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I spent this weekend shopping for an overseas trip, but as I do in any store, I always migrate over to the toy section. Especially since the new toys for Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out. There is too much empty space on my desk (some might argue that this is absolutely not true, but you can clearly see a few inches) and I must fill it with toys. Well, this weekend I hit Target and to my, sadly, lack of surprise, they had an exclusive set of large Star Wars figures from Hasbro, and once again, the main female character was missing. In the set (pictured above), we have Finn, Chewbacca, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, a First Order Stormtrooper and a First Order pilot. Know who’s missing? The protagonist of the film (at least it’s certainly looking that way), Rey.

Hasbro, what are you doing? What are you freaking doing? Did you not hear us when we asked why Gamora wasn’t part of the Guardians of the Galaxy team? When there was a national campaign to get her on shirts and lunch boxes? Remember #WheresGamora? Oh, and then again when you decided to leave Black Widow out of all the Avengers sets? When you replaced her in a toy based on her own scene? After everything Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said about including female characters and kept her promise with the casting, the animated series Star Wars Rebels and the books leading up to the films? Remember how Disney stopped gendering their Halloween costumes? Target may have stopped gendering their toy aisles, but they’re clearly not doing it with toys and this set is from you.

WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO TO MAKE YOU LISTEN? Do we need to boycott your stores? Stage national protests? Laugh in your face? You have a non-descript fighter pilot and not the main character. Hell, you included Ultron in the Avengers set instead of Black Widow, but I thought you may have learned. Clearly you didn’t. I’ll remember that when I decide to furnish my desk with toys. They’ll no longer be from you.

#WheresRey

 

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Jenna Busch

Jenna Busch is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Legion of Leia and has hosted and written for sites like Nerdist, ComingSoon.net, Metro, Birth. Movies. Death., IGN, AOL, Huffington Post and more. She co-hosted Cocktails With Stan with the legendary Stan Lee and has appeared on Attack of the Show, Fresh Ink, Tabletop with Wil Wheaton, in the documentary She Makes Comics, on NPR and Al Jazeera America, and has covered film/TV/gaming/comics for years. She's currently a co-host on Most Craved. She's been published in the comics anthology Womanthology, is a chapter author for Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind, Game of Thrones Psychology and Star Trek Psychology and more, and owns a terrifying amount of swords and 20-sided dice. There are also those My Little Pony trailer voice overs that give one nightmares.

95 CommentsLeave a comment

    • I want you to go in to any store where they sell star wars merch and tell me how many things you find that include Rey. I have been searching for a shirt for my daughter and found 3 and 2 pj sets and how many articles of clothing is there for every other male character? This is and has been a huge problem. You must not have any women in your life, if you had a daughter who idolized black widow and couldn’t find her the toys and clothes she wanted, I’m pretty sure you’d me upset too. Rey is a MAIN CHARACTER and she’s not included in this set but
      but 2 non descript characters are (that mean we don’t know who they are under the helmets, if you don’t know what that means), I’m assuming bc they think boys wouldn’t want her, and that’s a problem as well. I think it’s time you started seeing things differently. We don’t want to “burn all the stores down” as you put it, we just want our little girls to know they’re just as important as the boys. That’s the message that’s being sent, girls aren’t important enough to be included. And before you say anything about me blowing it out of proportion bc i feel like you’re the type to say something like that, absolutely everything that is put out into the world sends a message. Even something as small as child’s toy.

      • I agree, its not easy to find stuff for girls with their favorite characters. I was super excited to find this shirt at Disney Store – http://www.disneystore.com/rey-sublimated-art-tee-for-girls-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1382420/1000228/
        Looks like its only left in size 2/3, but that was one reason I loved it so much.Its an awesome shirt *and* my toddler can wear it!

        But it would be nice to find more at Target and other general stores! I think they are trying harder, my toddler even has a pink avengers shirt *with* black widdow on it from Target… but they still take a lot of hunting.

