No Muppet Merchandise at Disney's NY Store

[Luke]

Well its a different ballgame. Toy fair events are for licensees (ie. Mindstyle, eFX etc) showing product to retailers and the press. Brand licensing events are for the licensors (ie Disney, Henson) showing projects and brands to potential licensees .. so i doubt this time last year all the licenses would have been signed for a movie not happening for two years. But there may well have been something on show, there would definitely have been at Brand Licensing trade shows and events ... but Toughpigs or any casual visitors or press wouldn't have seen it as they keep that kinda stuff hidden away and only show it to their big clients sworn to secrecy.

Been there, done that, lol.

 

[beaker]

ok, didn't Disney buy the 'Muppets' ? as in Miss Piggy and Kermit?

So why did the Disney store in Time Sqaure in New York have NO Muppet products? How do they expect the brand and the new movie as a hit, with NO PR surrounding the Muppets?

I can't but help think that the Muppets have had their hey-day- the 70's and 80's - and like Muppets from Space.. It won't have the pulling power the brand once did.

No Disney retail stores in America have any Muppet related products. They clearanced what little they had a few months ago. The Disney parks, especially Walt Disney World has a good amount of stuff. It's next year, especially the summer and fall where Disney stores and elsewhere will have a lot of Muppet products.

If you want Muppet awesomeness in NYC, Im surprised you didnt go to FAO Swarz!
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/FAO

 

[beaker]

UK Toy Fair is in late January, it is usually the first indication of what products will come out during the year worldwide, so we are weeks away from seeing what movie merch is going to happen. US toy fair happens shortly after.

I am greatly awaiting both UK and NY Toy Fair coverage for Muppets, as well as Sonic and Nintendo/Mario merchandise(and any other video game related merchandise) Each year I am shocked that collector/niche market/cool toys still get made, as it seems it's a world that keeps shrinking(especially with cost and retailer space)

We used to always have Muppet/Henson products shown at NY Toy Fair, but the last two years there's been virtually nothing. So I can only imagine what stuff will be displayed for us to go gaga over soon!

 

[Drtooth]

Well its a different ballgame. Toy fair events are for licensees (ie. Mindstyle, eFX etc) showing product to retailers and the press. Brand licensing events are for the licensors (ie Disney, Henson) showing projects and brands to potential licensees .. so i doubt this time last year all the licenses would have been signed for a movie not happening for two years. But there may well have been something on show, there would definitely have been at Brand Licensing trade shows and events ... but Toughpigs or any casual visitors or press wouldn't have seen it as they keep that kinda stuff hidden away and only show it to their big clients sworn to secrecy.

Again, that is what's so strange about it. But I'm guessing that's why they didn't allow pictures. To make an educated guess about it, it seems like they produced the prototypes or test products, had them all ready to go to TF, and somehow, someone over their head made an executive decision that they'd sell better near the movie's production at a time when it was too late to pack them up. Either that or somehow they felt the movie would start filming a LOT sooner than it did and just wanted to be ready. Wonder if they're general retail stuff or they were exclusives to the Disney Store. That might also have something to do with it.

Though it still seems to me they're trying to subliminally get the hint out that there WILL be a movie and they were trying to create buzz among retailers early.

I am greatly awaiting both UK and NY Toy Fair coverage for Muppets, as well as Sonic and Nintendo/Mario merchandise(and any other video game related merchandise) Each year I am shocked that collector/niche market/cool toys still get made, as it seems it's a world that keeps shrinking(especially with cost and retailer space)

The worst part is that they're trying to connect with collectors via crappy niches. Fakey vynal wannabes... those large old school G.I. Joe like things with real cloth clothes (action figures do NOT have cloth clothes... dolls do)... and all this other bizarre expensive stuff I could care less for. Sigh... I miss earlier in the decade when everything you could possibly imagine was an action figure... and market oversaturation killed it (especially MacFarline and their nihilistic Twisted fairy tale junk and their even stupider sports hero collectibles)..

 

[beaker]

Again, that is what's so strange about it. But I'm guessing that's why they didn't allow pictures. To make an educated guess about it, it seems like they produced the prototypes or test products, had them all ready to go to TF, and somehow, someone over their head made an executive decision that they'd sell better near the movie's production at a time when it was too late to pack them up. Either that or somehow they felt the movie would start filming a LOT sooner than it did and just wanted to be ready. Wonder if they're general retail stuff or they were exclusives to the Disney Store. That might also have something to do with it.

Though it still seems to me they're trying to subliminally get the hint out that there WILL be a movie and they were trying to create buzz among retailers early.



The worst part is that they're trying to connect with collectors via crappy niches. Fakey vynal wannabes... those large old school G.I. Joe like things with real cloth clothes (action figures do NOT have cloth clothes... dolls do)... and all this other bizarre expensive stuff I could care less for. Sigh... I miss earlier in the decade when everything you could possibly imagine was an action figure... and market oversaturation killed it (especially MacFarline and their nihilistic Twisted fairy tale junk and their even stupider sports hero collectibles)..

The 1990's I have to say were the absolute best time for action figures, right through the early 2000's. You remember the great Crash Bandicoot and Sonic the Hedgehog figures from Resaurus in the 1998-2000 time frame? Or all the Toy Biz Nintendo and Capcom figures?

 

[Drtooth]

That said, last time I went to Disney, they still had some shirts (mostly kids ones, though)... Every single ornament sold except for the Wicked Queen in Snow White, so you'd be completely out of luck looking for that past Christmas.