Apparel & Merchandise

The Fast and the Furious franchise is a very popular franchise. This is proven over and over again. One way that they have proved this is by the apparel and merchandise available.

In 2002, when the first movie (The Fast and the Furious) came out on VHS a lot of other merchandise also came out with the release. For example, model kits of the main cars were made, like the 1970 Charger, and the Toyota Supra. There were also die cast cars that came out of mostly of all the cars in the movie. Another type of merchandise they had was replicas of some of the memorabilia in the movies warn by the characters. An example of this is they made a replica of Dominic Toretto's known cross necklace, in which I own one myself. In my opinion, they chose the cross to replicate, because that cross is important to the story line, and also because Toretto wears it throughout every movie. They also have a lot of apparel that has "The Fast and the Furious" written on it, in addition to a picture of a nice car of the film.

Another method that generated a lot of money is through the video game world. In 2006, they have created a game called "The fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift", it was published for the main gaming consoles at that time, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable. Followed in 2011, Gameloft made an application that was called "Fast Five the movie" and it was compatible with Android and Apple market.1 In 2013, Kabam made another application called "Fast and Furious 6 the game" and was compatible with Android and Apple market.2 As well, in 2013, Activision created another game based off of the sixth movie and this game is called "Fast & Furious: Showdown", but it was developed on many platforms, such as  the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, and the personal computer (PC). In their time all of these games made a big success because it is based on the franchise.

Lastly, all of the movies came out on VHS and has been re released on DVD. Also, each time a new movie comes out, it is released on so many different packs. For instance, there are some packs that are combo packs that include both the Blueray disc and the DVD disc. As well, there are some packs that include all the films in the franchise on separate discs, and some packs that come with limited edition items and special features. With my purchase of the Blueray and DVD combo pack of Fast Five, it included a "Fast Five" 4GB USB stick, which I frequently use. In addition, I own a few Fast and the Furious model cars, t-shirts, and movie posters.

Briefly, these are all different types of tactics that the makers of these films use to make more money and to make it more popular. Even though, these tactics are used for advertising and marketing schemes, I agree with these methods, because as a fan, it is always great receiving merchandise to display.

1)https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fast-five-movie-official-game/id422299509?mt=8#
2)https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fast-furious-6-the-game/id619375712
3)http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/SearchResults.aspx?path=ca77b9b4beca91fe414314b86bb581f8en20&query=Fast+%26+Furious+Showdown