Favorite Avengers Characters

[livingdeb]

Apparently market research (or at least the guts of marketers) shows that Black Widow toys won't sell well, even if she's on a motorcycle that comes out of a plane (my source: Daily Dot). Toy replicas of the plane and motorcycle are still being sold (because: duh!), but Hasbro's is ridden by Captain America and Mattel's by Iron Man.

This greatly surprises me because Black Widow was my favorite character in the first Avengers movie. All because of that scene with the phone call.

Of course I am not the target since I almost never buy toys connected to movies. And the first Avengers movie may be ancient history to six-year-old boys.

So then I was trying to think who my favorite character was in "Age of Ultron." I quite enjoyed the moment when I thought to myself, "Hey, we really could use a couple more Avengers." But I can't helping thinking my favorite character might be Thor's hammer. Yes, yes, the hammer was overused, but I really liked three of its scenes.

Comments

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

I am suspicious of this market research. Because I go looking for the girl characters and they are HARD to find! And unlike you, I actually buy them! ...*sigh* You are right, I'm probably not their target market, either. But I'm suspicious of how they are defining their target market. Are they defining it as "Boys 5-12"? because I'm clearly not that. But if it is "children 5-12", then perhaps their marketing is poor. Black Widow was and is a really cool character! I completely want a lego minifig of her! Maybe two!

[texpenguin.livejournal.com]

I've seen other articles stating the same. One cited Hot Topic as a store that carried the female super hero merch for awhile, but pulled out because it sold very poorly. Of course their primary demo is teen and college kids I think. It's a somewhat older female crowd that's gotten past (somewhat) the OMG Captain America is so hot! and has moved onto the female empowerment thing. So they should be selling the Black Widow gear at Old Navy? Banana Republic? JC Penny's? I don't know, where do grown-ups shop these days?

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

ThinkGeek? They are failing, too. I don't see how they can have Hawkeye (http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/huku/?srp=3)* and not have Black Widow.

I'm not past thinking that Captain America is hot. (I like boy scout types and I loved watching him look at that chaotic situation in he first Avengers and take control.) That doesn't keep me from liking Black Widow.

*I was pretty annoyed when Hawkeye got shot right away again, but they made up for it when he was the only one to resist getting his mind taken over!

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

P.S. I just noticed that although ThinkGeek doesn't list her, she is in the list of characters that are not currently available and for whom you can request an e-mail when she does become available. The other not-available character, Captain America, is listed. Maybe that's a sign that they're asking the company to provide a character they weren't originally intending to provide.