Friends, the time has come for a serious conversation. You know, I love Disney merchandise. I am flying the flag for all the character cuteness, homewares, and accessories that I can get my hands on. I live it, breathe it, and love it. However, now and again, Disney releases something that makes me do a complete double-take, wondering who should have been called into the big man’s office for okaying such an abomination.
I share most of the Disney glory with you; we tend to focus on the hits and usually cast the misses to the side without giving them any airtime. This strategy has been working for me, offering them nothing but a turned-up nose of disappointment every time a new one is released. However, on Friday, I was forced to face the truth with the Hit or Miss List for the new Lady and the Tramp 70th Anniversary merchandise, and let’s just say all the cats are out of the bag. We are talking about Disney’s new-ish line of Mix-Its. Like I said, I’ve been ignoring them for a while.
These little weirdos come with all different characters and similarly themed hat/helmet-looking accessories that are supposedly the feature component, being interchangeable. Does anyone really want their small plush character with its head squashed into a strange helmet? Is that a thing? They have an RRP of $19.99, and each comes with a funny-looking hat that seems to have varying relevance to the character.
The little plush characters themselves are pretty cute. They have little hooks on the back to attach them to various accessories, but the feature that is widely advertised about these little plush toys is their unusual tea-cozy hats. If you’ve had a child, you already know that the hat is going to be lost within the first 48 hours of having it, and if you’re an adult, how many of these little bag friends are you buying in order to switch around their “interchangeable” helmet hats?
If you’ve ever wondered what goes through my head at 3 am in those periods of insomnia that I’ve mentioned, now you know. This. The marketing mistakes of greenlighting small Disney characters and their head pom-pom hats that, based on my calculations from other small plush toys of the same size, you are paying roughly 25% more for. Is it just me?
