Franchise media doesn’t only mean TV shows, comics, or movies. It comprises of just about anything associated with the material at hand. This includes toy lines and action figures. Companies such as Disney make more from merchandise than they do from movie tickets, which is why if you think you’re important to film developers by watching their film, you’re actually not nearly as important as the kids who buy toys based off said films. Franchises such as Cars, which are pretty average to bad movies, make more money from toy sales than films that have grossed four or five times more.
When faced with certain spoilers or lucrative sales from toy sales, it is easy to understand why these toys are put on the market. After all, the films concerning these toys are more often than not guaranteed blockbusters and having them spoiled is immaterial when studios know people will watch the films regardless. There are fans who get all angry and offended when these spoilers show up and they are justified to an extent, but ultimately it comes down to money and people’s feelings don’t matter as much as getting cash in your pocket.
Over the years some toys have become notorious for having revealed plot details and these live on as examples even decades after the film’s release. In case you are unfamiliar with these toys, the following are 20 of them that spoiled their film’s plot.
20 The Ruler Of Muspelheim
Thor: Ragnarok’s release was surrounded by much hype and anticipation. The God of Thunder, while being one of the three main heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe along with Captain America and Iron Man, was always seen as the least interesting main character. His earlier films were labeled as Shakespearean and rather boring. This was averted with Ragnarok, as it offered some of the most powerful beings you could find. Hela, Thor, Hulk, Valkyrie, Fenris, and Loki would dispatch all of the Avengers with little to no difficulty, but the most powerful of all has to be Surtur. You’d think a character of his power level would be well hidden to be a surprise, but it was not to be.
His inclusion in the film was shown before the trailers.
Surtur ultimately took out Hela with hardly any effect, a remarkable feat considering no one was able to do anything to the Goddess before this. Surtur was seen in Thor: Ragnarok’s teaser trailer but was left unnamed. His action figure left no room for speculation of his identity as the box openly tells us who he is. He was a powerhouse in the film and checking out his appearance would have given a clue that he would play an integral role.
19 The God Of War
Someone similar to Surtur in design, and with a case similar to the fiery demon, as well. Wonder Woman’s media promotion was mainly focused on the fact that we finally had a female superhero who was worth a visit to the cinema. It also sought to introduce fully the character we had first seen in the clumsily made Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and tell her backstory so we would care about her, come Justice League. The film proved effective and is currently the only DC Extended Universe offering that has a ‘Fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes (as high as 92%).
And yet, Mum was the word over who the antagonist of said movie was. Even in the film itself we never quite understood who the antagonist would turn out to be, and it was only at the end did it become evident. But it wasn’t as much a mystery to those who kept an eye on the toy line for the film. As far as action figures go, Ares was in full view for everyone to see. His appearance would have made people doubt if he, in fact, was the God of War, but the box casing did label him as such, removing any uncertainty.
18 The Indominus Rex
The Jurassic Park series is unique in that while humans could be termed as the main antagonists, considering they created the mutated dinosaurs in the first place, the role of the antagonist usually goes to a dinosaur. In Jurassic Park it was the T-Rex (who reappeared 22 years later in Jurassic World), The Lost World: Jurassic Park stood out by making humans the complete antagonists, Jurassic Park III featured the ill-received Spinosaurus, while Jurassic World featured this girl right here. The Indominus Rex marked the definite theme shift in the Jurassic Park series, where dinosaur mutations would be focused upon rather than the theme of dinosaurs and humans co-existing, and the Indominus Rex’s rampage through the park stamped this in.
But it was noticeable how the Indominus Rex was partially hidden in most of the media promotion. All the posters for the film showed either its eyes or its orifice. The idea was to reveal it in full on the film itself, that is for those who hadn’t purchased the Indominus Rex’s toy already. The dinosaur was in stores before the film was out and was labeled with its species identity. As everyone knew this wasn’t a real dinosaur it became obvious that the toy being sold was the antagonist of Jurassic World.
