History Main / TheMerch

* WWE often doesn't even promote the weirdest of their merchandise. BBQ bibs, ponchos, rings in the shape of title belts, earrings, sippy bottles, onesies, a John Cena chore chart, Kosher, edible images to cook onto your pizza, DX branded menorahs, and even garden gnomes. And there are a whole host of products that you can't by directly from their merchandise website or are no longer sold. WWE branded Kerplunk and Uno, digital cameras, RC vehicles, boom boxes, condoms, thongs. Anything and everything.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has a very strange and bipolar relationship with its marketing, even aside from the tone of the story. Allegedly, a fan once proudly told Creator/HideakiAnno that he had sold all his university textbooks to buy more Eva merchandise. Anno called him an idiot and told him to study harder.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Qr9rztRw4 It is not an exaggeration to say that, should you have the money, you could live entirely off of Eva merch.]]

* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' became such a franchise that branded merchandise still sells quite well with ''now-adult'' childhood viewers of both sexes, from ''Hot Topic'' man-sized ''Sailor Moon'' t-shirts to expensive 20th anniversary revival [[http://www.sailormooncollectibles.com/2014/06/05/sailor-moon-miracle-romance-sailor-uranus-sailor-neptune-twin-lip-balm-rod/ makeup sets]], bras and panties.
** This MultipleDemographicAppeal continues to be exploited with ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal,'' with Bandai selling Swarovski crystal "tiara rings" at over ''[[http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/07/04/sailor-soldier-tiara-ring-first-accessory-from-sailor-moon-crystal a hundred dollars]]'' a pop.

* Generally speaking, {{Anime}} are made to promote their Merch - BD sales won't cover their production costs, except for excessively popular anime which are few and far between. This phenomenon is lampshaded in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', which pokes fun at its own DVD bonuses.
** Special mention must be made for character-driven BishoujoSeries, doubly so if {{Moe}}: one of the more popular Merch is ''dakimakura'', or pillows with character image on it, which is usually rather risque. And it's not even limited to bishoujo; there exists ''dakimakura'' of ''Manga/BakiTheGrappler'' and ''Manga/{{Golgo13}}''.

* {{Toku}}satsu series, especially the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/KamenRider'' franchises, exist to sell merchandise. From the transformation devices and trinkets, to expensive and highly articulated figures, to just about everything else you can imagine, the success of the series is less about the ratings it pulls in, and more about the profit its toys make.
** Naturally, its derivations ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' and ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'' are exactly the same.

** From 1964 to about 1966 or so, "Dalekmania" (a Dalek craze created by how iconic and menacing the Daleks were) hit, and British stores were filled with toys, games, kids' clothing, cakes, Easter eggs, plates, OfficialCosplayGear, ice lollies, anything you can think of, all bearing the image of the Daleks. This unfortunately led to a period of the show's writers being forced by executive mandate to create monsters and worlds designed to be "[[{{Toyetic}} memorable]]". This resulted in a slew of forgettable monsters such as the Voord and the Mechanoids and spectacularly rubbish-looking monsters such as the [[TinCanRobot Krotons]], [[InsectoidAliens Zarbi]] and [[BeePeople Menoptera-Optera]], most of which would copy the Dalek formula with some combination of 1) a rather garish design, 2) a distinctive speech quirk such as AccentUponTheWrongSyllable, RoboSpeak, SssssnakeTalk, etcetera that children were intended to imitate in the playground, and 3) very long serials introducing them and going into a lot of depth about their planet and culture (to create spinoff children's book opportunities). None of these forced attempts to create mascots were ever as effective as the Daleks, or the Cybermen (who were not designed to be anything other than terrifying), although it's worth noting that the Zarbi in particular ''were'' very popular at the time.
*** A particularly obvious example of this kind of forced monster toyeicism is the Dalek [[TheWarRoom War Room]] sequence in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E2MissionToTheUnknown "Mission to the Unknown"]], which introduces [[http://drwhotht01.x10.mx/1ta/d01-1ta-005.jpg several somewhat over-designed new species of alien]] as creatures powerful and villanous enough that [[TheWorfEffect the Daleks are forced to negotiate alliances with them rather than just exterminating them outright]], and also introduces the audience to their distinctive speech quirks. The fact that this was a PoorlyDisguisedPilot for a Dalek TV show doesn't help.

