What killed the action figure play-set? How Playset toys work.
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- Опубліковано 1 кві 2021
- Scott Toy Guru Neitlich from Spector Creative does a deep dive on the boys action figure play-set market and what changed from the early 80's when it peaked to now when we hardly see play-sets at all (at least at mass retail). Multiple factors contribute, and we review them all!
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Keep 'em coming, bro! Toy reviews are a dime a dozen, but no one else is giving this kind of industry insight on UA-cam.
I was going to post exactly the same thing, so I'll just like and reply to your comment!! :)
Which surprises me. I actually like to know more about the historical and business side.
My goal exactly. Please feel free to share these with others online, it helps the channel a ton
Right ? ...i ALWAYS learn COOL info here ,always...
It's criminal this man doesn't have more views and subscribers.
The screen is no replacement for actual toys... Playsets were a big part of that.
Couldn't agree more
I agree heavily. My baby sister is 15 yrs younger than I am and when I visit my moms house I try to get her to play with toys like MOTU so she gets off the tablet.
They help children learn about the world, touch, spacial acuity, hand eye coordination. Also they learn social skills and learn to interact with children.
As a big fan of video games and action figures, at least for me, they fit different kinds of entertainment for me. I’ll have periods where every single second of my free time is spent playing Super Smash Bros or Enter the Gungeon, and weeks when all of my free time is spent playing with transformers and listening to music
I think simple size is an issue too, I think parents were like "do we buy this cartrige that you can keep in billy's toy shelf, or do we buy castle greyskull that I'm gonna have to trip over every time I go to clean up?"
Very good point
Abso-fricken-lutely. My parents gave indulged (probably over-indulged) my love of toys, but playsets were a tough sell. I can still see the eyerolls from trying to explain to my mom the merits of a Cobra Terrordrome for Xmas.
Cardboard was used quite a bit in the '70s for playsets, so it's ironic that toy makers returned to that direction.
It's kind of like the 8-bit games I used to play being put down by my nephew, and then he ends up getting all caught up with Minecraft....
Part of what changed play patterns in the area I grew up was school insurance. Back when I was a kid, we played on monkey bars of all shapes (like dinosaurs, elephants, giraffes, geometric patterns, etc.). Kids had accidents, but it wasn't a big deal. Then there was the introduction of the school insurance. Hey, your kid has to get a cast? Don't worry, with this here insurance, the parents were assured, you don't have to worry about paying for that cast out of your own pocket!
A decade later later and the insurance claims against schoolboards start to go through the roof. School boards started to go through cycles of trying to get 'safer' play equipment, only be torn down for another. Eventually there was nothing left to for kids to play on. Soccer, footballs, tennis balls, etc. were taken away. Bullying increased, which of course led to more insurance claims, which meant kids were not allowed to gather in larger groups than three. Even skipping ropes and string for hoodies were banned, because bored kids got into the 'choking game'.
All of this helped propel handheld electronic games and smartphones into prominent use among kids, since they had to have an alternative to an ever increasingly boring schoolyard.
Bored kids with little physical activity to help blow off steam in the schoolyard, let alone in the gym, became more agitated and restless. ADD and ADHD was often bandied about without a complete diagnosis, and schoolboards insisted on kids going on Ritalin to settle them down, rather than actually dealing with the situation.
I'm sorry for the wall of text. 😟
Anyways, it goes to show that how something that was originally touted as something that would 'ease the minds' of parents led to not only changes to play patterns, but also personal growth and development of children into adulthood. My niece's boyfriend, for example, was given so much Ritalin growing up, that it's harder for him to process negative emotions as an adult.
Never apologize for a great comment! And yes, toys are not without a sense of irony
I remembered that when I played with my TMNT figures I imagined as if was actually in the cartoon show.
It´s amazing the level of imagination a kid could have. And how come we could do escape into any world we´d want by just using action figures.
And that is what actual toys will do!
As a kid I really wanted a model of a city, with banks, malls, parking lots, office buildings, police and fire stations. My parents thought I wanted to be an arquitect, but all I wanted was a place for my Ninja Turtles to hang out in and for my Goku to destroy.
I totally know how you feel!!
I just made a city of cardboard boxes and put signs on them.
@@illuminatidad Cool, and cheaper than Legos.
One thing I liked about growing up in the 80's is not just all the cool cartoons and toys. But how we got to watch technology transform before our eyes. i.e. the personal computer, laptops, cassette taps, Sony Walkman, Sony Discman, then CD's, VHS tapes, Laserdiscs, calculator watch, cell phones, pagers, etc. It was so cool seeing cutting edge technology in movies and TV shows, then one day seeing someone in person with it. I still kind of remember the first time seeing someone walking around talking on a brick cellphone, whereas I thought the cellphone was just movie/TV magic like Star Trek's TNG tablets.