      • Except there are at least five action figure sets of Rey by Hasbro out right now if you check Amazon and the 12″ Rey was already announced to be coming at the end of the month so they aren’t excluding her at all, she just isn’t in this one pack.

      • And we want our little boys to grow up seeing that girls can do anything, too. Just as important for boys to not be turned off of ‘girl’ stuff as unworthy.

        • I know right? Only 1 boy doll per 50+ girl dolls in the Barbie line. That’s ridiculous!
          I finally found a 12″ Phasma to stand with my Barbies and Ken. Still looking for Rey. And looking for other boy characters in the Barbie line, to no avail..

      • I agree with you completely. We need more Rey! I’ve been looking for a 12″ Rey to stand with my Barbies and never seen one. At the same time, we need more boy dolls in the Barbie line! There are like, 50 or so girl dolls for each 1 boy doll they release. Toy companies need to become less sexist..

      • I agree with you completely. We need more Rey! Much more, to even get close to the availability of other major characters. I’ve been looking everywhere for a 12″ Rey to stand with my Barbies, to no avail.
        At the same time we need more boy dolls in the Barbie line. 1 boy doll for every 50 girl dolls is ridiculous. Toy companies need to stop being so unfair.

    • If this was just ONE piece of merchandise, no harm no foul. But Rey is HUGELY underrepresented across the board, not just a board game. A recent trip to Disney World (January 2016!!!) where you would expect to find anything and everything Star Wars proved Rey merch is difficult to find not because it’s sold out, but because they didn’t have any merchandise to begin with. I’m a dude, and even I noticed this glaring omission!

  • What about Captain Phasma? Rey and Captain Phasma instead of random trooper and pilot seems like a no-brainer.

  • I see Rey figures every store I go to. Most other characters—especially stormtroopers and Kylo Ren— are all sold out. But lots of Rey….and Fin. Also lots of old stock of Leia. Maybe they learned what sells?

    But c’mon…as the guy above me said, one set without her and your panties are in a twist?

    • It’s part of a pattern. They did the same thing to Black Widow. They did the same thing to Sabine in the Star Wars Rebels set.

      They are selling girls short by not giving them merch, and they are selling boys short by thinking their male egos are so fragile that they will fall apart is there is a girl in the set.

      I like that you included Finn in your list of things that don’t sell. Please explain why in a way that doesn’t make you look racist.

      I’ll wait.

      • I know I’m a little late to the party, but I felt the need to respond to this particularly ignorant statement.

        Are you insinuating that because Jack observed that the Finn 6-inch Black Series figure is not selling well (which it’s not, prior to Christmas, you could find multiples of Finn by themselves on pegs with all his casemates long gone), he’s a racist?

        You do realize the enormous chasm of logic that you somehow force jumped over to come to conclusion, don’t you?

      • No, fuck you. I’m a female toy collector, and I’ve seen A LOT of Rey merchandise in stores and on sites. 6″ figures, Funko Pops, cellphone straps, Disney Infinity figures, etc. I’m delighted to see representaation for Rey and also for Finn. One playet lacking Rey doesn’t mean she’s being shoved aside in the marketing. This is the most ignorant, despicable ‘rallying against sexism’ I’ve seen yet.

        • But I think the point was, if Hasbro is gonna make a mega-multi-pack of the main characters of the movie, shouldn’t it contain the main characters? And they have a history of leaving the female main characters out of their multi-packs. So…it’s a thing.

  • Why has this become a problem? When I was a kid when Star Wars first came out. I am pretty sure Princess Leia was included in all the merchandise. I had a Princess Leia action figure It didn’t matter if she was a man or woman, she was a main character so I wanted her.

  • HERE IS REY!!!!!! I just found 5 of her solo toys on Target.com and it says they’re only sold in stores.Quit your crying, it’s really sad and pathetic. You actually went out of your way to take a picture of the first Star Wars toy and then cried about how they didn’t sell a single one of her toys and a quick target.com search proves you’re either incredibly lazy or you’re making up crap to get clicks.

    I tried to leave a list of each ones link but it pops my comment up as spam. If the following posts add target.com in front of each.

