Must be able to sell merchandise related to the media, in particular the potential of toys. For example, the Pokemon anime series is very toyetic features hundreds of characters, and a major theme to promote the collection.

the term first appeared in the late 70 when studios try to think of more ways to return their investment expanding costs of summer blockbusters.

in modern times, some TV series designed specifically in mind, such as Super sentai or card rider tokusatsu series toy sales.