Toys R Us catalog

[johnnystorm]

We recieved the ToysRUs catalog this week. Is it just me or is this thing really lame? I always recalled the Christmas Catalog as an exciting thing to happen.

I tried to explain it to my wife,but she's not a toy person, didn't get it. But it seems to me there is a certain sameness to every item, and everything has been marginalized, educationalized, and made pretty bland. All in an effort to make the products marketable to a majority of consumers, with little room for, well, fun.

Page after page of neon pink girls toys and movie tie-ins for boys. All the games seem uninspired. And about half of the book is video games.

I guess I'm just getting old, and probably remembering the "old days" with rose colored nostalgia glasses. But I can see why kids no longer get excited over toys.

[Meule]

In just a couple of months you'll change your mind

[HardyGirl]

I'm with ya man. If you think the catalog is bad, the store will really depress you.

[generic]

I guess I'm just getting old, and probably remembering the "old days" with rose colored nostalgia glasses.

I clearly remember looking through the Service Merchandise Christmas catalog and heading straight to the toy section with marker in hand - ready to circle every toy that I wanted for Christmas. Even then I remember getting to the toy section and thinking, "page 34: Junk, page 35: Junk, Page 36: Junk, page 37: Oh yeah! This is the stuff!" So I think there was always a lot of garbage in those catalogs. The main difference for me is that at the time, there were at least a few toys that I just HAD to have and now I only see stuff that mildly interests me. But even some of my favorite toys from that time (Star Wars) were movie tie-ins. I wish I had one of those old catalogs now! It would be cool to see what I considered "Junk" back then.

But I can see why kids no longer get excited over toys.

Well, toys have a lot to compete with these days. In the 60s and 70s, G.I. Joe was really exciting compared to the alternatives. By the 80s, you had Atari 2600 and cable TV eating into "Toy Time", but these days, you practically have virtual reality video games and the internet in addition to cable TV with hundreds of channels, DVD players, cell phones with a million different activities in the palm of your hand and a society where it's not safe to let your kids run around the neighborhood alone and 'explore' like when I was a kid. I think part of it may be the toys, but part of it is all of the other activities competing with toys.

[jwyblejr]

I'm sure it'll be different next year. Especially with the return of WGSH.

[wilbs518]

The TRU catalog has sucked for a while now.

[toys2cool]

I agree it really sucks

[70's-toy-fan]

I concur..TRU has not been the same as in the past.I think they are getting ready for a finacial problem soon..who knows in this world anymore!

[Earth 2 Chris]

It does seem blah this year. Not much in the way of true action figures, which is depressing. It seems like pre-school toys take up half the book. I guess older kids are angling more and more to video games and electronics. Sad.

Chris

[pmwasson]

My kids recently went through the TRU and Target toy catalogs and got all excited and circled stuff they wanted. They had to erase some earlier entries to circle new ones. One remote control car got circled and 5 stars next to it.

Reminded me of my childhood with the Sears Wishbook. So in my house, the new catalogs are pretty special.

[R.O.M.]

I agree that the internet and all of the modern conveniences have taken kids away from actually toys. It's always nice to see some little ones actually getting excited about action figures, though. It's honestly a pretty rare occurance whenever I'm in a store.

Getting the new Sears Wishbook every year was fun, even though most of the toys I had seen already somewhere. The most exciting for me was getting the newest catalog in a particular line of toys, like GI Joe, and seeing the new stuff for the first time. NOTHING beat the excitement of going to TrU, seeing the first wave of new Joes, buying one of the inevitable smaller initial vehicles, and then getting home (or in the backseat of the car, more likely!) and tearing into the package to find the catalog. Oh, those were the days!!