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How would you write
Like it or not, Kamen Rider is a merchandise driven. The show's expensive and, while ratings are nice, selling merchandise is most important at the end of the day. Selling toys is part of how these shows work and I don't think that having to introduce X amount of toys in X amount of time is an excuse for a poor story. If you can't do that, why did you bother writing for a Tokusatsu?
My question is, how would you go about selling them? Do you think the current method of selling a bunch of smaller, cheaper toys is fine? Or do you think fewer, more expensive items would sell more? Would you have a few riders that each have multiple forms? or would you have a large number of riders that mostly have one, maybe two, forms? While I imagine that the toy companies have more control over what kind of toys are made, for the sake of this question lets pretend that you have at least some say in what kind of toys are produced. |
The smaller, cheaper toys have proven to be more profitable.
I would stick with the smaller cast. It works well and keeps conflicts focused. Giving them multiple forms each also keeps things interesting. |
Considering what the topic question is, I feel a better title for the tread would be "How would you create the toyline"
Anyways assuming the question is how I would write around the toys, I think a good way is to give them just enough plot significance so that their introduction feels meaningful while at the same time not felling as if it were rushed. If the toyline had numerous, cheaper toys, their plot significance wouldn't be too huge so that I can introduce them as quickly and short as possible. If the toy line had fewer, more expensive toys, I would give each one of them more plot significance and longer introductions so that they feel more important. Two series that I felt were opposite ends of this spectrum were Drive and Ghost. Drive gave little to no plot significance to the shift cars. They just sort of show up out of no where and it gets infuriating especially during the Formula debut. The whole fact that they are sentient also really doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things; Really they could of just been plastic toys cars and nothing about their significance would change. Ghost on the other hand gave a lot of plot significance to the eyecons. In fact it gave them too much. The first 10 or so episodes really suffered from from the fact that all these toys and forms had to be introduced in the first quarter as their introduction and collection felt really rushed. The eyecons were handled much better as the show went along as it finally had some breathing room to expand on their nature. Series that I think handled the toys great were W and OOO. In W, the Gaia Memories being handled as something akin to drugs establishes their importance to the story while at the same time never feeling like you need to learn more about them. In OOO, they had this very cool thing where the Core Medals were constantly being passed between the heroes and the villains, thus creating this constant power struggle throughout the show. That's ultimately how I would handle writing the toys. A subject I find interesting is how much does the show adjust itself to accommodate the toys and vice versa. For example I remember reading that the reason Gaim's airdate was pushed to October was so that the introduction of the Genesis Driver and Sonic Arrow in the story would coincide with their release in the toyline's second quarter. |
I love how the Wizard Rings were handled in Kamen Rider Wizard. While some of them granted him new forms, most of his rings were new attacks/abilities rather then straight power ups. It made their usage a lot more natural compared to, say, Ghost's Eyecons. How well did that show sell? I'm kind of tired of our heroes gaining a bunch of different forms that mean absolutely nothing after a couple of episodes.
I like how OOOs handed the Core Medals. It was a really clever way of advertising medals every episode and staying true to the shows theme. Ghost's Eyecon's infuriate me to no end because of the way they were designed. Despite what the show says, the Damashi were not forms. Much like Drive's tires, they were attachments that could work in any of his form, save for Grateful obviously. The show could have easily taken advantage of this by always having him always use a Damashi plus whatever form he was currently in. Instead, they decide to just ignore the Eyecons almost completely as powerups once he unlocked his actual form changes. Remember when new forms used to be important? |
I think the key is making the trinkets move the story along. Ex-Aid's doing pretty good with that so far, though part of that I think is that the Gashats pretty much are still toys in-universe.
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I think the majority of the first ten were still bound to what was Kamen Rider in the old days minus Ryuki and Blade and Decade toy-wise. Kiva's fuestles could have been a thing but sadly missed the mark as cheap collectibles looking back now. |
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