Yeah I feel bad for today’s kids. We had the best
Who knew we gre up in a golden age of playsets! I am happy to still have my Death Star playset from when I was a kid.
I treasure all the sets that made it!
I realizing how important is that kids play with toys. Great scoop as always!
Child brain development is so important, now more than ever
That vertical TMNT playset is one of the few great recent playsets IMHO. That would have blown my mind so much as a kid.
Until it gets wet
@@spectorcreative1872 Honestly, the cardboard in that one is pretty heavy duty. As long as you have a kid who takes reasonably good care of their toys, I could see it lasting a long time. Plus, even without the street scene there's still like a foot and a half of plastic sewer area to play with figures in.
...these videos are beyond amazing. I am making and remaking toys right now for my wife's kids and YOU my friend, are a rare find. Thank you so much!!!!
I am thrilled you are enjoying so much. Please feel free to share with others online, it helps the channel a ton
I was thinking about this a couple weeks ago, and we need to give a credit to Playmobil. This toy line kept selling playsets this whole time. I had a western fort from the 80s and have a modern one (circa 2010) that, while is made of a less number of pieces, is acctually more complex and bigger than the old one. And I know they kept making those fort variations for all these years, just changing the name, Union, Brave, Randall and others.
And the forts were not the only playsets they made, there are a lot of variations, including firefighters office, pyramids, roman soldiers keep and more
I was introduced to Playmobil a long time after lego and I never really appreciated that brand until I was in a "specialty toy store" aka expensive! Their sets were almost beyond belief!! This Spanish War Ship sticks in my mind (I just remember that these things were BIG! lol! My mom told me that's lego for rich kids! lol! I concur, it needs credit! \m/
I loved my playmobil farm as a kid. I had a fort and a pirate ship as well :)
I hope my children will see a future with more, abd bigger playsets. I was born in the 90s and I looked at the awesome playsets my older cousins had with excitement.
Oh Playmobile needs a whole video itself! An amazing line
@@spectorcreative1872 I wasn't even aware that Playmobil was a thing in the States. I assumed it was a lot more popular in Europe.
God, I remember playing with that batman playset, spiderman playset, jurrassic park playset and ninja turtle sewer playset. You really hit the nostalgia button for me!
Glad you liked! Feel free to share with others online, it helps the channel a ton
Heh. My parents refused to buy me any video games, so that's why I kept getting toys. 🤣 Looking back, the thing about the 1980s games is that you really didn't have THAT much control. Heck, in many of the games, you could only go in one direction! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing video games with my buddy Dave down the street, but you couldn't get wildly inventive with them, and make up your own fun adventures.
only go in one direction? Sure if you were just playing the 2D platformers of the era, but games like EA's Desert strike gave full exploration of a map, and the rise ofthe FPS lead to a lot of exploration in games.
@@Roboshi2007 Desert Strike was released in 92' as far as my research went. Games like Super Mario Brothers, Contra and their ilk was more in line with mid 80's Nintendo games.
@@Roboshi2007 Yeah, you're getting outside the target decade, there, mate. Even with "open world" games of the time, like "The Legend of Zelda," you'd still be able to predict "Oh, this is going to be the screen where where I fight some Peahats," as opposed to figuring out what happens when Golobulus steals an Attak Trak to go joyriding. (Answer: Boba Fett and the bounty hunter crew get called in, and hilarity ensues.)
Well I'm not saying video games are all bad, but nothing beats good old imagination play.
When I see kids nowadays it's all about mindless staring in their smart phones, bad posture and obesity. I think it is a sad development and I am very happy that I was a child in the 80s.
@serick73 as a teacher, I couldn't agree more.
@serick73 I think you get the generations confused. Most parents with kids today were not even born until the late 80s.
Parent your child I say!
@@spectorcreative1872 I work with young adults that often behave like kids and try to pass on the values that once He-Man tought me ;)
@@spectorcreative1872 here here!
Best video so far. Thanks!
Well nice! please feel free to share with others it helps the channel a ton!
Being a kid from the 80s my parents fully confessed why they got me video games more than playsets a long time ago. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment (at the time) and other than my room there was no place for me (save outside) for me to fully indulge in that playset usage. I did have a few when I was a wee one (Castle Grayskull, Castle DOOM, Snake Mountain, and the Terrordrome). Space was always an issue. So when you have the NES around. I could have all these games, and they'd not have to worry about (how we gonna fit this in his room. How we gonna work around this being in the living room). It was, "let's get him a small tv set and game. No worries about where to put all of this stuff".
