Or:
How, in an ideal world, the Lemmings series would be doing a whole lot better, and how that would look in terms of merchandise.I was just hit with the inspiration to write something of a combined article/opinion piece/wish-list about how modern-day merchandising would apply to the Lemmings series if it were in better hands now. I hope you guys don't mind yet another lengthy post from me!
The licensing of merchandise items is a field of interest of mine, and it's something that's changed quite a lot since the Lemmings series' heyday. The Lemmings series itself has also found itself in a different state since then, as it has ended up in the hands of a company whose specialism is in marketing towards a very narrow audience to which games like Lemmings do not typically tend to appeal. Here, I'd like to examine how the marketing of the Lemmings series might be now, if things were different for the series itself today.
For the purposes of the hypothetical elements of this piece, I'll be assuming an ideal world where Lemmings never left the hands of a third-party group that endeavoured to work with it, and that this group never allowed the brand-recognition that the series had to be abandoned and left to decay. Third-party is an important distinction here, as part of the immense success that Lemmings saw was due to its unprecedentedly wide availability across many computing and gaming platforms of its time.
As we already know, the
cancelled official Lemmings plushes from the early 1990s didn't make it to market
because goods licensed from a different video game property did not sell as well as expected, and that most of the other Lemmings goods of the time were either given away as promotional items, or were only available via mail order from the series' publisher, Psygnosis.
Two very significant things have changed in the decades since then;
1: The medium of computer and video games has become more widely-accepted. This has led to a situation where they are now considered much more profitable subjects from which to create and sell merchandise, gift items, and other consumer goods, as well as non-tangible spin-off products such as family movies and TV shows (which then lead to physical product releases on DVD and Blu-Ray). Note that this latter case differs from the video game-based TV shows and films of the 1980s and 1990s due to multiple generations having now grown up with certain franchises, making the appeal of at least some of these spin-offs wider than before. Note also that this acceptance means that individual brands are now judged on their own merits, instead of being judged on the basis of how the licensing of other people's completely different properties turned out.
2: Mobile telephones that can also play games ideally-suited to being played in small bites have become commonplace with the majority of the adult population in the developed world. Whilst dedicated handheld gaming devices have always been, and, when handled correctly, remain popular, they do not by their very nature have the more universal appeal that generalised communication devices do. Make no mistake, though - these two markets are different, even if there is occasionally some overlap in their customer-bases.
There is also a third point that, combined with these two things, is a mighty merchandising combination. It's also the key to how Lemmings would surely be marketed now if it were available to a wide audience on properly-suited devices.
3: People like "nameless hordes" of cute characters. There is wide appeal in the notion of being able to get "one of your very own" of these characters to be your own friend/sidekick/pet/whatever. This is appealing to people, fictionally-speaking, because nobody in the franchise's universe would be too likely to notice that one of so very many similar or near-identical characters had gone somewhere else to live with you, and this makes it a powerful tactic for merchandising that appeals to virtually all ages, and, by my understanding, several different demographics and types of buyer, as well.
The above was seen to be hugely effective with the likes of the Pound Puppies and Cabbage Patch Kids in the 1980s, both of which additionally employed the advertising approach of encouraging you to "adopt" these characters, give them a name, and make them your best friend. In turn, this also led to more tie-in products, in the form of television shows which were somewhat based around this marketing principle. Currently, the "nameless hordes" appeal can still be seen with the Angry Birds from the game series of the same name, and also with the Minions from Despicable Me - everybody wants their own.
In an ideal world, this same approach would be benefitting the Lemmings series, too - it's an ideal fit, it's proven, and it's successful.