* ''WebAnimation/SpaceTree'' had a throwaway line in a parody commercial about a Space Tree action figure:

** However, later episodes featured links at the end that, when hovered over, displayed this line and led to a place to purchase a ''Space Tree'' shirt.

* ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' is sometimes (jokingly!) accused of being nothing more than a front for the sale of novelty T-shirts and fashion accessories.
** There's been somewhat more truth to this in recent years, as the comic has suffered severe ScheduleSlip, but new merch continues to come out on a regular basis and the store is, apparently, still decently successful.
* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' mercilessly savaged MerchandiseDriven properties in the character of "[[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/01/05 The Merch]]". Of course, they have no small line of merchandise themselves, which ironically includes the character The Merch in its lineup.
** Although, given that the Merch has evolved into an unofficial store mascot, they seem to be quite aware of this.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has evolved into something of a small-scale merchandising empire, to the point that it spans ''three'' online stores - Topatoco, [=WeLoveFine=], and its own, [=WhatPumpkin=]. In addition to the standard webcomic shirts and jumpers (of which there are plenty, including a full set of [[WesternZodiac twelve]] troll shirts and twelve God Tier shirts/hoodies, there is a sizable array of jewelry, prints from the art team, plush toys, an art calendar that's been released yearly since 2011, and the series' utterly enormous discography of music albums. And that's just ''Homestuck'' alone - add in ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' and you've got several more shirts and prints, plus two books.
--> "I seem to have this knack for falling totally ass backwards into highly marketable ideas, like the troll zodiac symbols. [...] I’ve never actually put anything in the story to sell anything. But throughout the entire ride, every time I turn around, I’m saying, “Oh, whoops. Guess I gotta sell that now.”" -- Andrew Hussie, in [[http://comicsalliance.com/homestuck-interview-andrew-hussie-bryan-lee-omalley-ms-paint-adventures/ this interview]]
** Speaking of ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'', ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff'', [[StylisticSuck an intentionally terrible webcomic filled with grammar errors, JPEG artifacts]] and [[DadaComics general absurdity]] also has an impressive array of merchandise. There are the obligatory T-shirts, some of which glow in the dark and all of which are hilariously terrible. Then there's the magnetic "poetry," a set of fridge magnets featuring snippets from the comic that you can assemble at whim to make something remotely approaching coherency. And now there's a ''hardcover $44 book'' that also comes with a coin of one of the characters, a 3-foot long bookmark ribbon, a "pocket edition" that's a glorified poster of every single comic, a garishly oversized "plantsic paperclip," a lenticular bookmark, and a scratch and sniff sticker that ostensibly smells like pizza. This lavish book's bar code scans as a bag of Doritos, and the front cover has a ''coffee ring laminated onto its surface.'' And not only that, but for ''$50'' you can get it signed by the character in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' [[ShowWithinAShow who writes the comic.]]

* An in-universe example for ''Webcomic/{{Heartcore}}'': ThePaladin Syranon Glaed, famous demon hunter and good-looking [[LittleBitBeastly Beastman]], has merchandise based on him in [[DomedHometown New Ayers]] due to his popularity with the people.
** In real life, the author also offers donation incentives in the form of pins, stickers, fridge magnets, and bookmarks.

* A tragic [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] occurred with ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan''- the show had all the potential of a successful, marketable toyline, having SuperRobotGenre elements, but ''failed'' to strike a deal with toy companies. Guess what? The high-quality cartoon is royally ScrewedByTheNetwork in response to this.
** Well, specifically, action cartoons are expensive to produce and rely on merchandise sales to recoup their budget. One of the most common causes of cancellation for action shows is the lack of merchandising revenue needed to produce new episodes.

--> '''Mom''': I don't think you need any more dinosaur stuff, Calvin.
--> '''Calvin''': But Mom, it's all ''educational!'' You want me to ''learn'', don't you??
--> (next panel) '''Hobbes''': Boy, she fell for ''that'' one.
--> '''Calvin''' (arms full of stuff and wearing a triceratops hat): I'll say! I wonder if we could get any Franchise/{{Batman}} junk this way.

