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

[RickD]

Haha. I feel like I am in the toy department more than any other kids is half the time checking out all the new toys that are out. Another thing is that these action figures and toys are really expensive anymore. almost $8-10 per figure. crazy!

[MIB41]

For all of the obvious reasons having to do with my generation, it's hard to get too excited in the boys toy isle these days. Back in the early to mid 70's, the boy's isle contained much bigger scale toys. You had Adventure Team Joes in their boxes. And let's not forget the big accessories and adventure sets that went with them. Big Jims and their adventure sets were there. And then you had the superheroes, Swat, Emergency, and AHI monsters. You also had the Aurora model kits. And the volume of product was higher than what you see today. Toys are so much more expensive to make than what they cost back then. So a trip down today's isle is little more than a hiccup compared to yesteryear. And there isn't much of anything that wasn't in those isles that are not considered highly collectible toys today. You can't apply that rule to toys today or from ten to fifteen years ago. So much of what gets put out today is truly forgettable.

[timb]

I tend to agree with the premise of the original post. It might just mean I'm getting old, but I seriously doubt kids will look back at the toys they got in this generation like we do the ones in our childhood.

There was an awe, energy, level of creativity, and a naive beauty to them that is just not there today. Although the sculpts of today's toys far surpass that of previous generations, they are missing the sehnsucht of 70s and 80s toys.

But maybe I'm just getting old: )

[Figuremod73]

i actually sorta dislike the highly detailed design on the superhero figures released now. i think thats part of the reason i was drawned toward the retro heroes and eventually megos to begin with. the more i look at the toys of the seventies the more i wish i had the money to collect the vintage stuff. im much more interested in classic big jim, joes, etc than the newest versions of our favorite superheroes...

[RickD]

I was buying some vintage toys from a guy one time and I walked into his house and he had all the newer stuff displayed all over the walls and he was selling all this vintage stuff. For the life of me I didn't understand why. He said the newer stuff has much more detail and look better displayed. I am finding this trend quite common anymore. I am more than happy to take their vintage stuff off their hands for a lower price! ha

[tllgn]

i gew up in the 70s,so i tend to like the figures of those days,i also walked the toy department in the nearby target,it was interesting in the 90s,now it boring,and those prices-holy-moly 7.99 to 8.99 for a little guy like that,or 16.99 for a 7 inch spiderman over at fred meyer, no thanks,i would rather pay the 19.99 for a retro-figure any day.its just a shame most every store that sells figures ,dont carry them.oh well welcome to the future.

[megoat]

The number one problem I have with modern toys is that many of them are not TOYS. They are modern collectibles conceived with adult collectors in mind as part of an overall marketing strategy. They are designed to be put on a shelf or left in their packaging. Because of this, most lack any heart or soul or unique character. This is especially apparent in regards to modern action figures. Somehow when you start adding tons of detail and a gazzilion points of articulation and other such "improvements" you start to lose the "toyness" of the toy and it starts to become a "collectible". They are sorta dead conceptually from the start. And honestly, I couldn't give a fart about items that are made and marketed as collectibles.

As some have already alluded to, the idea that you are more likely to see grown men perusing the toy aisle rather than the mob of kids of yesteryear, is a good indicator of what is wrong with the toys of today.

Apart from obvious nostalgia reasons, I'm attracted to vintage toys because of their goofy innocence and charm. By and large they were not designed to appeal to adult male fan boys. For me, they perfectly represent what it is (or was) to be a kid.

I'm not saying all modern toy lines suffer in this way---occasionally I see a line that still seems to have that spark of childhood wonder. But let's face it: the Golden Era of kids toys has long passed.

[palitoy]

The thing that always gets me is how sterile it all looks, toy stores used to be packed with stuff crammed on the shelves, now it's all a plan-o-gram crap from Arkansas.

[Figuremod73]

i was wondering if anyone eles's toy r us seems to have less in it now. everything seems spread out more now with less shelves and lower to the ground. its nothing like the way the store was back in the eighties.

[Afaninfull]

I honestly don't understand Toys R Us. Being a kid in the 1970's, it was the norm to walk into any toy store and find product on the shelf. I still can see hundreds of Megos hanging on the pegs not to mention the Joes, SMDM and ultimately, Star Wars stuff. It just depresses me to go into a Toys R Us and see the same handful of peg warmers. I keep reading where the Babies R Us is the part of the company that drives sales. I take my daughter there but I wonder if it has the same magic...I really don't think it does.

[generic]

It's been said on here before, but I think that kids today have a lot more to compete with toys like cable TV with hundreds of channels, DVD/Blue Ray players, smart phones, home computers and video games.

When I was a kid, for a long time I didn't have cable or a VCR and there weren't any video game systems or home computers until I was older. When we did get our first VCR, it was a BETA and I only had one tape (I think we mostly got the thing to record a TV show that I was on as a kid.) When we got cable, there weren't anywhere near as many channels as they have today and there often wasn't anything cool on TV. As much as I loved (and still love) the Atari 2600, you can only play Combat for so long by yourself. Our first computer didn't do much compared to what you can do today. So as a kid who absolutely hated sports, my toys were the absolute coolest thing in the universe to me.

It's just not the same universe today. People who make toys have to gear them to the people who still love them...which seems to be adult collectors. I know that kids still play with toys, but it just doesn't have the same meaning to kids as a whole as it did in the 60s, 70s and 80s (which I see as the golden years for the toy industry).

[spacecaps]

Biggest difference is that new toys are sooo fragile. I have a 5 year old and the new stuff that I buy him can break almost as soon as he starts to play with it. Transformer plastic is frail, Tron toys split in half, and Gi Joes hands detach as easily has their backpacks. Meanwhile the stuff he gets the most fun and use out of are my toys that he plays with. He has an entire line of Maxx Steele Robo Force figures that are his favorite, a box of Kenner Star Wars, a box of Super Powers and Secret Wars, and a box of Heman and none of them are broken. Last week we watched the Wizard of Oz for the first time and he loved it. The next days he was on the living room floor playing with my Mego WOZ figures for at least two hours and they're still all in one piece! But the lack of quality in the new stuff is killer especially for the price...Everyone complains about the cheapness of CTVT plastic but to me its not just on them, that seems to be the norm today.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Biggest difference is that new toys are sooo fragile. I have a 5 year old and the new stuff that I buy him can break almost as soon as he starts to play with it.

It is amazing how fragile some stuff is these days. Though I do, again, have to give props to the Imaginext stuff. Those have been battled around quite a bit and seem to hold up OK.

[RickD]

Everytime I think of toys from the 70s-80s that were fragile I go back to the Mego Micronauts! Those hands and feet on those figures seemed to always break! Just the most off the wall line of toys in my opinion, but they are very cool! I would love another toy line to come out that is completely off the wall and creative! I would actually consider buying them....

[MIB41]

The toy industry is so entirely different today from what it was in the 60's and 70's. Getting a license was so easy back then. And mixing and matching brand names like DC and Marvel were a common place sight back in the day. Now there is a thick, dark line drawn in the sand saying "back off". All of these companies compete for top dollar. And every product is scrutinized for how much profit they can bleed out of the customer. The collector market, once priced and catered to separately, is now integrated into main stream toys. Everyone is paying big money for tiny pieces of plastic. What's missing the most from toy isles today? It's innocence. The kid has been left behind in favor of Wall Street and/or personal greed.