Everyone by now has seen the movie Star Wars the Force Awakens, unless you’re an avid Star Trek fan and despise anything from the light or dark side. As for the rest of us, we know that one of the main characters in that movie is none other than Rey, the scavenger who ends up playing an incredibly large and important role in the movie, so much to the point that many believe she is the new figurehead of the Star Wars franchise moving forward. But for us toy collectors we can all agree on one thing – there isn’t much Rey out there to purchase (maybe … two figures so far?) given that this movie is now the third largest grossing movie in the entire world.
The folks at Hypable.com have posted an article where they’ve spoken to an “industry insider” (who wishes to remain anonymous) who claims that the missing Rey product wasn’t accidental – that in fact, the executives of Star Wars purposely asked vendors of Star Wars product to leave the character out of their plans stating that “no boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it”. The article goes on to make a statement regarding our beloved Power Rangers franchise.
“Diminishing of girl characters is common in the industry,” the anonymous source relates. “Power Rangers asked us to do it. Paw Patrol, too.” Allegedly, this philosophy has developed into a solid mandate in the toy industry to “maintain the sharp boy/girl product division” and “marginalize girl characters in items not specifically marketed as girl-oriented.”
This sort of practice is VERY evident if you’re a Power Rangers collector – namely the missing female Ranger Keys from the Power Rangers Super Megaforce toy line, not to mention the severe lack of a Poisandra figure in Power Rangers Dino Charge and the rather poor case assortments when a girl figure is included (ie: 1 or maybe 2 total figures in a case of 12). Another case in point – the Legacy Vehicles that have been released at Toys’R’Us that feature a Saber-tooth Tiger zord but with a Green Ranger figure and not the Yellow Ranger figure. And let’s not forget the initial “purple” triceratops zord for Power Rangers Dino Charge back at SDCC 2014 to which the statement “Boys don’t want to buy pink toys” was uttered, then retracted at Power Morphicon 2014 (stating the fans had been heard), and then denied that it ever happened altogether by the end of that convention (stating it had yet to be painted … even though it was clearly hand-painted purple).
Now many would be quick to blame Bandai America for these slights. And while maybe perhaps a bit of the blame is indeed on them, the most important thing to remember is that they are simply a license holder – Saban Brands decides who gets to make product for the franchise and gives direction (and approval) on all product. That would mean that this “decision” would come from Saban Brands more than anyone else, but that the overall marketing strategy is “if your making action figures, make them for boys, and boys don’t want girl action figures”.
However – things do seem to be turning around. Bandai America stated at the last New York Comic Con that they plan to finish the Ranger Keys that were missing, specifically the girls, and more girl figures have been released (Pink Ranger, Dino Drive Pink Ranger, Dino Steel Pink Ranger, Purple Ranger, Dino Drive Purple Ranger). With such strong female characters written by the Power Rangers Dino Charge team, like Shelby (played by Camille Hyde) and Kendall (played by Claire Blackwelder) it is refreshing to see toys of these characters on the shelves.
Hopefully as we continue to progress forward and break down barriers, toy manufacturers and the executives behind the franchises will stop trying to tell us what is a boy’s toy and what is a girl’s toy and just focus on creating strong representations of strong characters and let the customers decide for themselves.
Please check out the full article from Hypable.com by clicking here
