I worked at Walmart overnight in the general merchandise section, right across the toy section. Started in February 2021 and ended this past March. Once those Eternals toys hit the shelves, they never moved. I think I saw 2 or 3 toys bought that were Eternals related.
@@1990hondacivic no way home still had its issues, it even rode the nostalgia train the only problem is that it was a reasonable well built movie where it’s characters felt included. Yes it had plot holes but at the end of it all it’s still an enjoyable movie to rewatch and the ending is always dope finding out that this WAS Spider-Man’s mcu origin story
@@caveatlector2671thats a great take on this. It could have been the Golden Era of toys considering they rebooted the biggest toylines ever. Except the characters suck. Saved us a fortune!
Didn't even bother looking at a trailer for the new star wars game. Liked the first but not wasting a dime on any other disney product. Heard it was kind of a shit show, though, lol.
@@SlashTheWeasel i dont blame the woman or think shes an idiots. Shes a mother and she knows her kid likes marvel and when theirs good quality marvel action figures for a good price then it can be appealing but im glad WCB helped her to choose better figures :)
@@SlashTheWeaselLikely answer: She's a "normie" who can't tell the difference between Spider-Man and Deadpool- or any comic book character, for that matter- whose child wants a toy from a comic book franchise she's utterly ignorant of.
I'm reminded of the scene in "Big" where Tom Hanks's character (a 13 year old in a 30 year old's body) explains to toy producers that kids just don't want to play with buildings that turn into action figures because it's a building, not something kids actually like.
I still wonder how long before the toy companies play hardball with Disney. "If you don't fix the MCU and Star Wars, then we won't do business with you until you do."
Even if they did “fix” it, the vast majority of people have moved on. Marvel is a dead horse. Comicbook fatigue is real. There is a huge portion of the population who never cared for it to begin with and a huge portion that bought into the fad rather than the actual product. The fad is over. Those people won’t be coming back. The people like me who hated it from the beginning have been counting the days until the fad died.. Hopefully this ushers in the mid budget one off films that dominated the 90s. Where the story mattered, rather than “universe”. Comic book movies were crap.
@@smelltheglove2038 I think the X-men died when those female writers did that Gala event about two years ago. I swear I think their artists all wanted to be fashion designers but the closest gig they got to that was Marvel Comics. Not that DC is any better. They got taken over too by female creative team who simply aren't into action hero drama. They just write drama that might as well have been a teen romance dime novel. I mean the whole "I'm not Starfire" self insert fiasco ... And lets not even bring up Marvel's failed take on teen super heros. What were their names? Snowflake and safeplace? LOL Characters so bad even the alphabet community gave Marvel grief over them.
@@theb3654 I used to absolutely love going to see movies. I even saw the movie that started all the nonsense, that first Spider-Man movie. Everyone was saying it was some marvel of cinema(pun not intended). I was extremely underwhelmed. I’m a fan of dark comedies, suspense, drama, crime stories, gangster flicks, even old school kung fu…. The comic book movies wouldn’t have been so bad if Hollywood didn’t sideline every other type of movie, save for woke Oscar bait. Hopefully, this is the last gasp of these types of movies. I don’t even mind sequels like John Wick or something, or hell, even a series like the James Bond older films. When shit starts getting so over the top that they rely on time travel to make the plot of multiple movies make sense, it all starts to fall apart. In the end, I’m glad they did that though, because that’s what seemed to kill the whole thing.
Yea bet that kid (boy or girl doesnt matter) realy enjoyed them. Tbh can anyone remember the eternals powers except that one is superman and another is the flash. The rest just had gold weapon things but spiderman and black panther you know their powers and stuff well :)
I remember when the actors for the “Eternals “ movie were talking about inclusiveness and representation in the movie. I guess all that nonsense about diversity was as good for the “Eternals” movie profits margin as diversity has been good for Anheuser Busch profits margin.
Most normal people out in the real world don't care about ''inclusiveness and representation''. They have real problems in their lives to deal with and just want to be entertained by movies and TV. Kids especially don't care about such things when considering what to play with at play time.
Don't forget most of them literally said it was going to "save lives". 🤮 Strange how it flopped huh? The sheer hubris of those adult pretender clowns is a sight to behold.
