At Competitor Monitor, we track thousands of toys every day and regularly come across interesting findings in our data. This week, in honour of the new Star Wars movie, we decided to explore further into this data to examine price changes and the availability of popular Star Wars toys in the run up to Christmas.
Merchandise based on popular film franchises such as Star Wars can be a real money spinner for film studios and retailers alike. With The Force Awakens instalment due for release in the UK today, has it had much impact on the pricing of Star Wars merchandise over the past month?
Let’s take a look:
- There are currently over 750 Star Wars branded toys for sale online with prices ranging from £1.84 all the way up to £350.00. Amazon currently lists the largest number of Star Wars toys than any other retailer and carries out the most price changes.
- Our research shows that overall, prices for Star Wars branded toys have fluctuated in price rather frequently over the past 30 days.
- Many retailers have kept static prices on the newest and most popular products but retailers that had lower prices to begin with have gradually increased their prices to be more in line with the market.
- Star Wars The Force Awakens Micro Machines Millennium Falcon Playset had the most price changes in the last 30 days; 30 changes with 15 price increases and 15 price decreases.
- The most popular Star Wars branded LEGO product with the most price changes was the Star Wars 75093: Death Star Final Duel. There has been up to a 24 percent reduction on this product in the last 30 days which might explain the shortage of this item being in stock. It is currently out of stock on LEGO’s own online shop – parents take note!
- The LEGO Star Wars 75104: Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle which featured on the 2015 DreamToys Top 12 Christmas Toys list, can be found cheaper at around half of retailers but the price has increased at four retailers in the past week.
- Last year’s film hit Frozen has much less variety of toys on the market this year. With price changes also less frequent, even on the popular toys such as the Disney Frozen Sing Along with Elsa, it’s safe to say that Star Wars is dominating the toy market this year.
We will be monitoring the products above to see how they change in price and availability into the New Year. Let us know if you wish to make any comments on this blog, we’d love to hear from you!
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