Yeah, I believe DST is limited to ~15 MS releases per year. More if Disney asks for a Disney Store exclusive.
Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, just about any A-list superhero created in the 1960's or before. That was all kids' stuff before they morphed into franchise juggernauts aimed at adults. Kids coming along for the ride is an added bonus, but by and large these are all adult franchises now.
This is a wild take to me. The products and media for adult collectors are the most visible to us, but no matter what is coming out there is always, always product and media for kid audiences, almost always in greater volume and range of offerings, and the bulk of the most expensive media is made to be friendly to all audiences.
I agree, but I'm not sure most adults would see it that way. With the disappearance of Movies for Adults, people are left with franchise drivel. It's not even inventive or interesting franchise drivel, either. There are no Terminator 2s. It's all stuff that's been sanitized for Chinese censorship and the lowest common denominator.
A few years ago, Alan Moore traced the line between adults' love of infantile stories (specifically superhero stories) and fascism. At the time, I thought he was out of his gourd. It's, err, somewhat harder to argue now. The fact is, half of Americans read below a 6th-grade level and favor simple answers to complex problems. I'm not saying you'll stumble ass-backward into fascism if you like superheroes, but if that's all you like? Well.
one of the issues regarding Power Rangers from an action figure marketing perspective is that though the franchise ran successfully for more than 25 years or whatever that "golden era" of Power Rangers for each person - the set of Rangers that was airing when they were in that sweet spot from ages 4 to 8 or whatever - is different for everyone.
This for sure is the crux of how Power Rangers differs from Joe or Legends. No matter when you became a fan of G.I. Joe, fer instance, it was Duke, Scarlett and Snake Eyes.
I actually kind of see a very slight but similar angle in Marvel Legends where it feels like the designs skew more toward 90s and modern designs as opposed to my preferred 80s looks. I don't know if that's factual, but it would make sense if there's just a larger market of toy collectors in their 40s than in their 50s.
There is literally a Red Ranger on every team though. Even though they are different people in the suit, the general public tends to think of every one as the Red Ranger as opposed to Mighty Morphin Red or In Space Red. Power Rangers has the same appeal as Spider-Man insofar that anyone can be behind the mask. For GI Joe, Duke has to look like Duke. Scarlett has to look like Scarlett. Spider-Man can be either Peter or Ben or Miles....etc. I don't think that having a rotating cast was the primary issue. It ensured the brand's longevity for 30 years if anything.
At the same time, anyone can be behind Snake Eyes' mask, and I know a couple others have been, but... for me, it's gotta be the original.
There is literally a Red Ranger on every team though. Even though they are different people in the suit, the general public tends to think of every one as the Red Ranger as opposed to Mighty Morphin Red or In Space Red. Power Rangers has the same appeal as Spider-Man insofar that anyone can be behind the mask. For GI Joe, Duke has to look like Duke. Scarlett has to look like Scarlett. Spider-Man can be either Peter or Ben or Miles....etc. I don't think that having a rotating cast was the primary issue. It ensured the brand's longevity for 30 years if anything.
So, coming at this as a parent of a kid who was very into power Rangers - he loved Dino Thunder, SPD and Samurai - but when his cousin tried to give him some of the RPM ranger figures he didn't want them. Those weren't the Power Rangers he liked. The costumes were wrong and funny looking. When we saw some Mystic Force toys at a garage sale he didn't want them either because those weren't the power rangers he preferred.
He had a lot of Samurai Rangers toys because that was what was on toy shelves at the time because that was what was currently airing. It was harder to find toys from those old seasons he liked and he absolutely did not want just any Ranger from any season. His tastes were specific to the seasons he liked best and any old Red Ranger would not do...
His tastes were specific to the seasons he liked best and any old Red Ranger would not do...
As an adult, I'm the same way. There's a PR season for everyone! That's part of the appeal to a lot of the fans, I think.
As an adult, I'm the same way. There's a PR season for everyone! That's part of the appeal to a lot of the fans, I think.
But this makes it harder to broadly sell a figure line - if fans will only buy figures of the season they prefer and there are 25 different line ups - how do you sell enough of any given line up to make it worth producing? I think that's a problem Hasbro ultimately faced with Lightning Collection. They don't have the same issue with Star Wars, G.I. Joe or even Marvel Legends
As an adult, I'm the same way. There's a PR season for everyone! That's part of the appeal to a lot of the fans, I think.
But this makes it harder to broadly sell a figure line - if fans will only buy figures of the season they prefer and there are 25 different line ups - how do you sell enough of any given line up to make it worth producing? I think that's a problem Hasbro ultimately faced with Lightning Collection. They don't have the same issue with Star Wars, G.I. Joe or even Marvel Legends
That is my number one guess as to the real culprit for the line's cancelation. Still, I don't know if there's a HUGE difference between PR and the others.