    1) star-wars-the-black-series-6-inch-rey-jakku-and-bb-8/-/A-21406958#prodSlot=medium_1_6&term=Star+Wars+Rey

    2)/p/star-wars-episode-vii-black-series-titanium-rey-s-speeder-jakku/-/A-21406780#prodSlot=medium_1_7&term=Star+Wars+Rey

    3) /p/funko-star-wars-pop-rey/-/A-46791837#prodSlot=medium_1_3&term=Star+Wars+Rey

    4) /p/star-wars-the-force-awakens-3-75-inch-figure-snow-mission-rey-starkiller-base/-/A-21400330#prodSlot=medium_1_5&term=Star+Wars+Rey

    5) /p/star-wars-episode-7-rey-s-speeder-jakku-3-75/-/A-17318159#prodSlot=medium_1_4&term=Star+Wars+Rey

    • Jenna here. I’m the editor-in-chief. Charles, your comment was not put into spam. I moderate comments because we get lots of threats. It’s posted.

      I didn’t say there were no Rey toys. I said I was upset that they left her out of this pack. Perhaps re-read the article?

    • No one said there was no Rey merchandise. Jenna said that Rey was excluded from the Target exclusive deluxe set of figures — which is stupid. Rey appears to be the main character, or close to it. Excluding her while including a generic Storm Trooper and Tie Fighter pilot is pretty foolish, and part of a larger pattern of excluding female characters from merchandise that has been going on for decades.

      Your links disprove an argument no one was making. I’m not sure if you didn’t read carefully, or if you are twisting words out of malice.

  • I’m pretty willing to bet that the only reason we’re not seeing many detailed Rey figures is because releasing detailed toys would be too revealing about her character, and you’d better believe her character is way too important to spoil before the next month is out. Just wait, come December 18th, you’ll see tons of stuff with her face on it soon enough. Luke, too. I promise, it’s all part of their hushed marketing so as not to spoil the movie.

  • Let’s put all the cards on the table shall we! You went looking for the toys just to be able to start your raging hormonal crap. She is not in the toys because her character does not translate well into a action figure , that’s it ! it’s that simple. Than people like you come along and put your sexist twist on it so you have something to blog about. your are not any different from a racist who black man who claims he is not racist but demands separate schools, tv shows bla bla bla. Not EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU.

    • Thanks for your post on LegionOfLeia.com. Look around you, it’s your shitty comment that’s out of place.

  • Let’s put all the cards on the table shall we! You went looking for the toys just to be able to start your raging hormonal crap. She is not in the toys because her character does not translate well into a action figure it’s that simple. Than people like you come along and put your sexist twist on it so you have something to blog about, you are not any different from a black man who claims he is not racist but demands separate schools, tv shows bla bla bla. Not EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU.

    • Your comment is elegant in its brevity. If you must be a troll, you’ll be taken far more seriously with correct grammar, punctuation and spelling. Cheers.

    • She is a humanoid figure with two legs and two arms and a head. She would translate just fine to a figure.

  • I heard from someone in the know that they can’t make a 12 inch Rey as they would consider that a doll. There is some company that forget there name now has exclusive rights to make a very expensive collectors doll.

    • Paul, I don’t believe that’s the case as being classified as a doll would require there to be a provision saying lady parts make it a doll and not an action figure. The gender of the toy doesn’t make it one thing OR the other.

    • There is a 12″ inch Rey, she was shown at NYCC and is releasing at the end of this month. Assuming she wasn’t in this collection pack as she probably has a later production schedule as she would require a new sculpt (the figures in this utilized old, already existing sculpts). She’ll be out across all retailers in less than a month.

      Captain Phasma is a ToysRUs exclusive 12″ figure that is currently up on their website which explains why she wasn’t included in the Target pack either. I feel like it’s unfair to complain about not having specific female characters in the pack when there is an explanation as to why in this case.

