Action Figures Before or After the Movie?

[Captain Coder]

So what does everyone think about action figures being released way before the movie comes out? For example, you've been able to buy the Lord of the Ring - Return of the King action figures for a while now, but the movie isn't coming out until the end of the year. It seems like they shouldn't be available until after the movie is out, but I'm sure it's some kind of marketing ploy.

[Tyrannosaur22]

I like it. The JP toy lines always usually come out a few months before the film, so it gets you even more excited and gives you a view of what you might be seeing in the film...

[CJK Toy Bay]

Based on past history it's in the companies best interest to have the toys out on the shevles before the movies hit. For 2 reasons really...first of all if the movie is popular people can go to the stores immediately and get the toys basically on impulse buys and not have to wait around for stores to get them in. Stores never get things in on a specific date, there's always a range of time in which the shipments will arive. Waiting till the movie opens to release the toys is just asking for problems.
Second reason being if the movie is a flop and the toys don't come out until after the movie has opend...you might as well slap clearance tags on them as you pull them from the case.
For instance, if the Wing Commander figures had been released before the movie came out there would have been a lot of sales based simply on the people who loved the video game. Instead the movie came out, evveryone went to the movie, the movie was horrible, then the figures showed up, which were nothing spectacular so they had no chance of selling.