17 Blame It On The Merch
Oz the Great and Powerful kind of sucked. The original film The Wizard of Oz has a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an untarnished legacy spanning 80 years. That film focused on Dorothy Gale as she went on an adventure to meet the titular wizard. Oz the Great and Powerful meant to show us how Oz became the wizard there as well as reveal how other antagonists came about. One of the most well-known of these would be the Wicked Witch of the West.
As there were three actresses playing witches in the film, it was unclear who would take on this role.
As it happened, it was Theodora who succumbed to the evil side and became the Wicked Witch of the West. The film did an awful job at making Oscar look like a good guy as his taking advantage of the naive Theodora ultimately served as the catalyst to her turn. Regardless, her conversion into the horrid looking Witch was to be expected in full once people sighted merchandise from the movie. Disney makes more money from merchandise than film tickets and you can be sure they had no problems overlooking this spoiler in favor of merch sales.
16 A Spoiler In Fishy Circumstances
What’s wrong with this picture, you ask? For that, you should focus upon the name of the film written on the toy package. Aquaman made his first full appearance in Justice League and his actual complete story will be detailed in Aquaman, which will be released in December 2018. But his first appearance in any shape or form came in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where footage of him was acquired by Batman. By Justice League, we knew that Aquaman was a pretty cool dude and not some eerie metahuman as his Dawn of Justice footage implied.
In said film, his role was a surprise as both Flash and Aquaman were only glimpsed to set up Justice League. But who would want to pass up guaranteed sales just to preserve a little cameo? That is what the mentality of the developers was and we saw Aquaman being promoted before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was out. This left no doubt to those who hadn’t watched the film yet that the ruler of the seas would be in it, and only disappointed them when they found out Aquaman was only on screen for a few seconds at most.
15 Forgettable Film, Forgettable Villain
Green Lantern is seen as the lowest point of Ryan Reynolds’ career. Despite having starred in the critically acclaimed Buried a year prior, his role as Deadpool, or whatever that version of the character was supposed to be called, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was still haunting comic book fans. And so his next decision to become Hal Jordan in Green Lantern was met with apprehension. This would then transform into horror once they saw the awful film. Made on a budget of $200 million, the movie only made $219 million in return. It was a disastrous flop and whose failure will follow Ryan Reynolds till the end. One of the biggest faults in the film was its lack of coherence.
The trailers never made it clear who the antagonist was and most people figured it would be Sinestro, who is Green Lantern’s usual foil. In the end, it was Parallax instead, a character only Green Lantern loyalists know about. Parallax’s lack of promotion made him a forgettable antagonist when he showed up onscreen. This was avoided somewhat by the toyline who gave away the final showdown of the film. In a strange change of pace, the spoiler on this occasion may have saved the film instead as people would not have been as confused by who the villain was. Unfortunately, it appears that like the movie itself, no one bothered to buy the toy either.
14 On Spoiler Tides
Speaking of forgettable films, here we have one more making an appearance. The Pirates of the Caribbean series took off on a high note with The Curse of the Black Pearl. But starting from Dead Man’s Chest, it became more slapstick as each entry came by. After a gap of four years when last we had seen the heroes in At World’s End, 2011 brought Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. This one turned out to be more bizarre than any of the previous installments. The whole film was all over the place and the antagonist was barely worth remembering. Jack Sparrow kept winging it as far as his plans were concerned and in the end, the quest for the Fountain of Youth culminated at the fountain itself.
Here we saw Barbossa, Blackbeard, and Jack engage each other to have the chance to drink from the fountain. The battle was confusing, even more so if you had lost interest in the movie by that point (a big possibility), but if you weren’t sure what was happening there you could always go and purchase this toy set that shows the scene acted out. The Lego pieces have the three main combatants in the depiction of the scene with the fountain in view. Jack is even seen holding the chalice that is meant to be used to drink mermaid tear from.
13 The Instigator Of The Hulk Vs Hulkbuster
In the lead up to Avengers: Age of Ultron, a lot of the media promotion focused on the fact that things were now bigger and fiercer. Iron Man’s armor had an upgrade, Captain America got a new costume, and the rest of the team was seen in tandem which meant they would not be seen as a confused unit getting to know one another. One of the highlights from the trailers was the Hulkbuster suit that Tony Stark had designed. In previews, it had seemed it was an armor to be used against Ultron but in later trailers, the armor was seen battling the Hulk himself. As we had seen in previews that the Hulk would be fighting alongside the Avengers it was not clear how he would get into a fight with them.
