main character. They weren't exactly trying to hide it in the marketing - she was featured front and center on all the posters. Hell, on some of the posters, she was the only character shown. (Aside from BB-8, and we all knew he probably wasn't the main character.)
If memory serves, their story was "oh, we'd have to give her the lightsaber, and that would be a spoiler." It's true that that would be a spoiler, but...why do you have to give her the lightsaber? She doesn't even use it until the last like 10 minutes of the movie. Give her the staff! That's what she's holding in all the trailers and promo images anyway. Or just include the lightsaber in the figure pack and don't associate with any one specific character!
It's bizarre, because they were essentially throwing money away with that decision. People like Rey. A big line of Rey figures would sell gangbusters. Hell, I'm not a merchandise fan in any sense of the word, and even I'd consider picking up a Rey statue if I saw a cool one.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
it's a living
There was an official action figure of the deathstick merchant guy from Episode II ("Elan Sleazebaggano"), and people bought that. I mean, it's not a valuable collector's item or anything, but people still bought it. I think that's all you need to know right there about the elder generation of Star Wars fans. And as for the kids, who are these movies for if not kids who want to run around with lightsabers? Rey should've have had her staff (had she had a toy at the time), but I don't see any reason not to let her have the lightsaber too, spoilers be damned. Seriously, the people who are so into an upcoming movie that they're buying the toys or even just scrutinizing toys they have no intention of buying are obviously probably not that worried about being spoiled on anything.
edited 15th Jul '16 7:04:10 PM by Unsung
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And now you see the benefits of having George Lucas having sole rights over the Star Wars merchandising before he sold it to Disney. If 20th Century Fox had kept them, they'll probably allow the toy companies to not make a Princess Leia action figure at all.
It doesn't help either that female action figures are just not produced much at all. And it's not like they have a one character, one figure rule. Have the first wave of toys be desert scavenger Rey in full gear with her staff and goggles on her head to avoid spoilers, in later waves include Jedi trainee Rey in lighter clothing and a lightsaber.
Transformers did something similar with Soundwave to hide the reveal of him as Carly's Mercedes in DOTM.
Yeah. Every other major franchise manages to merchandise the hell out of every character without unduly spoiling the film. (Well, assuming those characters are male.) If we sitting here at our keyboards can spit out several solutions to potential spoiler problems, then a massive corporation ought to be able to.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
it's a living
...That just makes it harder for me to understand. It seems like the default would be making an action figure out of everyone even vaguely important to generate more merchandise to sell. Here, somebody had to sit down, think about it, and then actually come to the decision to exclude both the movie's main character and second-most distinctive-looking character from the toyline— both being women. Because to put the 'we didn't want to spoil anything' argument to bed, what could Phasma getting a toy have spoiled? That she really didn't get to do much in the movie?
edited 15th Jul '16 9:02:11 PM by Unsung
Can't wait to get that Black Series Jyn action figure.
Toy Companies when they have few or zero toy models of Jyn: "We felt felt kick-ass rebellious figures make unsuitable role models for little girls, so understandably we didn't make any toys of her, even though she's explicitly the main character so we can't use the same excuse as last time."
So anything about that trailer that's supposed to appear on ABC?
Well, realize too that "we" are millions of people with different ideas, so of course we are going to come to a solution that fixes the problem we are talking about, but the war machine that are toy companies and other corporations often operate under the premise of "Unless otherwise noted, do what you usually do."
I've heard zilch, so I'm safely assuming nothing of the sort was shown. Which is kinda irking me right now, like, how long was it between them revealing TFA's second trailer at Celebration and then releasing it to everyone else? I wasn't paying much attention to Star Wars stuff back then, but I didn't think the wait was more than a day..?
Could be wrong, but my impression was that while there was no new trailer shown, they did show a celebration reel that has some new footage in it.
Star Wars Twitter and Facebook introduced a guy called Edrio Two Tubes that's some species called a Tognath. Wonder what role he'll be playing.
The sites say he is a bounty hunter so probably Boba Fett knockoff 5.0.
From what I've heard he's going to be part of Saw Gerrera's group of Rebel Alliance radicals.
They could have depicted Rey with the blaster that Han gives her (it's not like it'd be a spoiler since there's a shot in the trailer of her firing it).
If Jyn suffers this treatment as well then it'll be hard to conclude that it's anything other than "toy companies are afraid to invest that much in female figures, even if they're the MAIN CHARACTERS of the films."
Yeah, Edrio is a part of Saw Gerrerra's Rebels.
I imagine they'll be a bunch of red shirts for the most part and that only the strike team will (maybe) survive the movie unharmed.
Let's be real, I'm expecting a few deaths from the main cast, and that's me being generous.
Actually from what I've been hearing, the ABC footage is just the BTS that they already played THREE times. The "extra stuff," was just for the convention attendees (I hate when studios do that BTW, it's not fair to the rest of us who just couldn't be there for various reasons) and won't be broadcast on TV.
Which is extra weird since THE thing that would have built the most hype for the film is in that "extra exclusive footage." Also, the panel was just underwhelming in-general I thought.