Why when moved out sadly they gave me an ultimatum. I had to dump out or sell the playsets save for three. Those three being Castle Grayskull, the Fright Zone, and Snake Mountain. I had to sell the Terrordrome to a friend who lived a few buildings down (he gave me TMNT: Tournament Fighters, OG Castlevania, and some sword/sorcery game for the NES). I think given the time we both made out over time (if he kept that playset). But a few other playsets were casualties that I had to dump (the late 80s Batcave being one), the sewer playset, and that huge ship Darkseid used in Super Powers. It didn't fully crush me because I really trashed a few of those (cause we're kids and goddamit the villains were gonna have their day sometimes bringing the hero to their lowest point).
It's also what leads to my parents hating my aunt/uncle (my dad's sister) every Christmas (which resulted in some fights that lead to not seeing them for long periods of time). They'd get me these HUGE playsets that I'd not have room to play in. They were mostly huge racing car playsets. Again no room, and it killed them inside that they'd get this for me almost flaunting/rubbing in the fact I could never fully play with them. My parents took it as them rubbing salt they lived in an apartment, while my aunt/uncle lived in a nice house. And the only reason why we eventually got one of our own was they fought/saved to attain it. While my aunt/uncle was "gifted" a home by my dad's mom (since they got married first). But that's a whole family issue way beyond simple figures.
Oh yes, space is always an issue. Why the GI Joe Flagg was meant to go under the bed.
Where most of the MoTU playsets and Castle Doom went. I just wonder how the heck does the tower/bridge fit? Though it probably would explain the breakage on that side more now lol.
Hugh Eye Opener 👁 on the retooling of 90s and 2000's playsets! Great video!!
Glad you liked! Please feel free to share with others!
Great Video, Play sets were some of my favorite toys. Sometimes just assigning positions to different play areas on one play set could take up your entire play time. I also repurposed play sets in different lines so Cobra took over Crystar’s Castle and the rebellion used the Defiant Launch Complex to repair the Millennium Falcon. I’d also use LEGO to make communication posts and check points. I was never constrained by what was seen on screen.
Good for you!
19K 🎉🎉🎉🎂 Congratulations!
Thank you so much!!
I remember all the awesomeness the the 80's toys were and playsets certainly was a huge part of it. My favorites of the time were G1 Fortress Maximus and the Cobra Terror Drome. Still have them. I'm so happy to see your channel take off, I remember when the channel started and how big it was when you got your first thousand subs. Great enlightening and entertaining videos, always look forward to the next one!
Yup, the 80's was a golden time
i also say it's the death of Saturday Morning Cartoons in the 90s ? when they required tv stations to play at least 3 hrs of educational programming for children and the station decided to just put it on saturday morning, which cancelled alot of cartoons that would have had toy tie ins that would have had a playset , if they existed.
Oh yes that was a big part to!
Another fun (depressing?) video. But as a quick note, you showed the Turtle lair from the 2018 Rise of the TMNT line and then described the lair from the 2016 Out of the Shadows movie line as it's successor. It wasn't. In fact, that playset was just an altered version of the lair that was released in 2012 for the Nickelodeon reboot. This isn't just the usual internet pedantry either. For as large as the 2018 playset was, Playmates had plans for the release of a second large playset which would form a basement for this one, making it even larger. And that obviously wasn't made of cardboard. Unfortunately the line lost retailer support for the large playsets after 2018.
I was also surprised that you didn't mention the problem with making playsets for toy lines when the figure size grows from the 3-5 inch sizes we saw in the 80's to the 6-8 inches that are common now.
I am so not going for depressing! (I hope)
Great insights. Look forward to your videos!
Thanks! Feel free to share with others who might enjoy!
Another great video with awesome insight & one of the best on UA-cam! I like the illustration that video games provide the whole toy line. I never really drew the connection to the rise of video games & the decline of playsets. Also great to see Link getting some love! I wonder whose sword is more powerful his or He-Man's? Anyway keep up the great work!
I think he man’s but I may be biased. Thanks for all the kind words and support!
This was an excellent video, I love when you make me see things from a new angle. I never thought of a nintendo game like that, but it's 100% spot on.
Glad you enjoyed!@ Feel free to pass it along to others online, it helps the channel a ton!
Great video.
Thank you.
Most welcome!
God damn, can't stop watching these
I am glad to hear you have this problem!
The biggest thing I regret is never having a playset. I do remember building a TMNT Sewer Lair out of wood and nails.
I did that too! And lots of cardboard
i went through no small amount of cardboard. i'd collected beer cans in the 70's, so we'd built fortresses out of stacking those, which was fun to knock down.
@@spectorcreative1872 That reminds me. My parents had gotten in some large items at the time. And so I had huge boxes of cardboard that I split apart and cut into and drew on with markers, and built my own life size sewer lair playset around my bed area in the basement. As half the basement was my bedroom and thus I had no bedroom door, just a corner section. And so I built one out of cardboard for a while.