@@vertigo2894 It sucked, they woke washed it and failed yet again to simply do what the comics did. No goofy, that's an argument you made up because that's what disingenuous people do. It doesn't, try LISTENING to people instead of making up positions nobody has. This shit ain't rocket science.
Here in Argentina, back in 2021, one of my local action figures & comics store was always selling the Marvel Legends, like always they would bring the latest waves as soon as they were available. By the time Eternals left cinemas, I went and out of curiosity asked them if they were going to have them for sale. The guy who owns the store had no idea what movie I was even talking him about. So I explained him the situation, and he checked his shipment catalog, it wasn't even listed by Hasbro, the sales back then (pretty much like nowadays, or worse) were so low, or nonexistent, that they didn't even offered them abroad. Until this day I still never saw any store have at least one these figures, that's just how lame Eternals was, is and probably will be.
@@themalcontent100 When they can get away from being addicted to ESG money, the better off a lot of these companies will be, because ESG is a death sentence for a lot of companies!
I think the problem is that it's a package deal. The only way Hasbro can make Spider-Man or X-Men figures is if they also agree to make toys for crap like The Eternals. Hasbro can't cherry pick which Marvel brands they want to make figures for.
@@AquaFan1998 I'm no Marvel fan (I prefer horror comics, Marvel didn't have that many) but I got old Marvel superhero comics in a job lot. Not that interested in the story, but I'm reading through them just for Ditko and Kirby's artwork.
@@DarthPerkins yea i get you i love marvel for its style and story. I loved how jack kirby was able to weave a story between series in marvel and dc while being able to not get in trouble for it. He made a story that worked from thor into new gods into eternals
The thing is, back in the days everything was done, just to fill a story. Condiment man, Manbat, they didn't know what would work. It's like music, there is so much of it. The most songs will just go lost. Just try to listen to any compilation CD from ten to twenty yers ago. Most of it is gone.
In the comics, the Inhumans were a cool breakaway society with royal lineage and superpowers that lived on the moon. In the MCU they are bland generic nothing burgers.
I tried to give The Inhumans a chance. But I struggled with it. The "science" on how they kept themselves hidden on the moon didn't really work for me. And the outfits ... You had the black guy who looked like an extra from a Spegetti Western. You had the blonde girl who was dressed like Charlie Brown. You have the red head who got her head shaved and wore very poorly fitting clothes. (And yeah, Marvel has a habit of targetting red headed characters for some reason here lately.) And don't even get me started on the dog ... The story didn't work. I didn't care for any of the characters. And just how they were supposed to be connected in the grand scheme of the MCU really didn't make sense. But then again, nothing since End Game in the MCU has made sense.
Try taking a peek atleast at one 70s inhumans comic, the first issue has more personality and great art than what that shit tv show had, dont let the show make you think the inhumans are bland. I promise they are not:)
@@nonlamesniper Only industrial gunk will definitely remain. And even then, CDs are a portable way to listen to your music (I'd say HD audio in a card is peak portability) but not necessarily the best, rot being one risk (I've read about a batch of Disney/Touchstone Blu-Rays rotting rather early, and don't get me started on the U.S. laserdiscs of Eraser) with laser scratches being another.
The failure of the Disney star wars sequels ( the last jedi in particular) and the amount of figures produced that fans didn't want even at the time was a massive contributed to the closing of all toys r us stores in Great Britain , I saw it first hand .
Huh... that's decidedly more justifiable than why they closed in the US. Over here Baine Capital bought them out, sold all the assets of value, saddled Toys R Us with all the loan debt they incurred by ACQUIRING Toys R Us (because that's legal for some reason), and then washed their hands of the whole situation, all the way to the bank.
@@ccggenius So sad to see a massive toy giant that meant so much to kids and parents vanish , no toy store have filled the gap , there are no retail stores who pay star wars toys any attention , Smyth's toys ( the next big toy store compared to toys r us ) have chosen to drop all star wars lines , when a vintage collection figure costs £22.99 and a black series costs 24.99 as they were doing last year , people just see the rip off that's going on and stop buying , a 6 inch for 2 quid more is the reason the stopped selling the 3.75 lines , but after the book of boba fett I noticed how the black series figures were just sitting on shelves ( we only get the peg warmers for the most part in the UK anyway ) I don't know of one toy store ,or supermarket in England who stock star wars stuff other than Lego , the new Disney owned star wars has caused the death of star wars toys appearing in normal shops , it's insane to see .
