Star Wars Toys Grabbing Shelf Space From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

If you braved a midnight store opening on Force Friday like I did, you already know just how big a deal the toys and other products from Star Wars: The Force Awakens have been. Even so, you might be surprised to hear exactly how big: the Wall Street Journal reports (via Comic Book Resources) that Star Wars toys could rack up $2 billion in sales from September to the end of 2015 alone.

That’s a lot of action figures, vehicles and other merchandise, and if you’ve been to a Toys ‘R’ Us or Target recently, you’ve no doubt noticed that big chunks of their action figure sections have given way to Star Wars. But since there’s only so much shelf space to go around, that means other brands must be in retreat when faced with the onslaught of product from a galaxy far, far away.

According to the WSJ, the big loser so far has been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as the brand has lost 20 percent of its aisle real estate in Target stores. That’s not a shocker considering the most recent TMNT animated series is into its fourth season, and while excellent, is probably at the stage where its novelty has worn off.

Maybe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Half Shell can help the franchise claw back some shelf space with movie-related toys next summer, but if The Force Awakens is as big as everyone expects, it should still be a juggernaut at retail well into next year. As a Star Wars fan since childhood, I remember the days when it was the reason to check out the toy section in any store that had one, and returning to that state makes everything seem right.

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Sorry Ninja Turtles.