I think the success of Superman, Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark made other venerable franchises look like a good gamble. Maybe better than some of the new franchises — I remember Kaybee Toys having a bin full of action figures from already-forgotten shows and movies.

The Shadow had a few things going as a property, despite the lack of a current series or movie. For kids, the character came back in various comic books. Also, the visual — equal parts Batman, Bond and Dick Tracy — was, as you observed, pretty impressive and all the more intriguing for being unexplained. A crimefighting hero who looked like a grim supervillain! With guns!

I wonder how many Shadow toys were purchased by parents and grandparents, who knew the Shadow either from personal memory or pop culture osmosis. The original radio show lasted into the 1950s, and the old merchandising and pulp novels (the latter numbered over 300) must have been pretty common for a while. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" referenced Shadow a couple of times, and elsewhere the Shadow was frequently invoked as a symbol of old-time radio. In the 60s-70s there were LPs and cassettes of the radio show, and I recall reading about fan clubs.

The inevitable franchise movie came in 1994 with Alec Baldwin. For all the liberties they took, they DID take the trouble to give Baldwin the iconic hawk nose when he was actually the Shadow.