frogboy4
Inactive Member
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- Apr 13, 2002
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It's funny. There's an old story the fabulous Ms Prell once told me involving the first wave of Fraggle merchandise. Due to some snag in the system, Gobo and Red Fraggle plushes arrived in stores months before the pilot episode ever aired resulting in sluggish initial sales souring a lot of retailers to Fraggle merchandise. Some of this was remedied later on, but when I remember where I purchased my Fraggle stuff during in the mid 80's it was always mail-ordered or purchased directly from Muppet Stuff NY.Catch 22. They won't make the movie until it's popular enough and that falls on merchandising... and bigger companies won't want to merchandise them until there's a movie. The general retail stuff isn't the greatest in the world, I have to admit. I like the wall clock and the uh... Shooter glasses... but no way am I wearing a snuggie (even if Bullwinkle, Kinnikuman and Inspector Gadget were on it), the beanies are for girls, and the plush... well, I like SOME of the plush, but you can only buy them in upscale local toy shops that sell only educational toys rich snobby parents buy their kids. No matter how you look at it, though... it IS a start. OH. The comics too. I forgot those.
I'm sure if the movie WOULD get made and IF it ever comes out, we'd see a more accessible toy company do more affordable general retail plush and figures of some sort. And if they ever BOTHER getting the Doozers series off the ground (please tell me they're NOT waiting for any signs of the movie to get that out or we'll never see that either) that would help be a nice push. But so far, just some odd nostalgia based merchandise, the DVD sets that have been out forever (and I never got )and reruns on an obscure channel... there's not that much of a push. Though, I guess that's the best they can do. I really want them to go stronger with this stuff. I'd hate to see Henson's anchor license to be Dinosaur Train. It's not even Waldo CGI.
I personally turned down loading up the Manhattan Toys Fraggles in my toy shop because they weren't attractive enough to warrant the price it would cost us. We'd have to sell them at $28 and buy them in bulk. Most of them would just sit there. People aren't willing to pay more than 14 bucks for a plush or puppet. The owner tried to get the Sababa ones waaaay back before my time, but they never responded to his requests. I think something internal besides quality and sales figures brought Sababa down. They made some beautiful and well priced pieces! Those would move like crazy here! So would $5-9 pvc figures. Project or no project.
But toy companies just see the sales figures and don't take the time to understand why. Manhattan Toys, Mindstyle blindboxing and that Dr. What'shisface's T-shirts are the absolute wrong way to market the Fraggles and could be why Weinstein believes the movie needs to be edgy - - catering to the "high-end" exclusive market of well-to-do young adults instead of any and everybody. Go back to the Schleich people for fraggle's sake! Stores can purchase a case of Fraggles that would cost a couple bucks each and mark them up between $3-6. Heck, who wouldn't buy a Wembley figure for $5?
Anyway, I digress. The fish smells from the head. Fraggle leadership starts with the Henson Company and I've seen great strides by way of the comics. It's that kind of savvy thinking that greases the wheels of brand awareness. I think they could do more of it with accessible product companies.