I think this is gonna be a rough Christmas for those of us who remember how hard it was to get a Buzz, then of course the whole Talk & Yodel Jessie saga (thanks Art!).

They *can't* be this shortsighted again, can they?  Even Pixar films that haven't done as good as we hoped kick *** in merchandising.  

The reason why "Speed Racer" merch. has been "flying off the shelves" is simple: Because the movie was such an ENORMOUS and TERRIBLE bomb at the box-office, stores that had expected (as had the film industry) otherwise were stuck with LOTS of stuff related to a film most people NEVER saw, so they did the sensible thing: They DISCOUNTED it massively to get RID of it and get over their bad bet on the film. That's not unusual, but it's hardly a great statement about the movie's popularity and/or its merch. value. Let's remember that times are tough, gas is pricey, families are cutting back, and when a gift for Junior's birthday can be a whole LOT cheaper if you buy the discounted (and often rebated re. the discount BY the wholesaler, too, in cases of serious burnouts like "Speed Racer") toys...well, let's wait 'til the total figures are in on net-net merch value to the studio/producers of the film once all it said and done, shall we? And don't be fooled by "units sold" until you see the DOLLARS those units brought in, especially if compared to predictions at the full retail most stores never, ever were able to peddle them at except in the first few days or a week after the bomb opening.

In the history of merch tie-ins to movies, btw, the BIGGEST "bomb" or "mistake" of all still goes to "Babe"--the studio never, ever anticpated ANY merch. potential and there were NO "authorized" or "official" Babe toys or gimmicks when the movie opened and was a huge "sleeper" hit. The folks at "Gund" had a stuffed pig that vaguely resembled the one in the film, however, and got oodles of sudden orders from toy vendors for that item which was prominently displayed to attempt to salvage the deal for the stores.

I have no idea where you get the idea that Speed Racer stuff is "flying off shelves." It isn't. Stores are having to discount the toys like crazy, and they have already made their way to Big Lots. I was at a Big Lots store in downtown Los Angeles the other day, and they had a whole asile full of Speed Racers merchandise - plenty of Mach 1s.

Speed Racer toys flopped just as big.

Another factor that hasn't been mentioned yet: WALL-E hasn't been released yet, and its advertising campaign, aside from a few commercials, seems kind of small.  When the movie comes out, I've got a feeling demand for merchandise is going to grow pretty quickly.

Yet another start of the "Pixar will flop" articles.  YAWN

The fact that R2-D2 continues to sell well, and the robotice version is still quite popular, I expect that Wall-E will fly off the shelves, and also have a long life after the film. The robotic unit looks awful good as a big ticket Xmas item for the kids (especially if you can get him to deliver the DVD to the kid that morning).

Part of the blame here lies in the lack of publicity to this movie.  Beyond Wall*E and his "girlfriend" (I think it's Eve but the lack of my certainty of her name speaks volumes,) what other characters are in the movie?  I'm sure there may be other characters but honestly I don't know, maybe there aren't.

Kids don't want to play with just one toy, they want a bunch of different characters to interact with.  The Cars movie had this in abundance.  Ratatouille did not and suffered because of it.  (There is only so much you can do with just Remy and Emile and a few pots and pans.)  Speed Racer has the advantage of different car styles and color schemes to interact with whether kids know if the cars have names or not.  Essentially it's just like playing with Matchbox cars, you don't even need to know that they are from a movie.

Beyond a remote-control Wall*E maybe it's good that no one is offering "toys." This movie seems more suited to video games anyway.  I can't envision a Wall*E plush, can you?  We shall see.

I bought a "Cube N Stack WALL-E" from Toys R Us. That same store had hundreds of Speed Racer items which no one was buying.

Ok, I just looked at the official Wall*E website.  I guess I should have done that first.  So there appears to be about 12 main characters, some of them quite creative.  But 8 of them appear to be "hovering" characters, meaning without wheels or the ability to stand upright on there own.  When that translates to play-ability among toys that equals two words:  Tough Sell

We just started getting Wall-E merchandise at the parks and it is FLYING off the shelves.  We can't keep stuff in stock!  Disney is gonna have a lot of "I told you so's" for toy companies when all is said and done.  And the buzz on the movie from screenings?  Speed Racer is gonna be roadkill the first 24 hours this picture is out!

Ultimate WallE will be mine.....oh yes... I wasnt that impressed with the larger $10 WallE figures...too generic with the colors.  The individually packaged, smaller WallEs  are much better in my opinon as they look more like he does in the film...little dirty..little scuffed.

If Ultimate WallE comes as "clean" as he is shown in the photo....he may be getting a make over...

http://www.raymation.net

craigdvc, I must be reading the article wrong.  Can you please point me to the exact spot in the article where Jim says this?

I see where he's saying toy buyers - the company ones, not the consumers - are making some short-sighted choices and repeating old mistakes by not ordering up Wall-E merch, but I can't seem to find the Pixar sucks stuff.

If you could point it out to me, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks.

Given that the premise of the movie is that the Earth has been trashed by too much consumer junk, maybe it would be a bit hypocritical to have real-world store shelves filled with Wall-E products?

Then again, Pixar would probably be clever enough to brand the real toys as being from the movie's "Buy N Large" company, to help make sure we all *got* the moral.

