Gotta love young punks!

[domino]

Growing up in the 70's we were all used to color television and movies, yet we would still watch an old B&W monster movie or the Adventures of Superman without objection...seems we were much more open minded. My wife and I are friends with another couple whose children are perfect examples of everything wrong with kids mentalities today. They will not even TRY to watch a B&W movie. Think of all the incredible films they will never experience. The dad is also an avid model kit enthusiast but his son won't even look at one, citing that they're "too much work". They also have an aversion to doing any type of chores. There you have it. No ambition or willingness to work at something. No creativity or willingness to try new things. All they want is the latest gadget, instant gratification and they're unwilling to work for any of it.

This is so true with kids today and I just want to strangle half of them I come across. This sense of entitlement is out of control. This I why my wife and I are raising our kids differently. I don't want them to turn out like this. They are being taught respect, courtesy and how to behave. They have limited use of the phone and computers. They are encouraged to read and work on hobbies. The two that are in school are both A students at the moment and they enjoy going, and are upset if they have to miss a day. They have watched shows like I Love Lucy, The Munsters, and the old classic movies, and they enjoy them.

[Hedji]

Yeah, definitely more kids ought to do model kits. With the electronics replacing toys on kids' Christmas lists, we are developing a generation of consumers, not innovators.

Oh well, every generation does what we're doing now. I'm definitely glad to have grown up at the time that I did.

But we better be nice to them. They will be giving us sponge baths one day.

[Figuremod73]

Man, I sure wish I had spent more time doing "activities" as a kid. The thing is technology doesnt have to be a bad thing. At Radioshack and Hobby Lobby they sell different experiment kits that teach things like how electricity works. There are even kits out there that teaches how computers works. I would even like to get one those.

There was a time when learning BASIC was one of the normal things to learn how to do on a Commodore 64.

[mikeMc6]

This is so true with kids today and I just want to strangle half of them I come across. This sense of entitlement is out of control. This I why my wife and I are raising our kids differently. I don't want them to turn out like this. They are being taught respect, courtesy and how to behave. They have limited use of the phone and computers. They are encouraged to read and work on hobbies. The two that are in school are both A students at the moment and they enjoy going, and are upset if they have to miss a day. They have watched shows like I Love Lucy, The Munsters, and the old classic movies, and they enjoy them.

I hear ya on that. We have our kids enrolled in the public school chinese immersion program. We make them write thank you cards for christmas gifts. They have a solid upbringing. I will fully expect them to be the bosses and self actualizers over the sea of snot noses they will grow up with.

But I also like collecting megos because it is such a niche ignored by the haters, too.

[Hedji]

Good point, Mike. It's fun to like something on the fringe. If everyone liked Megos, the competition would ruin it.

[torgospizza]

I know folks will scream bloody murder at this... Hot Toys and the 1/6th format have priced itself out of casual collectors..

How anyone could scream bloody murder is beyond me, Sam--it's totally true. I've got two HT figures. I'd like more, but it's not going to happen unless it's something ultra-special, like a Schwarzenegger Conan. Even Sideshow's getting insane with their prices. Remember when $40 was a lot for a 1/6 figure? A lot of those older figures are going for almost 10x that price now (I'm thinking Sideshow's Legosi Dracula, f.ex.) and the new ones are around 5x that (I think the upcoming Batman's just under $200). Is it going to be five times the figure? Somehow I doubt that.

[Hector]

Who gives a crap what teens think...the day I do...is the day I jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.

[HardyGirl]

And that is why, it's up to us, friends...

We the Mego fans, need to pass the torch. Time and again, I've seen (even in my own school), parents and teachers throw up their hands in surrender to this digital age and say things like "Kids are different these days. They don't play w/ games and toys like we did. All they know how to do is use their cell phones and computers and spend all their time texting and on Facebook and playing video games and watching reality TV". Well, if that's the consensus, yeah, that's all they're ever gonna do. But it's been my experience that kids like the classic stuff when they're exposed to it, b/c it's different than what they're used to seeing. I'd bring in classics like Land Of The Giants and the 60s Batman movie, and the kids would eat it up. I'd pull out the View-Masters, and the kids would sit down, trading reels, and saying "Which one are you watching?", as if it were TV. I'd bring in my Megos or GIJoes to school, and get the kids acting out a storyline, and they'd take off. I brought my Megos commercials video to school, and I kept hearing things like, "Cool", and "I wish they still made those". And any child who has come into this house, has taken one look at my toyroom, and doesn't want to go home, b/c "we're not done playing yet." There's a song w/ the line, "You have to be taught..." Yep, they do. They need to be taught to work their minds, hands, hearts and imaginations, b/c these are skills that are sorely lacking in kids today. Collecting Megos and the classic toys is great, but it's not enough to be a collector if we want these lines to survive. Be a player too. Pick up some re-megos, or some Doc Mego repros, or maybe Scott's Didas and get down on the floor and play w/ your kids. Teach them that there's more to having fun than video games, and what it was like to be a kid in the heydey of Action figures. Take the toys outside and make forts for the POTAs w/ bushes and rocks and old cardboard boxes. And let the snotrags on the other sites say whatever they want to, b/c we know the truth. They wouldn't have Hot Toys and Star Wars and McFarlanes if there wasn't Mego first. The only toy company that had the run on lots of cool licenses: Superheroes (both DC and Marvel), Star Trek, POTA, celebrities. And maybe someone needs to remind that them that all these cool toys of the past is what's making the future possible.

