Promo Item Ideas
While we are on the topic of gifts with purchase and other convention exclusives, how about we brainstorm some new ideas for future promo items. What do you guys want to see made for some of the upcoming titles next year? Now, be reasonable. Don’t be saying you want to see a live-steel scythe from Soul Eater or a 60″ LCD TV in the shape of Alphonse’s head as a free gift with purchase of a $50 box set.
From booty shorts to guitar picks, we’ve done a lot of interesting items, so you can definitely be creative. There’s a ton of releases next year including Soul Eater, FMA Brotherhood, Slayers REVOLUTION, Kenichi Season 2 and more. That should serve as a springboard for your thought processes.
Share your ideas in the comments. Who knows? You might see it at a convention near you.
47 Responses to “Promo Item Ideas”
Anonymous on November 18th, 2009 at 11:14 pm says:
Including original commentary tracks on DVDs = I’m satisfied.
Beyond that:
- Strike Witches and panties somehow. Come on, it’s almost too obvious. You could even have each boxset come with the pair of a random 501st JFW member. Otakuganai, or trade with your friends, to collect the whole set. I think this would be awesome. I also like the idea of SW pencil boards, as someone else has said.
Posters are cool, but they’d be hard to ship easily.
>Speaking of songs, I would love to hear some English character songs. I know they do it a lot with the Japanese voice actors for shows, and I’d love to hear our English voice actors sing their own songs (translated from Japanese, or their own original songs).
That certainly is an original idea.
Tyrenol on November 18th, 2009 at 11:43 pm says:
@ Skr: “Just because your random favorite show that was on the list hasn’t made it here yet doesn’t mean that they haven’t done any of them, wise-guy.”
Remember the last anime company that didn’t license everyone else’s favorite anime? You DO remember, right?
Samuel on November 19th, 2009 at 2:06 am says:
For free items, i’d suggest an opening or ending song single, containing the TV Size Version, Instrumental and if possible English Dub of it. That would cause less problems since the Japanese artists would still have the full length song available in Japan. A Belzenef hand puppet or roses in colour of their characters (like purple for Kyoya) would be great Ouran ones. While it’s to big to be free, making a Straw Hat exactly like Luffy’s would be a very good idea, since they are almost impossible to find!
Mario1-7 on November 19th, 2009 at 3:59 am says:
@Tyrenol@
Dude almost half the Anime on the list has been licensed, (Just not the really good ones) They are split between FUNimation, Media blasters, and Sentai.
If they do Character CD’s the songs should be Dubbed. Like those One Piece opening and Closing songs, not just half of the song the whole song. I’d gladly pay extra for the CD’s. I know they sing alot in Seto No Hanayome if they made a english dubbed CD of the songs from that Anime I’d pay for it in a heartbeat.
Fate on November 19th, 2009 at 6:07 am says:
I agree with Maro, I would love to see dubbed songs too. Speaking of which I really loved the dubbed? song that was used in Tsubasa Season 2, I’m not sure what it’s called or even who sung, it was played a few times in the earlier episodes when Syaoran, Fai, Sakura, Kuro, Mokona were on the Bus trying to get the feather.. It was a lovely song Lol
Momo on November 19th, 2009 at 7:45 am says:
@ Fate
Its either Believe, A Song of Storm and Fire, or Yume no Tsubasa……I think its one of the first two.
Still if its possible I would like to see some Opening or Ending singles.
but I love the classic keychains from any show really. Or I would love beanies.
Chris D. on November 19th, 2009 at 9:44 am says:
You know what I would love to see for FMA? Temporary tattoos of the transmutation circles. Or at least high definition pictures of those circles. *nods*
Richard J. on November 19th, 2009 at 1:58 pm says:
I’m thirding noko’s suggestion of Strike Witches pencil boards. Pencil boards were my absolute favorite extra back when Geneon was doing them all the time. Plus, we know Funi can do awesome ones too since they did one for Claymore and one for Ouran!
I don’t know if the smaller ones are cheaper to make or not but I’d love to see Strike Witches pencil boards! I’ll buy them if you make them a separate item. (Just like I did for the aforementioned two.)
Actually, I vote for pencil boards as promo items for any and all of the upcoming series.
Cathy on November 19th, 2009 at 3:05 pm says:
i’m really loving Soul Eater. A Soul Eater Guitar would be REALLY cool, but probably too pricey for a free gift. Maybe you get your name in a raffel with every 50 dollar purchase or somthing. Now a Soul Eater watch or pocket watch might be easier for a free gift with some kind of purchase.
