Tag Archives: merchandise

September 8, 2026 · 16:15

Oink, oink school.

Yes, it is about a school with a winged boar, also known as Hogwarts. I am rewatching (yet again) the 8 movies. Not sure what HBO is bringing us and it will be a while before we get that on Blu-ray/4K, but there it is. And as I was considering a few options to add to the merchandise I got to thinking. The idea of something long term could be used in conjunction with other settings.

So when I think calendar, I still think of the Lotus Organizer, I had to on Windows 3.1, since then we have had Windows95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium, Windows 7, Windows Vista and at least 2 more and nothing ever beat Lotus Organizer, worse for the matter, nothing ever came close.

So whilst BI people look at outlook, they kinda missed the mark. At that same time Google has a more comfortable calendar, more intuitive and then it started to hit me. What if the Lotus Organizer was remastered/relaunched/reset into a new Organizer, but one with a lot of added choices. Set to Hogwarts, 1 of 4 houses, a separate setting (often personal) and it comes with options, with options to have ‘Hogwarts events’ added to your calendar Hogwarts and house specific settings. It is after all meant for the Wizarding world savvy kids, but one that is also meant for adults.

There is an additional upscaling issue for Miral, when you are in a place, or planning to be somewhere, you can mark its in your calendar and the calendar can (if you desire) get added events tagged there and not just for the UAE, when you are in any place (New York, London, Paris, Munich) those are but few and as these additions are made, your Mon-Sun calendar will look a lot less empty. There is more, the anniversary and planner settings could also be filled with Hogwarts events and settings. But the idea to create an organizer that is not set to the needs of Google, Microsoft, IBM and a few other sides might beneficial to Miral and to the UAE. Still, that was not my first priority. My first priority was to redesign a Hogwarts ‘friendly’ calendar. Like to old school calendar that we all had (an optionally loved). The setting is ready as Hogwarts is starting year 1 (yet again) and as I read they are starting filming year 2. As Miral isn’t opening Hogwarts Abu Dhabi until 2029, their departments have plenty of time to create a ‘better’ calendar. This calendar should interact with all the calendars you could have. Google, Microsoft and whatever else is out there. Giving you the option to make the interactions bi directional when they are linked, so that both are correctly updated. And as it gives the school going population a nice addition, this calendar should be on Computer (Mac/PC), tablet and mobile. It also gives Miral the setting to get spread into the Larger Huawei population giving traction and spreading the love (I meant the traction to a much larger population) so whilst the BI people are dead set on proclaiming they do not need Huawei, or Chinese goods. But it is represented by over 3,000,000,000 users over 170 countries. As such there is a need to exploit this situation in the best (and most customer friendly) way around. These gaps are showing up and as I see it (and as Lotus Organizer) was such a good product, there is a point of entry to the consumers at large and there are hundreds of millions of Harry Potter enthusiasts/fans a perfect match for Miral and they have time to get everything ready. This is but the top of the marker. Hogwarts is an 7 year (season) enterprise and it is important that this is done right and my shot for the hoops (without a second dribble) is to reinvent a good idea to a great idea, one that aligns with the internet of things and see what the innovations of Huawei could bring Miral a consumer base of billions. And even if this setting doesn’t work out, it will provide a customer interest spanning 170 countries and as I see it, Huawei would also need that traction. A match made in the boardrooms everywhere.
But this is only top of mind thinking. So I wish Miral all the luck in creating the upcoming merchandise.

There is more
But this is not the only idea, the next one is for Saudi Arabia as they are now the owned of Electronic Arts. EA created in 1988 Battle Chess, it was a cool and decent Chess computer. Wouldn’t it be great if the was rereleased with an additional skin? A wizards chess skin should do that trick, as such the original game might need some tweaking in the graphics department so that it might fit tablets and laptops. There could be some additional tweaks could be made, so that there is an option to play with another person through an internet and or email link. Some people are driven to chess, but perhaps one move per cycle and that cycle could be set to hours, up to a day with a option to freeze the progression (for weekend and other settings) so as we consider that these are merely two options that are set to a larger option for Miral. Optionally they could make a deal with Saudi Arabia to be an exclusive dealer for the Hogwarts theme parks.

