#WheresRey – Hasbro, Target, Are We Really Going to Start Star Wars This Way?

~Jenna Busch / Legion of Leia

I spent this weekend shopping for an overseas trip, but as I do in any store, I always migrate over to the toy section. Especially since the new toys for Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out. There is too much empty space on my desk (some might argue that this is absolutely not true, but you can clearly see a few inches) and I must fill it with toys. Well, this weekend I hit Target and to my, sadly, lack of surprise, they had an exclusive set of large Star Wars figures from Hasbro, and once again, the main female character was missing. In the set (pictured above), we have Finn, Chewbacca, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, a First Order Stormtrooper and a First Order pilot. Know who’s missing? The protagonist of the film (at least it’s certainly looking that way), Rey.

Hasbro, what are you doing? What are you freaking doing? Did you not hear us when we asked why Gamora wasn’t part of the Guardians of the Galaxy team? When there was a national campaign to get her on shirts and lunch boxes? Remember #WheresGamora? Oh, and then again when you decided to leave Black Widow out of all the Avengers sets? When you replaced her in a toy based on her own scene? After everything Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said about including female characters and kept her promise with the casting, the animated series Star Wars Rebels and the books leading up to the films? Remember how Disney stopped gendering their Halloween costumes? Target may have stopped gendering their toy aisles, but they’re clearly not doing it with toys and this set is from you.

WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO TO MAKE YOU LISTEN? Do we need to boycott your stores? Stage national protests? Laugh in your face? You have a non-descript fighter pilot and not the main character. Hell, you included Ultron in the Avengers set instead of Black Widow, but I thought you may have learned. Clearly you didn’t. I’ll remember that when I decide to furnish my desk with toys. They’ll no longer be from you.

#WheresRey