Like the interfaces or not (and I don't personally, but I'd accept it if this scenario were ever to become real
), these days, Lemmings would be best off on Android and iOS devices (I've spoken about this before in terms of the wide audience giving a greater chance at success, but I've not gone into the merchandising side before). The audience is wide, and providing a good-value game that doesn't dishonour the property, and also doesn't try to con players out of paying, piecemeal, more than the retail price of a console game via scammy "in-app purchases" for intangible nonsense, would provide the keys to lucrative merchandising that would further strengthen and spread the brand. Like the games or not, the Angry Birds franchise has demonstrated this nicely - the games are low-cost (and on some platforms are ad-supported, meaning that they're provided at no monetary cost at all, which has aided their popularity), are filled with appealing characters who translate well to countless types of merchandise, and, at least the last time I checked, don't have any schemes whereby you're expected to pay real money in exchange for in-game items or in order to keep on playing the game.
All that Lemmings has missing is a proper presence with point 2, which is impossible at this time due to the series' current ownership. That aside, Lemmings uniquely combines traits from point 1, of being a classic and well-recognised game property which in its day had hitherto-unheard-of near-universal appeal, with those of point 3, of having endless numbers of cute creatures that any sane person of any age should want one or more of.
The "Classic" Lemmings have that appeal in spades as it is, and as a whole the 12 Tribes also do - the tribal lemmings would certainly be popular in merchandising for the same reasons as regular lemmings would, with the added bonus of also adding that (spoken or unspoken) "Collect 'em All" factor, which is important in the toys sector, and which can also be tied back to the games in order to add further value (I'll cover that later).
In addition to the "cute hordes" appeal, Lemmings also has appeal in its roots. Just as with official merchandise for series like Super Mario, if you look at Lemmings fan-merchandise you'll find that items bearing the original sprites are a popular category in their own right, as they're rightly considered to be iconic imagery.
In an ideal world, I can easily imagine a multi-faceted Lemmings merchandising programme both spawned from and linking back to what would be the current games. Some items typical of such schemes are described below. I've left out some of the ones that would would be harder to work with in this day and age without strongly reintroducing the mythos that was abandoned after The Lemmings Chronicles (i.e., books and comics as we saw decades ago, or, as we didn't see decades ago, TV/web cartoon shorts, or whatever), but you know I'd love to see those covered too, and if things had been ideally-handled, that would probably be the case.
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ApparelClothing, bags, and other similar items featuring iconic imagery, and, optionally, fun slogans, are a staple of merchandise programmes, as they're useful, and with properties that have a very wide appeal, they tend to be popular with both genders across several age-groups.
With Lemmings, some of the slogans can even be drawn from some of the names for its levels (thus giving dedicated fans a nod), or from puns and phrases relating to the real-world species, which itself is iconic for its contribution to the English language.
Covering both modern and retro looks is a must! And who wouldn't want a lemming-clothing-style "costume t-shirt" (as those shirts with a print made to resemble an iconic character's outfit are called)?
Ephemera and General Gift ItemsCalendars, posters, stickers, and so on, are always popular memorabilia, impulse-buy, and gift items.
Potentially, electronic "Lemmings in Your Pocket" sound effects devices/keychains (such as those based on Mr. T, and Star Wars, which were small boxes bearing an official logo and various buttons labelled with the sound effects that pressing them played), could also be produced, as the Lemmings franchise has particularly iconic audio.
FoodWhilst video game-themed snack foods and confectionary were once a common sight in the UK (with video game-themed cereals apparently being the main cultural equivalent in North America, as far as I know), they went away for a while. They have since returned, though, and food and drink items tend to be incorporated into many global licensing schemes for all sorts of franchises, now.
Lemmings, in particular, has a unique ability to capitalise on name-puns in the drinks sector (and probably in some confectionery categories as well), as demonstrated by some of the level names from the original game. Lemonade and diet lemonade (as in, the clear carbonated lemon-flavoured stuff we get in the UK, since the series orginated here), bitter lemon, and cola with a twist of lemon all have merchandising opportunities as Lemmingaid/Diet Lemmingaid, Bitter Lemming, and Cola with a Twist of Lemming, respectively. Bonus points if the can includes a humourous warning about not turning it into a Bomber by shaking it before opening.
