US retailers kick off 'Force Friday'

Washington

IF you find on Friday that your "Star Wars" nerd friends seem a little antsy and distracted, you might chalk it up to the arrival of "Force Friday". At 12.01am on Friday, major retailers kicked off sales of their new lineups of toys and merchandise tied to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is set to hit movie theatres in December.

Whether you plan to be out on Friday and scooping up armfuls of action figures or you're just trying to understand the hype, here's your guide to the big toy bonanza.

Who is holding "Force Friday" events? Disney Store, Walmart, Target, Toys "R" Us and Amazon are in on the action. The Force Friday madness began on each retailer's website at 12.01am on Friday. The in-store schedules are a little more complicated: All Toys "R" Us stores opened at midnight. Disney Store held midnight events at its stores in New York, Chicago and San Francisco; other Disney Stores will open extra early on Friday morning. Walmart and Target held midnight opening events at only a limited number of their stores.

Many of these retailers are touting exclusive products, so if you're a die-hard Star Wars fan, you might want to strategise your shopping trip accordingly.

What toys are expected to be hot sellers? This is a tricky one. Just as Disney and Lucasfilm have sought to preserve secrecy around the plot of the movie, they have also worked to create mystery around the toy lineup. Laurie Schact, chief toy officer at trade magazine company Adventure Publishing, said that she often sees toys many months before their release, but that she has barely seen any Force Awakens toys.

That said, Disney Store general manager Elissa Margolis said that she thinks the retailer's lineup of Elite Series die-cast action figures and lightsabers will be especially popular choices, as well as some of its role-play items. Walmart's vice-president of toys, Anne Marie Kehoe, told reporters last month that a talking, moving Yoda doll is already "one of our most popular pre-orders in toys in a long time".

What's the urgency around seeing and buying these toys? Specialists say much of the initial rush will be fuelled by collectors and adult fans who are steeped in Star Wars lore. Jim Silver, editor-in-chief of toy review website TTPM, said that sometimes, super fans aren't even perusing the merchandise because they want to own it; they're simply looking for clues about the story line of the movie. For example, if two action figures are packaged together, they might assume that those characters interact a lot in the film. Or if there aren't many toys of a certain character, they might assume that character gets killed off or has only a trivial role in the movie. So you can expect the toys that debut on Force Friday will be fodder for plenty of Internet speculation.

This is the first time that a new Star Wars film is being released since Lucasfilms was purchased by Disney. This official rollout event is a move by Disney to build momentum around the merchandise and the coming movie. WP