Transformers Changing Toy Biz

Brandweek.com has posted an article about how the success of Transformers is changing how the toy companies do their business. The story, poorly, is stating that instead of toys being based on movies, the toy companies are trying to get movies based on their toys (which helps sell more toys).

With planned movies such as Voltron, GI Joe and few others, not exactly surprising but I hope the companies are very careful in what properties they try to convert and those that don't. Transformers was largely successful not only because of its built in base with the decades of Transfans, cartoons and so forth but also because the basic concept of giant transforming robots fighting in realistic CGI will wet the appetite of even the most jaded movie goer.

If GI Joe succeeds, it will because it will be treated the same way. Being derived from a toyline has to be irrelevant to the execution of the concept. As Marvel has learned and Warner Bros is just starting to get (incredibly slowly to point of incompetence), if you treat the property as "real" and not a joke, the audiences will come. The minute you snicker at your own property, then chances are the quality in the execution will take a dramatic nosedive. After all if you can't take your movie seriously, why should your audience.

Sadly, it appears that this is a lesson I think the toy companies will learn the hard way as they have already have "Magic 8 Ball: The Movie" in the works. Nope, sadly that is apparently not a joke.

One thing the article did was remind me that the US Toy Fair starts February 17th where get peaks at Transformers Animated, Classics 2.0, and other Transformers related plans. (source)