@@johnaiello1460 I wouldn't buy a Black Series figure of it, but I would be SORELY tempted if one of those premium statue companies put out a "Blue Milk Luke" collectible.
One of the craziest things is that unpopular characters that didn't sell never used to be an issue.... when Kenner was producing the original Star Wars action figures every kid who played with them wanted every bit of merchandise they could get their hands on... George was a pioneer in the action figure business... Which is why every character got a figure... Even if they were only in the background or had no lines or were hated by the audience because of their actions in the film... it didn't matter to the kids because if you were recreating The Cantina Scene... or The Events on Cloud City... or Jabba's palace... you couldn't immerse yourself fully unless you had Major Bren Derlin, or Salacious B. Crumb, or Kabe, or Logray, or E-3PO, or Labria, or The MSE 6- Mouse Droid, or Jobin, or Ponda Baba, etc... we thought every character was essential and we loved unwrapping and ading each one to the collection and at the end of play inserting them back into their own personal spot in your Darth Vader Star Wars action figure carrying case... eagerly waiting to set everything up the next day for hours of play again... Hollywood forgot how to make good movies... kids forgot how to play with toys because who wants to recreate scenes from The Rise of Skywalker on the floor/table of their den/basement? Sad thing to witness and watch
I feel sorry for the toys themselves...not the characters, or the companies....Need that Lion King from the Island of Misfit Toys to come in and save them all.
What about when the giant hand started to pop outta the earth and Sersi said" I've got a bad feeling about this!" Then Sprite yelled " Yipeee-kai-yaay!"
I miss the days of short packing. Back in the 90s and early 2000s toy companies used to short pack supporting and ancillary characters to minimize losses. Making entire cases of Eternals and second and third tier characters must be costing Hasbro HUGE losses. You can't have "equality" with merchandising. Some figures like women and background characters are one per case for a REASON. Those Shrieks are actually in demand now by customizers for fodder for her double elbowed arms.
Picturing you hanging out in various toy stores all day doing the *Jedi Mind Trick* on little old ladies almost about to waste their money on Eternals action figures, would honestly make for an excellent independent geek culture movie.
Indeed, purchasing anything with the Eternals brand on the packaging is not the way however in a child's mind, all action figures are good action figures. Kids don't look at things the way opinionated adults do. All they see are superhero action figures and they want to play with them. We should not be interfering with what action figures parents decide to buy for their kids. If a mom sees nothing wrong with buying Eternals merchandise for her kids that's her business.
I like these videos. They probably cost Jeff little effort to make, yet they give me such immense happiness. Seeing Disney fail is the only thing I want from Disney now.
I love these videos. I remember being a young kid in the early 90s. Action figures sold, they were there for a season, maybe two. Some action figures were simply hard to find they were so in demand. I couldn’t imagine if I was shopping in 1992 and stores still had 1986 Serpentor figures on the shelf. It just blows my mind
The problem is these companies are more concerned with "representation" and their ESG scores than giving paying customers what they want: well written stories and interesting characters. Equality was fine, but then came the OVER-representation of equity. It sucks not because there are more "minorities" in media now, it sucks because it's so blatantly forced and hamfisted, and the only people who can't see that are far left ideologues who care more about their socio-political goals than artistic merit.
I don’t care about a character’s race or sexuality as long as they are well written and interesting, not paper-thin characters included for representation.
My local Walmart already hide alot of the little mermaid toys with the pool stuff back by the clearance aisle in preparation. There have been star wars toys, black Barbies, buzz lightyear toys, and loads of toys from that Disney movie with the hispanic family living in a magic house and the uncle living in the wall in the clearance aisle for months. Some of the star wars stuff was back there for over a year. The store just doesn't have the customer demographics for "diverse" and "inclusive" stuff to sell in the quantities they keep getting.
Disney doesn't seem to understand that only highly attractive people work as superheroes the same reason why only attractive people can sell romantic comedies, the audience wants to put themselves in the shoes of people for whom triumph and love come easiest.
