It was 28 years ago the toy industry found “the force” and tapped into the lucrative licensing rights of the first Star Wars trilogy, developing a rabid group of hard-core collectors and ensuring that every Christmastime brings the latest incarnation of light saber toys and Yoda figurines.
With the May 18 midnight opening of “Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (which marks the conclusion of a second trilogy serving as a prequel to the original films), toy analysts say Pawtucket’s Hasbro Inc. is poised to reap the benefits of a movie that has darker content and is more action-centric.
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New York City’s Jim Silver, who serves as publisher of The Toy Book, a toy trade magazine, and editor in chief of Toy Wishes, which targets a collector audience, said overall Hasbro’s Sith toys “seem much better all-around.”
Pointing to positive reviews of the movie that came out early last week, Silver said toy tie-ins “all start with the movie,” and for Hasbro, perhaps the biggest difference in developing the latest line is that unlike 2002’s “Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” there’s no love story dragging down the merchandising opportunities.
Silver estimated that “Episode I: The Phantom Menance” generated about $500 million in sales for Hasbro, while “Clones” probably generated closer to $220 million, still good numbers and certainly no fault of Hasbro’s efforts.
“Overall, kids just couldn’t really get involved in romance,” said Silver, forecasting sales numbers for Sith closer to the first film’s. “The collectors are always served,” he said. “This time, there’s better products for the kids.”
Chris Byrne, an independent toy consultant in New York City, who does research and analyst work on trends in the children’s industries, agreed with Silver. Byrne said talking recently with some Star Wars diehards, the fans were very supportive of the storylines of the first two movies setting the stage for the third, which concludes with Anakin Skywalker giving into his “dark side” and transforming into Darth Vader.
“My point is, that if you’re 7, how do you play that very story-intensive plot of the first couple of movies?” Byrne said. “And that’s without even contemplating the icky romance, from a kid’s perspective, that took up so much of the second film.”
Both analysts said the darker content should probably help deliver toy sales. The newest movie is the first Star Wars film to be rated PG-13, as opposed to PG. Silver pointed to the early “Batman” films, as well as the “Jurassic Park” trilogy and the two “Spiderman” movies as being films in the past 15 years with PG-13 ratings that have performed spectacularly in the toy world.
And Byrne mentioned the numbers of elementary-age children who play violent video games like Halo, and younger kids who are fans of the darker humor of the Lemony Snicket books and recent movie.
“Kids a lot of times have dark sensibilities,” he said. “They like seeing things worked out in drama, watching something that has a clear delineation between good and evil, and I think that part of this latest movie is going to be a very good thing.”
It was 1991 that Hasbro acquired the Tonka Corp., including the Kenner Products division that had held the rights to the licensed property since shortly before the first Star Wars film, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” was released in May 1977.
Hasbro spokesman Wayne Charness said with director George Lucas still having plans for at least two future TV shows among other spin-off series, Hasbro believes there’s a lot of life left in the license. He said Hasbro reworked its existing deal with Lucas a couple of years ago, extending its licensing rights through 2018.
“We’ve worked very hard to make sure there’s something for everyone among the toys, the action figures, the trading card games, the Darth Tater,” (a Star Wars-themed Mr. Potato Head), said Charness, who said Hasbro also holds licensing rights to “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Chicken Little” movies scheduled to come out later this year. “Hasbro has a broad portfolio and the Star Wars piece of that is something we’re very proud of.”
Both Silver and Byrne said Hasbro has released some “very cool stuff,” starting with the Darth Vader Voicechanger mask that was released just before Christmas and continuing with Attacktix (an action-figure strategy game) and the Lightsaber Battle game, which allows players to use a wireless light saber and fight battles on their television screen.
Byrne, said Star Wars has long been an “evergreen” brand for Hasbro, ensuring strong sales every Christmas whether there’s a movie event or not. Last year, there was a big toy push, capitalizing on promotion for the release of the three-volume set of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD.
“The thing about Star Wars is that it’s such a part of the culture,” he said. “Sure, the movie event is just the next thing everyone can get excited about in the mainstream, but the brand is something that stands on its own year-round.”
Byrne said with the latest movie, Hasbro was leveraging the license into many of its other brand-name games, such as a Trivial Pursuit Star Wars DVD Edition and the Darth Tater Potato Head.
“A couple of years ago, when ‘Clones’ came out, that wasn’t really where the marketplace was,” said Byrne, of the strategic leveraging of the Star Wars entity into different merchandise categories. “I think this time around they’ve done a great job hitting everyone. They haven’t put all their eggs in the action-figure basket,” Byrne said.
And Silver pointed out that the villain is always a big seller with any movie, and Darth Vader is perhaps the biggest of all movie villains.
“That was a key element that’s obviously been missing,” said Silver of the past two movies. “There was Darth Maul to some extent in the first film, but really no major bad guy in the last. … Just look at the packaging, that Darth Vader helmet is everywhere this time around.”
And Silver said for the second movie, the one big thing that everyone was talking about was a scene were Yoda lays down his cane and picks up a light saber. “People went absolutely crazy for that,” said Silver of a Yoda light saber released by Hasbro. “When it comes to toys and movie tie-ins, it’s about taking that experience from the theater home with you and reliving that experience over and over.”