So, in a day I found two additional merchant dish options and one has several additional options coming their way, especially if they could set the larger stage with Huawei. So whilst everyone is jumping at the setting of ‘Canada braces for prolonged trade war as counter-tariffs on US take effect’ I took the time to find more avenues of revenue and I decided to find other venues that most aren’ considering. Aren’t I clever?

Have a great day and consider you only need one wand to use the Cruciatus curse on your enemy.

Mirror, mirror

So, here I was thinking of a few historically documented events (they are called movies now), so in 1937 a man named Walt gave us the recollections of a girl who used to live with several individuals, namely Warwick David, Peter Dinklage, Kenny Baker, Mike Edmonds, Malcolm Dixon, George Claydon and David Rappaport. They all worked in the mining industry. But then I saw this so called ‘evil person’ with a magic mirror and then I saw it, that bitch was a Technomage. She was using a magic mirror (aka raspberry pie fitted two way mirror) to set the stage. What an evil wench. Well, two can play that game and as the idea took hold of me, I starting to consider.

So what if a new place like Warner Brothers Abu Dhabi had this gimmick, a mirror that is also a communicator. It links to your mobile and allows two way communication with whomever you are talking to. The idea is to apply a filter (through the app) that gives it that magical shine. And taking the elements of Hogwarts, there are 4 options. Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Gryffindor, the all have the same filters except two, these are house driven. A smoky filter (Yellow, Blue, Green and Red) and now, as we are now 89 years later, we have basically mastered miniaturization and we can make it a lot smaller. I would argue that each house has two options, the mirror you can set on your desk and a smaller one that you can fit in a bag, and when you answer the call, the mobile sends it to the mirror. I would argue that you could have 4 buttons on the mirror so you can call your 4 best friends, optionally these buttons are on the frame, so that the buttons can be a little bigger and the 5th on the mirror initializes the call. Wouldn’t that gimmick (original ‘creator’ the evil bitch from Walt’s company) fit nicely in the arsenal of merchandise that could be created and there are a few months before the new TV series start and I reckoned that the Abu Dhabi park opens up either in that same time, but the article tells us that this part of WB will open I 2029, as such Miral (the operator in Abu Dhabi) has time to look at the the options to create this merchandise for real and create alternatives. Or, at least investigate whether this idea could be made real. And from there they could offer it to the Wizarding World for real. A small idea to hand to Miral is that the United States is almost out of cash, so handing them credit might not be the best idea.

Well that is it for me and this idea came out of the yellow (I’m a Hufflepuffer). In other news Blooloop confirmed two days ago “Warner Bros. has confirmed that the Harry Potter area in its Abu Dhabi theme park will be the only one in the world to feature recreations of the iconic Hogwarts Castle and Diagon Alley locations, as well as a Forbidden Forest.

We got last week (1st September) when Warner Bros. released a teaser video for the expansion at its annual ‘Back to Hogwarts’ event.” The video can be seen (at https://blooloop.com/news/harry-potter-abu-dhabi-lands) so at present you know as much as I do, apart from the innovative ideas that are forming in my mind to upgrade the mirror setting. Oh, as we are also given (by Blooloop)“Currently, the only theme park home to a recreation of Diagon Alley is Universal Studios Florida. A scale model of Hogwarts is found in the neighbouring Islands of Adventure, and although it is connected to Universal Studios Florida by a replica of the Hogwarts Express train, it is a completely separate park.”

So that’s it for today and I need to think of another filter to make the mirror ‘more’ magical and why stop at 2? The idea to insert the house crest in your communication is also an idea and there is more. The idea to link the apps that you have to the mirror when you are not communicating, as such whatever app is on your mobile (like accio dobby) or whatever the app world has to offer now, just thinking out of the box.

Have a great day today.

One more nugget

It started this morning. My mind was all over the place, it is the last day of the year, so it is allowed to wander (I am such an enabling person) and whilst it was wandering, it started to shape an idea. It is about making merchandise more functional. Now the first idea was for Bethesda, but they are Microsoft now, so they lose out.

