No Rey Merchandise

I think the abundance of Kylo Ren and Finn-with-helmet stuff might be to do with the fact that masks are far easier to render than realistic faces. There's hardly any stuff with an unmasked Kylo available either. If you look at current merchandise featuring characters from the original trilogy (other than action figures) the most heavily featured ones seem to be Darth Vader and R2D2, probably for the same reason. The few Rey toys I have seen have been with the mask that she wears at the start of the film.

I'm not saying that sexism and racism aren't partly to blame, but I think it's also laziness on the part of toy manufacturers who don't want to worry about creating decent facial likenesses.

Dana - that sucks. FWIW, the Big Hero 6 stuff I've seen featured the two women characters. I got a couple of tshirts from H&M which are now DS's favourite tshirt.

He's too young for The Force Awakens. I wouldn't mind getting him some toys now (erm, partly because I want them!) but it's all bloody wall to wall Kylo Ren who is the least cool character in the movie FFS!

I also note there isn't half as much Finn stuff as I'd expect. Lots of stormtrooper stuff, but not so much showing his face. Still more than Rey, but what, they don't think boys could empathise with a black character either?

We were in the Disnry store in Westfield last week looking for something for DS1 and there was almost no Rey merchandise at all.

It's rubbish. She is the lead character.

It would seem quite common to exclude the female characters. I bought some Big Hero 6 fabric a few weeks ago, my girls were very disappointed when we got home to find only four of the six on the fabric. Neither of the females were featured at all.

Disney Store has Rey costumes, and even calls them 'for kids' not girls: www.disneystore.co.uk/rey-costume-for-kids-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/84111/1500029/ can't believe I'm defending disney

Dd has lots of rey merchandise. You need to go in ebay. She has the pluah toy, figures and the cards.

BarbarianMum That's so true about books. Liz Pichon totally depressed me on Womans Hour when she admitted that she made Tom Gates a boy because "boys don't like reading about female protagonists".

That's so weird about Rey. You go to all the trouble of creating a really good female character and then assume that no one will want the merchandise? Isn't the whole Star Wars thing ABOUT the merchandise? Where's the logic?

When ds1was little I found it really difficult to find books (he's an avid reader) that had a good balance of interesting male and female characters. Now he's 10 it is really easy -I've been pleasantly surprised at how much there is out there with strong female characters. And he reads them, and his friends read them, as a matter of course.

All this leads me to believe that this "men won't read books by female authors/ watch films with female characters in lead roles stuff" is likely totally untrue. Maybe if publishers published and promoted female authors more widely (ie in a wide range of genres) and Hollywood just cast more female leads, they'd realise this.

It was my son's birthday on Monday and he now has all the Star Wars toys. A lot of Kylo Ren (he loves a baddie) but in amongst all that he got a box of figures from the Disney Store which - shock horror - actually contains both Rey and General Phasma (and Finn, Kylo Ren, storm troopers etc). It's Rey he took to the childminder today.

It is rubbish that boys don't like female characters. I think it's more the other way round. Little girls only like passive princesses because they're told to. Give them proper female characters who do stuff and it's a revelation. I hold that Frozen's success was less to do with the sparkles and more to do with Anna and Elsa being strong, sparky, independent characters. Both my boys loved it when they first saw it and only went off it after the relentless Disney 'this is for girls' marketing.

No boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it = no parent wants their boy to play with a product with a female character on it.

It's the same old same old, we're told boys don't want to watch/read about girls or have toys that are girls so they don't get given them, so they don't like them and play with other toys. Add a nice hefty dose of sexism and regarding girls as slightly lesser (subconsciously) and this is what you get . It's why men barely read female authors and most films are made for men with male characters...they've been told as children they shouldn't like 'girl stuff' and the myth ('cos myth it is) perpetuates.

"No boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it"

This is a myth surely? My dses wouldn't object to a 'cool' female character like Rey on an otherwise cool piece of clothing or a mug or lightsabre. Maybe if Disney tried putting female characters on things that weren't pink or glittery or otherwise clearly screaming "this is meant for girls only" they'd realise this.

This bit of the article is rubbish:
“We know what sells. No boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it.”
They want cool stuff from the films they've watched.

However:
*“She has a tight black outfit. Our main customer is concerned with ‘family values’.

For the record, here are some of the Avengers action figures, including Captain America and Thor in their skintight costumes:

This is something of a double standard, considering the furore about female superheroes being depicted in skin-tight costumes in comic books when, as this article correctly points out, it is no different to male superheroes.

My dd is furious at the lack of Rey merchandise - she has bought everything with Rey and still has money burning a hole in her pocket that she cannot spend. Disney can maintain a sharp distinction if they wish but my daughter who is now permanently dressed in her Rey outfit is unlikely to be buying any of their princess crap anytime soon so instead they don't get her ready cash…..bonkers.

Really? And I sat through the whole of Star Wars VII thinking how refreshing it was to have the central character be female (even if there were more than a few parallels with Luke Skywalker).

I shall suggest to BIL that he may have an opportunity here

I'm not sure if I can attach pics but we have Star Wars Monopoly which doesn't have Rey and I was also in the Disney Store the other day where Rey was very under-represented...

Oh yes, we have a Lego Rey as well. So two Reys in this house (bobble head Rey was bought in Toys r Us in Christmas Eve).

Has the author of this actually done any research?

Rey appears in Lego sets. And if she is who we suspect she is, she would fit with the Disney princess set not saying that is a good thing

All I know is in the run up to Christmas throughout toys r us, tesco and a few other places nary a Rey was to be found.

Your link wasn't clicky so I haven't read it but are people saying there is no Rey merchandise at all? Just because I'm looking at my Rey bubblehead as we speak.

I swear I had a Princess Leia action figure as a little boy (In a bounty hunter disguise), have things actually gotten worse? I've known a little girl who has liked both marvel movies and now the new Star Wars. Couldn't find a Black Widow, and now Rey...

I did hear the reason was she is packaged with a light saber which is a bit of a reveal. However I recall the episode I soundtrack releasing with a track called Qui-Gon's funeral being in stores before the actual movie, so they haven't given that much of a shit in the past.

As a big Star Wars fan one of the things that blew me away was quite how much I absolutely loved the three new leads. Finn & Poe were relatable and developed a more believable friendship in 4 minutes of screen time than I think was managed in the entire prequel trilogy.

Of course Rey was pivotal and very likable, she should have pride of place in the toy line what with being the protagonist of the new trilogy. I've been going a little bit mental at anyone who suggests she's a Mary Sue.

BIL - bloody autocorrect