Rocky & Bullwinkle Merchandise - Availability and/or Interest?

[BHK]

I'm curious if there is much in the line of any Rocky & Bullwinkle or Dudley Do-Right products out there. I've done numerous searches on the web and haven't found anything other than the DVDs and books.

Does this mean that fans are only interested in the shows on DVDs and nothing else? Or is there just not enough overall demand out there to make any of the manufacturers interested (ie, there *are* many fans out there, but just not enough to make a blip on the radar when talking about Target and Wal-Mart volumes)?

Is that another reason why the Dudley Do-Right Emporium in LA closed its doors a few years ago?

If you are a fan, would you buy stuff if it were offered? If so, what would you be looking for?

[Anthonynotes]

I'm curious if there is much in the line of any Rocky & Bullwinkle or Dudley Do-Right products out there. I've done numerous searches on the web and haven't found anything other than the DVDs and books.

Does this mean that fans are only interested in the shows on DVDs and nothing else? Or is there just not enough overall demand out there to make any of the manufacturers interested (ie, there *are* many fans out there, but just not enough to make a blip on the radar when talking about Target and Wal-Mart volumes)?

Is that another reason why the Dudley Do-Right Emporium in LA closed its doors a few years ago?

If you are a fan, would you buy stuff if it were offered? If so, what would you be looking for?

CVS/Pharmacy (a US drugstore chain) sold a bunch of Rocky and Bullwinkle beanbag dolls in the early 2000s (partially to tie into the 2000 R&B movie, but other Ward characters were made, too). I still have my Boris doll (oddly with red eyes, a la the first few episodes he appeared in) and Bullwinkle one (holding a Wossamotta U banner) on my bookshelf (next to Wakko Warner) :-)

-B.

[ToonFanForever]

I have all 12 of the CVS dolls (Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, Natasha, Fearless
Leader, Peabody, Sherman, Fractured Fairy, Dudley Do-Right, Horse, Nell
Fenwick, and Snidely Whiplash). They were produced in three different sizes,
and I have at least one of each size. As you said, there hasn't been much
new Jay Ward merchandise lately though.

[Jon Cooke]

I have all 12 of the CVS dolls (Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, Natasha, Fearless
Leader, Peabody, Sherman, Fractured Fairy, Dudley Do-Right, Horse, Nell
Fenwick, and Snidely Whiplash). They were produced in three different sizes,
and I have at least one of each size. As you said, there hasn't been much
new Jay Ward merchandise lately though.

I have the set of 12 CVS Rocky & Bullwinkle dolls too. Sadly, they must not have sold very well. I bought them all as they came out that summer (the year the live action movie came out), but I still remember that by summer's end the local CVS still had BOXES of R&B beanies leftover and was clearing them out for 0.50 each! :(

Even the Universal theme park, Islands of Adventures in Orlando, FL doesn't sell much Ward merchandise anymore. They are the home of an amazing Dudley Do-Right themed log flume ride and used to have an all-Ward "Wottasamotta U" gift shop... which has since just turned into a generic sports-themed gift shop when I visisted a few months ago.

There is always Electric Tiki's nice looking R&B mini-maquette to look forward to next year: http://www.electrictiki.com/classic%20toons/bullwinkle.html

[JCorey3rd]

it doesn't help that Rocky & Bullwinkle doesn't seem to have much profile at the moment as far as kiddie TV goes.

Do wish Classic Media would finish the R&B boxsets.

[ToonFanForever]

This might be a factor (and I'm speaking as a "baby-boomer" here), but it
seems to me that the attention spans of kids today are much shorter than
ours were, back in the 1960s when the Jay Ward cartoons first aired. One of
the R & B adventures (the first, "Jet Fuel Formula") ran for 40 episodes! Back
then, there were also many more serialized comic strips in the daily newspapers. Probably for the same reason. Much has been said about the
fact that the shows were too dated or too topical or that some of the jokes
went over kids' heads. But kids are much sharper today (from watching so
much television) and I think they would find the shows to still be funny if
someone would air them again and the kids would just give them a chance.

[BHK]

This might be a factor (and I'm speaking as a "baby-boomer" here), but it seems to me that the attention spans of kids today are much shorter than ours were

It looks like the problem with Gen-Y isn't so much a short attention span, but rather an expectation of instant gratification. Everything has to be NOW, so the idea of watching a story arc that lasts several days is beyond their comprehension.

It's like the story that ran on the AP this week that said that email has lost its favor among today's youth. It seems too slow, and they prefer text messaging on their phones and instant messaging on their computers. The article quoted a doctoral candidate who said about email "It used to be just fun. Now it's about parents and authority." GMAB.

[JCorey3rd]

It looks like the problem with Gen-Y isn't so much a short attention span, but rather an expectation of instant gratification. Everything has to be NOW, so the idea of watching a story arc that lasts several days is beyond their comprehension.
But now that you can get all those episodes on a DVD set, you don't have to take days to watch them.

Judging from all the ugliness in the world as it seems doomsday is just around the corner, why shouldn't we desire instant gratification? That might be our only chance.

[BHK]

Just thought I'd do a follow-up to my original post that started this thread nearly 5 months ago.

I can't go into any details because the rules of the board say that commercial posts are not allowed. I emailed both the webmaster (as the instructions said) as well as the person listed as the contact for the "Hokey Smoke!" section of ToonZone nearly a week ago, but have not received any responses as to how much we're allowed to say.

Anyway, we're happy to say that we signed a licensing agreement with Classic Media for most of their Jay Ward characters (except George of the Jungle). We're can be found in a Google search, if you dig deep enough. :)

Thanks for everyone's replies to my original post that helped us evaluate the market and decide to proceed ahead.