The 2012 costume buying season officially kicked off with the Rubies VIP Halloween preview show. It was held in Phoenix this year, which was a welcome change from its traditional Las Vegas venue where some retailers spent more money at the craps table than writing orders.
Rubies owns licensing rights to many of the major motion picture studios, bringing characters from the big screen to the local dress up shops.
The biggest movie draw this summer is anticipated to be the new Batman movie called Batman Dark Knight Rises. Gotham City finally gets to enjoy a time of peace thanks to Batman, but a villain called Bane and his cronies bring a new brand of chaos. As usual Batman comes to the rescue, but he faces opposition not only from the villain, but also from city politicians. It's another film by Christopher Nolan who was responsible for the massive success of the last Batman Dark Knight movie. The Batman costume will be exactly the same as previous years. Bane's mistresses should be hot selling costumes, but the Bane costume doesn't look particularly attractive. There's a new Joker costume this year, but it's unclear whether or not this villain will make an appearance in the film.
Star Wars Episode 1 is being re-released in 3D February 2012. It should be the exact same movie as the original Episode 1, but somehow the ending is going to be remade where Darth Maul doesn't die. The Darth Maul costume is the main focus in the re-release, which is strange because he plays such a small role in the movie. Maybe he'll make an appearance in the following Star Wars re-releases. This is interesting. It could be just a gimmick by Lucas to sell more tickets in case 3D isn't enough of a draw.
Monster's High from the top-selling line of girl's dolls will be a hit again with the preteen girls this year. Rubies added 3 more characters to compliment last year's immensely popular theme. Although preteen is the target age range, Rubies also introduced adult versions of Monster's High costumes. Really? A grown-up dressing up as Barbie is endulging her childhood nostalgia. A 30 year-old dressing up as Frankie Stein is trying too hard to fit in with her grade-school daughter. The costumes are cute, but if you decide to dress up as Laguna Hill, tell your friends you're a mermaid, just don't mention Monster High.
Snow White & The Huntsman shows a lot of promise for costume styles. It's a darker, adult remake of the popular fairytale. The movie trailer looks solid, but it's hard to predict how the movie will do. It has potential to be a blockbuster, but it may also flop like the Red Riding Hood movie last year. Regardless of the movie's success, the costumes should do well on their own merit even without the Snow White label, similar to the success of Sucker Punch costumes despite its lackluster box office performance.
For Muppet fans, Rubies has a new line of sexy (but not slutty) Muppet costumes including Miss Piggy, Animal, Kermit the Frog, and Fozzy dresses. They also made Muppet costumes for boys and girls to complement their existing men's Muppet costumes.
What would Halloween be without cheap horror movies. A new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie is set to hit the big screen on October 5. Rubies already has a large collection of TCM costumes, and this year they decided to add a costume for little girls. While the 8 year-old girl looked really cute with her Chainsaw get-up on the fashion runway, I doubt many girls her age will want to watch (and be allowed to watch) a bloody, emotionally traumatizing R-rated horror flick. Fail.
In the last few years, Rubies has expanded their licensing focus beyond movie characters, into pop-culture music and TVs shows. They struck gold with Jersey Shore and Lady Gaga two years ago, Katy Perry last year, and they're attempting to repeat their success with three Rihanna costumes and two Freddy Mercury costumes this year as well as adding new Katy Perry styles.
Overall, I was impressed by the show, mostly because of the strength of Rubies subsidiary companies (Forum, Charades, and Morbid non licensed costumes), but I wasn't blown away by Rubies new blockbuster licenses. The marquee license is Batman, and while it's probably going to get huge numbers from the box office, Batman still wears the same outfit, so the costumes won't offer anything we haven't seen in the past. The top overall costume this year will likely be Angry Birds again. Despite being a second-year costume, PMG didn't produce nearly enough to meet the demand, leaving many Angry Birds fans empty handed last year. Breaking down by categories: the hot men's costume this year will probably be from the comedy The Dictator starring Sascha Baron Cohen. It's still undetermined which costume company will get licensing rights for this movie. I expect Katy Perry and Rihanna costumes from Rubies to be the hot women's costumes of 2012. With a new G.I. Joe movie coming out this year starring The Rock, I expect this Disguise costume line to be the hottest selling boys costume. While Sesame Street is nothing new, Cookie Monster and Elmo, both by Disguise, will likely be the best sellers again for girls.