      I wish the creator of the article would at least acknowledge in the article, via an edit or footnote perhaps, that the Phasma and Rey figures are/will be out there. If there is upset that they’re not in the collection pack, event though there seems to be a reason, fine. But at least call out that the items will be available so those that read the article will know to look for them. One reason historically that female characters have been not been created is because of poor sales. The article should call out that they are coming to help promote sales in future, more sales equals more figures in future.

  • I remember when they did the Queen Amidala collector ones…but they also did a cheaper Barbie style one.

  • It’s a 3 vs. 3 pack. 3 good guys vs. 3 bad guys. That’s how I would want that as a child. I would want to ensure i’ve got enough of both sides to play with.

    • Jon, that’s great, but Phasma is a bad guy and Rey is a good guy. So is Leia. Hell, it appears that BB-8 is female. Good vs. bad is fine, but there aren’t just male protagonists and antagonists.

  • Phasma is available in that size, as a TRU exclusive.

    http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=70815926&cp=&parentPage=search

    Rey will be coming along shortly. As it was stated, her prototype was on display at NYCC. In this scale, there isn’t even a Han Solo figure yet.

    Rey was avaliable as a 4 inch figure, a 4 inch figure with her Speeder, a 6 inch Black Series figure, a 6 inch Diecast Elite figure, and a forthcoming Walmart exclusive super articulated 4 inch figure. So there are plenty of Rey options.

  • Disney seems to have gotten right. I just got back from Disney World and the amount of Rey stuff trumped everything else… I mean she does appear to be the main character. Anyway… here is the disney figure exclusive.

    http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Awakens-Figurine-Playset/dp/B015AM8P3Q/ref=sr_1_10?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1447253061&sr=1-10&keywords=finn+star+wars&pebp=1447253082778&perid=09RYYCFSDZM5GPQV4GQQ

    It should, however, be noted that in the broader market the sheer amount of Rey merchandise is EXCESSIVELY greater than that devoted to any other character except for Kylo Ren.

  • A more legit complaint would be why the current playskool star wars line (Jedi Force) has NO female figures. I mean NONE. They made several for their old galactic heroes line, but their current line is devoid of any women whatsoever.

  • This is a boy’s toy set. I would never play with girl action figures when I was a kid. I had GI Joe and never used Scarlett or the Baroness. I had He-Man but never played with She-Ra. All this sensitivity garbage is turning this generation into spineless, non-gendered eunuchs. Also, they’re toys!

    • Archie Bunker, it’s totally fine that you didn’t want to play with girl action figures. That’s your choice. However, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of female Star Wars fans out there and we want to play with Star Wars toys. You can choose not to play with whatever you want, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us feel the same. I hate onions with a passion. I don’t complain when restaurants cook with them.

    • I played with lots of action figures as a little kid, of both boys and girls. Did you think you would get cooties or something?

  • Honestly I feel you are grasping at straws here for no reason and just for hits on your site. We are talking about one pack of figures here that features an all male cast. The amount of Ray & Phasma merch has been crazy! You can’t walk into a store and not see those figures plaster everyplace, but we get up in arms over on pack of figures?
    Disney and Lucasfilm have thrusted women into 3 of the 5 major roles from the new movie. They even made it so Leia is now a General… Yes no more princess label she is now General Organa or Genera Leia.
    Captain Phasma a female Captain of the First Order.
    I believe that instead of picking on the 1 negative that you found in a toy store you should be looking at all the positive that this movie has done to try and put women in the for front and not just a plot device or a person that needs to be saved.

    There are no lack of women in the movie
    No lack of women in product
    There is no issue here….
    Oh and to the black widow issue… yup that has legs…. whey b/c the whole team was there and she was not… This is just 3 good guys and 3 bad guys thats it.
    Please stop blowing things out of proportion.

    • You know what site you’re reading, right? If you read the article, you’ll know that I mention the fact that there are more women in Star Wars, both the films and the books. If you read the site, you’ll know that we talk about the positive things all the time. However, Hasbro and Target have a history of this with their exclusive sets. If I see it, I talk about it. Remember the Rebels set that didn’t include Hera or Sabine but had all guys? Or the Marvel set that had not a single female, but two versions of Iron Man?

