I have no idea. Did it nova from ancillary products like makeup in the 80s? I don't recall that happening either. I am completely ignorant about the history of those properties flaming out in the 80s if they even did, but now I am curious if this is common knowledge?
It is.
Given GI Joe started in 1963, and Transformers began in 1984, I don't think either of them ruled kids marketing in the "early" 1980s?
Relying upon Google to be an authority can fail you. GI Joe had a few 'lives'. The one that most of us know began with the 1983 TV series that was on after school. Transformers began the following year and were shown back to back in most markets. They, and Robotech, were the clearly dominant afternoon cartoons aimed at male audiences.
Is there some history of this I can read somewhere which supports that claim?
Take a marketing class that has a focus on history.
GI Joe has been like Barbie - it rises and falls every generation at some point and definitely is not defined as an "80s thing" given I know it was hugely popular in the 60s, and then again in the 70s (which is when the Kung Fu Grip came around). In fact if I am not mistaken GI Joe was at a low point in the 80s, and rose again in the 90s.
It was dominant in the early 1980s and fell off towards the end of the decade. I can't fathom why you're trying to argue this when so many people on these boards were kids in this era and LIVED through this situation.
Transformers, I don't know of anything about it pushing for over monetizing. It's not one of those things which I recall crossed over into that kind of mass marketing and then collapsed in the 80s, but I am pretty ignorant about it in general so maybe I am wrong.
You are. GI Joe and Transformers - as shows - were entirely there to get kids to buy toys. There is a lot written about how these shows - and Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, etc... - were just glorified advertisements.
Wait you're comparing D&D, a 50 year longstanding brand, to brief fads which lasted around 5 years? Naw, that's not a good comparison. Of course fads faded. Rainbow Bright is not a franchise dominate brand like D&D or Star Wars. It's more akin to LOL Dolls, which could be seen as a fad from the get-go,
So, by your logic, anything that burned out can't be a good example of the risk of D&D burning out ... very self supportive of you. The longevity before abusive practices flames out the product is irrelevant. That is like saying that a wooden house that has stood for 100 years is less likely to burn down than a wooden house built yesterday. The destructive forces are not related to the prior longevity.
You mean how Star Wars flooded the marketplace in the early 1980s only to burn out.
Actually - Yes. It did. That is another decent example. Star Wars toy sales were down in the 1990s until the Prequels were announced. Once Star Wars jumped off the rails with the animated Droids, Ewok Movies, etc... the sales were way down.
However, Lucas had more interest in the IP than a toy company had in their cartoon IPs - and Lucas had LONG TERM plans. He kept interest alive with the VHS, Laser Disk, DVD and BLu Ray releases, including the special editions, and brought it back with the release of the prequels in a well executed nostalgic path. Unlike the toy companies, Lucas was tied to Star Wars. If he squeezed it to death, he didn't get to jump to the next replacement. It was his baby. It was his legacy. As a result, while it did have a dive in popularity after the original trilogy had run the course, there were plans in place to keep the interest and rebuild for the future.
.. Maybe how KPOP is flooding the marketplace these days and will...no, it's not anything close to burning out either, it just keeps getting more and more dominant.
KPOP isn't my thing at all. However, when I Google it, I see articles about it starting to break into the mainstream ... so I will not comment beyond saying: I think the percentage of Americans that would struggle to name someone from K-POP would be
much higher than the percentage that would struggle to name a Transformer, GI Joe character or Star Wars character. As far as I know, while K-POP is growing in popularity, it is still not mainstream.
Licensing your IP can be a sign of a franchise burning out, or it can be a sign of a franchise growing into something bigger. It really depends on the franchise, but I don't think it's in itself indicative of doom like you're making it out to be. It might be indicative of when YOU burn out on a franchise maybe?
Again - it isn't just licensing. Well executed and intelligently designed licensing is revenue generating and marketing rolled into one.
It is how you license. When you just throw everything at the wall without consideration for how it impacts the future of your IP, you risk damaging the IP. But, if you have a good plan that balances current profits and long term longevity ... Do you have a marketing plan that considers market saturation across products, for example.
Have you never seen a mix of IP and product that made you go, "Really? How the %@# are those related?" Have you never been tired of seeing a particualr thing coming up over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ...?
In general, markets can grow ... to a point. Once they reach a certain level, the cost of increasing that market risks becoming greater than the expected returns. D&D just went tghrough a huge growth period and then had massive negative PR accidents. Trying to increase their revenue within the primary market (which at this point includes physical books, peripheral products, and digital) is going to be hard until they get a boon. Historically, that boon has been the new edition. However, they'll face much harsher competition than ever before when they release the next set of books. They are getting a boon from BG3, but the timing of it could not be worse. A good segment of the people that are gaining interest in D&D after BG3 are hearing that a new edition is coming and that the current one is dying away ... so buying the books/digital now is like buying a PS4 right before the PS 5 is released.
However, WOTC executives want their bonuses - and saying that they can't grow profits more is not going to get them that bonus ... or keep their job safe. So they're going to squeeze any peripheral market revenue they can. And we'll see D&D pop up in more and more places. Maybe Happy Meals? Maybe snacks? And as we do, we get burned out on too much of it. We get tired of seeing it. It is human nature.
D&D has some advantages in this area - it is a diverse IP with a lot of iconic elements that can be spread around ... but despite those advantages, squeezing it on and one on and on will harm the IP. And, with the IP already in jeopardy from the next edition /competition wars ... it should worry those of us that are long term fans.
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