PR--maybe you're all-in, maybe you just buy the seasons you like.
Star Wars--maybe you're all-in, maybe you just buy OT, or the movies or the shows you like.
Marvel--Maybe you're all-in, maybe you just buy X-Men or Avengers.
I'm guessing there's more "all-in" for Marvel and Star Wars than there was for PR.
There is literally a Red Ranger on every team though. Even though they are different people in the suit, the general public tends to think of every one as the Red Ranger as opposed to Mighty Morphin Red or In Space Red. Power Rangers has the same appeal as Spider-Man insofar that anyone can be behind the mask. For GI Joe, Duke has to look like Duke. Scarlett has to look like Scarlett. Spider-Man can be either Peter or Ben or Miles....etc. I don't think that having a rotating cast was the primary issue. It ensured the brand's longevity for 30 years if anything.
So, coming at this as a parent of a kid who was very into power Rangers - he loved Dino Thunder, SPD and Samurai - but when his cousin tried to give him some of the RPM ranger figures he didn't want them. Those weren't the Power Rangers he liked. The costumes were wrong and funny looking. When we saw some Mystic Force toys at a garage sale he didn't want them either because those weren't the power rangers he preferred.
He had a lot of Samurai Rangers toys because that was what was on toy shelves at the time because that was what was currently airing. It was harder to find toys from those old seasons he liked and he absolutely did not want just any Ranger from any season. His tastes were specific to the seasons he liked best and any old Red Ranger would not do...
How old was he? Taste may be more discerning as kids age.
As an adult, I'm the same way. There's a PR season for everyone! That's part of the appeal to a lot of the fans, I think.
But this makes it harder to broadly sell a figure line - if fans will only buy figures of the season they prefer and there are 25 different line ups - how do you sell enough of any given line up to make it worth producing? I think that's a problem Hasbro ultimately faced with Lightning Collection. They don't have the same issue with Star Wars, G.I. Joe or even Marvel Legends
Theoretically, it should be easier. You have a variety of different characters as opposed to the same characters over and over and over.
There are fans who would buy any Ranger and every Ranger (me) and then there were those who were more selective. I think for those that aren't hardcore fans, this stems from the rather negative perception of Power Rangers once you reach a certain age. At that point, you drop it and then enjoy the "cooler" stuff. Like Marvel.
I can certainly see how one could convince themself that refreshing Power Rangers every season or so can lead to longevity. I'm not sure it's worked in practice. At least not in the States. There's a reason why third parties seem only interested in licensing out MMPR from Hasbro. I know for me as a kid, I was done when they changed the red, black, and yellow rangers. I didn't even make it to the costume change.
I mean they got a solid 30+ year run out of the franchise, so at least in terms of marketing to the core audience of children, it seemed to work for a long time. The issue then becomes that giving the audience a clear jumping off point means none of the later teams have the same sort of nostalgic appeal since the MMPR team was together in some capacity for something like 4 and 1/2 seasons, whereas most of the subsequent teams were one and dones.
I can certainly see how one could convince themself that refreshing Power Rangers every season or so can lead to longevity. I'm not sure it's worked in practice. At least not in the States. There's a reason why third parties seem only interested in licensing out MMPR from Hasbro. I know for me as a kid, I was done when they changed the red, black, and yellow rangers. I didn't even make it to the costume change.
It seems to be an issue in the States. It's worked for 50 years in Japan. There's a new team every year. We must not like change.
I mean, I don’t think that’s entirely dissimilar from Marvel Legends, which also has the unenviable task of appealing to a bunch of different demographics and age groups regarding what they each think of when they think of Marvel. There are people who only buy classic figures, people who only buy 90s X-Men stuff, people who only buy MCU stuff, and every other possible medium or era you can think of. And as this board can attest, similar “Who asked for this?!” bitterness when something a fan might not personally be interested in gets announced, even if it may appeal to someone else. (The recent X-Men 97 Sentinel is a perfect example of this; doing a popular antagonist from a hit TV show seems like a no brainer to me, but some fans reacted like Hasbro had just punched their mom in the stomach.)
Different kinds of longevity, perennial vs. regrowth. Which probably has to do with the different formats: comics and toys don't have the issues of actors aging out or passing away that a live-action series has. So the best thing you can do with a live-action kids franchise is continually try to refresh the concept for the next kids to come along. Franchises like DC or Marvel have a bit of an equivalent where they have different versions of the same properties for different age groups, meaning that there's both refresh and...kind of an upcycling, I guess? There's always going to be a segment that wants to stick with it as they age, so you can push them into darker takes and more expensive collectibles over time.
Some people might stick with Power Rangers because they just love the feel of it, but I bet a lot of the kids who love the concept and not just their team also get into Super Sentai or Ultraman or Kamen Rider when they get a bit older. Or even kaiju stuff.
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