Action figure Woes: New Golden Age, or Ultimate Doom

G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, and now 30th Anniversary + Masters of the Universe Classics + Thundercats Classics + Transformers Generations + Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics... All of the Big 80s Toylines are making a comeback. Some people call it the "Second Golden Age". Others are more doom and gloom about it. Like the 80s, again, it seems we're on a recession/recovering from one. (Depends on who you ask) Now the Toy companies are churning out/will churn out soon toys that try to recapture the glory days from the 80s. Now that the "Adult collector" business is no longer taboo, the companies are trying to cater to the former children of the 80s.

Some are keeping to the good old Retail experience while others try to use the internet to sell toys.
It doesn't matter how they're doing it/will do it... What matters is that they ARE DOING it!

The Nostalgia loving part of me is completely excited about this, but the creative part in me weeps at the lack of promoting new stuff for future generations. A huge chunk of the Action figure market is based on one-shot licenses (Movie deals mostly.) Card game inspired toys are around, but no one seems to care about them... Even if the toys are about the characters from the cartoon promoting said card game. Some modern cartoons that get toys are based on comics, meaning any new incarnation is just around the next cancellation.

With the exception of TMNT, the toys making a comeback for adults are pretty much stand alone IPs based on Toys... (Thundercats was a toon first, toyline second, but those two are so closely tied together that one associates the cartoon to the toys instead of the other way around.)

There seems to be no desire to take on cool 90s properties like Gargoyles. I won't say Power Rangers since Bandai did release some figures celebrating the Vintage Power Rangers. Now that I think of it, there weren't THAT many cool toylines from the 90s that I remember... (My toy-"hating" stage was from 94-95) Aside MMPR, I remember Street Sharks, GI Joe Extreme (BLEGH!) Obviously TMNT expanded to the 90s and the Marvel and DC Toys... I gravitated towards the Marvel figs, mostly because KB Toys had the 3 For $10 on Marvel toys. (I did have a second Toy hiatus in late 99 until 01 or 02 When I saw the Earlier Spider-Man Classics... Then ML got into full swing.)

The funny thing about this is that this is the start of the SECOND DECADE catering to 80s kids.
We started in the early 2000s with the TMNT and MOTU Reboots, Hasbro reinvented GI Joe a couple of times as well, Transformers had been reinvented in anime/toyform a few times. Now Thundercats are stepping into the plate. Yes the 80s were THE Golden age of toys, but we can't stay stuck to them and alienate the last true toy enthusiast decade, the 90s.

After we quit the lines, who will buy them in our place? While on one hand it's awesome that I'll be able to restore a lot of pieces of my childhood (dead relatives aside); I fear that too much can collapse, break the bubble and screw us all. Luckily I'm not that much of a TF fan, but I've gotten a couple of toys. Now that I completed the Sunbow GI Joe series, my urge for Joes has calmed down a lot... and that they seem to have become TRU exclusives... Heck I'm even considering quitting MOTUC... Too much crap with Matty (the site), Toy QC issues, and plenty of hassles that are almost sucking all the fun out of MOTUC.

I have faith in Thundercats and the New TMNT Classics "80s toys with modern sculpt and articulation" sound familiar?

It seems that the 201X is the decade of the 80s rehashes with modern articulation and sculpt.

This rant seems super scattered... way more than normal, but it's cause I'm torn on the issue. I'm glad that we're getting improved versions of the toys from my childhood, but at the same time I feel that the industry is alienating the kids who came after me... Furthering the so-called Videogames killed the toychest theory...