Star Wars fans (of all ages) have been quick to notice–and point out–to toy manufacturers the lack of Rey in the majority of toy sets that have been released in tandem with The Force Awakens.
While Hasbro has doubled back on their original claim that releasing Rey as a figure early would spoil the film (and promised to deliver in months to come), you know it’s bad when even the film’s director isn’t happy about the news.
At a TCA press conference today, the director expressed his own frustrations at the lack of Rey in merchandising: “I will say that it seems preposterous and wrong that the main character of the movie is not well represented in what is clearly a huge piece of the Star Wars world in terms of merchandising.” Abrams also added that “it doesn’t quite make sense why she wouldn’t be there. She’s somewhat important in the story.”
And just to give you an idea of which characters are currently dominating the availability field at certain retailers, one Twitter user posted a helpful set of graphs based on the number of items that come up when you search for that character’s name:
Star Wars merchandise at Kohl's, Target and Disney, when searching for different character names. pic.twitter.com/OezKcgpdOc
— Jane Showalter (@heymermaid) January 6, 2016
Surprisingly, Kylo Ren seems to have a sizable lead over the other characters, with BB-8 coming in at at second. And of course, this doesn’t just include toys but other licensed merchandise–like clothes, for example. But it’s interesting that Rey still seems to be scarce when fans are looking for toys, even though by all accounts she’s right up there with Finn and Poe in some instances. (There’s also a noticeable dearth of Finn too, as commenters have pointed out.)
Either way, I think we can let go of the spoiler excuse as a means of excluding certain characters. It’s important that it’s easy to procure all of our Star Wars favorites in toy form–and Rey’s already proven herself as one among fans.
(via The Verge)
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