Factoid... Look up "Avengers". And the choices will be the TV series. 1961-1969. The movie of the TV series. 1998. And then there's "Marvel's Avengers"
It is about storytelling , it is about creating engaging and compelling characters. If you do that then the stories, the characters don’t come off as feeling pandered, token etc… and more then likely people will be willing to buy the merchandise. Somewhere along the way though Disney forgot or ignored the whole tell a good story part.
I remember going to see Eternals and when Fastos kissed his husband, heard a black dude behind say, "This ni@@a gay!" In disgust. That memory is seared in my brain everytime i hear or see anything about Eternals. 😂😂😂
You mentioned how Kennedy and other women in power said they wanted to focus on bringing more female fans into the properties. But I think the result is they actually drove away many of the women who already loved Star Wars, Marvel etc for decades in some cases. And if they brought any in it seems to mostly be Reylo types like the fans of those Twilight books who liked the sparkly vampire! LOL 😂 LOL. Search your feelings, you know it to be true!!!
Absolutely, because female fans want well-written characters just the same. Maybe Kennedy Inc thought they were targeting female fans but it's far more accurate to say they ended up targeting feminist non-fans. Ppl who got on board Star Wars for the social trends and don't care otherwise. It puts me in mind of a discussion I once had where someone was saying the solution to fewer female fans of scifi was to make more pink space ships. I argued that superficial and juvenile appeals to femininity like that are insulting to proper female fans. Shallow appeals will beget shallow attachments, a real fandom only comes through genuine appreciation of the whole substance and if women are less inclined to appreciate scifi for what it is that's their loss. What new Star Wars does for women feels like that metaphorical "pink space ship". That's basically what getting a Mary Sue character is, it's a shallow appeal you can see right through.
You ever notice that aside from the main line Avengers (including Black Panther & Spider-Man) most of the costumes on characters from Eternals - and Shang Chi to an extent - have the most stock inoffensive "futuristic" look, where it has alien patterns, and are only as eye-popping as the color grading allows them to be. Not helping, as you've stated before, is how little recognition or weight the characters themselves have, aside by being played by lesser known talent (With the exception of Angelina Jolie)
I've said it several times now but Shang-Chi looks like just a normal guy. I surprisingly enjoyed the movie itself but his superhero outfit looks barely different than what some Asian man in front of me in line at the ATM might wear. It looks even more boring in action figure form. Hey honey, do you want a figure of...a guy? I think I sit next to him on the bus sometimes.
Yeah, I notice a lot of 'dumbing down/oversimplifying' classic comic character costumes, like... It doesn't matter if they're UNREALISTIC, they're FICTIONAL CHARACTERS and they're meant to wear stuff we couldn't IRL, they're a fantasy!
Sadly this is the route MOST companies are taking these days: hiring a woman as head of marketing, development or higher and they push this "equity" nonsense despite the fact that they had no barriers in their way that men do not face as well. If anything, they are catapulted into higher positions because they are a woman and most of the time do not have the qualifications to be there.
The thing is YOU DON'T NEED THE CHARACTER TO BE POPULAR TO BE APPEALING That's why Transformers Figures still sell even when most of people don't know other characters besides Optimus & Bee because Kids lovw a Car/Plane who turns into robot Disney figures don't sell because they aren't appealing IF YOU PUT IN A MARKET A HAN SOLO, A ROSE TICCO & A DARTH REVAN TOY *the most sold one will be Revan because he has the most appealing & cautivating design* & also, Disney is producing A LOT, & I MEAN A LOT of Quantity
"He flew into the sun because he was too depressed to live." Or his character broke the fourth wall, knew how much the movie sucked and didn't want to be in anymore of them, so he figured his character's death was the more preferable option.......
In response to 3:36 Yes, I'd rather have a low quality figure of a Character I love than get a super high quality figure of a Character I have zero interest in.
The problem also has to do with the era we’re living in, I feel like kids today just aren’t as into toys as when I was growing up. Everyone is into electronic devices nowadays.
Partially. The other part is these toys do suck. Who wants Black Panther or Eternals? I can find bunch of Earthspark but no Legacy Transformers on shelf. . .
