Harry Potter and Transformers toys ruled the market over the summer. Toy News Online reports that, of all this summers licensed toys, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 toys took 19.12% of the market. Transformers: Dark of the Moon was second and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was a close third.
Unsurprisingly, comic properties like Thor, X-Men and Green Lantern failed to make much of a dent. Just check your toy store shelves for proof. Some properties, like Captain America didn’t even make the top 10.
Dubit finds out which licensed toys from this summer’s movies were popular with children aged seven to 11 over the school holidays…
Our research shows that although children are still enjoying playing with toys from their favourite films, a box office smash doesn’t always result in a hit toy. However, the children most likely to opt for film merchandise are seven year olds.
Of the children that played with Cars branded toys, the most engaged were seven year olds and 11 year olds (28 per cent and 18 per cent respectively).
The most popular licensed toys with young children (seven to eight year olds) were Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean (42 per cent), followed by Kung Fu Panda (40 per cent).
Harry Potter topped our chart, helped by being popular among all age groups, with seven year olds being the least engaged.
As the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the final film in the ten-year series, it could be a little late for this age group to become fans of the franchise.
Despite Transformers: Dark of the Moon being rated 12A, the toys were chosen by seven year olds more than any other age group in the sample. This indicates that many seven year olds saw the film with parents or simply found the idea of a transforming toy appealing, regardless of the associated film.
The comic book category, which includes Thor, Green Lantern and X-Men, was the least popular in our survey. These brands had relatively poor box office takings and were more popular with the higher age brackets, so these two factors could explain the lack of popularity amongst younger children.
Of the nine films surveyed, five were from franchises that were new or only up to their first sequel. From these, particular credit can go to Cars 2, Tangled and Kung Fu Panda 2, which managed to compete with the more established franchises.
With 52 per cent of children stating that they haven’t played with any licensed movie toys this summer, it would seem that these brands aren’t necessarily a guaranteed money-maker for the toy industry. This is especially true with the older children who, it could be suggested, are more attracted to the video game equivalents.
Harry Potter and Transformers Rule Summer Toys
Polls for the most part are always the minorities opinion and can always be hard to tell the truth. Harry Potter toys......REALLY?????
really? Really? THere were like...no Harry Potter toys. your telling me hundreds of thousands of children went to the collectors isle of a TRU and bought up one of the 6 harry potter figures that CLOG that Aisle?
Even Tangled is Farfetched since I'm fairly certain there are only a couple out there.
I'm pretty sure the people who answered this poll werent thinking of toys and were thinking movie.
Maybe I just live in a weird place but I don't recall any brand that flew off the shelves this year. Even though there were some nice looking toys this year and there was a good bit of variety toys just didn't seem to sell like they have in the not so distant past.
Plus those Avatar toys should have proven that the link is not that strong between making money at the box office and what toys kids are going to buy. Avatar made an insane amount at the box office but the action figures just weren't doing much more than sitting on store shelves.
6.37% of kids played with either the Cyclops/Jean Grey or Wolverine/Sabretooth 2-packs, or the re-released Wolverine roleplay claws!?
No wonder I couldn't find them anywhere..........
No wonder I couldn't find them anywhere..........
In order for kids to play with an X-Men toyline, wouldn't there need to be an actual toy line?
Also, Cap isn't on the list?
Even Tangled is Farfetched since I'm fairly certain there are only a couple out there.
I'm pretty sure the people who answered this poll werent thinking of toys and were thinking movie.
This poll does suck for the reasons also stated but also for the reason that numbers will be loaded towards the movie that saw more views. If a ton more kids saw harry potter than thor, then obviously a larger percentage will be likely to say they played with Harry Potter toys than Thor (completely ignoring the fact that there were next to no Harry Potter toys on the shelf in the first place).
And why the hell is Tangled even on there? I didn't come out this year. The conclusions they draw from their poll make no sense when you tell a company like Hasbro: "Hey your X-Men movie that had no toyline behind it? Yeah it was three times more popular with kids than your Thor line that had tons of product." Oh that's helpful.
If you're going to take a poll like that you need to have the kids actually differentiate between product that is on the shelves and product from past films or lines (which would be hard to have a seven year old do anyway). It would actually be useful to see whether kids buy the new product or just pick up used stuff from past lines (which is the only explanation for the x-men number).
Bah, it's just easier to say this poll blows and walk away than to try and keep explaining away all of its faults, and I sincerely hope, no one at Hasbro or Mattel takes any note of this tripe or brings it up in a sales meeting as point for or against building up a new line.
Bah, it's just easier to say this poll blows and walk away than to try and keep explaining away all of its faults, and I sincerely hope, no one at Hasbro or Mattel takes any note of this tripe or brings it up in a sales meeting as point for or against building up a new line.
The giant none of the above must be Twilight dolls and toys. lol
Poll or not, one things for sure, they need to lay off the damn super hero crap! There's just too much of the garbage all over the toy dept. There should only be 1 Marvel line & 1 DC line. What they have going on now is insane. Do we really need separate Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spider Man & Marvel Universe lines all at the same time? How the hell are kids going to keep up with all that? What kid would actually want all of it?
It's a flawed UK survey. The data is questionable, and it askes played with, not about sales. It's also missing much side data also needed, along with many other factors and lines it missed. The data is just headline grabbing without any real data to speak of.
The fact X-Men rated at all when it had no toyline whatsoever this summer other than a wolverine claw and two comic packs is wow, none of which is movie related makes this survey very questionable. The only movie line available was minimates. So X-Men doing that well for being played with is whoa.
The other catergory covers too much, and the suggestion that maybe the video games are the higher priority has no substantiation.
Full Thread: Summer Toys Ruled By HP and TF
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