The answer to this was seen in this toy set which reveals Scarlet Witch was behind the fight.
We can see the Hulkbuster in action with Hulk in the background as well. But there’s also Scarlet Witch present, whose presence was indication enough that she had bewitched the Hulk against his teammates. We knew from the trailers that the Hulkbuster would not be fighting Scarlet Witch, but the Hulk instead. So, putting it all together from the trailer to this box set indicated that Wanda had instigated the fight.
12 Unmasking The Phantasm
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm represented the height of the DC Animated Universe. Much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe we have today, the DCAU was superbly mapped and lasted from 1992 to 2006. Unlike the DC Extended Universe’s race to release the Justice League movie, the DCAU took its time and had a bunch of TV shows before the Justice League animated show debuted and brought an end to the DCAU. Batman was the pioneer for this universe and his storyline was focused upon the most. In Mask of the Phantasm, the titular character has been disposing of the crime bosses of Gotham city. The Phantasm’s identity was supposed to be under wraps as the true identity would have spoiled the whole movie.
Alas, this is what happened as one can see the Phantasm is shown in full in this toy case. The Phantasm turned out to be Bruce’s former flame Andrea Beaumont, in what was a huge reveal in the film. But as this toy was sold in every general store it was a foregone conclusion that we would be seeing Andrea Beaumont’s big secret revealed. The toy never even attempted to make us doubt it wasn’t Andrea either as she is sold alongside the Phantasm action figure wearing the same clothing.
11 Dawn Of The Spoilers
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice promised us an epic showdown between DC’s biggest superheroes. The only problem was the fact that Superman’s powers dwarfed Batman’s to such a degree that it should have been a curb stomp battle with little chance for the Caped Crusader. Of course, there’s something known as ‘prep time’ among comic book nerds who use this as Batman’s justification for winning against beings who should finish him off within seconds. Dawn of Justice also employed prep time to justify Batman’s victory against Superman.
Their fight was no doubt going to feature Kryptonite in some shape or form, as it is Superman’s only true weakness. But merely holding Kryptonite in Superman’s face wasn’t going to cut it. And so this toy revealed to us that Batman would be tinkering about with Kryptonite to get a tactical advantage by making a literal Kryptonite gun. Equipped with Kryptonite bullets, this gun was used by the Dark Knight to take down the Man of Steel. It would have been a nice surprise to have seen it spring up in the film, but this display was spoiler enough for everyone to know what was coming. As can be seen by the date, it was available months before the film was released in cinemas.
10 Infinity Complete
When it was announced that Avengers 4 will follow Avengers: Infinity War, it was an obvious indication that we would be seeing Thanos complete the Infinity Gauntlet at some point. Originally the two films had been named Infinity War – Part I & II but had changed due to Avengers 4 having a different feel. This cast some doubt whether Thanos would have all the Infinity stones in his possession by the end of Infinity War, a notion that was supported by trailers which indicated an all-out last stand against the despot. Thanos was also only ever shown in trailers with two infinity stones in the gauntlet and the idea that he might have to wait till Avengers 4 to have all of them became more likely.
That idea was shot down by the toyline which featured Thanos wearing the Infinity Gauntlet triumphantly as all the stones were inserted into it. Some action figures even showed the Titan with the Gauntlet as other characters knelt before him. In the above picture, Thanos is seen similarly with a satisfied smirk as he brandished the Gauntlet which has no empty slots left as all the stones have been acquired. In the film, we saw this comes to pass just as the toy line had depicted.
9 Fight For The Mind Stone
This one might require a bit more scrutinizing than other toys to uncover the spoiler, but as most of the people who were hyped to watch Avengers: Infinity War had seen just about every preview and trailer released in the lead up to the film’s release, they would have figured out what this box set was entailing.
Here we see Shuri defending Vision from Corvius Glaive in Wakanda.