      You feel free to not have an issue with it. I’m going to complain about something I dislike, just as you are complaining about something YOU dislike by commenting on the article. See how that works?

      • I do know what site I am on and I actually like this site even though its not targeted to me, and like I said I understand the issue with Marvel. However in this case I feel that it is just another Starbucks cup and I am sure there is more of a reason for this then just “oh we don’t want Rey”.
        I personally don’t dislike your opinion I just feel it is a little misplaced, but I understand it’s a slow news day.

        • Implying that I would only write this because “it’s a slow news day” is rather insulting. It’s not important to you, so I just did it for hits? Come on. It matters very much to the community I write for.

          Also, trust me, there are very few “slow news days” in our business. I run this site myself and average 10 articles a day in addition to the books I write, the shows I produce and co-host and the podcast I run, all that while doing other writing to make the rent. Believe me, if it isn’t important to me, it doesn’t get done.

          Looking for representation of the characters we want to see as women when we’ve been left out for years is hardly trivial. If it is to you, there are plenty of other sites you can go read. I don’t care about lots of things that other people do. I don’t frequent sites about them and then tell the authors that something they care very deeply about and have built their lives and careers bringing notice to is trivial.

  • “Looking for representation of the characters we want to see as women when we’ve been left out for years is hardly trivial. ”
    You are 100% right, lack of representation is far from trivial, and its an issue that I do agree with, like in your Marvel Avengers analogy. Yup it was not right for Black Widow or Scarlet Which to be left out of the team, 100% and I will stand by you with that. I also stand by how upsetting it is that Marvel does have a HUGE lack of female representation in all of its merch.

    I was even upset when Target replaced Leia with Luke on their T-shirts another instance that was just outright insulting.

    However in this specific case I can’t see it b/c of all the other merch that has been put out, and I personally don’t see this, or what Hasbro has done with this toy launch, as lacking representation of women in merch. If they feel they want to market 1 multi pack of random male figures that are not a team, like in the case of the Avengers, to a male demographic that is ok to me….
    Just like you have implied to me that this site it not targeted to me, and that is ok…. This pack of toys is not targeted to women…. and that is ok to…. only b/c there is an abundance of other products that display women in a positive light….
    Unlike the marvel toys where you can’t find any woman representation at all.
    What I am saying is that this is not an apple to apple comparison.

  • I think this is less an issue with Target (though, if there are exclusive figures in the set, then they do share culpability) and more of an issue with the toymaker, Jakks Pacific. They license a number of properties for large-scale toys (18″ through four feet), but specifically categorize them as boys’ and girls’ toys, and, as far as I’ve seen (with the exception of helmeted Phasma) haven’t EVER produced a female figure in any of the properties they deem boy properties, including no Princess Leia in their many existing Star Wars figures.
    If what the other comments are saying is true, then a Rey figure from them seems to be on the horizon, which is likely a big step for that manufacturer, and probably a result of pressure from retailers, who bear the brunt of the criticism.
    I’m hoping that’s the case, anyway. If the stores pressure those who supply their products, then hopefully we’ll see a steady decrease of in missing female characters in the future.

  • While I totally agree the lack of Black Widow toys was appalling (especially where they had the set which replaced her on the motorbike with, iirc, Captain America, which made absolutely no sense), I think this needs a little more context.

    After all, it’s got Chewbacca in there instead of, for example, Han Solo – is it possible this could actually be referencing a specific scene in the film?

    Plus, just to play Devil’s Advocate slightly – how do you know the Stormtrooper and TIE Pilot are male? After all, a big deal has been made out of Captain Phasma’s armour being ‘just armour’ rather than having big metal boobs (etc) on it like is so often the case – maybe the Stormtrooper in the set is female? There’s nothing to say it can’t be, after all.

