State of the Hobby

With the recent announcement by Hasbro and Mattel regarding toys losing the edge to electronic devices and games, one is left to wonder what this means for Action Figures. Action figures have been a staple to growing up for boys of all ages. Lately, Hasbro and Mattel and any other action figure manufacturer tend to leave their lines dedicated to movies and games. Comic action movies are a big hit with kids, so it makes sense to make a line for those movies. However, this creates a void when a movie has been out for awhile and no new movie line to take it’s place. Stores tend to fill the gaps on the shelves with excess lines and toys that do not appeal to the same genre of collectors and kids.

A new problem is all the recent shootings and negativity towards guns is probably making toy manufacturers rethink how to make and market war toys. GI JOE being one that has been in the cross-hairs of anti-gun groups and anti-violence groups that Hasbro sometimes removes weapons from figures and adds gimmicky items. This of course, has repercussions with collectors and even some kids who do not like the way the line is going. So, now Hasbro has to decide how to make future lines, and even decide whether or not to continue with the current line it is working on.

Some 1:18 scale makers have been releasing stuff directly to collectors as stores do not dedicate space to them. This causes headaches among collectors and of course, doesn’t reach many people oblivious to these lines and models. Ordering online or even going to a specialty store turns people away due the cost of being collector only. This type of selling causes these small companies to drop the line altogether. We have seen many great lines and products not being made cause of this type of scenario. How do we cope with our hobby dying out due to video games and the electronic genre?

Many of us have to resort to customs casters and buying old figures to fill the gap of our collection mentality. Walking down Target or Wal-Mart’s toy aisles, finding the hottest new action figure are becoming a rare event. Most of the time we get to the aisle and turn around and do the walk of shame back to our cars, empty handed once again, to go home and go online to see the same, sad posts from our brethren. “nothing new today, going back tomorrow”

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