As many of you know, I’m a long-suffering Tiana fan. When I say ‘suffering’ I mean to say that I suffer because Tiana has barely any merchandise. Finding anything with her on it is rare. Right now, the only stuff I can find is on the BoxLunch website. There’s a shirt, a figure and two bags you can buy. She also has two Funko Pops and a shirt on Tee-Turtle but that’s it.
This is the same issue I see with Finn. Finn has some merchandise that is aimed towards kids but if you’re an adult and want a Finn T-shirt, you are shit outta luck. Why? Like finding a shirt with just him on it seems impossible and whether people want to admit him, he’s one of the main leads. Kylo is not the male lead of Star Wars, Finn is. And people adore John Boyega. He gives people heart eyes so why not make merchandise with him on it?
And before people come in here to say, “Disney/LF will only make merchandise for popular characters” the Porgs have an abundance of merch and I haven’t met a single person who was clamoring for porg merchandise. You’re also talking about Disney that released two films this year that have reached the highest grossing movie list. There is no excuse to push aside two black characters and ignore them.
When I was at Disneyland Paris I kept a look out for Tiana, because she was high up on the list of characters I wanted to meet. The princesses who don’t show up anywhere else (Jasmine shows up in Agrabah, for example) you can meet at the Princess Pavilion, but I checked back there all the time and she was never there. It was all Snow White, Cinderella and Rapunzel. It’s so maddening how they downplay her.