I just don't understand what it is about a particular subset of 80s kids like grew up mid to late 80's because my dad is early 80's and he not like that but he watched more live action that just can't let go of shit and always want their stuff to go on forever and obsessive over these toy shows, there's no other genration really like that even the ''90's kid'' thing fizzled out but you still got these 80's guys buy like fucking Silverhawks figures and shit. I guess it's because the other gen stuff wasn't merch driven as much but I don't know like a 2000's kid doesn't go on and on about like Xiaolin Showdown like these 80's fuckers do with like rant videos on Youtube of He Man or whatever. Which I love as a kid if our shows got more toys but still feel like even if they did people wouldn't be like this, Pokemon card guys are the Millennial version but at least it's to like one thing and they don't care about shows/movies. What's Gen xers deal?
>Does a rant TWICE about a children's toys that re-released with colors a child would like and doesn't have details or features a CHILD wouldn't think about.
because everything about the 80’s was awesome.
>>11920743Reagan happened. They were the first generation of kids to be aggressively targeted by advertisers. But unlike later generations they still have the attention span to retain interests for longer than a month.
They're the reason we're stuck with the same shit for so damn long when it should be resting.
>>11920743>it's a Michael episodeIt's just a hobby no different than baseball card, stamp, and coin collecting. Don't read more into it than what's there. >>11920744His opinion is absolute. You either agree with him or you're wrong. And he assumes tooo much about what he thinks kids beyond himself would like.
Assholes who ruined toys for kids.
>>11920748I know /toy/ hates Michael and has history with him, but I actually appreciate his no-nonsense approach. It's refreshing.
>>11920757Hes an autistic sperg that never thinks he wrong
>>11920743Kenner Star Wars changed the game. Like >>11920746 said, suddenly a new market for cross media campaigns was born. Just look at all the cool cartoon and movie ties-in that came from late 70's to mid 90's. Micronauts, Gi-Joe, He-Man,Transformers,Thundercat's, MASK, Sectaurs, Centurions, Inhumanoids, Ghostbusters, Turtles, Terminator, Aliens, Robocop. The list goes on.Then somewhere around the mid 90's it died out. I think Street Sharks was the last big success. By the late 90's the market was replaced with Slice of Life cartoons like Simpsons, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, South Park, Arthur, Recess, Spongebob, etc. and the action genre which was so prolific for selling "boys toys" all but died out. My kids have grown up on We Bare Bears, Gumball, Adventure Time and Teen Titan's go. None of them are, or were interested in getting toys for any of these. It's a completely different landscape now.
They can't accept their shit just might not be popular and people outside of fandom don't care, new Star Wars was always gonna fail even if it was good younger people just don't give a fuck outside some niches. I never give a fuck about it and likely never will like things fizzle out no matter how popular unless it's truly timeless like Batman.
>>11920770He assumes that anyone who disagrees with him on something is challenging his "logical reasoning," and you're an enemy for life after that point. You can agree with him on stuff 99% of the time, but if you disagree just once, he hates you and puts you on his shitlist.The other Michael (Michael Mercy) is largely the same way, but just a lot more polite and kind about shit-listing people who disagree with him.
>>11920774Power Rangers started in the early 90s and stayed strong into the early 00s. It even got copycat shows (VR Troopers and Big Bad Beetleborgs), and got a successful movie. The Bruce Timm DC stuff is still holding strong in value and demand too. Plus Pokemon.
>>119207432000's kids are only now starting to get toys because they were too young to be the target audience until recently, but time is moving forward, 90's and 2000's toys are getting made where there was nothing only a few years ago, neca and super 7 made tmnt 2003 and 2012, import companies are making ben 10, etc. Collector toys are pretty squarely aimed at mid 30-40 year olds and if you're not in that range there isn't much, you see the same shit happening in japan where 70s-80s tokusatsu is falling out of favor for the revival stuff from the 90s-2000's; the guys who really liked the former are just aging out and the younger gen is aging in.
>>11920796>Japanes Live Action and Anime took overYeah. That about sums it up. I think the US market got saturated and they began importing more from Japan (I know they already did it with micromen, shogun warriors, robotech, voltron, but late 90's early 2000s is when it really blew up, especially with naruto.
