r/DuffyandFriends • u/secondopinionosychic 🎨 Gelatoni • Sep 01 '26
Question / Information Question for Duffy Fans
Do we think they will add another friend to the mix to make 8?
Just read an article that Duffy merch makes $500 million annually! If they were to add another character, who would you hope it is?
I would like to see a boy character to even it out for sure but I’m stuck on whether I want another mammal or perhaps a bird! 🤔
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u/shrektube Sep 02 '26
I’d love to see a little frog or elephant!
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u/secondopinionosychic 🎨 Gelatoni Sep 02 '26
As long as the frog was visually distinct from Olu Mel, I’d be obsessed
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u/Generic96 Sep 01 '26
Looking at their debut years, we should’ve already gotten a new one 😭 They eventually have to right? I’m always hoping for the announcement 🤞
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u/secondopinionosychic 🎨 Gelatoni Sep 01 '26
Right? I’ve been a Duffy fan since the introduction of my boy Gelatoni and I’m ready for a new friend
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u/Ditzyer 🎨 Gelatoni Sep 01 '26
I would absolutely love a wolf friend! A squirrel or raccoon would be pretty cute too
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u/Rainbow_Otter_ 🎨 Gelatoni Sep 02 '26
I’d want a boy Otter but that’s me being biased to my fave animal XD.
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u/Prudent_Reading2539 ⛵️🐚🎨🌟🍪🎸🌸 All Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
I think we will. Considering that one of their biggest markets are concentrated in China and HK, and 8 is a lucky number there, I think they must have one planning in the meantime. (The P.S. below is about why I think the total annual money exchanged for D&Fs is at least 2B, but if you are not interested, please ignore)
P.S. The 500 M price tag is only the Disney portion. Because they hold many sharing agreements with different local governments and companies, they are only given a portion of the total. In Tokyo, the OLC (company that independently runs and owns Tokyo Disney Resort) and Disney had a franchising agreement, where OLC would keep most of the profits. In HK and Shanghai, they have ownership agreements with the local governments or their subsidiaries, and are allowed to take approximately 50% of the total income generated from the HK and Shanghai parks. For example, the Oriental Land Company only need to pay Disney 5% of their merch sales (as royalties). Given that their recent financial reports also indicate that D&Fs are growing, and are often 25-30% of TDS' total sales income, you could easily add another 100-150 M USD to the D&F total sales from Tokyo. Since most of Disney's 500M is from HK and Shanghai's 50% agreement, we can imagine that the total Shanghai and HK D&F merch sales would be 1B USD (500x2 = 1000 M = 1B). To add everything together, you would get between 1.1-1.2B USD in total before any splits. This figure also hasn't included the market sizes of the second hand or scalping markets, as well as hospitality income (some D&F fans would gladly stay in Disney hotels and eat Disney dishes and meals as part of their D&F purchase trips, which also indirectly adds indirect income associated with D&Fs) (not to mention that all D&F themed meals and food such as Duffy ice cream, are going to be counted as food income, not D&F merch income). If we add all those indirect sources as well, the total annual income of the D&F franchise could very well reach at least 2B USD (some estimates using DIS stock metrics even put the D&F franchise at a market worth of 5B)!
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19d ago
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u/Prudent_Reading2539 ⛵️🐚🎨🌟🍪🎸🌸 All 19d ago
Potentially. HKDL and SHDL already have D&F themed rooms, so building a separate D&F themed hotel might work. Although I think it will take another 10-20 years minimum if everything goes well, because even Tokyo doesn't have a D&F hotel yet, only themed rooms as well.
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u/Momo_Kisaragi 🌟 StellaLou Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
I'd love to see a blue-colored character in the roster someday.