Rubies owns licensing rights to many of the major motion picture studios, bringing characters from the big screen to the local dress up shops.
The biggest movie draw this summer is anticipated to be the new Batman movie called Batman Dark Knight Rises. Gotham City finally gets to enjoy a time of peace thanks to Batman, but a villain called Bane and his cronies bring a new brand of chaos. As usual Batman comes to the rescue, but he faces opposition not only from the villain, but also from city politicians. It's another film by Christopher Nolan who was responsible for the massive success of the last Batman Dark Knight movie. The Batman costume will be exactly the same as previous years. Bane's mistresses should be hot selling costumes, but the Bane costume doesn't look particularly attractive. There's a new Joker costume this year, but it's unclear whether or not this villain will make an appearance in the film.
Star Wars Episode 1 is being re-released in 3D February 2012. It should be the exact same movie as the original Episode 1, but somehow the ending is going to be remade where Darth Maul doesn't die. The Darth Maul costume is the main focus in the re-release, which is strange because he plays such a small role in the movie. Maybe he'll make an appearance in the following Star Wars re-releases. This is interesting. It could be just a gimmick by Lucas to sell more tickets in case 3D isn't enough of a draw.
Monster's High from the top-selling line of girl's dolls will be a hit again with the preteen girls this year. Rubies added 3 more characters to compliment last year's immensely popular theme. Although preteen is the target age range, Rubies also introduced adult versions of Monster's High costumes. Really? A grown-up dressing up as Barbie is endulging her childhood nostalgia. A 30 year-old dressing up as Frankie Stein is trying too hard to fit in with her grade-school daughter. The costumes are cute, but if you decide to dress up as Laguna Hill, tell your friends you're a mermaid, just don't mention Monster High.
Snow White & The Huntsman shows a lot of promise for costume styles. It's a darker, adult remake of the popular fairytale. The movie trailer looks solid, but it's hard to predict how the movie will do. It has potential to be a blockbuster, but it may also flop like the Red Riding Hood movie last year. Regardless of the movie's success, the costumes should do well on their own merit even without the Snow White label, similar to the success of Sucker Punch costumes despite its lackluster box office performance.
For Muppet fans, Rubies has a new line of sexy (but not slutty) Muppet costumes including Miss Piggy, Animal, Kermit the Frog, and Fozzy dresses. They also made Muppet costumes for boys and girls to complement their existing men's Muppet costumes.
What would Halloween be without cheap horror movies. A new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie is set to hit the big screen on October 5. Rubies already has a large collection of TCM costumes, and this year they decided to add a costume for little girls. While the 8 year-old girl looked really cute with her Chainsaw get-up on the fashion runway, I doubt many girls her age will want to watch (and be allowed to watch) a bloody, emotionally traumatizing R-rated horror flick. Fail.
In the last few years, Rubies has expanded their licensing focus beyond movie characters, into pop-culture music and TVs shows. They struck gold with Jersey Shore and Lady Gaga two years ago, Katy Perry last year, and they're attempting to repeat their success with three Rihanna costumes and two Freddy Mercury costumes this year as well as adding new Katy Perry styles.
Overall, I was impressed by the show, mostly because of the strength of Rubies subsidiary companies (Forum, Charades, and Morbid non licensed costumes), but I wasn't blown away by Rubies new blockbuster licenses. The marquee license is Batman, and while it's probably going to get huge numbers from the box office, Batman still wears the same outfit, so the costumes won't offer anything we haven't seen in the past. The top overall costume this year will likely be Angry Birds again. Despite being a second-year costume, PMG didn't produce nearly enough to meet the demand, leaving many Angry Birds fans empty handed last year. Breaking down by categories: the hot men's costume this year will probably be from the comedy The Dictator starring Sascha Baron Cohen. It's still undetermined which costume company will get licensing rights for this movie. I expect Katy Perry and Rihanna costumes from Rubies to be the hot women's costumes of 2012. With a new G.I. Joe movie coming out this year starring The Rock, I expect this Disguise costume line to be the hottest selling boys costume. While Sesame Street is nothing new, Cookie Monster and Elmo, both by Disguise, will likely be the best sellers again for girls.
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