FWIW, my six year old has been pining for Wall-E for months, and has no use for daddy-the-anime-fan's collection of hastily marked-down "Speed Racer" cars from Target.

Pudge the Fish,

Yes, I can envision a Wall-E plush:

http://www.thinkwaytoys.com/ProductImages/Hires/60267.jpg

They've already begun selling them at WDW.

"Yet another start of the "Pixar will flop" articles.  YAWN"

Nice troll - did you see the article three or four down from this one on the main page?  About WALL-E's potential box office, with a POSITIVE tone?

The site was excessively negative towards Cars and Ratatouille, but it looks like that trend might reverse this year.  Might - time will tell.

craigdvc said:

"Yet another start of the "Pixar will flop" articles.  YAWN"

...and yet another start of the Pixies crying about anything that isn't an homage or celebration of all things Pixar.  YAWN/PROJECTILE VOMIT

Jim, where do you get your information that Speed Racer merchandise is "flying" off the shelves?! Here in Florida, Speed Racer merch has been thrown to the discount shelves almost since the first week of its release when it was obvious the movie was a bomb (and they are still there collecting dust)! So I decided to pick up the phone and call a family member who, for the past 20 years plus, has been in the upper levels of Hasbro. Although her company does not have any Speed Racer merch (thankfully) she assured me that it is their business to know the business, and Speed Racer has been a "disaster" tie in for several companies. Her question to me after hearing a few lines from your article was this, what ulterior motive must you have to so grossly misrepresent the truth?!

Maybe Jim has a cousin, too, who says just the opposite.  Or maybe he looked at hard numbers instead of calling a cousin.

Wow FABSHELLY how very sarcastic of you. I was simply making a point of checking the facts with somebody who is at the top of one of the largest toy companies in the world, rather than "ifs" or "maybes". However, IF Jim has a cousin who is saying the opposite, they would be wrong; and I am willing to bet, unless Jim has somebody in his family on the board of Mattel, he doesn’t have the same “hard numbers”. Be that as it may, it still doesn’t answer the “why would you bend the facts” question. If there is going to be a shortage of Wall-E merchandise, fine, report that. But why was the fabrication of Speed Racer toys “flying off the shelves” necessary to support the Wall-E argument?

If it's any consolation to all the parties involved, Pixar films generally have a long shelf life,which may allow DCP and the toy manufactuers some opportunity to play catch-up. If the movie is anywhere near as popular as previous Pixar films, damand for toys should still be strong this Christmas and for the DVD release.

I dunno, mouseoears, maybe his cousin at Mattel (or whatever) told him so.  

And how do we know it's not an imaginary cousin?  Or that your cousin hates you and is pulling your chain for fun?  Or that you heard/remembered cousie wrong?  Or that Hasbro's leaking fake numbers, as many companies do, and your cousin fell victim.

I'm just saying, oh-easily-offended-one, that your cousin who works for another company might not be the be-all and end-all for corporate espionage data.

If the licensing agreements are being sold to smaller companies, I think that's for the best; it saves Disney the embarrassment of having even more of their toys recalled for illegal lead contents.  I just can't see why Disney continually ties itself to companies who are recalling their toys every other week.  I'd rather have fewer, better-quality and safer toys, thanks.

WB is definitely trying to spin Speed Racer as a marketing success, even making the trade rounds with that claim. But even if that's the case, it's still a car movie (which means merchandise will sell because it's cars) and there's a whole nostalgia train as well. Puma may have made Mach 5 shoes because there was a movie, but I don't think that's why Century City's store sold out of 'em.

The reason why car toys have always sold well is simple: WHile all good toys inspire dreams/wishes in kids (be a cowboy, be a princess, a pirate, a spaceman, whatever) and let them play out roles, very FEW of them have REAL world aspirational dreams attached. Kids want to be independent grownups and DRIVE CARS--even if RACING cars aren't real-world possibilities for them. Their folks drive cars. They are driven IN cars. So CARS are part of both reality AND fantasy, and thus more appealing AND, especially in the era of Danica Patrick etc. etc., more unisexual than most toys, too.

Saw a line up at Toys R Us... $5.99 for a toy you'd expect in a happy meal box?  $9.99 for a "deluxe" version with minor articulation?

I think the retailers made a reasonable choice last winter when orders were placed.  If the Wall*E toys were reasonably priced, they'd outsell everything - but even the low end Wall*E toys cost 2 or 3 times as much as a Speed Racer car.

RLS Legacy, with all due respect, you're comparing apples to palmettos or something---to compare the retail price NOW being charged for the FAILED-movie-tie-in-and-utterly-dead "Speed Racer" toys to the ABOUT-to-release-and-much-promoted "Wall*E" stuff is not a comparison that has any merit. The only really fair one will be to (a) make note of current SpeedRacerstuff prices, then (b) compute the number of weeks since release of the film and wait that many weeks after release of the Pixar pic, then (c) compare at the same "product life" stage of pricing, rinse, and repeat.

How much something can be sold for may seem like being all about the price for comparable goods--but you have to factor in the "MOMMY I WANT ONE!" vs. the "Yawn, sigh, Mommy I just pooped my pants can we go home now?" level of customer DESIRE, too.