How Disney is doubling down on nerdy merch
This week's #MagicMonday we are talking lightsabers, droids, and Infinity Stones?
Disney has always been there, hooking us with our favorite childhood shows and media, while capitalizing on our fandom with its parks and merch.
Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilms in 2012 (wow, was it really that long ago?!) opened a new galaxy of possibilities for the beloved company to work its way into the hearts and wallets of millions force-obsessed fans, like ourselves. Although much of the fanbase was a bit weary at the time, Disney had lighting in a bottle as soon as Galaxy’s Edge opened in Orlando in 2019. From the immersive land, to the unique shops and products, we were hooked, and at the pinnacle of it all? Savi’s Workshop.
Every lifetime Star Wars fan was lining up for their chance to craft their own iconic piece of this universe and happily shell out the $200 (now $250!) for the chance to do so, and the saber collecting did not stop there. Legacy sabers offered fans a chance to own a replica hilt from their favorite heroes and villains at a smaller price point, trading off the customization of a full Savi’s saber.
Disney has recognized this fandom-fever and decided to move it over to the MCU with the drop of their Infinity Stone toys.
The Infinity Stone line allows fans to own a piece of the Infinity Saga in the form of the stones themselves, or one of the many different devices used to wield them through the movies, including the Tesseract, Aether, Power Orb, and various gauntlets. For about $40 you can pick up 5 Infinity Stones in a swanky-looking briefcase, but that is all you will have, a swanky Stark-esque breifcase. For any real interaction you will need to pick up one of the many items previously mentioned at $100-140 a piece, this includes the gauntlet which has the 6th stone packaged in it forcing any collector to buy it for that last stone.
I’m not going to harp on price, because everyone’s fandom is worth a different amount to them, but the construction of these toys is our biggest gripe. Anyone who has forged their own lightsaber or held one of the legacy sabers knows how real they feel. There is real weight to them, and the cool touch of metal to make things as real as it gets without a plasma beam shooting out of the other end. The Infinity toys are almost exclusively plastic. Like Hasbro plastic. They look like plastic, feel like plastic, and have the weight of……..plastic. If Disney is shooting for the same collectors in MCU fandom as they are in Star Wars, they need to step into premium materials, even at a higher price.
Plastic construction is apparent, especially on the Power Orb
It will be interesting to see if demand starts to finally pick up for these replicas, and where Disney will focus their collection efforts next in the MCU. We would love to see replicas of some of the iconic MCU weapons in premium materials (think Cap’s shield, Mjolnir, etc.), but we will probably keep dreaming…. What collectables do you want to see come to WDW? What do you think of the new Infinity collection?
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