Upcoming RB Toys/Playsets?

[Aquarius]

Welp, dunno about the picture frame, but the talking doll is not being made

"I wish that talking Rainbow Brite was being made! That one was one of my ideas! Unfortunately, for some reason, they didn't think this line was doing well... (This was before it even went on sale... such confidence, right?)"

This is not boding well for us RB fans

I thought that the line was doing alright. They didn't even give it a chance before it came to that assumption. Its only been less than 3 months since the dolls were out! How do they expect a toy line to do well with no advertising or variety? They don't even have their website up yet!

What I don't get is why no toy company seems to care about RB, when all other 80's toys are doing extremely well? Why did they even bother with it?

[Chibi Rachy]

Rather interesting designs, even if the talking RB isn't being made. I do like the design art for her though. A lot less super girly.

[stormberryfairy]

Man those things are awesome! How in the world can RBB not be doing well??? I know lots of people buying the toys, and sheesh I bought 2 of each doll plus the horses! I will buy EVERYTHING RBB that they release! I will be devastated if the line doesn't continue past these 1st few things.

[Blondine Arc-En-Ciel]

By "not doing well" I think they mean that sales (in terms of orders from stores) have not met the projections. I'm sure there is some critical mass they must attain before Playmates is willing to invest in creating more products, even if they have already been designed.

You also have to look at the fact that the dead of winter isn't the best time to launch a new toy line. For starters, it means that you just missed the previous holiday shopping season and demand for toys this time of the year is below average. Second, people are still paying for the presents they bought for last Christmas. Third, the economy is at its lowest point in years if not decades with record unemployment levels in the USA. For many people at the moment, what used to be discretionary income is now needed to meet basic needs. The line should have been launched (with adequate levels of stock available to retailers on a moment's notice) around the middle of October of last year with all due fanfare and a nonstop publicity barrage that continued until New Year's. Since that didn't happen, Whatever had been produced so far should have been warehoused until that time this year rolls around.

The stuff that Katy posted looks good but it's pretty worthless if they don't start producing it. I also wonder if PM has ever heard of the TP Gen 3 talking RB doll. She said eight phrases, one of which was something like "I can say the colors of the Rainbow. Can you? There's red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo and violet." Someone had forgot to add green into that phrase during the design phase... I certainly hope that history won't repeat itself if PM brings out a talking doll.

OK, I'm normally pessimistic by nature but it kind of scares me when I read that some of you, rather more optimistic than I am, are saying they are worried that the line as it is today will not see it's first birthday.

[Stormyfan]

There was not much left at the Fort Myers, Florida Toys R US when I bought my dolls. There was only one left of Moonglow and Tickled Pink. I puchased those with a Rainbow Brite. There was one large Rainbow Brite, but I didn't purchase her so she and another small Rainbow Brite were left. There were no horses. The lady who was working in that isle seemed to think they were doing well and she was glad to see another Rainbow Brite fan.

[Blondine Arc-En-Ciel]

There was not much left at the Fort Myers, Florida Toys R US when I bought my dolls. There was only one left of Moonglow and Tickled Pink. I puchased those with a Rainbow Brite. There was one large Rainbow Brite, but I didn't purchase her so she and another small Rainbow Brite were left. There were no horses. The lady who was working in that isle seemed to think they were doing well and she was glad to see another Rainbow Brite fan.

Ok, they sold out of their first shipment in a week or however long, but how many items did they receive to start with? OK, not enough, but it's difficult to get an accurate picture of nationwide sales when you only have reports form a few scattered stores.

Hey, Stormyfan, I hope you told her about this forum during your conversation.

[Aurora]

The sprite in that drawing looks absolutely adorable. I grew up with the old designs, of course, but the more recent designs aren't so bad. (Not biased, not at all! )

[*C9*]

It is really obvious why it isn't doing "well" after Christmas it is the lowest sales in retail of the year. Obviously they aren't going to sell well right now. They should have researched this better when to release the dolls.

[Wardah]

I have a feeling the retailers might be at fault for a lot of the line's problems. Its possible the retailers did not see this becoming a successful line. After all look how the last time they tried to mass market her during the 90's. They might have seen this as "another nostalgia retread" like the recent relaunch of PJ Sparkles which sadly didn't last despite having cute dolls. If they don't decide to buy them then Playmates having tons on stock is pretty useless. Target didn't want to buy the horses but Meijer being a smaller store decided to take a limited number of them. The only way to really keep this line going is to show the retailers that we do want them so they will order more so Playmates will keep making them.

About the launch time even Spring like they had originally said would be an okay time to launch the line. Some parents like to put a "big" item into their kid's easter baskets (if they celebrate it) and its far enough after the holiday season that if a kid has a birthday they would be willing to spend money. As for warehousing them until fall that might not have been possible. Warehousing ends up costing money since they probably don't own the warehouses and just rent the space.

[Tennyo]

How can they expect the dolls to sell well when they don't even advertise them? There has been NO marketing where I live. AT ALL. I don't even know if I can find the toys here. I've never remembered to look.

As far as I know no one around here even knows that RB is getting a relaunch. Whenever I mention it to someone they are always so surprised. They aren't going to purchase what they don't know exists!

This is like Firefly. Great show. Fox screwed it over. Never advertised it, ran the episodes out of order and later on on Friday nights. After the show gets canceled word finally spreads AND LOOK AND THE CULT FOLLOWING AND HOW MUCH THEY'VE MADE FROM DVD SALES.

So many people love Firely, including myself, but they didn't watch it when it was on TV because no one knew it existed. Even me! I had never heard of Firefly until after it was canceled. Maybe if Fox had bothered to promote it I would have watched it, because let me tell you, it's a great show and I love it.

So yeah, Hallmark, Playmates, great big marketing FAIL.

But whatever. I don't even like the new dolls anyway. I would just like to see RB not get canned forever simply because a few people seem to not be able to do it right. lol