[kingdom warrior]

You can't control other kids,but you can teach your own, I spend time showing mine, how to appreciate things from the past. My daughter is seven and can instantly recognize an Elvis and Beatles song on just one note. I played her the Adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, She loves Abbott and Costello
and I love Lucy. She plays board games and so on. I read to her the Frank Baum, Hans Christian Anderson books. I take her to museums and the most important, I teach her to respect people.

I don't rag on teens too much, because I can deal with most of them and they are easy to put in their places.....Yes there are a few animals out there who
pretty much are up ****s creek. I really always look at the parents and most of the time but not always, it's just they are totally clueless and selfish adults.

[samurainoir]

How anyone could scream bloody murder is beyond me, Sam--it's totally true.

You snipped the second part of that statement...

A 1/9th scale Hot Toys like figure that retails for just under $100 might be appealing to those that don't remember when candy bars were a quarter.

It's such a weird dichotomy around here sometimes. We won't blink when paying that much for vintage, but someone suggests pricing a new "Mego" in the $30-40 range and everyone gets vocal.

But twentysomethings and thirtysomethings fork over sixty bucks no problem for Square Enix and Play Arts Kai and similar lines of figures of similar scale to Mego.

So give them mini-Hot Toy for under $100 I say. If they are willing to pay for it, that only benefits the scale in the end to have overall more people invested in the format. Particularly when the customizers get involved.

[YoungOnce]

Appreciating old toys, movies, comic books, tv shows, etc is one thing and that is something that we have tried to get our own kids to appreciate. We have also tried to instill the importance or reading actual books, sitting together at dinner time and respecting your elders. But the manners and entitlement expectations of this generation is depressing. Honestly, we have had it so good for so long in this country, this generation doesn't know what it's like to do without.

Not long ago, young men and women had to go to war to defend this country. This generation cries if their parents ask them to do the laundry.

[ubermanx]

I have four daughters. One is 16 the other 19 and the other two are much younger.

I have noticed such a huge difference between today's kids and us as youngins.

On the phone I would call a friends house and if his mother answered I would say, "Hello Mrs Currier, its Martin from next door. Would Andrew be available?" All me daughters' friends call and if I answer I get "Ya, uhh, is Mikki there?". I have overheard calls that were all "Ya, sure, okay, right, ugh, yup, cool, cya". Almost like it would kill them to use a sentence.

The other thing I really notice is that no one that age is aware of the their surroundings when walking. Not texting or distracted but just walking they bump right into me on sidewalks if I don't get out of the way. Now I'm a pretty large fella and not easy to miss. Dropping the two younger kids at school I get run into at least twice a day.

Sence of entitlement is correct. My step son enrolled in College to be a heavy equipment mechanic. Two year course. About three months left in the program I asked him if he had an apprenticeship lined up yet. He had no idea what I was talking about. I had to show him online at the College website the apprenticeship component of being a mechanic and how that all works being tutored by a full mechanic for a few more years. Learning the ropes before getting a Class A license. He was blown away and super upset. "If I have to get paid less and learn under a real mechanic then why did I bother going to F-ing College?" And this is well over a year into his course.

Now he got a job working with his dad and uncle in sales. Within two years the uncle is retiring and the ownership has already said my step son will be groomed to take over that position. So in two years time he will have a set of already established clients and accounts, his father as a mentor, and about $100,000 base salary and commissions. After being in this company for two short years. He's got it made. Yesterday he went on a very angry rant about how it is bull crud that he's stuck at minimum wage for the next two years. My jaw hit the floor. No college degree or diploma (be dropped out with two weeks to go) and he's on track to make $100,000 a year and all he has to do is spend 2 years "in the trenches" and life sucks?

Sorry guys and gals, ranting a bit here and using my phone to do it so I'm not even sure it is an articulate rant.

- Marty

[torgospizza]

You snipped the second part of that statement...

Sorry about that--I was just addressing the 1/6 scale and have no problem with what you said about 1/9 w/ Hot Toys' level of detail. I love my Zica Buck and Tiger Man. They're the best 1/9 figures I've ever seen and definitely worth $40-50, no question.

[jwyblejr]

I'm guessing they never watched Robot Chicken? Or The Venture Brothers?

[Brazoo]

The kids of today lack respect, they're lazy, they take the struggles of the older generation for granted...these are things that are said about every single new generation of people through all of recorded history, guys.

I get where the frustration comes from - I go through the same feelings myself from time to time - but just keep in mind, the exact same things were said about your generation too.