I was in Target yesterday and......

[generic]

...What's missing the most from toy isles today? It's innocence...

Yeah, I can see this looking at today's toys. However, I do think the little, non-articulated figures (that are made like smurfs) that they have for Marvel Superheroes, GI Joe and Star Wars are neat for kids. They look like they'd really stand up to play. If they made DC characters like that, I'd be pretty tempted to pick up a bunch of them...well, if the prices weren't bad.

[Werewolf]

When these kinds of conversations pop up, I think people tend to forget how popular video game consoles and arcades were in the 70s and 80s.

Video game systems have been around a long time. The Magnavox Odyssey was released in 72 and the Atari 2600 in 77. The 70s were also flooded with loads of Pong home systems. Video games were everywhere. Arcades and arcade games were huge. Video game characters were so popular with kids they got all kinds of licensed products. Toys, board games, clothes, trading cards, you name it. Heck, Pac-Man even had his own animated series and official breakfast cereal.

[Figuremod73]

and dont forget about saturday supercade.
Atari Force was a popular (and pretty good) comic to.
I think kids more and more, in this day in age, spend more on gaming console and apps for smartphones, ipad, etc. The ease of access is creating revenue at a touch of the button and it has become the new thing for kids to get in trouble for instead of the high phone bill,lol

[Werewolf]

When I was a kid those LCD and LED handheld games were also hugely popular. I loves my Pac-Man one.

[Teemu]

Retail Toy stores today just flat out suck! Its a matter of time before Toys Arn't Us goes out of business. You want good toys? you have to buy them online

nothing will ever beat the 80's retail stores,when going to the actual store was the only way to obtain your particluar Toy (unless you used those great Sears and JC penny Catalogs)

[Figuremod73]

even though we can pretty much buy anything online. i really hate doing it. i always have this fear that what i ordered isnt going to come in or the order was messed up somehow. theres nothing like going to a retail store and it being there. pay the cashier and leave. its so simple.
anyone remember those old coleco mini arcades. played donkey kong all the time on the playground,lol

[RickD]

I even remember Toys R us being a good toy store to go into. Now, it is garbage! Always looks like a train wreck and way to expensive. I remember as a kid I used to mow lawns for money and I would always go by this one house and their kids megos and secret wars toys would be all over the front lawn. They would build forts and all kinds of cool things!

[generic]

When these kinds of conversations pop up, I think people tend to forget how popular video game consoles and arcades were in the 70s and 80s.

Video game systems have been around a long time. The Magnavox Odyssey was released in 72 and the Atari 2600 in 77. The 70s were also flooded with loads of Pong home systems. Video games were everywhere. Arcades and arcade games were huge. Video game characters were so popular with kids they got all kinds of licensed products. Toys, board games, clothes, trading cards, you name it. Heck, Pac-Man even had his own animated series and official breakfast cereal.

I agree that the arcades and home video game systems were very popular, but no one I knew had a home video game system until the late 70s and even then, we'd get tired of playing Atari after a while and go back to our toys until someone got a new game. I think it wasn't until the 80s that the licensed products hit and I remember my friends and I all thought that those Pac-Man products (aside from the video game itself) were pretty lame.

It wasn't until Nintendo arrived that I knew any kids who spent all of their time playing video games and didn't like toys anymore. The kid who lived next door and the little brother of my friend from down the street were ALWAYS playing Nintendo. The NES was cool and I liked it a lot too, but by that time my friend and I were older and more interested music and hanging out away from home. But the time of the NES was when I started to notice video games really outweighing toys in popularity with the kids.

[Werewolf]

I all thought that those Pac-Man products (aside from the video game itself) were pretty lame.

I loved all the Pac-Man stuff. I even collected the trading cards.

It wasn't until Nintendo arrived that I knew any kids who spent all of their time playing video games and didn't like toys anymore.

The NES came out in 85. It was under the christmas tree with big 80s lines like Transformers, Super Powers, GI JOE, Masters of the Universe and Thundercats.

[DocDrako]

You know what we need? A store that sells nothing but action figure lines and related items like vehicles and playsets. Other toys are cool, but for me action figures are #1 in my collection. Despite the ability to find almost anything online, there's nothing like buying it at a store and taking it home. With the internet, you have to wait on shipping. It's "buy now, play later".

Call the store NBD (Nothing But Dudes*).



*when I was young, I called all of my action figures 'dudes', as in "Let's go play 'dudes'!"

[Figuremod73]

Yes, Video games were hugely popular with the Atari, Intellivision, and Colecovision but for the most part they were always score based so it didnt take really any long term dedication to play them (unless it was Adventure) The nintendo was the first system i saw where people were spending more time playing on it than the commodore 64 (and that was saying something back then) and games like Zelda, castlevania, and later final fantasy were starting to take up the afterschool time. When i went to friends houses after school it was no longer to sit and watch GI joe and Transformers (and sometimes play with the toys) but to play whatever game they had rented/bought.
Now games are becoming more and more realistic and it seems like the playing fields go on without limit. The last game I really got into on a new system was Conan on 360 and it seemed like i was playing it for months. ( I admit im not really good at the newer games) Some games now are hundreds of hours long and thats ALL a teen wants to do!

[ctc]

>Some games now are hundreds of hours long and thats ALL a teen wants to do!

Not once puberty hits....

>I think people tend to forget how popular video game consoles and arcades were in the 70s and 80s.

Yeah, definitely. 'Specially when you consider research a few years back showed the median age of a video gamer is now 35. (Hence the number of "Mature Audience" games that come out.) I think folks tend to overrate how much kids loved action figures back in the day as well. I can remember the other kids thinking I was weird 'cos I still collected them at age 10. Funny thing; the folks at work think I'm weird for collecting them now that I'm 40.... and not understanding why I don't play "Angry Birds."

Don C.

[Figuremod73]

Isnt Angry Birds basically Worms? Havent played that game, just going by what ive seen watching others casually...