    Also, there may be an element of ‘matching up’ in play – Finn v Rylo, Chewwie v a Stormtrooper (the patch on his shoulder indicates some sort of rank, I’d have thought), and an X-Wing pilot v a TIE Pilot.

    Maybe Rey doesn’t face down Rylo directly, and perhaps a Rey and Phasma set (for example) may pop up?

    I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt a little here, as we still know very little about Star Wars, and there’s been a lot of talk about them not wanting to spoil anything before the film comes out, so there may be other reasons underlying here. Give it a month or so to see if they find some equilibrium, and then (rightfully) judge them on their output?

    (Hopefully you’ll see this as a measured comment and not trolling, which it’s not intended to be.)

  • These characters all share a sequence early on in the movie, that’s why they are grouped together.

  • I know I’m late to the party, but just thought I’d add my two cents anyway. So many people in this comments section were quick to point out that there are plenty of Rey toys to be had, just not in this set. Several mentioned a 12″ action figure that was set to release by the end of November. Well, I’ve searched high and low, and can find nothing of Rey that is appropriate for a younger kid. Yes, there are die-casts and collector type figures (not that you can find one in a store, as retailers are being woefully understocked). 12″ figure? Nowhere. No retailer in my town has seen one. Even Aldi has had the 12″ male characters! All my 4 year old daughter has asked for this Christmas is Rey, and I’m left with the option of buying her a completely age-inappropriate figurine or nothing at all.

  • You do know she exists in other packs right? It’s not unusual for a newly release set to be missing a key character, in fact it’s common practice. That’s how they get you to buy either another pack or the stand alone version. Here’s one from the Fantastic Four, who is missing? Most popular toy Human Torch. So you have to buy him separate.

    http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Universe-Action-Figure-Fantastic/dp/B008BM3QX2/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1450832100&sr=1-3&keywords=fantastic+four+set

  • I just purchased the Star Wars Monopoly game and guess what? NO REY! Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker are in there, along with Finn and Kylo Ren. Please explain to me WHY there is no Rey, when she is obviously the main character, and next hero of the series? What does Finn have to do with the Force? What connection does he have to Luke, Vader or Kylo Ren? NONE. Oh wait, he’s a guy.

    • was this released before the movie? because she wasn’t revealed to be force sensitive at all in the trailers and finn was the red herring.

    • Exactly!!!! If you look at Walmart.com under the drop down menu of Star Wars characters Kylo Ren AND Finn are individually listed – but guess who is not ….

  • maybe they just left her out so they could release her as a fighter with a lightsaber as that wouldn’t have spoiled the movie, as they tried to make us think finn was the main character through promotion with the lightsaber in his hands and not hers.

  • Jenna you are so right! All my mommy friends are outraged at the lack of Rey (the STAR of the movie) action figures! Did you realize the dropdown menu of characters on Walmart.com has all the male figures listed Kylo Ren, Han Solo, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, and even Finn – but Rey doesn’t even rank getting her own character search. The 3.75″ action figures of Rey are sold out online and I have yet to find one in any store. Plenty of Kylo Ren and Poe Daemeron. You know where you can find the small Rey action figures? On EBAY selling at over 4x the retail. There is no question there is a demand that is not being filled and Hasbro is losing sales. Insanity! Someone needs to start interviewing Hasbro and enlighten them.

  • It’s because people complain about the outfits they wear. They look to sexy so kids shouldn’t be aloud to have the character as a toy.. Now they cut the girls completely out. Maybe if everyone grew up there would still be girl action figures.

  • Leaving Rey out of the first round of merch was a major blunder.

    I wonder if Hasbro will notice Wonder Woman in the next Superman movie? Don’t blow it Hasbro, don’t blow it.

  • I agree with Jenna completely. I’m a guy and my favourite star wars character is Rey, but at my local starlings the only Rey stuff there is the lego buildable figure and/or the lego Rey’s speeder set, both of witch I already have and all the black series figures there are male. plus, all the star wars hero mashers I know of are male. WHERE IS REY!

  • Hi,

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    both for quality and the endless variety.

    Congratulations Again
    John Stewart