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| - In Merchandise-Driven media it's typically pretty easy to set apart the characters whose toys are getting advertised. They're the ones that take the spotlight in any given story, save the day in the end, etc., or are otherwise just made to look cool by the narrative itself. They'll have more character development, more detail in their character model, more gadgets; everything about them screams toyetic in loud plastic-mould colors. If a major female character from a Merchandise-Driven series ends up as a Toyless Toyline Character, it's probably because of The Smurfette Principle.
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| abstract
| - In Merchandise-Driven media it's typically pretty easy to set apart the characters whose toys are getting advertised. They're the ones that take the spotlight in any given story, save the day in the end, etc., or are otherwise just made to look cool by the narrative itself. They'll have more character development, more detail in their character model, more gadgets; everything about them screams toyetic in loud plastic-mould colors. But not this character. This is the Ensemble Darkhorse of the toyline-driven media, that bursts into the scene like a Highly-Visible Ninja with a rocket launcher and a banner reading, "Buy all our playsets and toys" only, after rushing to the toystore mouth drooling and brow sweaty you find out, he doesn't have his own toy. Often they'll be The Ace, appearing for a brief storyline, showing up everyone else, and then never seen again--not in the story and never in the toy aisles. Most of the time for a Merchandise-Driven franchise the toys are either (a) designed first and the show/comic makers make a story around the characters, or (b) the toy makers and show makers work together, so everyone else is likely to be a Flat Character, or even No Name Given. Often there are actual limits set to how much attention can be given to these characters; a non-toy character that's not just a Tagalong Kid being allowed to be prominent is next to unheard of. It seems bizarre and even out-of-place--which is not to say unwelcome--when an original character does become important. They're not always recurring characters but they sometimes get more development and attention than characters that actually had toys, because there's usually Loads and Loads of Characters. Why this happens varies, sometimes a writer that's been banging his shackles against the wall long enough manages to loosen them enough to get creative and inject a character into the story for the character's own sake. Sometimes a Monster of the Week winds up getting a little more attention than usual and starts looking Toyetic. In a boys' show, generally the Tagalong Kid, the armies of Mooks, and in older series, the Token Girl will be need to be created for the show, and in a girls' show it's the same for the the villains in general. This is not just any character who doesn't appear in his story's toyline. Also note that with many long-running franchises, sometimes toys will be made of these characters and marketed to collectors. The point isn't that no toy exists, but that when the media was made, the character wasn't being used to advertise one. If a major female character from a Merchandise-Driven series ends up as a Toyless Toyline Character, it's probably because of The Smurfette Principle. See also Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer. Examples are sorted by where the character appeared. Franchises spanning more than one media category, like Transformers and G.I. Joe have more than one entry. Compare Canon Foreigner. Examples of Toyless Toyline Character include:
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