>>11920816Dragonball in particular was huge. Gundam Wing was the first Gundam anime to really do good in the US too, with Cartoon Network helping a lot by playing it 5 days a week.
>>11920855This is why the toy market is mostly dominated by 80's US properties and 90's/00's JP ones. US tried to compete with Ben 10 and Avatar: Last Air Bender, but by that point so many Shonen shows were being imported it was almost inpossible to compete.Invincible seems to have a big collector following, so there are still new American IPs here and there that aren't Marvel and DC.
>>11920863The biggest problem in the current toy industry is total creative bankruptcy. It's the same plague that has caused so many tv shows, movies, and video games to be remakes. People genuinely don't know how to be creative anymore. All they know how to do is take an existing property, and re-tool it for "today's modern audience." So the toy aisles are dominated by 80s and 90s brands not because of Gen-X, but because they just can't think of shit that's new.
>>11920872>and re-tool it for "today's modern audience."Not to mention "today's modern audience" don't even like it. It's mostly being made to appeal to investors, who will shovel money into projects to get things THEY like made even though consumers hate them.
>>11920872There is also the reality that companies are risk adverse, they don't want to make new IPs because there is a huge chance they crash and burn and waste tons of money. Its not like the 80s and 90s anymore where there was kids tv time slots every day and a huge block on saturday, and huge retail shelf space where even a franchise that 'failed' could make OK money. That shit is all gone so they want to play it safe most of the time, spider-man always sells after all
It was the generation JUUUUUUST in that area where before Cartoon Network and cable TV had made it so we had alternate things to watch. Your TV stations on UHF were WHERE you went to after school, and you had to be there on time (and you WERE) to watch cartoons. Then you'd see them again when the series rewound back again to the first episode. Not only that, advertisements were rampant, toy technology was getting cool (the Transformers/Diaclone/Microchange stuff was so new and amazing). YOUR toys as an 80s kid looked NOTHING like your dad's toys. They were now legitimized. Star Wars figures were ejaculated everywhere cheaply and in abundance. You waited in anticipation for the next commercial, hoping to see new stuff. Licensing went bonkers and soon EVERY movie seemed to get a line. Between being inexpensive, and toy technology, in a TIMELY fashion being able to let you see a cartoon and also be holding the toy of a character... man. Plastic crack. We never went to rehab.
>>11920855>. Gundam Wing was the first Gundam anime to really do good in the US tooIt was the only one to do well in the US initially. They followed it up with the original despite Bandai America's protest. BoJ couldn't understand that American kids didn't want what Japanese kids might like. This lead to BoA's choices being pushed aside in favor of things like dubbing the original OYW shows and making SD Gundam Force because BoJ had been trying to push SD Gundam into US markets for decades. The shows BoA chose, Wing and G, were the two that made money for them. Though G did not do as well as Wing. They wanted X too but BoJ wouldn't agree to it. By the time SEED came out the moment had passed and the Saturday night toonami was a massive ratings downgrade to the after school block. SD Force did a lot of damage to the brand too. Especially with retailers.
>>11920937Americans are too retarded for model kits anyway it needs to be easy baby shit like blokees or lego, and now toys r us is gone because of woke star wars
>>11920983Woke Star Wars absolutely hurt... everything... but what happened to the finances/debt reallocation of Toys R Us is what killed it, in a more innocent version of what happened to Crazy Eddie's. But yeah... Disney. The Walmart here still has 2 full pegs of Lando Calrissian from like 2019? lol.
>>11920872>creative bankruptcyI do blame social media and the speed at which content is created and shared now. 30/40 years ago, if you had an original idea, you could work on it for years behind closed doors and put out a product nobody had seen before.Nowadays every original idea is shared in a 30 second tiktok reel before it get's a chance to have substance, and has already been copied by 100 other creators. By the time it reaches corporate and gets mainstream attention it's played out.Look how many copy cat movies there are these days, just because of how easy technology has made film making. There is no barrier for entry anymore, which has saturated the entertainment market.>>11920885>Your TV stations on UHF were WHERE you went to after school, and you had to be there on time (and you WERE) to watch cartoons.This goes for everything. We all watched the same TV, listened to the same music, bought the same brands, because there was very little choice. It meant the market was monopolised by whatever was hot that season. These days we are all subscribed to one of thousands of different podcasts and individualism has shattered the market.
