Toyless Toyline Character: Difference between revisions
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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.
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, "[[Homestar Runner|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
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-
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]].
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== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Power Rangers]],'' most of the toy molds are carried over from ''[[Super Sentai]]'', so if a character wasn't in ''Sentai'', a toy might not exist. Also, it's reversed in the cases of some characters and concepts that were major in sentai but only slipped into a little of [[Power Rangers]]' sentai footage and got toys brought over. "So [[Replicant Snatching|the pod people]] from that one episode get toys but [[Big Bad|Astronema]] and the [[Mecha-Mooks|Quantrons]] don't?" is a cry heard in more than one PR series. This applies to villains a great deal, as while all six Ranger suits must transfer over, a villain is more likely to get a total costume overhaul. And even then, many are the villains without toys on either side of the Pacific for some reason. Who are your Ranger figures supposed to be fighting? (Although it should be noted that ''Sentai'' is guilty as well. Considering how important the Nejiranger/Psycho rangers were to ''Megaranger''/''[[Power Rangers in Space]],'' the idea of not having figures for them is infuriating for fans.)
** This has also happened with Zords. Sometimes it makes
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*** Dirt Boss too.
** Ramjet and Slipstream - who would only have required further recolors of Starscream, being clones of him. Inverted with Dirge, however: he is actually the ''only'' toy-exclusive character to be based on this series, and therefore the only character not to be mentioned in the [[All There in the Manual|Allspark Almanac.]]
** Sari, as well, {{spoiler|despite being a Transformer}}. Ramjet got his own toy eventually, but no such luck for
* ''[[Centurions]]'' has a few examples of this trope. Crystal Kane, the team's [[Mission Control]], was never an action figure; neither were [[Team Pet
* In the ''[[Littlest Pet Shop (animation)|Littlest Pet Shop]]'' TV series, Chet was the only one of the major characters who wasn't made as a toy.
* In its last two seasons, the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Ninja Turtles]] faced fiction-only [[Big Bad]] Lord Dregg. Carter, the Turtles' equally toyless [[Sixth Ranger]] human ally, was introduced around the same time.
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** Also from ''[[Visionaries]]'': Merklynn, the powerful wizard who sent the knights on their quests, wasn't powerful enough to become a figure. At least Hasbro planned to include a holographic image of him in the unproduced Iron Mountain playset, but he was not planned to be a posable figure.
* ''[[My Little Pony]]'' occasionally dipped into this trope for background characters during the G1 and G3 eras. Then they fully embraced it for the G4 adaptation, ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. The only characters who appear (or will appear) in both the show and the toyline are the [[Fan Nickname|Mane Six]], Spike, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon, Princess Cadance, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Applejack's Uncle Mosely Orange, Apple family members Golden Delicious, Crimson Gala and Peachy Sweet, Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor's mom Twilight Velvet, Zecora, Cheerilee, Gilda the Griffon, Trixie Lulamoon, one of the Wonderbolts (who may be Breezie or Surprise), Sapphire Shores, Winona, and a selection of background characters (a very small selection, compared to the huge number of background characters that the show has).
** It gets even stranger when you realize that there are over 50 [[God-Created Canon Foreigner|characters who have toys but don't appear in the show]] (mostly [[Palette Swap
** This even extends to accessories, like the 12 dresses introduced in an episode all about dresses, 6 of which make cameo appearances in other episodes and are featured again in the first [[Season Finale]]. You won't find those dresses on store shelves.
** Naturally, the show's large [[Periphery Demographic]] fandom, frustrated by the lack of official toys from Hasbro, have started making them themselves. A good plushie version can go for over a hundred dollars on eBay.
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