ToysPlush versions of cute-and-cuddly characters (and especially those of the "nameless hordes" variety) make massively popular merchandise items, as they have huge appeal across several groups, and appeal to various types of buyer as a result. With Lemmings, these could be packaged in distinctive boxes with the familiar entrance hatch at the top. The plushes would represent the 12 Tribes. A Christmas version could potentially be added for the festive season, too. Perhaps smaller beanbag keychain versions that make iconic Lemmings sounds when squeezed could supplement this line-up.
Different plush versions licensed as crane game prizes, from a different manufacturer to the retail plushes, are also another popular category for such characters - as frequently and popularly demonstrated by the Minions from Despicable Me. A crane game filled with lemmings would both be hilarious to fans (since we all know that they'll get everywhere they can, including climbing into strange machines), and appealing from a "get one of your very own" advertising perspective, too. The prize plushes could represent the eight iconic classic skills and a Walker, whether or not they also represented the Tribes, so as to differentiate them from the retail line.
Small action figures covering each tribe, packaged with accessories such as tools representing iconic skills, entrance hatches, exit doors, and so on, would have appeal both as toys and display pieces.
Blind-bagged static figurines (the Lemmings characters are both cute and chunky, and are well-suited to this) representing various skills and Tribes would probably find favour among collector-types and impulse-buyers, as blind-packed items tend to be popular with both.
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Most of these merchandise categories, but particularly the toys, have scope to be linked back to the games quite strongly, too. Now, I'm no fan of downloadable content in the form that the games industry currently uses it, as too often it's used to con people into paying more than retail-value for a game in order to get content that not only has been held back from the released product in order to eke extra money out of people, but which used to be included as standard when you bought a game. In my books, downloadable extras ought to be something that adds some sort of extra value to an already-complete product, which will give you another reason to come back to it again, rather than being something that was part of it but which they took out in order to charge extra for.
My interest in merchandise and collecting has led me to think about this from many angles, but one kept returning to my mind: Webkinz. For the uninitiated, Webkinz is an online virtual pet game, to which you get access by using a code included in the sealed cardboard hang-tag of a Webkinz plush toy. Combining this with Lemmings, I saw a way of handling add-on content that would add value to a game, and also make the monetary cost of digital content much more palatable - Webkinz and its ilk were popular because you got a high-quality tangible item at a reasonable price, which also provided digital content for the game offering.
Using the hypothetical Lemmings plush line detailed above as an example, the hang-tags or cardboard boxes could include unique codes sealed inside, which when input into the then-current Lemmings game, would provide a reasonably-sized set of extra levels. These would have to stand as "difficulty" ratings on their own, and thus would have to have a self-contained difficulty curve, but you would be able to get more sets of levels if you were interested in more merchandise. This then doesn't detract from an already-robust game offering, but it adds more to it if you are a fan/collector. The levels would be relevant to the plush you'd bought - so, a Highland lemming would get you some new Highland levels, and the Christmas Lemmings plush, of course, would grant you a new standalone festive set. (This is also ever-so-slightly reminiscent of the Were Bears toy-line from the 1980s - these plushes included cassette tapes containing an origin story on one side and a story about the particular bear you'd bought on the other, which was also part of a collection of connected stories. You could only complete the story collection if you collected the complete set of toys. I'm still amazed that nobody ever did this with CD-ROMs to make up a connected set of games, as technology progressed, and that nobody seems to have done this with download-codes now...)
It really does seem to me, when comparing to what would be its modern-day peers, that the Lemmings series would be benefitting massively from the availability of wide audience-bearing modern platforms which are ideally suited to it, and the modern perception of video game merchandise licensing, if only it were in better hands that could handle games and merchandising aimed at a wide audience. Though I know that the chances are slim, I hope that one day this will change, and Lemmings will again get a chance to live up to its full potential.
And I must now ask, does anyone else have any neat ideas, wish-lists, or whatever, as to how things would be, if the series were getting that chance right now?