>>11920983How would you know, chungusfurry? You're brown.
>>11920937It was the first successful Gundam toy and cartoon line in the US. That's all there is to it. >>11920983Please. Comic book shops are floor-to-ceiling with Gundam kits, and Bandai makes billions from them. And Bandai makes them in multiple difficulty levels from simple snap-kits to complex "prefect grade" kits. >>11921357>I do blame social media and the speed at which content is created and shared now. "Content creation" is talking over a movie trailer or music video to give your opinion, trolling people in the real world, doing stupid dances, try-on haul videos, and other inane shit. Hideo Kojima is a fucking prophet.
>>11920743honestly I don't understand it, nostalgia is one thing but these guys take it to an obsessive level to where they'll buy genuinely bad mass produced figures and pretend its the greatest thing ever. I understand liking them, I understand collecting them to a degree but the obsession they have with these is mind boggling.I had figures when I was younger sure but I wouldn't get them again because there's way better versions of them, but these guys always seem to want that childhood chase and its usually always guys this age that do that even outside of toys like baseball cards for example
>>11921458People who have to buy the newest (insert whatever from whatever line) and swear that the new stuff is the best stuff over the vintage aren't always nostalgiafags, and are sometimes just consumers. And sometimes they're younger collectors being introduced to the line, but have no sentimental attachment to the vintage. There's a lot of those in GI Joe Classified and Star Wars.
>>11920743
>>11920774Cable cartoons mostly took over while Networks that purchased the more expensive shows started cutting back. Cable cartoons consisting of all the Nicktoons and Cartoon Cartoons which were cheap, had very simplistic styles, and the channels almost never merched them at all outside of some video game tie-ins on occasion.The main shift was that Power Rangers took off and they started importing every other toku show imaginable. So there were Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Beetle Borgs everywhere. Toy lines for live action things were the rage, so it led to toylines for almost every major summer movie. Judge Dredd, Independence Day, Hook, Terminator 2, Last Action Hero, Demolition Man, Robin Hood, Jurassic Park, Congo, Men in Black, Austin Powers, Battlefield Earth Stargate, Mask...While the main cartoon series with toylines were Superheroes. X-Men inspired a Spider-Man, Iron Man and FF cartoons that filled toy aisles around 95-96, Then came Superman and animated Batman, live action Batman figs were around before that. So the 90s shift was massive amounts of toys made for live action films and Toku shows.
>>11921458I'm amazed at how it is still working, because at this point they are making and selling the same figures to the same group of people for about 20 years. The same group that was buying up all the Gen 1 Transformers, 1993 MMPR zords, and re-re-rerelease TMNT figures in 2003 are the same guys buying them now in 2026. For some reason they are still buying the same rereleases of the same figures that were rereleased 20 years ago...and are excited to do it again next year!
Besides the fact that 80s was a big boon for media, that generation also lucked into a great job market where they had upwards trajectory for relative minimal work. There’s a ton of late Gen Xers making a good 6 figures, have their own home with lots of space , and are done with raising kids( or never had any) so they have a time of disposable income. No other generation has really had the same opportunities since. I think Millenials would spend a ton on collectibles if they had the space, but they don’t have houses in the same extent.
>>11921575CN's biggest problem is they wanted to own as many IPs they ran as possible, so they stopped getting all but a few essentials like Teen titans. CN was at its peak when it was full of good cartoons that it didn't own.
>>11921587CN had to pay extra for those. WB was kind of a fucking mess for a major empire. They did not act like everyone was under the same ownership since minor studios under the WB umbrella had to pay licensing fees to other studios that were also owned by WB to air things. CN being a very minor channel with a tinier budget than normal was not okay with paying licensing rights to air things so they wanted to expand their own catalog.