People want certain characters. Just try finding a Mcfarlane 1989 Batman right now. The Spider-Man from that NWH wave with Jonah did not go to Ollies and neither did Miles Morales.
There is no need to push for equality, as it's already been in place for decades now. And too many businesses got suckered in thinking it was never a thing but it was. And now look at the result of Revisionist Activism (Woke) gone wrong retailers have suffered, the entertainment industry has suffered, the fans of many of these franchises have suffered and a whole host and plethora of things have suffered. All because of unwarranted noise that was completely unnecessary.
I saw a vid from *1959* on Disneyland. The announcer (for the Disney Co) mentioned that the park was for all races & nationalities. But in 2023, so-called diversity & inclusion, etc, have become a political fetish. Corporations are Dylan-Mulvaney-izing themselves. Other entities/people too.
My local Target put every single one of their Marvel Eternal figures on clearance. Every single one. But even at those extremely discounted prices they still didn’t sell. They just sat and clogged the clearance pegs for weeks. They also had a bunch of Star Wars black series figures on clearance too. But at least they sold once they went on clearance. The Meijer near me has had 2 Zori Bliss figures sitting on the shelf for years now. Nobody wants her.
Sad thing about Eternals is it would honestly be really good if it was a mini series. Too many characters and plot points and so much depth to included all in a less then 3 hour film. The movie wasn’t “woke” in the same sense that She Hulk is. It just needed more.
@@jeffreyt8bowman180 There was literally one scene lol it wasn’t shoved down your throat it was just kinda there. If it bothered you that much then maybe that says something, but like I said something that is actually woke is She Hulk.
The problem with wokeness is that the changes to skin color, gender or orientation are only the tip of the iceberg. When you see those signs you know this is going to be garbage, because the focus never was on quality. Woke never does something good or even pretty, they want everything to 'reflect the world we live in today' but the real world is ugly and sad and depressing, so you get ugly sad and depressing stories. The fact that the actors are from various nationality or whatever else is just one of the factor but it shows what the focus really was on.
The thing is race swap and introducing orientation in Marvel Comics is nothing new and has been going on for decades but it seems like only now people are making a big fuss that it’s all woke stuff. No one really said anything when they made Samuel Jackson act as Nick Fury for the MCU when the original Nick Fury in the comics was a white man. Then you had the X-Men/Alpha Flight member North Star who was openly gay and Mystique who was bisexual and married a woman named Destiny. No one really made a big deal back then so I don’t see the difference now!
@@jon6309 Because they EXACTLY didn't focus on it back then as a selling point they just created a good character and movie, like if it came out today it would have followed with headlines and panels of the cast being: First black man in an avengers movie presenting Samuel Jackson we are changing the industry, we are inclusive,we are breaking boundaries and a lot of the time if comes of as hostile and antagonistic, even though 9/10 they are never the first or anywhere close and just dismiss everything that came before, like the movies are social studies group ,like the she-hulks ,bat girl, star trek, star wars,lotr,Captain marvel, Chavez and on and on.
@@neoPeake That's the same bullshit excuse people like you always pull out of your ass because you're so enamored with politics for some reason, and I'm not buying it, and stuff like this is evidence of that: A) it isn't absolute; B) the two things DON'T MIX. If they did, then how come the Super Mario movie made $1.25B by being pure entertainment and having absolutely no politics whatsoever?
I mean, they always kind of have, just when you’re a kid you don’t notice as you’re just enraptured by the spectacle of popular entertainment. Star Wars was obvious commentary on imperialism, colonialism, xenophobia (Imperials tended to hate non-human races), X-Men revolved around bigotry and prejudice etc.
I am now fully convinced that Hollywood really believe that "The Title makes the Person who owns it Valueable" when it was infact "The Person who owns it makes the Title Valuable" instead.
Canada is the same. We don't have Ollie's or Big Lots here but we still have Eternals and Ms. Marvel clogging up shelves at Wal-Mart and Toys R Us. Wal-Mart barely discounts them so, years later, they are still expensive and still collecting dust. Goes to show that Hasbro doesn't understand its demographics and thinks just because it's MCU or Star Wars it will be gobbled up by rabid fans. Nope. Those days are long past.