* Website/TFWikiDotNet for ''Franchise/TheTransformers'' has a page entitled ''To Sell Toys.'' Because everything in Transformers revolves around it, including the cartoon series.
** Can't stress enough that Transformers fans usually expect this. Some even cry foul when a toy from a particular line is not incorporated into that line's promotional media. ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' may be the biggest example as, due to the then new CGI budget, it was far easier to make toys then to make TV characters, so a core cast was developed because a large cast was just not feasible. Years later, the rest of the toyline got a comic series.

** After the success of the ''Frozen'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'' merchandise in particular, Disney went all out with merch for their company centennial MilestoneCelebration canon film ''WesternAnimation/{{Wish}}'', most of it featuring the Anna/Mirabel-esque heroine Asha and the tailor-made-for-plushies CuteMute Star...only for the bulk of it [[https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanmb32.bsky.social/post/3khavdarytf2g to end up shelfwarming]] when it proved a massive BoxOfficeBomb (for reference, the movie had only been out a month in theaters at that point, and the photo was taken days before Christmas).

* Shortly after ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' debuted, Bart Simpson was on virtually every product conceivable, to the extent that [[IconicCharacterForgottenTitle many people assumed the name of the show was "Bart Simpson"]]. The show mocked this on several occasions, for example when Bart said to Krusty "I'd never put ''my'' face on an inferior product".

** One particular CouchGag showed all the merchandise being made for the show in [[BitingTheHandHumor an underground mine sweat shop]], with malnourished workers, toxic chemicals being used and [[WorthlessYellowRocks a unicorn horn]] used [[MundaneUtility to punch out the center holes in DVD's]].

* MisaimedMarketing\\

* Creator/{{Kenner}}, [[Creator/ToddMcFarlane McFarlane Toys]], and NECA all did figures based on ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'', and ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator''. In Kenner's case, there was MisaimedMarketing going on as their figures are aimed at kids, including a figure shortly after the release of the original ''Film/{{Alien}}''; a series based ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', ''Predator'', and ''AVP'' around the time of ''Film/Alien3'' (as part of a cartoon series that never got off the ground); and a tie-in for ''Film/AlienResurrection''.

->''"Moichandising, moichandising! Where da '''real''' money from da movie is made! Spaceballs: da T-shirt, Spaceballs: da Coloring Book, Spaceballs: da Lunchbox, Spaceballs: da Breakfast Cereal! Spaceballs: da Flame Throwah!!" [[note]]"[[MyLittlePanzer Da kids love dis one.]]"[[/note]]''

** A re-release of a Fantastic Four box set for the Toy Biz iteration of ''Marvel Legends'' features Mr. Fantastic Invisible Woman in their ''ComicBook/HeroesRebornFantasticFour'' costumes.

* {{Wrestling/ECW}}'s constant money problems led to this in spades. Rather hilariously most of the merchandise was designed by wrestler Taz, with other wrestlers like Dreamer and Richards involved in sales.

* ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse''. Uniquely, Paul Reubens himself [[DoingItForTheArt had to approve every merchandise deal]], and he held off on most of them until about two or three seasons in. He stipulated that any toy bearing his seal had to be simple enough for any child to play with.

* While ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn'' is generally hated, ComicBook/IronMan's armor from ''ComicBook/HeroesRebornIronMan'' was popular enough that both Toy Biz and Hasbro made figures of it.

* ''VideoGame/RocoKingdom'' has had multiple toys made for it, among them Franchise/{{LEGO}}-like minifigures, a series of trading cards, and a 3D marble puzzle that's very much a knockoff of the Toys/{{Perplexus}} line.

* ''VideoGame/RocoKingdom'' has had multiple toys made for it, among them Franchise/{{LEGO}}-like minifigures, a series of trading cards, and a 3D marble puzzle that's very much a knockoff of the Perplexus toys.

* Due to it being the most popular video game series of all time, the ''Franchise/SuperMario'' series has had a huge range of merch that can be found around the world. Of course, there's the usual stuff like action figures, plushies, clothing, household goods, food, bedding and school supplies, to the weird stuff like tote bags, toothpaste, baby walkers and even branded gummy vitamins.