It was their Bobblehead trophy display that got me thinking. You see, gamers love their merchandise and some is neat. Yet most of it, nearly all of it has no real function. Now, this is fine. Yet what happens when the bow of Aloy does get function. It has hidden spaces for memory cards, it optionally even has a USB dive. The outer part can be exchanged so that you could always get a bigger drive. It could also hold a power bank, and the same could be the case for the spear. Now the fan has a functional device and there is no one who needs storage and a power bank more than a gamer?

The combinations are endless. And it does not matter where you play. The HALO helmet, the spear from Aloy, the axe from Kratos, all devices that are cherished and will be cherished a lot more when it comes with something functional. I was happy when I got my pip boy with Fallout 4 and it was a great start, but consider some of the other games. Minecraft, Pokemon, Mario Kart and the list goes on and it is not merely me. Talk to any given fam and he (or she) will come with the line “Do you know what would be cool?” And some of them will be truly cool. And it is not limited to simple devices. Some limited items no longer function, but that is not a given. The chainsaw I had with the gamecube edition of Resident Evil. What if there was a power bank with Bluetooth that could connect and make it work on a remaster or a new console? The device is generic, but could be more. To see this, in one time I had a N7 vault for my Xbox360. Now, this doesn’t hold up nowadays, the Xbox dimensions changed, but what if the vault was empty but connected? The same for the Master Sergeant helmet. What if they have additional options. The fans will go nuts and they will be happy for a very long time. Now I gave a few shallow examples and they are not the ‘real’ deal, but they could lead to the real deal. In a previous article I mentioned two items that when inserted into a ‘real’ wizarding wand could become a controller. The two elements are generic, so they can be moved from ‘toy’ to limited collectors item. Some stuff is playful, but from the playful to the shear appealing items for many gamers is sea of choices. And the merchandise makers have been about the short term appeal and left it there, but the stage could be a lot larger. The connected items could become a lot more. Who has not seen the Diamond Minecraft sword in toy and game stores? So what happens when we connect one element to it and suddenly your diamond sword becomes +2 stronger and lasts 20% longer? The location devices could be used. A larger stage for more use and making the game enticing, the gamer happy and all matters of options in-between. The bow of Aloy was merely the key to open a much larger door, the merchandise door has been largely ignored on many levels and why? Even now, today as I saw some of these items in shops. I see the larger stage ignored, the missed stage of interaction. Now, I will be the first one to admit that this is not always possible, but what about the Mario Kart that is also a night light? Basically a battery, lights and wires were missing, three parts and suddenly people pay $10-$20 more and some eagerly so. The larger part is not that people pay that amount extra, it comes with the stage that thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of gamers will get it as well because it was cool and the last three games sold well over 120 million items, so how many would want a kart that is a USB charged night light, optionally more? A whole niche with gaming connections spanning EVERY console out there and nothing to connect it at present, or at least massively too little of it. I remember my first figurine. A ninja, it held a sword which doubled as a letter opener (and that thing was bloody sharp) now consider the Assassins Creed figurines, or the Witcher or bloodborne figurines?

The Ninja was 1980 something, now we get the person who wants bloodborne and if that knife is also a letter opener, so much the better. And the nice part is not that it is everywhere. It is the figurine and optionally the collector can buy the knife as well. We need not have it everywhere, but some will want it. The market is flexible and no one is looking into this direction, or perhaps they are rejecting it. So what about the Sonic batarang? I was playing Arkham again last night. Why not have that batarang. As an actual bluetooth device, or even have the bluetooth as an optional expansion, we can look in so many directions and too many aren’t doing that. Now, lets be clear, these are not all great ideas, but they open a train of thought and that thought is ‘What else could we have?’ I had return to Arkham on day one and it came with a batarang, it looked nice, but was a bit of a let down. But it could have been so much more. So why wasn’t it? Some f the game developers have created the coolest games and the coolest items in game and they racked hundreds of millions of fans. So these are already in your corner, why not see what more you can do to make their gaming experience so much cooler? It was not that big a leap and they aren’t making it, why not? What stopped them? And another matter, not all items can contribute in the game, but like the bow with the storage and power bank, its use goes a lot wider than the game and it could contribute for a long time, optionally for years to come. It is the kind of marketing a maker hopes for and almost never gets. I wonder why.

Tag Archives: merchandise

Oink, oink school.

Mirror, mirror

One more nugget

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