Earlier this year Morbid Enterprises revealed one of the coolest Halloween props I’ve seen in a long time. They showed everyone a sneak peak of the Animated Arkham Joker at the Halloween and Party Expo at their booth. Since then I’ve been counting down the days until I could get one to put in my man cave year round.
Here’s the Joker in action.
I started looking at Spirit Halloween and Halloween Express’ websites in the late spring to see if they had added it yet. I checked again in June and July and still found nothing. August came and went and both retailers had added all of their new items for 2017 but still no Joker. I reached out to Morbid earlier this week and learned the awful truth. The prop wasn’t going to be released this year.
I couldn’t believe it. With the popularity of Batman, Harley Quinn and Joker I figured the animatronic would be a slam dunk home run for Morbid. However, according to Morbid they weren’t going to produce the animated prop due to lack of interest at the retail level.
Generally when you see props that require a license to produce like the Joker, it tends to cost more. Since Joker is in the Batman Comics he is a DC Comics character. Those characters belong to Warner Brothers. For Morbid to produce the Joker prop they have to pay for a license to produce a product with the Joker’s likeness.
When Spirit Halloween came out with the Jack Skellington prop earlier this year it was announced with a $249 price point, which is higher than most props. Jack Skellington probably costs about the same as another large prop that sells for $199 but since they have to pay for the license and likely a royalty as well to Disney, who owns The Nightmare Before Christmas brand, the cost has to go up. Had Morbid produced the Arkham Joker prop he would’ve likely retailed for $249 or higher just so they could have the same profit margins as they do with other props.
The rep from Morbid did say that it wouldn’t be available in 2017 but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be available in 2018 or 2019. If enough people demand the product and the retailers are aware of the demand it’s probable we could get the product on store shelves next year. So get out there and let your voices be heard!