I was at a toy sale a few months ago, there were loads of DC figures (the multiverse ones). The most noticeable thing is that there were no regular Superman or Batman figures. There were some Flash and Wonder Woman ones (from the DCU) but not Superman or Batman. Those characters still sell pretty well.
real question to adults who buy this stuff... do you actually play with them? like take them out of the box and make them fight each other? or do you just leave them in the box as a symbol of nostalgia for your childhood hoping they would go up in value
This both sad and hilarious at the same time. Even in Australia where we don't get that much ML product, the ones always left on shelf are the movie and TV versions of the characters
The sad part is that when The Force Awakens came out, that Christmas there were tons and lots and many and a bunch of Hot Wheels Star Wars ships and they were all moving...There were bin after bin after bin of them at Walmart. ...I got like 20 of them, the only ones that I am missing that (still) want are the B-wing and Tie-bomber. Everything (important from the original Trilogy and the U-wing) important I got. But now...nobody cares.
It's sad to see He-man & Kenner The real Ghostbusters toys, when it was super hard to find them in the area where I live, terrible distribution from these companies.
Oh you didn't see it with the graphic novels and comics. TRASH like Camelot 3000, The Rocketeer, Silver and Bronze age Justice League Collections it went on.
There's a strange carelessness in Disney's character and plot ideas. Its as if everything matters but what actually reaches the audience. The actual movie/show/game seems to be the very last thought they have
Perhaps Ollie’s should send these to more stores. I have been looking at Ollie’s for the last year for that Squirrel Girl & never seen Vision, Scarlet Witch, Bucky, J Jonah, or Wong. I have seen Eternals & Black Panther wave figures but not cases and cases worth like that. There are cases full of Star Wars though.
naaah it's just kennedy. she kiled sw, she killed mandalorian, she killed the toys she killed everything. & she cant be ousted as fast as perlmater: her name can be found on 1982 temple of doom's first 10mins. yay.
Imagine being one of those actor and accidentaly stumble in toys section of those store and seeing rows and rows of your character toys that didnt sell
Displaying a healthy desire for hot women is "heteronormativity" that caters to "the male gaze" according to the self-proclaimed "enlightened" people that control the cultural narrative today. So basically, human sexuality working the way it's supposed to, i.e. with regard to a Salma Hayek figure, is a form of oppression and we can't have that. You're supposed to buy hideous figures of Rose Tico and Admiral purple hair.
I can only imagine the frustration of those working for most stores having whole sections dedicated to items that no one will buy. And at this point, Disney really has no one else to blame other than the oversaturation and milking of their properties. You sure wont see anything like Tron sitting out like this.
Black Panther (T’Challa), Miles Morales, Storm, Bishop, War Machine, Blade. If given proper exposure, kids will want those characters. (Ok maybe not blade, hopefully that’s an R rated movie for the big kids)
It is years later and the "star wars" figurines are still at your local Walmart. Also, I see that "the wternals" are living up to their namesake. They will remain at Walmart for all of eternity. Now, on a positive note. Walmart has been bringing back old things that were good. Those are selling. I saw a red transformers beast wars line that had Optimus Primal, and it didn't even last a couple weeks because people bought it up; I myself included, because I loved beast wars and it was a really cool thing which reminded me of good times from my childhood. And speaking of Ollie's.. I remember months ago they had a line of rise of the beast rhinox. It's sold like hotcakes, and the other stuff that's from all the bad Disney Star Wars marvel franchises, we're still there and rhinox
While Marvel and Star Wars toys rot in the shelves, I’m buying Resident Evil toys. So far I have RE2 Leon, RE4 Leon, RE1 Chris, RE5 Chris, RE2 Claire, RE3 Jill, RE5 Wesker, Mr. X, Nemesis, Krauser, Hunk and I believe Rebecca too. I’m still trying complete my RE Action Figure Characters just like I did with my Power Rangers toys when I was a kid. I had all the Rangers from Mighty Morphin to Ninja Storm. I also have a bunch of the Megazords.
We had a stocking department at the Walmart warehouse I used to work at (for online shopping). We had ton of these crap toys, just crammed into the shelves waiting to be sold... except they never did 😂
Watching this video with , Local Forecast - Elevator music in the background is very fitting. Thanks for another fantastic update on how all these crap is still in shelves and not melted already.
