Was Disney gonna develop a merchandise line for boys in the 2000's

[DodgerGirl]

I heard a rumor that Disney was gonna develop a merchandise line for boys much like Disney developed the Disney Princess line for girls and from what I learned about the line was the name was gonna be Disney Heroes and it was gonna feature Aladdin Hercules Jafar and Hades and many other Disney heroes but the Disney Heroes line never saw the light of day and I wonder what became of the Disney Heroes line for boys? Was Disney hoping to attract the older Disney fans by releasing this line for boys just as the Disney Princess line became successful for girls?

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

One of the reasons Disney wanted Star Wars and Marvel was they did not draw a lot of young boys to their content. Both of those two brands were traditionally male centric brands. However, Disney really didn’t know how to make content for males well, so they ended up doing more of the same with Star Wars and Marvel being changed to be more female centric. The result has been they drew more of their existing female fans into those brands, but they failed to deliver the young boys that was their initial goal for the acquisitions.

 

[BrianL]

I can't underoverstate how much I disagree with that assessment.

 

[Brian Noble]

Agreed. But it's fun to watch people tell on themselves.

(Did you mean overstate?)

 

[BrianL]

Agreed. But it's fun to watch people tell on themselves.

(Did you mean overstate?)

I might have....

 

[HopperFan]

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Do you disagree that Marvel and Star Wars were traditionally brands that appealed to boys?

 

[leiaorgana]

They might appeal to that demographic but they never were and never have been the sole consumer. You can look at all of the old footage from the opening of the original SW film and see all of the women and young girls making up the crowds who were queuing up for hours on end just to get into a screening and they were all clearly just as excited to be there to experience the film. Same with all of the news footage from when the prequels were released. It's a fairy tale, soap opera set in space at the end of the day. Its always had mass appeal. Hell, I was running around my grandma's living room in a green bomber jacket I begged my mum to buy me because I was so desperate to be Rogue as a kid after watching the animated X-Men series before school every morning.

Disney have always had Mickey and co. along with the Princes, male Villains and then the POTC films to appeal that demographic so they didn't really need either of those franchises to bring in the younger boys. And then once they bought Pixar they had particular demographic locked down once again with things like Toy Story and Cars etc. My best friend's Nephew is 4 and he's absolutely obsessed with Cars and Lightning McQueen in particular along with Paw Patrol (which is actually the real thorn in Disney's side, not those pesky female characters having the audacity to exist).

 

[BrianL]

Do you disagree that Marvel and Star Wars were traditionally brands that appealed to boys?

I think Star Wars has always appealed to everyone! Marvel is a little trickier as it's comic book roots probably did heavily skew male, but that's more of a comics issue, not a Marvel issue. As @leiaorgana said, the X-Men cartoon had broad appeal to boys and girls, so it's really just the medium of dlievery. It's not surpsie the MCU movies have had massive appeal to both male and female audiences. The fact is, Disney wants brands that appeal as broadly as possible.

When I was a kid, Disney Princess movies weren't conisdered as being "for girls" or anything - every kid watched them! Of course, there were only three at the time, but still.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Comic books and and Marvel have traditionally been male centric and with mostly male customers. Not completely of course. Ever seen the Big Bang scenes in the comic shop? Those scenes are not far from reality. Not saying they aren’t female Marvel fans, just significantly less than male ones.

Same with Star Wars. Not exclusively of course, but the OT fan base was predominantly male.

No one ever said there were not female fans, however saying the fan base was predominantly male is factual.

The same as saying the bulk of Barbie fans of the movie and the toys are female. Not completely of course, but mostly.

 

[BrianL]

Comic books and and Marvel have traditionally been male centric and with mostly male customers. Not completely of course. Ever seen the Big Bang scenes in the comic shop? Those scenes are not far from reality. Not saying they aren’t female Marvel fans, just significantly less than male ones.

Same with Star Wars. Not exclusively of course, but the OT fan base was predominantly male.

No one ever said there were not female fans, however saying the fan base was predominantly male is factual.

The same as saying the bulk of Barbie fans of the movie and the toys are female. Not completely of course, but mostly.

Really, it's Comic Book SHOPS that have that issue. They have largely been dank and unfriendly places where guys hang out. The rise of the direct market in the 1980 definitely made comic book collecting a bit of an exclusive hobby and forced it into becomming more niche. It certainly was not the appeal of the stories and characters though - females like those too, or would if exposed to them. That's why when they are in TV's and movies, the audience is more evenly split. Even graphic novels found strong female audiences in book stores - you know, a place where females would actually go. Now, some comic shops have gotten better about that, but a lot of them, yeah, they are kinda offputting. If you're not in the club already, you might feel excluded. Lots of hobby shops can be like that - record stores and the like where the employees are judging you for your choices - you know what I'm talking about.

 

[BrianL]

To add, I think everyone at least likes Star Wars to a point. It has always been the most accessible and cool of the "geek stuff." Like if you liked Star Trek, you were a nerd, but even the cool kids liked Star Wars. They may not have had an intense love of it to the point of reading the books and such, but to go see it at the movies? Sure, absolutely.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I think a factor in why some of these fandoms are more male centric (comics, "nerd" movies like Star Wars, video games) is because the fanbase makes these spaces very hostile towards women. Any woman in these spaces will tell you that lol it's why I never join voice chat in online games these days.

Star Wars and Marvel are so mainstream nowadays. Whenever I'm out in public I see both men and women wearing merch for those properties.

