Merchandise- Driven - TV Tropes. The Merchandise- Driven show, otherwise known as the .

The program exists largely to sell these products to the audience, and this is most commonly associated with cartoons and anime targeted at a younger audience. The FCC classified 1. Hot Wheels cartoon as . Throughout The '6. The '7. 0s, the only reliable source for the various Cool Cars and Cool Ships from various science fiction and superhero shows were the Corgi line, imported from the UK. Mego's Star Trek: The Original Series figures didn't appear until well after the show was in reruns.). Today, there is a full symbiotic relationship between the show's production and the toy company (or other manufacturer licensed, show- themed products), which is usually the primary (or even only) sponsor of the show.

1. Chewing gum, zip-ties, cardboard and beer cans: what do all these things have in common? Why, they’re all useful in desperate car repairs, of course!
2. Josie and the Pussycats, the 2001 Archie Comics adaptation and pitch-perfect teen movie satire, was amazing. Its soundtrack was even better. Soon we’ll be able to.
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But the key difference between this and normal licensed merchandising is that here, it is the toy manufacturer who dictates the show's Canon. They may be able to demand addition or removal of characters from the series based on the actual toys in their production line, or that new characters must be something that they can design a toy version for on demand (Military or paramilitary- themed shows and Humongous Mecha anime are particularly prone to this). Another sign of a toy manufacturer exerting influence is the blatant structuring of episode plots solely around the newest merchandisable toy accessories, often where the characters Gotta Catch 'Em All or be declared a failure as a human being .. Meanwhile, in Tokusatsu works, it has become common for the production staff to use weapons and Transformation Trinkets from the show's toyline in the actual show itself. Patch Town (2015) Theater Movie.

Finally—after weeks of surreal teasers and yesterday’s opening-credits reveal, which actually revealed nothing—we have a real trailer for American Horror Story.

Many works are adapted from manga, video games, toys, etc. That so many comic books and late- night anime can maintain a decent budget is due to this small but vocal group of fans. Still, this sometimes produces a Franchise Zombie. However, Tropes Are Not Bad — some fandoms like the merchandise more so than the show itself. This was as much for the sake of the song publishers as for dramatic opportunities like the Dark Reprise. The revues, which were formed around Sketch Comedy and had little to no plot, could get quite shameless: some of them explicitly introduced song reprises as a ploy to sell sheet music. See The Merch for that.

The Merchandise-Driven show, otherwise known as the "half-hour toy commercial", is not merely a television show (or other work) with a line of toys licensed. As a small-town girl catapults from underground video sensation to global superstar, she and her three sisters begin a journey of discovering that some talents are. Detailed listings of cast and crew, release dates, trivia and message board.

Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was famously quoted as saying there is nothing wrong with using characters in marketing, so long as the quality of one's work stays refined. That said, Bill Watterson has, equally famously, taken no chances and limited Calvin and Hobbes to the print medium to prevent any decay in quality. Shows of this nature always do their best to tell a story and to keep the viewers hooked with said story.

Keep that in mind whenever viewing a show that falls under this trope. This seems to be particularly true of comic books, such as Rom Spaceknight and Micronauts. It's also common for merchandise driven shows to develop a cult following that long outlasts the original merchandise; such a fanbase may result in its eventually being Uncanceled (usually with accompanying new merchandise), as the current incarnations of Transformers,G. I. Joe, and others can attest. See also Defictionalization, where the licensed merchandise is also merchandise inside the show; and Breakaway Advertisement.

In some instances, this can also be intertwined with Off- the- Shelf FX. Contrast with The Merch, where the merchandise sales came after the work, in order to support it.

For derivative works that are (usually) not metatextual focus of the original work, see Tie- In Novel and Licensed Game. See the Analysis page for a list of tropes enforced in these works as ways to sell more merchandise. To get a good idea how they win this trope, look up The Merch for Diabolik Lovers, Kuroko no Basuke and Free! These franchises also loves to create limited- edition one- offs that usually costs triple in auctions. Strangely enough, while still in the same demographic, Boys Love Genre (usually manga) works usually avert this trope, with mostly relying on readership rather than merchandise revenues. BL games however zig- zaggs this trope. And it worked; it became one of the most popular children's cartoons and anime series at the time of release, and helped turn Pok.

