when were toys at their best?
Right now. Toys keep getting better.
Certain lines have had golden ages but toys in general have never been better.
>>5773487
Tell that to Greg.
.>>5773479
>When was the golden age of toys?
The 80's. Without question.
So many classic toyline IP's were created in this decade. So much variety on the shelves. The massive influx of electronic, computerized toys. Crazy new ideas & IP's that would never fly in today's world. The deregulation of children's shows that allowed tons of cartoons based on toys, Japanese toys brought over to American shelves, etc.
No other decade made such an impact on the business of toys than the 80's did.
>>5773614
It was certainly a good time to be a kod at Christmas. There aren't as many huge as fuck playsets and bases around anymore.
Early nineties. Kenner era was the best.
>>5773614
impact-wise was definitely the 80's.
80's was great, but it took a while to climb to real heights of excellence.
early to mid 90's for sure. Lots of cartoons, lots of movies, just huge variety. Toylines with no cartoon/comic tied to them, gimmicks and solid stuff. It was experimental, glow in the dark, Metallica, translucent, all this stuff was being used to lure kids in. As well as different foam, slime, light and sound gimmicks
In the late 90's during the dot com boom things went to shit for a while cause of all this outside major retail chain shit going on, but it settled in the early 2000's again.
Now is pretty good, but, not a lot of non-tie in toys. It's heavy on super heroes, and transformers or star wars. Hasbro has such little competition it's a bit stale.
Mid 80's.
GI JOE owned with the FLAGG, terror dome, and the space center
Not to mention the knight rider knight 2000, the TRUE 6 inch scale Ecto 1, the Firehouse from Ghostbusters, the VW Bug ghost, and more.
GI JOE with their huge sets...
Then there was all the ninja turtle stuff that followed. Ninja Turtles today are a shadow of what it was when it first hit.
>>5773479
it depends
The 80's and early 90's was where the most influential stuff came out. I mean Transformers created a multi billion dollars movie franchise.
Your childhood was top notch because of nostalgia (BIONICLE circa 2001-2005 were the shit but looking back they were very stiff and LEGO made me buy every year the same kit 6 times)
If we're judging by quality and toy engineering than it's like >>5773487 said. Right now
>>5776521
This. Kenner's JP and Aliens toy lines up to the mid-90s were wonderful. Gimmicks still allowed good sculpts and playability.
>>5773479
Late 70's set the foundation of the toy generations to come(Star Wars was the first film product to get a huge demand for merc including toys)
80's set the impact where people saw toys with cartoons and movies sold very well
The Golden age was the mid 90's into the early 00s where everything from paint apps to articulation was crank to 11.
When then hit a dip due to the digital market taking root
Now it's becoming more niche and regressing back to where it's more of hottest movie of the summer thing and less all around.
Likely another generation and things will be back to the 60s where most toys are aimed at 6 and below with small markets to adults.
Eh everyone's probably just saying what the grew up with. I really liked early 2000s toy biz legends for 9.99, Star Wars was still interesting, and Mattel wasn't as shit as it is now. Not to mention joyride studios
Gonna say the 80's was where it all started but toys are certainly never bigger than now.
I do want to shout out to ToyBiz in terms of fun!
>>5776556
I'm with this. Toys were SO FUN in the early to mid 90s, and it felt like innovation and daring concepts were the order of the day.
Right now, the US toy market is stagnating for the most part in my opinion. Hasbro has a strong chokehold on so many brands, and their quality is okay at BEST. I'm really disappointed that the most I can hope for out of a toy run is badly painted, mushily sculpted, and sorta poorly articulated Star Wars or Marvel toys.
The Japanese toy market is booming, but I think they're overcrowding themselves to be honest. So many companies are making super high quality toys (at super high prices) now that the market is going to become saturated, and I predict less and less people will be buying from outside of Japan too as the exchange rate is currently pretty shit.
2000's, not only did you have many 80s toylines and updates of them, you had easy access to clever kenner stuff or other things harder to find now, toybiz, etc.
Now though, the engineering is superior, if the budget allows it.
>>5776958
>Lady Venom with "gotta pee real bad" action
Holy shit, Chamber's hands are huge
I did love my ToyBiz though
>>5777364
>Hasbro chokehold
This.
We live in an oligarchy so competition is practically nonexistent. Hasbro alone has gobbled up over a dozen competitors. Tonka, NERF, Kenner, Galoob, etc, wiping out products (GoBots, MASK) and play patterns (Micro Machines) alike. And then they sit on licenses like Star Trek, which is now every bit the action franchise Star Wars ever was.
I don't know how a Stu Pickles type could make it today. Between litigious trolls, zero local manufacturing capability, and retailers that won't touch a fledgling product...
>>5773487
Came here to say this.
Toys are fantastic right now and can only get better.
>>5773479
im seeing hasbro / revoltech / figma / possibly figuarts make a deadpool figure.
Also, hot toys / sideshow making a deadpool figure from the comics and from the movie.
For a fanboy of a C-list character that is just fucking awesome.
>>5777547
Doesn't Hasbro sit on the Disney license as well? Hasbro is okay at best, and Mattel is fucking up everything they touch from Barbie to the MHD reboot.
Here's a Eurofag persepctive, maye things are different across the pond though.
I think it's sad that there's so little variety in most toys. With Lego or Playmobil you get endless accessoires, sets, original sets, you can mix and match from franchises to OC. Both franchises have a pretty big market. But past that, 90% of the market seems to be Marvel, Star Wars, Frozen, other Disney shit and a bit of Barbie, which at least has *some* originality sometimes. But other than that, what options are there really? Many stores here even through out the MHDs completly because appareantly, they're not selling well (and we don't even have the reboots yet). And the Barbie isle is about as big as the Disney toy section.
If you wanna come up with anything that's not the same generic mediocre quality Disney, Superhero or Star Wars you're gonna have a hard time.