>>11921575This,The major transition for toy manufacturers in the 90s was to make toylines for major blockbuster movies instead of wasting the time, effort, and budget on a syndicated cartoon series that may or may not even last the full season.Lots of companies wasted a shitload of money on toylines for shows that mostly failed after just a few months. It made more sense to just make toy tie-ins for movies that were already coming out since the success of Beetlejuice and Robocop showed that was a successful plan. Batman and Dick Tracey working out in 89-90 solidified that. So every single summer they made toylines for movies instead of toylines for some new cartoon. They make it work by just making the toys seem like they were for a cartoon and included armor and weapons that never once appeared in the movies.So we get Zipline Robin Hood, Terminator with giant gun arms, Jurassic Park with dino trapping net shooting guns, Aliens with more giant robots. And aaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllll the Batman variants.
>>11921625This is so true. I remember having Terminator as a 5 year old, and I loved him, but had no idea who he was until years later when I went to a Planet Hollywood and they had all the movie props on display.As a kid who loved cartoons over live action, that was my cue to jump ship over to anime and I never looked back. There was already a plethora of old Japanese shows getting figures in the 90's/early 2000's from kaiyodo and max factory and it was the start of the big three.I remember around this time Todd tried to tap in with his Japnimation line, but I don't know how successful it was with seemingly scattershot licencing.
>>11920743Forced to work hardBorn to dilly daly
>>11920743What's this guys issue? Watched his batcave video and you'd swear he was about to break out a story that his dad died working on the villain side of the set
>>11920743STFU ZOOMER!
I wish zat were dead.
>>11920743Reagan deregulated advertising to kids which made cartoons profitable. Then Bill Clinton became President and regulated the shit out of children's programing. CN, Nick, and Disney were able to offset this because their viewers were already getting a cut of the monthly cable bill. Network television started picking up cheaper programing like Anime, kid's sitcoms, and cartoonist driven comedies but in the end Saturday morning cartoons were replaced with infomercials.
>>11921458They also go around gobbling up as many of the same figures as they can, then sell them for inflated prices. Annoying cunts.
>>11922694I'm pretty sure that it was Mattel who sued the FCC, which had rules in place forbidding cartoons aimed as kids that are just infomercials, won, and immediately crapped out He-Man in 1982.And it was during the Bush years that the FCC had networks kill Saturday morning cartoons for "educational programming" that not a single kid on the planet actually watches today.
>>11923135KekWho remembers Cartoon All Stars?https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anti-drug_message_featuring_George_H._W._and_Barbara_Bush_from_Cartoon_All-Stars_to_the_Rescue_(1990).ogvThe most on-drugs way of convincing kids off drugs.
>>11921625I liked how they would sometimes retroactively make toys for movies that came out years earlier too like the Aliens and Predator stuff around 95-ish.Star Wars toys came back in a really big way too around the same time in 94-95.
>>11921625That was a pretty good call though. It WAS insanely expensive to whip up a 65 episode cartoon for a toyline that might fail a few months into its run like Filmation Ghostbusters or Bucky O'Hair. But making a toyline for a movie coming out in summer, it has all the free advertising it needs through the movie previews. Even an R rated movie sold tons of merch. Plus the 90s had loads of high concept action flicks every single year. Waterworld, ID4, Jumanji, even Eraser and Demolition Man had whole toylines.
>>11920744I mean he's not necessarily wrong about kids wanting things that actually look like the things they're supposed to be, but other than that I think he's kind of full of itFor one, he seriously thinks the glorified carry case that was the Super Powers Hall of Justice is better than the 90s Batcave.
>>11923178Aliens and Predator had already had successful comic book runs before Kenner re-grabbed the license. Star Wars EU was also picking up steam so it's not like the toylines were borne out of a vacuum.
>>11921625I'm really surprised Jurassic Park's planned 90s cartoon never actually happened. I know some of the concepts did end up in the 94 toyline but it seems like a show networks would have gotten in an extreme bidding war over.
