LogFAQs > #956463768

Censor Bypass posted...

Are they not selling toys tied in to this? That's like 90% of the revenue, who would sign that deal?

Merchandising is how it's often worked with conventional television, where the toy companies were the ones making the cartoons (hence the phrase creating "30-minute toy commercials", because that was literally the agenda) or the production costs were largely offset by merchandising (which may or not include toys). The new show was commissioned by NF as original content. It's very fucking different.

More importantly, the "30-minute toy commercial" stopped being a thing by the late 90s for a variety of reasons. That's why most cartoons (and a lot of entertainment) now have very little in the way of merchandise. (And even the Marvel movies fold their movie-themed stuff into the normal toylines most of the time, with the exception of IM2... which is probably why they adopted that approach afterward.)

Basically you're stupidly asking "Hurr durr, why dun it work like it did in the 80s?" when nothing is being approached like it was in the 80s. The show isn't on basic television so it doesn't have the same reach it did. The show isn't being marketed for kids, so it doesn't have the same audience (although it does have collectibles -- more on that in a minute). The show very likely doesn't bring in new characters each episode -- who somehow save the day or threaten the heroes in some weird way -- which was the way that shit worked at the time (such as the episode that specifically called for a robot horse that appeared in the beginning and end of the episode). The storytelling has -- for better or worse -- changed, which kinda kills that approach.

As for the toys now... the new show doesn't have much merch (iirc, like 5 figures -- all geared more towards adult collectors, with a $20-25 price tag... although it looks like wave 2 added 3 more), but there's a lot of MotUC retro-themed stuff out atm (the Origins line), which started coming out a few years ago, and direct-to-customer campaigns that never see toy shelves. MotUC's merch hasn't been driven by the cartoons since maybe the 90s, since even the 2000s series didn't do much.

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