Most Absurd Things About The Toy Industry

beaker

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Yes, it's no secret I have very little respect for the modern toy industry, but let's examine the worst of the modern blunders.

1. $10-$12 for increasingly dinky, frail 3 3/4 figures. This trend started in 2009 with Avatar, which kicked off the tiny figures for $11 MSRP. Marvel of course has followed suit all too happily.
Remember the sturdy, bigger sized well crafted 1990's figures that were maybe $4 top? The Toy Biz era of the 90s beats anything going today

2. Releasing movie tie in figures with 10 variants of the main character and none of the bad guys (cough iron man 3/robocop 2014/spiderman/etc)

3. Keeping the price high all the way til two years later, when it's clear noone wants them, then they mark it down to a dollar clearance.

4. The fact gargantuan action figures cost only a few dollars more than the tiny figure versions, even tho you could literally make like 50 action figures out of the plastic used to make the bigger ones

5. Companies who muscle their way into hogging beloved franchise licenses(Mario, Nickelodeon, etc) but then only make a few characters, promise and hint on their facebook they'll come out with more, then quietly discontinue said line without so much as an official word

6. Oversaturation of lame toy lines. Skylanders, wrestling, etc. Why can't we have a Muppet figure line, or classic video game line, or heck even Gravity Falls figures? Way too much wrestling figures. And Pixar. Sorry

7. Dreamworks figures. Why do they even bothers?

Growing up in the 1980s, the imagination was endless with how many toylines there were. Many of which had no cartoon or anything. Just wholly original ideas. With the 90s, it was mostly movie and cartoon/comic tie-ins, but they were of quality and you generally got your money's worth.

I just can't even see how any serious toy collectors can be excited these days, other than more niche
limited edition stuff
 

Drtooth

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A few things.

Dreamworks is pretty much on and off with their toylines. Sometimes, they only have impossible to find third party things that are TRU exclusives (HATED how hard to find Monsters VS Aliens is). Turbo was pretty much the first time I saw a Dreamworks line outside of TRU, and it was cleared out fast when the movie flopped domestically (but once they did hit clearance, even when it was a buck off the price, they flew off the shelves). TRU pretty much put Croods on clearance months before the DVD hit... and TRU never clears things out in under a 2 year period. And those were tucked away with the preschool toys.

The one improvement I'm seeing is more TV based toy lines. I've seen movies, movies based on comics, comics... essentially if it was a cartoon series, it NEVER got a toy line. 'course, I'm pretty sure Jazzwares isn't going to do anything else for a while. The Nicktoons and Hanna Barbera lines didn't really take off. I hate that the second wave of Adventure Time figures only went to comic shops for like 16 bucks each. Especially that it had 2 of my favorites, Ice King and LSP. I kinda wish I waited on Mordecai and Rigby, though. They rereleased the same figures with better accessories.

But overall, the action figure market isn't near where it was back 10 years ago. Remember, that's when everyone thought 20 year olds would all fall into high paying tech jobs instead of ...not. The collector's figures I see are friggin expensive as crap! Like 30 bucks! I could get an imported Japanese large vynal figure for around that much.

I'll say there was also some improvement on the creative wacky toys for boys line up, but those lines never catch on. I really liked the Z.O.M.B.I.E.S. line. A cross between M.U.S.C.L.E., Garbage Pail Kids/Wacky Packs, and that lame Zombie apocalypse meme. Didn't get the attention it deserved. Then there's Funko and their amazing Pop line. I wish I had more money to collect them all. They even have an Arrested Development series coming out.
 

minor muppetz

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5. Companies who muscle their way into hogging beloved franchise licenses(Mario, Nickelodeon, etc) but then only make a few characters, promise and hint on their facebook they'll come out with more, then quietly discontinue said line without so much as an official word

Speaking of Mario, there seems to be quite a few Mario toy lines, from different companies. The majority of current toys seem to be from K'nex, but there's also a collection of figures and playsets (I think they're called "Micro-playsets", though there are also "delux" playsets) from Jakks, and there's a company, I think it's Golden something, which includes PVCs, sold separately and as multi-figure packs (and some of them seem to be hard to find on their own). I recently found that the first two series of that are currently available as blind-bagged releases (but all I had to do was feel the packaging to figure out who was in what bag). Is it just me or do those PVC figures get a series a year if not every few years (back in Christmas 2010 I got a ShyGuy from series 2, and I have just recently seen series 4 figures in stores... and it's hard to tell who's in which collection).

And it seems like the majority of series/lines have Mario and Luigi. Understandable, as they are the most popular characters, but it would make sense if there were a lot more toys of Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Spinies, Bob-Ombs, Chain Chomps, Thwomps, and other such characters that there's multiples of. Then again, is it common for people to buy multiples of the kinds of characters that there's duplicates of (are there any TMNT collectors here who bought multiple Foot Soldiers and Mousers? or Rudolph toy collectors who bought multiple generic elves? I think most fans who bought the Vinylmation Snowths bought two)?
 

beaker

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beaker

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@DrTooth:

Here's something. Have you seen the new Mcdonalds and Carls Jr(AKA Hardees) Marvel action figures for their kid's meals? My gosh...these look worse than Mexican bootleg dollar store figures. Such a far cry from the amazing quality and feel of late 90s/early 2000s kids meal fast food toys.
 