>>11923507The 90s were amazing
>>11920774this, AND video games got tons better. why buy a bunch of toy biz crap or kenner shit when you can play the games at home? you get the set - being the levels, the bosses - all of the bad guys, and the good guys to play as whenever you want. plus its a game so you get to see the powers do something. after that, toys were seen as old hat. I like GI Joe and TMNT, but I dont collect them anymore. in fact I stopped in the 90s when computer games and console games got really good. that became my new hobby. and retro video games are HUGE now. video games replaced toys for a lot of kids.
>>11920746It's also the last generation of scale modelers.
>>11923295It was the Zahn/Thrawn books. Suddenly the EU wasn't just a one off or something, it had legs.
>>11923656The explosion of the PC mod scene and doom 2 online play plus the shareware level editors with a goddamn GUI.
>>11923656What toys are you here for now then?
>>11923750Not just the Thrawn trilogy, but Dark Horse had published the Dark Empire series in addition to reprinting the old newspaper strips, and by 1995 there were already a whole bunch of new EU novels.
>>11923507It is weird how it never happened after 3 movies. Jumanji, 98 Godzilla, Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura, and Bill & Ted got cartoons.
>>11923656A lot of cartoons that did not get a toy tie-in got video games instead. Like every Disney Afternoon and Nicktoons cartoon. Most of those were not merched at all outside of some shirts and maybe a cereal prize or two. But almost every big cartoon of the 90s got a video game tie-in of some type. Then things like Tiny Toons kept getting them almost a decade after the show ended.
>>11923943God my parents made me watch Jumanji way too many fucking times
>>11920770Really.
>>119237561:18 scale generals that show up now and then
>>11923944SNES and Genesis really did replace a lot of toys. You're right the video game licenses were everywhere while some action lines got little to no toy support. It was easier to store games than a lot of toys, also as I got to 13 and 14, video games were cool and accepted, while my TMNT figures were not. Video games were accepted in arcades and home use while toys were seen as stuff for kids. You also get to "challenge" yourself in the video games without having to think up of a scenario and imagine the special effects/battles you'd have in your mind. I used to play with my older brother GI Joe and TMNT, and I miss those days. However, when video games got better we basically played those games instead. I still have my old figures but it's for personal nostalgic reasons. If I put away the video games way back then, I'm sure I'd have played with the toys more.
>>11923752I remember those days. The early 3D games had primitive graphics but they captures my imagination as I maneuvered through a virtual world full of bad guys and large maps. Stuff I did with my toys previously, while before with the NES, I still played with toys because the games weren't as immersive. Still fun, but as game improved I spent less time with my toys. Honestly, I stopped playing with toys around 14 and that's because my older brother is three years older and wouldn't humor me anymore.
>>11925829 This is true because I was there. Also, something else to consider was yes the video game crash in 1983 did have a profound effect because for a couple years video games were not the in thing and suddenly action figures and especially robot/sci-fi toys skyrocket in popularity, but then that decreased once the Nintendo entertainment system came and blew up in super popularity. Like there was nothing compared before or since the level of popularity of the NES.
>>11925835Yup - and everyone likes to act like toys and cartoons are exclusively for kids, yet Marvel was the most successful thing for a few years and it was basically a live action cartoon/comic. People play childish video games, but toys are too far gone in their eyes. It's strange to see, society essentially held onto their childhood and imagination in a way, but it's through the mainstream media in its accepted forms, and that's anything not toys. Toy chads get the short end of the stick, while people will laugh at collecting action figures as an adult, they will have funkopop and go crazy over Mandolorean. Somehow everybody gets to still be a kid and not be called out on it, except for toy collectors.
>>11925829Price has a lot to do with it at the time too. Once a kid got a NES, SNES/Genesis they wanted games. But games are expensive and most kids could never afford them. So they were super special event only types of things like Christmas and Birthdays. So most kids would forego a toy for a game since they were much more rare to get and a much better prize because of it. It wasn't really as focused on what was age appropriate or not as much as games being really expensive that it caused kids to focus on obtaining them more. And parents would only want to buy one or two games at most for gifts than a bunch of different toys too. Since they were expensive and did not want to spend loads of money, some kids just received a single game for a birthday.