Pencil Boards, hair pins, wristbands, mousepads, tube socks, hats, temporary tongue tattoos, shotglasses, and antenna toppers for your car might be cool to see.
JRod on November 19th, 2009 at 3:42 pm says:
Hmmmm I would say the CD soundtracks would be a good idea, people suggest the english dubbed songs but most of the new animes coming out (ie Soul Eater and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) I highly doubt have a dubbed version of the songs. Another good idea would be keychains/celphone straps. If we want to push the envelope a lil we could do a trading figure. Back in the day Geneon had a figure included with the last volume of R.O.D the tv i made sure to buy it even though i already had the special edition book case for the series, also this was done with some of Viz media titles such as Inuyasha and Bleach:D. Tshirts may be great as well, I got 2 Eureka Seven shirts that way and i still wear them on a regular basis. So I think their are several options to choose from if you ask me:D
Smith on November 19th, 2009 at 4:01 pm says:
So you guys have licensed the second half of Kenichi? I hope I read that right. 
John on November 19th, 2009 at 4:16 pm says:
When They Cry T-shirts and pillowcases please! ^^ Or maybe rena’s hat.(Or maybe the whole outfit!)
NJ_ on November 19th, 2009 at 4:40 pm says:
Didn’t Geneon, ADV & Bandai used to sell anime OSTs & other CDs? If so then look what happened to them (or is happening in Bandai’s case). 
CM on November 19th, 2009 at 5:27 pm says:
I like the charm bracelets idea
mckg1 on November 19th, 2009 at 7:15 pm says:
It would be cool if you guy’s over at funimation would give posters of when they cry or maybe even shirts.
Richard J. on November 19th, 2009 at 8:35 pm says:
@ NJ_: ADV, Bandai and Geneon’s problems aren’t due to selling OST’s and other CDs. Their problems were a direct result of gross mismanagement and severe mistakes.
Geneon and ADV going into bidding wars that drove up all the licensing fees beyond where they reasonably could be, Geneon’s epic fail with a trilingual release of Fighting Spirit, ADV’s quest for the live-action EVA, Bandai’s flood of the brick and mortar stores with multiple releases of the same shows, causing them ship back their merchandise and their terrible quality control were FAR more problematic than a few CDs. (And all of that fails to account for failure to balance niche and mainstream titles, failure to effectively market their titles and, of course, failure to read the market trends or adjust to them rapidly.)
Mario1-7 on November 19th, 2009 at 10:23 pm says:
Richard J. where does this knowledge come from?
Soymilk Purin on November 20th, 2009 at 12:28 am says:
Bento boxes. >_______________>
Any item that a character in the show owns.
Fate on November 20th, 2009 at 9:20 am says:
Not sure if anyone thought of this earlier, sorry if they have. What about Promo DVDs with 1 dub episode from a series not released yet? Take Soul Eater for example its not out till Feb but the first 4 episodes are already dubbed.
joelgundam01 on November 20th, 2009 at 12:10 pm says:
I pesonally like that cloth poster you guys did for Gunsliger Girl (season 1) back in the day. It reminds me of a wallscroll without the rods. That’s something I wish to see more of.
Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009 at 1:10 pm says:
Oh yeah, t-shirts…I like that idea too. I absolutely love the Kannagi t-shirt that came with Bandai’s release of the series.
Richard J. on November 22nd, 2009 at 6:21 pm says:
@ Mario1-7: I’ve read about all the issues I mentioned either on reliable news sites like ANN or from reliable insiders’ blogs or quoted opinions. I phrased my opinion in a bit too absolute of terms now that I look back at it but I’m firmly of the opinion that the things I mentioned were the deciding factors in how those companies have faired. (Geneon especially lost a ton of money on Fighting Spirit given it sold less than 1000 copies per volume for almost it’s entire run and Heat Guy J, according to the source I read, had a licensing cost in the seven digit range, possibly per episode.)
Now, Geneon also pushed domestic CD soundtracks more than any other company but they also had very close ties to the Japanese music companies, meaning they likely got discounts. Bandai, ADV and Funimation have never really done much more than use CDs as a bonus item. I’m not saying they made lots of money doing this, I’m simply pointing out that NJ_’s implication that the CDs were a major factor in Geneon, ADV or Bandai’s problems isn’t likely.
Out of all of the companies, Funimation has made the fewest costly mistakes and they’ve tried not to pay too much for things.
