10 Failed Toy Lines Based on Movies

Posted by Miss Cellania in Movies & SciFi, Toy & Video Games on May 20, 2009 at 8:42 am



Because Star Wars created a demand for movie toys (and none existed when the movie premiered), toy companies now make them available before they know whether the movie is a hit or a bomb. This makes for lots of wasted product when a movie tanks. Topless Robot has ten examples they should have seen coming. I had no idea there were action figures for Battlefield Earth! I want one, just for the kitsch value. Link -via Digg


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12 comments to "10 Failed Toy Lines Based on Movies"

  1. Gauldar
    May 20th, 2009 at 9:57 am

    Great list, and love the comments left by other people on there. Reading all that reminded me of that video of Kevin Smith talking about the Superman move script he worked on that never got into the production phase.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk

  2. Byrd Brain
    May 20th, 2009 at 10:18 am

    I've always questioned the wisdom of making children's toys for R rated movies when your target demographic (hopefully) will not even be able to see the movie. I'm talking about movies like Rambo and T2 that came out YEARS before the toy collecting by adults became big enough for toy companies to be marketing to Comic Book Guys.

  3. seefish3
    May 20th, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    I've never understood the vehemence with which people knock "Battlefield Earth".
    "American Beauty", "Lost in Translation" and Kim Basinger's performance in "L.A.Confidential" all won Acadamy awards! And you call "Battlefield" a dog?
    Ever seen "Gattica" or "A.I."? Sheesh!

  4. Gauldar
    May 20th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

    @seefish3

    Doesn't take much for a movie to flop, but support it with a religion and it'll get the crap slammed out of it. I never did see any of those accept for Lost in Translation, which I actualy liked but most people I know didn't care for it.

  5. Thomas
    May 20th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

    I loved Battlefield Earth. Its one of my favorite movies.

  6. ted
    May 20th, 2009 at 10:59 pm

    Right after the Scientology recruiting film, Thomas?

  7. Gauldar
    May 20th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    Teh power of Xenu compells you!

  8. seefish3
    May 21st, 2009 at 3:55 am

    @Gauldar
    "Doesn’t take much for a movie to flop, but support it with a religion and it’ll get the crap slammed out of it."

    Y'mean like "Valkyrie"? With Hollywood in this current pathetic state, I try to keep it to "Product, not person". Most actors' social lives are so effed up you can't ignore it, but I try.

    Didn't "Lost in Translation" strike you as one long ethnic slur? If you made that movie about blacks in South Africa, you'd be burned at the stake! (there's that Salem reference, again...)

  9. Gauldar
    May 21st, 2009 at 9:59 am

    @seefish3

    Ethnic slur towards Japanese people? Not really, but then again, I'm a white guy so I don't see it from a different perspective. The only part which could be concidered offencsive was the "brack toe" joke in the sushi bar, which I got a chuckle out of. My sister had an asian friend which shared an interest in "engrish" humor, so I guess I never though anything of it. People living in Japan are quite xenophobic too though, I mean, they only had an atomic bomb dropped on them only 60 years ago so I kind of expect that. If people can keep up wars for 400 years, 60 years isn't a very long time. Havn't seen Valkyrie, but I did think The Last Sumruari that Cruise in was good.

  10. Gauldar
    May 21st, 2009 at 10:21 am

    I mean The Last Samurai... please excuse my drunken fingers.

  11. Wes
    May 21st, 2009 at 11:54 am

    Now, if people were smart, these would be the figures they'd collect and store away for 40 years in their original packaging.

    Instead, everyone swarmed Toys R Us to buy the Episode 1 figures, which won't be worth squat since everyone and his brother bought two and sealed them away.

  12. Byrd Brain
    May 21st, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    Wes:

    What!!?? Forget the stock market, there goes my retirement!


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