 

[BrianL]

I think a factor in why some of these fandoms are more male centric (comics, "nerd" movies like Star Wars, video games) is because the fanbase makes these spaces very hostile towards women. Any women in these spaces will tell you that lol it's why I never join voice chat in online games these days.

Star Wars and Marvel are so mainstream nowadays. Whenever I'm out in public I see both men and women wearing merch for those properties.

That's exactly what I was getting at with the comic book shops. It's not that women and girls wouldn't be into this stuff, it was just inaccessible due to that cliquish nature. The Marvel movies really helped change that, but it's always been true even before. My sister used to watch Superfriends and other cartoons that one might consider to be "for boys." She may not have opted for Barbies etc. as toys, but she still enjoyed that stuff. Heck, we would sometimes play Barbie and He-Man together!

 

[Smugpugmug]

That's exactly what I was getting at with the comic book shops. It's not that women and girls wouldn't be into this stuff, it was just inaccessible due to that cliquish nature. The Marvel movies really helped change that, but it's always been true even before. My sister used to watch Superfriends and other cartoons that one might consider to be "for boys." She may not have opted for Barbies etc. as toys, but she still enjoyed that stuff. Heck, we would sometimes play Barbie and He-Man together!

The last time I went to a comic book shop, I felt so unwelcomed that I left after a few minutes. I didn't understand it because wouldn't they want my patronage? I feel the same with places like Gamestop and retro game stores.

Women are huge nerds too, just let us be nerds without the gatekeeping please

 

[leiaorgana]

Comic books and and Marvel have traditionally been male centric and with mostly male customers. Not completely of course. Ever seen the Big Bang scenes in the comic shop? Those scenes are not far from reality. Not saying they aren’t female Marvel fans, just significantly less than male ones.

Same with Star Wars. Not exclusively of course, but the OT fan base was predominantly male.

No one ever said there were not female fans, however saying the fan base was predominantly male is factual.

The same as saying the bulk of Barbie fans of the movie and the toys are female. Not completely of course, but mostly.

I have seen those scenes and I agree that's probably a very realistic portrayal of the culture at those places elsewhere when occupied by a certain *cough* demographic of fan but fortunately where I live, our comic book store has women working there as part of the staff as well and has always been welcoming to everyone so never really had to deal with those types of fanboys there thankfully.

Maybe back in the 70s and 80s there seemed to be a larger proportion of male to female fans because the internet didn't exist back then so you'll never truly know if that was fully the case because little Suzie from the middle of nowhere couldn't have a tumblr or twitter account dedicated to her love for SW back then.

And I 100% agree with smugpugmug about women and young girls not being welcome and bullied out of male-centric fanbases due to the endless hostility and misogyny aimed towards them and the female characters in those films/shows that takes place within those 2 particular fanbases. Women had to go and carve out there own spaces and communities where they felt safe instead. Tumblr and Twitter are absolutely filled with teen girls and women that love both of these franchises and have dedicated their blogs/accounts to these films/shows/characters. You're just not looking in the right places.

 

[BrianL]

The last time I went to a comic book shop, I felt so unwelcomed that I left after a few minutes. I didn't understand it because wouldn't they want my patronage? I feel the same with places like Gamestop and retro game stores.

Women are huge nerds too, just let us be nerds without the gatekeeping please

Yeah, it has gotten better in some cases, but not always. Honestly, comic book shops - and I love my shop that I've been going to for years - but the direct market killed comic books by becomming so exclusionary toward new fans. Sure, there are lots of new Marvel fans out there because of the movies, but they don't read the comics at all - they are only interested in the movies & shows. Not surprising since the movies are liek a million times better than the dreck that Marvel publishes these days.

 

[starlite_]

Yeah, it has gotten better in some cases, but not always. Honestly, comic book shops - and I love my shop that I've been going to for years - but the direct market killed comic books by becomming so exclusionary toward new fans. Sure, there are lots of new Marvel fans out there because of the movies, but they don't read the comics at all - they are only interested in the movies & shows. Not surprising since the movies are liek a million times better than the dreck that Marvel publishes these days.

Ignoring the quality of the writing or why someone would or wouldn't like it. It is soo expensive and leads nowhere. Why spend time and money in a book just for it to be rebooted 20 issues in or change course completely? I don't have that kind of time or patience tbh.

 

[BrianL]

Ignoring the quality of the writing or why someone would or wouldn't like it. It is soo expensive and leads nowhere. Why spend time and money in a book just for it to be rebooted 20 issues in or change course completely? I don't have that kind of time or patience tbh.

It definitely drove up prices too! The direct market killed comics, for real. I still buy some, mostly only DC and NO MARVEL under any circumstances. There is a diminishing return on them though.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Go back and watch those scenes in big bang theory again. No one was being exclusionary at all, they were just shocked to see them there. Why were they shocked? Actually the guys were thrilled to have a woman present. Because women for the most part didn’t buy or obsess over comics.

There is not plot to exclude women at all and never has been.

Yes, I knew one or two girls who liked Star Wars in the 80s, but 80% of the boys did. Every boy I knew just about had a few Star Wars action figures and maybe one ship. Not a single girl I knew had any of that. I am not saying there were not female fans, I am saying the majority of the fans were male, which is 100% true.

Why is ok to say the majority of people watching The Barbie Movie and buying Barbie merchandise are female, but not ok to say the same for OT Star Wars and boys?