#they did put more effort into tabletop games this time around so hurrah for that.

[mcbitchtits]

i've been reorganizing my indiana jones collection and it's amazing to compare how much they did in 2008 that they (lucasfilm? disney newly in the reins?) clearly did not put any attempt/effort into

no novelization

no comic tie-in

no republication/rerelease of any collection (books, comics, YIJC; the movies they just did a 4-set last year as a boxed set iirc, but no 5-set for this upcoming december release with DoD)

no fast food promotion

no food branding partnerships (in 2008 there was from what i remember snickers, m&m, Dr. Pepper, and a custom chocolate/marshmallow cereal)

and i'm sure i'm missing others. it's just so wild to see this not only in contrast to 2008 BUT ALSO as a counterpoint to the huge success of TOTALLY INESCAPABLE FLOODING FROM STAR WARS IN 2015! you couldn't even buy regular-ass grocery clementines without fucking bb-8 being slapped on the bag. they didn't have fancy clever sphero stickers or anything. it was literally just a bag of clementines.

anyway. i suspect it's in part because of disney maybe taking the reins on some of this, although lucasfilm tends to be very controlling of its IPs so maybe not? maybe it's just in part (or in whole) that so many jobs have become piecemeal hires who only last a short time and there's no longer institutional knowledge being accumulated anywhere? maybe a purposeful abandonment of lucas' very intentional (and notably successful) pro-licensing strategies? something about the demise of physical media and other strategic branding partnerships? maybe they're all too star-wars-ified to give a shit about indiana jones? (this does seem to be a pervasive hollywood problem— a circular logic at best and a circular firing squad at worst— we only invest time and money into IPs which are hugely popular (and never put in the investment to make sure kids everywhere know about our other brands))

anyway. this post brought to you by finding my the weird old Burger King toys and uhhhhh two fifteen year old uneaten snickers bars

#i'm not mad about losing the dr. pepper tie in though. i hate dr pepper #also i don't feel like they put enough effort into that one to make it funny. missed opportunity. #indiana jones #kingdom of the crystal skull #dial of destiny #lucasfilm #disney #how does one archive snickers bars. i do not know. #i put them in a plastic bag at least #one of the magazine covers from 2008 was a metallized poly bag of some kind and had UTTERLY disintegrated. #they did put more effort into tabletop games this time around so hurrah for that. #the funko and fashion partnerships were still unbeliveably uninspired. or straight up awful