Do kids of today even play with action figures anymore?

[acrovader]

Occasionally I like to stroll down the toy aisle at Target or visit TRU. Apart from the new action figures being kinda crappy- in a 1990's type of way, do kids actually like this stuff? I think Lego is popular as ever with kids. But it seems much of the stuff bought at retailers these days are by adult collectors (primarily the Star Wars stuff). I guess video games are a bigger thing with kids these days.. Maybe?

[Earth 2 Chris]

Kids still play with them. I think they don't play with them as long as they used to...in other words, kids switch exclusively to video games and other electronics earlier, as a rule.

But, with huge lines like Imaginext and the Playskool Marvel/Star Wars/Transformers lines, kids get into action figures a bit earlier, too.

Chris

[PNGwynne]

Oh, how I love Imaginext.

[kerowack]

Kids are done with action figures by six these days...at the school I worked at, only wwe action figures seemed to hold on for another year. Video games are king.

[megomania]

My son is three and has played with action figures for over a year. He loves going to Target, Fred Meyer, and TRU to look at them. He loves Legos, but action figures are higher priority. I don't see him losing interest any time soon. And kids don't "exclusively switch" to video games unless their parents let them. In my opinion. -Chris

[rche]

mine sure love to play with figures of all sizes and scales.

[Wise4671]

My son is 14 now he does love his video games but every now and then he still plays with his Legos as well as his figures. My daughter is 10 and she also enjoys her ipod and laptop but she plays with her Lego friends her littlest pet shops and her baby dolls although it puzzles me she does not like barbies she would rather play with my megos :-)

[Wise4671]

Oh I forgot to mention I think they would both give up a week of games to go play in Dwayne's toy room :-)

[cjefferys]

I think it depends on the kid. My son has never shown any interest in action figures at all, I tried to steer him towards them at a young age, with the Imaginext and other "kiddie" action figures, but he just doesn't care. He's an absolute Lego fiend, but he completely ignores the Lego figures, he's more interested in the Lego motors, pneumatic pumps, etc. Huge difference from me when I was his age, I was addicted to action figures, but couldn't care less about Legos, Hot Wheels, etc.

[Starroid Raiders Dagon]

I think that some kids need to learn how to pretend. My niece had a slew of Barbie dolls and all she did was change their clothes, so we would sit down and set up a stage and do runway shows and have other dolls be the judges, and we would make funny voices and talk about the designs like Project Runway. I dont think everyone is born with the desire to play make believe, sometimes it just takes a little coaching.

[Werewolf]

Ninja Turtles is still a huge seller with kids.

[jwyblejr]

So are Power Rangers. At least with my 11 year old nephew they are.

[samurainoir]

I know very few who do... they ALL seem obsessed with Minecraft and Lego though.

[Gorn Captain]

It has died out here, you hardly find any action figures in toy stores anymore.
On a rare occasion, they'll have a handful when a new movie comes out (like Spiderman 2), but not much.
Kids go from stuff like Lego directly to Ipods, Ipads and games on phones.

If you want action figures, you have to go to a specialty store where a bunch of 40 year olds hang out. No self-respecting kid would go there...

[EmergencyIan]

This is an interesting thread. Since I don't have kids and don't currently know any kids, I wasn't sure if action figures weren't, now, just an adult collectable. It's good to know that some kids do still play with toys and not just with tablets and PlayStations.

Of course, I have seen some of those action figures that are targeted toward very young children. To me, they are something a kin to the Fisher Price Little People we had as small children.

- Ian