Not in the Toy Aisle

Madeline Vega

NOT IN THE TOY AISLE

More than six months from the next movie’s release, Wal-Mart’s collection of Star Wars toys can easily fit in one frame. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing on the shelves...

When walking around the store, I would expect to find Star Wars socks and T-shirts as well as action figures, but a tour of nearly every department left me with a better sense of how far we are from the release date for Episode IX. Disney has more Marvel properties to push before Star Wars. The tour also paints a picture of how Disney is positioning Spider-Man and Paw Patrol as the masculine options for bubbles or bikes or plush characters. However, Rey and BB-8 show up everywhere as the faces of the franchise on bottles of vitamins and toothbrushes.

Luis has been following all of the announcements for ways Hasbro plans to fill stores with Star Wars toys later this year. This is clearly a temporary situation.

All the Star Wars toys available at Wal-Mart along with lots of non-Star Wars toys

Madeline Vega

This light-up Space Sword for less than $4 easily won Betty’s approval.

Toothbrushes, underwear, vitamins, bath towels, waste bins, toothpaste, and containers to collect Easter eggs were all examples we found of Star Wars branding.