The trailers did not make it all too obvious–until the last week where footage of Shuri analyzing Vision was released on YouTube–if Vision would be stripped of the Mind Stone in Scotland, where he and Scarlet Witch had retreated to after Captain America: Civil War, or some other location. But trailers also showed Shuri blasting at an assailant behind her with a vibranium-fused weapon while in her workshop. This combined with the clip where she was seen analyzing Vision’s anatomy would be a fair giveaway that Shuri is defending the android in this toy set. A couple differences were there, though, in the film. The ravagers weren’t present in the scuffle depicted, while Shuri didn’t wear the Gauntlets she had in Black Panther. But we did know to expect Shuri to defend Vision in some way and for Corvius Glaive to attack them.
8 Finn's Covert Operation
Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi was very much hated by the Star Wars fandom for a number of reasons. Most of them felt the idea that Luke Skywalker would become a hermit who didn’t care about the galaxy was appalling and completely against character. There were a select few who hated the fact that Finn and Rey did not have any interaction in the film, with there being no resolution to a minor cliffhanger between them from Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Rey’s uncomfortable love story of sorts with Kylo Ren wasn’t welcomed either. However, Finn’s absence from Rey’s story is justified.
In press interviews for the film, actor John Boyega said that Finn would not be playing around in The Last Jedi and would mean business. This toy gave away the heights that Finn was ready to scale to accomplish his mission. During the film, we saw Finn infiltrate Snoke’s ship posing as part of the First Order. We already knew that Finn had once been a Stormtrooper who had defected to the Resistance and his loyalty toward Rey ensured there was no way Finn would turn out to be a First Order member either. Even that notion would be quashed as the toy box states Finn is in disguise.
7 When An Octopus Drives A Truck
There will always be some eyebrows raised when you see an octopus driving a truck, be it a toy or not. Add in the fact that this was a movie people had been waiting 13 years to see and you can be certain it would be Spoiler central. Finding Dory was a guaranteed hit the moment it was announced. Finding Nemo had smashed the box office in 2003 and is still in the Top 50 highest-grossing films of all time. The children who had grown up by the time Finding Dory came out were as excited to watch it as the children who had been born within the 13 year period.
Now in a time where the internet can offer spoilers galore, we saw this toy spoiler appear in stores. In the film, Dory befriends an octopus, who saw Dory more as an annoyance than anything else but begrudgingly helped her out to achieve his own means. Near the climax, the octopus, named Hank, commandeers the truck carrying all kinds of aquatic life with Dory in tow as well. Although the toy had Marlin in the back of the truck as opposed to what was going in the movie, the fact that there was a toy with an octopus driving the truck was indication enough that this would be detrimental to the plot.
6 Superman's Resurrection
The cast for Justice League had been announced over a year in advance. Superman actor Henry Cavill had announced he had already begun training for the film at a time Superman’s passing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was still fresh in our minds. It was clear Superman would be in the film, but the studio had rarely used him for promotion, something that was not the wrong move as Justice League ultimately grossed only $657 million, except for teasing flashback appearances with Lois lane, which in the end turned out to be part of the real world after Superman’s resurrection.
The box set here, though, shows Superman in action and battling Steppenwolf.
Along with that, we can also see him accompanied by his Justice League teammates and friends Wonder Woman and Batman. Steppenwolf’s parademons are also part of the battle which would only mean this was the final fight between the heroes and the main antagonist of the movie. Wonder Woman was the one who destroyed Steppenwolf’s main weapon while Superman and Batman had been dealing with other matters. The box set gives away the presence of the Batmobile in the scene too. Superman's resurrection was all but seen in live-action by this point.
5 The Incinerator Scene
Pixar movies live in its fans' hearts for decades to come. The studio almost always possesses amazing storytelling that makes us care about the characters–almost, because Cars and the characters in it suck–even years later. Toy Story was shown in cinemas way back in 1995, but Toy Story 4 in 2019 is bound to gross over $1 billion due to huge fan interest. Similarly, in 2010, Toy Story 3's release was also filled with hype and it was one of those rare instances where people did not want to know spoilers for a children’s movie.