Drtooth

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I honestly can't believe the selection of toys McD's has for Spider-Man 2. Here is the first comeback of a Marvel based kid's meal that wasn't a crappy totebag at Subway (you know, because fat kids), and the toys are baffling. The cheap mask thing, I see coming. They love to put those in Superhero based promotions. But paper goods? A wind up toy spider? (ew, I might ad). Just small figures of Spidey and Electro? They could have done so much better. The Minion figures they had were fun. Why can't they manage to be creative and fun with their toys more often? They're turning into Wendy's. The Peabody and Sherman line had 2 pinball mazes. Only Wendy's does something that pathetic.

Seriously... when they had good toys and not educational crap, I ALWAYS got the crappy pinball machine.

But I did like the Skylanders promo, though. Too bad I couldn't get the snake holding a gun that shoots snakes out of it. That's the coolest thing I've seen in years.

After years of Bandai/Popco/Goldie re-releasing the same Mario vinyl figures for the last near decade, Im so excited that Jakks is unleasing "World of Nintendo"...something Ive been waiting a lifetime for. Essentially this year into next year we're FINALLY going to get countless Nintendo figures outside of the Mario world. F Zero Capt Falcon, Fox Mccloud, Samus Aran, etc. http://www.vooks.net/new-world-of-nintendo-figures-plushes-and-mario-kart-8-racing-tracks-incoming/
I'm glad we're getting a Wario. Too bad it's not Wario Ware Wario or any of the Wario Ware characters (that should be a product line in and of itself). Glad to see Link's getting a mainstream toy that's not an imported Gatchapon figure. Hope there's some good Donkey Kong stuff out of this. Gotta admit, I'm not huge into Link. it was DK and Mario all the way for me. Maybe Punch-Out. I hope the addition of Kid Icarus characters means an Eggplant Wizard. Now if they can get out an Eggplant Wizard and a King Hippo, I'd be VERY happy.

I'm just disappointed Jazzwares didn't resurrect the Mega Man line.
 

beaker

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I honestly can't believe the selection of toys McD's has for Spider-Man 2. Here is the first comeback of a Marvel based kid's meal that wasn't a crappy totebag at Subway (you know, because fat kids), and the toys are baffling. The cheap mask thing, I see coming. They love to put those in Superhero based promotions. But paper goods? A wind up toy spider? (ew, I might ad). Just small figures of Spidey and Electro? They could have done so much better. The Minion figures they had were fun. Why can't they manage to be creative and fun with their toys more often? They're turning into Wendy's. The Peabody and Sherman line had 2 pinball mazes. Only Wendy's does something that pathetic.

Seriously... when they had good toys and not educational crap, I ALWAYS got the crappy pinball machine.

But I did like the Skylanders promo, though. Too bad I couldn't get the snake holding a gun that shoots snakes out of it. That's the coolest thing I've seen in years.



I'm glad we're getting a Wario. Too bad it's not Wario Ware Wario or any of the Wario Ware characters (that should be a product line in and of itself). Glad to see Link's getting a mainstream toy that's not an imported Gatchapon figure. Hope there's some good Donkey Kong stuff out of this. Gotta admit, I'm not huge into Link. it was DK and Mario all the way for me. Maybe Punch-Out. I hope the addition of Kid Icarus characters means an Eggplant Wizard. Now if they can get out an Eggplant Wizard and a King Hippo, I'd be VERY happy.

I'm just disappointed Jazzwares didn't resurrect the Mega Man line.
Jazwares dropped the ball by trying to be the modern day Palisades. They tried gobbling up every classic property under the sun(like Nickelodeon) and it all imploded. I picked up the Nick figures for a $1.50 each on clearance. They definitely dropped the ball on the Sonic line by focusing everything on small fragile figures instead of actually making characters(other than Sonic) in the 5" scale.

I got some great Zelda figures in the early 2000's. It's my opinion that the greatest video game figures and toys came in the 1998-2002 period with Toy Biz, Resaurus and Joyride. I know Ken Lilly kind of dumped on Resaurus, but I love pretty much everything they put out. And to me Toy Biz Marvel figures are the best thing ever

Companies THINK that by making ultra detailed figures it makes up for them being cheap dinky 3 3/4" and $10-$12. It all started with the Avatar figures and while the scale works for GI Joe and Star Wars, it doesn't work for other lines.
I'm so sick too of seeing WWE wrestling figures and toys. WWE is so unwatchably pathetic, especially of the last 5-6 years in the "PG" era, I feel bad for kids who didnt live through the 1986-2002 golden era.

Now regarding fast food toys....wow. First restaurants in some big nanny move replaced kids meal toys with educational booklets, or got rid of em all together. But now some are bringing them back yet they are on the level of cheap toxic horrible mexican bootleg quality dollar store "toys". (99 cent/dollar stores had better quality generic toys in the 80s)

Bottom line, Mcdonalds and Burger King had wayyyyyyy better quality figure toys in the 90s and early 2000s, as did many fast food joints. Everything is so cheap, it's deplorable.

To me everything in life product wise is getting kind of crappier...I hate to say.
 

Drtooth

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The Sonic line unfortunately lends itself to being fragile. The character legs are too thin. They look perfect, but when they have those thin as heck limbs, they just can't hold up that well. That's why Fairly Oddparents doesn't make as good a toy line as it should. I got that Timmy Turner figure... the one time they don't make something rotocast, it has to be the character with the giant head.

Other than that, I think the kid's meal prizes are suffering because of the high cost of production. They had to make them much smaller as a result. There are some quite good ones, though... but there's only like a few times a year they really make something great. Maybe if they focused less on splitting up girls and boys toys and just get some more unisex licenses, they can produce less figures and make them of greater quality. When they do, the toys actually get better (like the Minions). When they don't either the boy's thing is better than the girl's one or the girl's one's better.

And Fingerboards are not a prize. Fingerboards should have fallen out of fashion a decade ago.
 
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