Quote from: Tubecity on Jul 20, 2019, 12:28:39 PM
It seems like there is a lot of merchandising that's somehow trying to fix that movie or pretend it wasn't as freakin awful as it was. Emissary Preds from Neca, now this. Doesn't it seem weird to market a design that wasn't in the movie and then slap the movie branding on it? Because they would never have been able to bring themselves to make a product directly from the movie design? It's like a merchanising potential salvage operation.
Just do one of the 2010 hound! It was cooler, scarier and just better.
Merchandise is developed a year in advance so you're going to find some weird instances of things not matching the source. A lot of times merchandisers are given access to an earlier script or given an early version of what something is going to be like to make products off of. And in the case of Neca, there really is no reason they couldn't do the Emissary.
While I can't say for certain, it's entirely possible Neca was already working on the Emissary before they got cut from the film and just released it anyways. And after all it would still fall under
The Predator branding even though they are cut from the final film.
There's no limit on the sort of products you can produce barring it getting ran past the license owner and most companies just don't have a broad label or have a reason it would even be necessary. In this case the dog was produced for The Predator, and so it just falls under that branding with the concept art label.
The money has always come from the merchandise. The movies have never had massive success, Alien and Predator have always needed the merchandise to stay afloat and keep them in the public eye. The situation with The Predator is not unique.