Merchandise sales for TLJ Dow 56% from TFA...47% from R1

The biggest problem is that Rian decided to pick up immediately after the end of TFA, which seems like it's inevitable, but it's not (and sticking with a traditional 3 year story gap would have actually subverted expectations!).

This means that there is little possibility for new outfits and ships and designs because it's just continuing what we already saw in Force Awakens. In fact, it's so bad that one of the few new TLJ toys is literally from Force Awakens: the Rathar. It was created for and released with the TLJ line.

Hell, there are Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi toys being made for TLJ and released with its line. Vader with Probe Droid, and a set that has Jedi Luke, a Royal Guard, and I think the Emperor too. Oh yeah, and A New Hope -- Luke's land speeder has been re-created for the TLJ toy line.

GRANTED, they did a little bit of this with the TFA toy line too, so these may just be a continuation of that practice. But releasing a TFA toy with the TLJ line (the Rathar) is different.

The second problem is Rian's poor choices in other designs to approve. The Praetorian Guards were cool, Snoke's ship was neat but limited as a toy, and that's it. Okay, BB-9E is cute and there were also a bunch of animals, although the Porgs are the only ones being sold so far.

Other designs he OK'd are pretty bland. The bombers? VERY boring. The ships used by the police in Canto Bight? They look awful and awkward. The ski-speeders on Crait? They look awful. Kylo's TIE fighter? It is just a flattened TIE Interceptor and isn't nearly as good. Other transport designs were dull and just looked like chunks of metal, or were barely even shown in the first place.

The upgraded version of the Imperial walkers is far inferior to the original, just like Kylo's TIE. It's also not helpful that they literally just added pieces to the AT-AT's front legs, back, and head. It's not a "new but familiar" design like the new Star Destroyers designed for TFA (and I like the new destroyers) or the new Stormtrooper design (which is a perfect example of new but familiar).

It seems like the Porg was considered the Holy Grail for the toy line, and so that was apparently "good enough."

Disney abandoned the old fans, the new fans don't buy action figures, they rather play with their phones

The should release the imperial iron as a toy.

Sales are probably down because they're pumping out too many toys for kids/collectors to keep up with. It's like Samsung pushing out a new phone every month, many people would stop upgrading.