Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogies woes continue, as Diamond Select Toys President Chuck Terceira confirmed there is a lack of demand for products from the three films.
As first reported by Bleeding Fool, Terceira did an interview with Rebel Scum, where he discussed Diamond Select Toys’ (DST) acquisition of Gentle Giant (GG).
Terceira was quite honest about the lack of interest in sequel trilogy toys.
When asked if there were plans to continue making product from The Last Jedi, Terceira responded, “As you know, whatever was done before last year, DST had no control over. GG LTD made those decisions, but as I said, Dev is still here guiding the brand and we are aware of the past history.”
He added, “I will say from what we have seen, the sales on the products from 7 & 8 were not too strong.”
“I know those movies, as well as 9, have their fans and those fans might say GG just never did the right products or characters or formats, and they might be correct,” Terceira explained.
He continued, “However, we can only go by what we know. For sure the door is not closed to the ST products and we ARE working on a couple pieces for The Rise of Skywalker right now.”
Terceira does note that they are “keeping a very close eye on it and listening to fan feedback, so if there is demand, we’re happy to satisfy it.”
Rebel Scum’s Chris Wyman then asks if there will be more character products for The Rise of Skywalker as currently they only have a Sith Trooper Mini Bust, the Kylo Ren Dreamer Premiere Collection Statue, and the Kylo Ren Legends in 3-Dimensions Bust. In his question Wyman indicates there are “some very requested characters” like Emperor Palpatine, Poe Dameron, Zorii Bliss, Babu Frik, Lando, and C-3PO.
Terceira responds, “As I mentioned before, we are working on some, but I have to ask..are you SURE there is lots of demand for these “very” requested characters?”
He adds, “The overall demand for busts and SW products is not what it was 10 or even 5 years ago.”
Terceira goes on to state that it’s not just a Gentle Giant problem, but an industry-wide issue, ” It’s not just a GG issue either. The brand is VERY strong with The Mandalorian & The Clone Wars and more new content to come, but you all know what the production runs on collector products were in the past compared to now.”
He continues, “We would very much love to make more products from the new movie. It’s not like we’re sitting behind our desk wringing our hands thinking how can we stick it to fans and not make busts they want that will make us money…right??”
Terceira then bluntly states he’s not seeing the demand from fans for the sequel trilogy characters.
“We just, as of yet, have not seen enough fans that would want to buy a bust have that personal affection for some of those new characters that makes sense to justify going to production, but for sure we’re watching it and perhaps as more time passes, fans affection for those characters will grow.”
The lack of demand for Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy toys shouldn’t come as a surprise. Audiences didn’t like the films and for good reason, given how the films actively set out to break down and destroy the iconic characters of the original trilogy as well as undo the entire mythos of the Force.
Related: 5 Reasons The Last Jedi Was The Worst Star Wars Movie Ever
The Last Jedi has a 43% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.3 User on Metacritic.
The Rise of Skywalker has an 86% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, but a 4.8 User Score on Metacritic.
Not only do audiences not like Disney’s new films, but the company itself reported their merchandise sales for Star Wars was down in the Q3 report last year.
The Q3 report in 2019 read in part:
“The increase at our consumer products business was due to growth at our merchandise licensing and retail businesses. Growth at merchandise licensing was primarily due to higher revenue from merchandise based on Toy Story, partially offset by a decrease from Star Wars merchandise.”
In fact Star Wars merchandise sales have been in decline since 2016. And it’s not just merchandise sales, the entire franchise has been in decline according to Jedi Temple Archive.
They reported in 2018:
“Star Wars merchandise sales have been declining ever since October 2016 (remember that Disney’s fiscal year ends in September). But not only merchandise seems to be affected, since Star Wars book sales and comic book sales are also down. So Star Wars as a whole seems to be in decline at the moment.”
YouTuber Drunk3PO believes one of the problems with current Disney Star Wars toys is their lack of diversity.
He notes that all of the sequel trilogy figures look alike. He explains, “Rey wears the same thing in every movie. Even in the snow scene she’s in the same thing. Wherever she’s piloting she’s in the same thing. Everything is the same.”
In comparison the original trilogy had Leia in multiple outfits from her Slave Leia look to her Hoth gear. He explains, “I could get her in different forms to put her in different situations where she would rule, and where she would run, where she would do her thing.”
What do you make of Chuck Terceira’s comments regarding the lack of demand for Star Wars sequel trilogy toys?