Pixar movies make the bulk of their money from toys, however, which is why some franchise live on despite not needing to–looking at you again, Cars–which is also why Disney might not care if we know spoilers or not. Here, a vital part of Toy Story 3 is spoiled as the Incinerator scene, where the toys show their love for one another as they almost meet their end, is shown in a toy box set. It even has the saving moment in place too where the lien toys rescue our heroes from certain doom. The antagonist of the film is also present, giving away his true position as well.
4 Rey Is A Jedi
There have been only a handful of movies in the history of cinema that have seen a worldwide level of hype. Recently Avengers: Infinity War broke almost about all records due to its level of anticipation but we were accustomed to this fanfare due to Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens’ release in 2015. It was the continuation of the Skywalker story, the most recent of which had been seen way back in 1983 at the end of Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Appropriately The Force Awakens broke all kinds of records but its story needed to remain tightly under wraps in order to keep the fan interest at its peak.
This was almost ruined thanks to this toy that featured Rey wielding the lightsaber that belonged to Luke Skywalker! Luke’s absence from all the trailers had been disappointing, and understandable as in the film he only appeared for about 30 seconds, but this toy gave away that Rey would be a Jedi herself. However, it did play a part in swerving the story too, as some believed Rey holding Luke’s favored weapon meant Luke would have seen his end by this point. Still, Rey’s possession of the lightsaber was a clue that she would play a big part as a Jedi.
3 Aquaman Joining The Fight
Justice League’s synopsis told us that Steppenwolf would be coming to Earth to acquire the Mother boxes. However, that was just about the only clue we had about the mother boxes themselves as their location was a mystery. A mother box had been seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice where Cyborg's father experimented with it to make his the hero that he eventually became (Although the fact that he had a functioning mother box at that point is a plot hole in itself). Other than that one we had no idea where the mother boxes were.
As it happened the remaining ones were on Themyscira and Atlantis. Wonder Woman’s motive to join the fight was known as she had had two appearances in the DCEU already by that point. But Aquaman’s motive was spoiled through this box set here. The mother box belonging to Atlantis is very clearly seen on its pedestal while Aquaman seeks to defend it from the parademons. This was not a full-on spoiler, as in the film it is only Steppenwolf who lays siege in Atlantis as opposed to sending Parademons. But we knew for certain that Aquaman would be pushed into the war thanks to Steppenwolf’s attack on Atlantis.
2 The Infinity Trio
Avengers: Infinity War featured all the heroes we had seen from the previous eighteen films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while the universe was sprawling we did see interactions between all the characters from these movies, except for the Guardians of the Galaxy. The first leaked trailer for the film featured Thor meeting the Guardians but it did not tell us how long he would be with them.
This toy showed us Thor teaming with Rocket and Groot.
It has everyone in character too as Groot gives no care for anything other than the game he incessantly played the whole time. There are more spoilers in the fact that Thor has both his eyes here, with the scar from Hela’s slash at the end of Thor: Ragnarok present. As we know, Rocket gifted Thor with a new eye which is the one we see him with here. The biggest spoiler would have to be Thor holding Stormbreaker, the only weapon that brought Thanos to his knees. All in all these bobbleheads, while being cute, give away major parts of the story for the characters we saw in Avengers: Infinity War. With all said and done, at this point it wouldn’t be the worst idea to nab this collectible set while you still can.
1 Bald Lex In Chains
While the main attraction to watch Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was to see the titular heroes go at it we knew that they would only spar a few minutes before teaming up. Doomsday’s inclusion was also shown in the trailers along with Wonder Woman’s involvement which meant that Lex Luthor would undoubtedly be the one to be pulling all the strings. This is exactly how it happened in the film and by its end Lex’s devious ways got him landed in prison. But this was a foregone conclusion based on this toy line that outright showed us the guy in chains.
Forget the fact that this told us Lex would be behind bars at some point in the film it revealed that Lex would be losing his locks too. The mop he passed off as his hair only added to the ridiculously over the top character that he was but this action figure spoiled that he would be reverting to his popular bald persona. Lex’s picture on the cover is also hardly reminiscent of the clownish faces he makes in the film, giving away his more viscous personality to come by the end of the film.