Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Why did the TFG fail?

sdp

Active Member
Bad timing? Not advertised?

I don't think it was either of those, the game was released after Diamond and Pearl came out and Pokemon had a spike in popularity during that time. Also I at least saw some commercials play during KidsWB so they did advertise on TV and it was at every stores TCG section.

The figures themselves looked amazing, they are by far some of the best figures Pokemon has ever gotten. Maybe they would have sold better had they been put on the toy section instead of the cards sections of the stores? The game itself while some of it bashed the lack of strategy was actually fun, I demo'd the game at my league since I liked the game so much and wanted it to sell and all my players wanted to play and had fun. Sure it wasn't an exactly complex game but at least I always had fun playing games with it.

I guess some of you will say the lack of OP but a game like its been stated many times in the TCG the OP is only a small portion of all the people who buy the product. Most people don't ever use OP, for TFG would not have been able to survive solely on the OP players. Though League intergration since the start would have indeed help raise awareness of the game.

Maybe the game needed to have Diamond and Pearl Pokemon and characters? I guess it would have helped for kids to see Pokemon they are more familiar with rather than Gen I-III. But Pokemon is still Pokemon in the end regardless of generation.

Its sad that the game died, I would have loved to see more figures both because the game was fun and they were the best figures pokemon has had. OP would have been nice even if it was very basic. I was excited since the website first popped up in 2005, it was launched in Australia like a year or two before the states to test it and it failed there, I guess they didn't learn how to fix that even with all the time they took for it. A sad end for a game that was created by the same guy who did the TCG.
 
You might ask what happened to a lot of figure games going under at the same time.
 
I remember people mentioned the randomization was a big problem. And that makes sense since there were only so many figures you could get before you got them all and had to buy repeats to get a "booster" that could even be one of the visible figures.

You might ask what happened to a lot of figure games going under at the same time.

Something happened? i don't know I didn't play figure games before. Though other figure games I've never seen at stores like Walmart, only hobby stores. The only one I know that sold before and still sells is heroclix. It should be noted that other figure games figures are not as big or detailed therefore cheaper than the TFG. Maybe they should have gone that route instead.
 
My guess is when D&P came out and Pokemon was getting bigger (again), they tried riding the cash camel by spreading into a different area (TFG) and ended up failing. Maybe they didn't do enough research to figure out that the video game players and card game players weren't too interested in the TFG. Maybe they didn't realize that after a few games it got boring. It is a lot different than the VG or TCG....they require a lot of time, patience, and skill to be good. The TFG had almost none of that. Same with Pokemon Rumble....it was fun for a few months, but now I hardly see anyone talk about it/play it anymore.
 
Something to do with the new toy standards released last year about lead content. Not that the toys had much lead, but the costs of testing every single new figure that came out basically sank the figure game market. Stupid rule, I know.

Was I right?
 
Something to do with the new toy standards released last year about lead content. Not that the toys had much lead, but the costs of testing every single new figure that came out basically sank the figure game market. Stupid rule, I know.

Was I right?

I heard that somewhere else before....
 
Well... I'd say a few things killed it:

-First of all, no OP is what made it uber lame. There was no reason to play the game except for fun. I'd honestly rather focus in on the TCG and VGC.
-Secondly, the figures were EXPENSIVE!!! Think about it, 3 for $12 (ish). That was way over priced when you knew one of the figures you got. That figure was usually unusable. When I don't have reason to play the game in the first place, I can't spend money on it more than the entry fee. For example, I payed for pokemon rumble. I absolutaly love it despite its... nothingness... that I bought. I'm buying Pokemon cards anyways, so why not enjoy them in another way?
-The figures broke easily. Even from a collector's point of view, these figures were a bad investment. Most of mine "melted" (rounded out) during the summer. Those that didn't "melt" lost parts of them.
-The game was 100% random. I recall getting into stale mates with my brother. We would move out, attack. If the pokemon was KO'd we'd respond by moving and attacking. There was rarely an end to it before one of us gave up. The one who gave up the battle always lost the game. Also, there's no strategy to it. At least with the TCG, decks have different win conditions. I.e. Gyarados likes being a power-house, but Lady Gaga prefers to KO your claydol leaving you without draw power. In this game, there was only 1 way to win. No matter which pokemon you had on your team.
 
because they kept on pushing back the new set.
also the game was completely based on luck with little strategy.
sure there was a tad bit of thinking where you moved you peices, but when it came down to it it was how good you can spin.

there should have been different playing fields, figurines could have been higer quality.
plus the figuring were a bit expensive.
 
In one phrase : No marketing backing it.
frail pieces .....(maybe)
cost????...not with many players willingly paying $20 or more for cardboard so no. i wouldn't say cost .
I do feel what killed it was No marketing , cut and dry
 
Even from a collector's point of view, these figures were a bad investment. Most of mine "melted" (rounded out) during the summer. Those that didn't "melt" lost parts of them.

Umm... a collector wouldn't play with them or keep them in a place they could melt or even keep them in a manner where they would lose parts. I think your definition of a collector is a bit off. Resin is easy to damage and knowing that you should handle them as being breakable. I played with them plenty and spun them by the sturdy plastic spinner as the instructions told you too and never had a problem with ANY of the breaking. If you spun it by the figure then of course they would break

The largest factor that killed it was the releases being pushed back over and over again for 9 months until they finally just killed it. There was enough interest for it to be worthwhile to keep producing the figures, that is if they could keep to release dates.

Another factor is the American (we are by far the largest consumers) attitude of instant gratification. The game wasn't instantly complicated and challenging in strategy so the fair weather folks weren't satisfied. After buying many of the figures from the 3rd set, I can promise you that complex strategy was definitely forthcoming. There were powers, new conditions, immunities, all kinds of other status effects, and plenty of other twists and turns coming that now most will never know of.
 
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