However, this became less effective with time as the franchise developed a Periphery Demographic, to the point that international marketing now tends to de- emphasize the anime a bit. This led to the creation of the below Pok. As such, it still serves as a promotional arm for the games, especially with Mega Charizard X's appearance, but otherwise focuses more on bringing the original games to life rather than shoving all the newest Pok. Its sequel series, Yu- Gi- Oh!

GX, Yu- Gi- Oh! 5. D's, and Yu Gi Oh Zexal, however, were very much this, causing some fans of the original to complain. Ironically, there's a rumor going around stating that the cards were wiped of text not to eliminate the Japanese language from the dub, but because a rule in children's television prevented . Evidence for this is seen in Yu- Gi- Oh: The Movie, in which the cards look like the real cards, and are even translated into English.

ARC- V, veers slightly away from this trope by valuing character development and plot over the cards. For example duels are repeatedly interrupted or cut out and barely shown to make room for more plot- important scenes. Even more so in manga for, as C'mon Digimon was finished before the v- pets. Notable as the marketers didn't care about anything except the merchandise and gave the anime writers a free hand, with diverse results. Digimon Tamers even features merchandising from the franchise in the show!

Adventure 0. 2 is a good example — in the series, Takeru's and Hikari's Digimon had to evolve into Armor forms because the plot placed a restriction on normal evolution methods. Later in the series, the limitation was lifted, allowing Patamon and Tailmon to reach their (more powerful) angelical forms; nevertheless, they still went with the Armors most of the time, since they were what was selling then. It paid off, as its toy sales were reportedly the best of any Digimon line in years and were enough to get the show an extra season. Said extra season, Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time, is significantly less toyetic so far, to the point where no actual toys for anything introduce in it are known to exist at this time. Susanoomon, the final hero, was also a visible amalgamation of Kaiser.

Greymon and Magna. Garurumon. At least it has a better justification (parallel universe and all). This Dreamspinner. The brand never did as well as Takara had hoped it would and they eventually stopped caring, which led to both the above example and pretty much everything that ever happened in Gao. Gai. Gar. The fact that many of these series are either good, great, or mind- blowing, seems completely unimportant to its production company. It hasn't always worked.

For example, the color scheme of the titular mech was drastically altered to be more visually appealing (even though it was much, much less realistic). And all of the other modifications to the original story. The original series' cancellation was in part due to poor merchandising. The show's ratings were absolutely terrible, so Tomino started creating blatantly toyetic mobile suits and vehicles (such as the G- Armor) in hopes that toy sales would keep the show afloat. It didn't work, but the strong toy and model kit sales did help convince the studio to do a trilogy of Compilation Movies, which eventually led to Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, which was far more successful.

And so Bandai gets to market smaller and cheaper models in the same scales, grades, and price points as before. Kits like the 0. 0 Qant and the Unicorn Gundam are hot sellers but they are priced according to how much plastic is in those kits. On the other hand, large kits like the Sinanju err to the more expensive side.

Jem (TV Series 1. IMDb. Edit. Storyline. Jerrica Benton is the owner of Starlight Music and the Starlight Foundation, which is a foster home for young girls. But by using her earrings to project a holographic image over herself, she is transformed into her alter ego Jem, the lead singer for the successful music group, Jem and the Holograms. Other members of the group are Jerrica's sensitive little sister Kimber, the strong- willed Aja, and the creative Shana. The group's rivals are The Misfits, made up of the cold- hearted Pizzazz, the tough- acting Roxy, and the humble Stormer.

Jem and her friends are always involved in glamorous and exciting adventures around the world, while touching people's hearts with their hit songs. All these segments, which form the first five episodes, were later slightly revised when they were released as a VHS tape in 1. The show went in full production and then started airing on its own in July 1.