I remember seeing the BB-8 mega play set in our local Toys R Us few years ago. It comes with two figures (Supreme Leader Snoke and Elite Praetorian Guard). It was huge and it cost a pretty penny, too. Advance happy Easter, Scott.
That was just Hasbro finding a loophole to make a life size BB-8 when they didn't have one in their contract!
ua-cam.com/video/YOcbmciWjyI/v-deo.html
Love your channel ,as a kid of the 80s and an avid collector of dcuc as well as motuc I appreciate all the insight. Would love a video on the doomsday figures as I missed out on those
Oh that is coming not to worry. Yes... Doomsday is coming...
A damn shame that the only playsets being made are from Playmobil and the brick companies such as Lego and Mega Construx. Why are those bricks exempt from the same conditions which caused the downfall of playsets anyway?
Probably because the boxes on those construct-a-sets are smaller than huge playset boxes, which makes stores more likely to carry them. Plus, you can also take them apart and make a spaceship or something else out of them if you want.
There are still more big playset arround as many people know , we all look often just at a section of toys .
For example there are very huge ones of Paw Patrol or Barbie still got gigantic dream houses .
I would say the downfall comes from "ageing-up-too-fast-with-the-brain" , I have seen 7-8 years kids who was wondering why other kids in their age still play with Playmobil or Barbie .
Other reasons are the high prices , the playsets are too big (too big for the room of the child) , some parents don't like to buy violent toys ........... and don't forget POKEMON .
I agree!
this is one of those videos that I love, it validates my point that it does not matter the form of entretainment, the market will repaet itself, from some time, videogames need DLC (downloadable content) to in many cases "complete" the experience as Playsets did in the Good Old Days.
Everything repeats. Or if not everything repeats
I think there might've been a shift in how kids played pretend. I'm 20, so toys were targeting me in the late 00s and early 10s, and I never really got into playsets or playing pretend with action figures. I always felt like I didn't want to pretend to be the characters, I wanted to pretend to be an original character self-insert in the world. So stuff like Pokemon really appealed to me, because I could Imagine I was in the world without having to really even interact with the other characters when I played pretend with the cards or games. When I was a little bit older than that and going to school, I got more into social/competitive play patterns with stuff like Beyblade and trading card games, I still liked to roleplay that I was part of a story like the shows, but my friends were in on the roleplay, and we were also customizing and trying to beat eachother.
It's totally anecdotal, but the only playsets I ever saw were for things like Hot Wheels and Barbie and Polly Pocket, even the kids who did like action figure play weren't super into playsets.
What do you think Scott, did you notice an uptick in self-inserting and competitive play patterns in the new millennium? I'm interested to hear what it was like for someone who was in the toy industry.
Honestly in the new millennium it seems the focus is on stress relief vs play
Thank you for pointing out the Star Wars play set and cobra mountain play set being a reused mold.
It's an old trick. Kenner sold a Tatooine scene and a Hoth scene that were the same thing, just different colors.
Glad I could!
The Ghostbuster House is my favorite play-set I ever had.
A worthy favorite!
@@spectorcreative1872 Agreed
9:41: (What I’m hearing at this moment:) The Transformers, More Than Meets The Eye, The Transformers
You have Retro Action on your side! Just subscribed, glad you’re keeping Kenner and the 1980s toylines relevant and bringing the internal parts of the Toy Industry to a level of detail never seen before.
Glad you are enjoying! Any help sharing videos is most appreciated
@@spectorcreative1872 will do!
My best play set was the GI Joe space shuttle. My brother and I played with that thing until it fell apart. And although I didn't own one, I did get to see--and play with--the famous GI Joe aircraft carrier. A friend of my grandparents--who was like 50-60 yrs old at the time--had an entire small room in his house dedicated to that aircraft carrier. Usually just for display, but he let me play with it the day I visited (after I promised to be careful). So damn cool.
Oh that one was amaZing
Nice video!
Nice to hear from you again Eric!
Totally agree here. I got my first NES in 88. That was when I really became hooked on video games and toys became an after thought. I feel like because of that, most kids growing up in the 90's and beyond never had an opportunity to flex their creative muscles. It reminds me of the Toy Story: That Time Forgot short I saw recently where a little girl brought Woody and the other toys over to a little boy's house to play. However, the boy was playing a video game and she joins him and the toys were abandoned. Thankfully in this one, the toys get played with again.
The timeline can’t lie!
Good video. You are completely correct about computer games doing away with imagination. A lot of kids nowadays seem to have precious little imagination - my seven year old nephew just copies exactly what he sees on video games, if playing with physical toys, and we've given him action figures from things he says he likes, but he quite often just thanks us, opens them, and puts them away, in his room, and goes back to Minecraft, as if he has no idea what he's meant to do with them, which is sad to me. My brother, (born in 1970), and myself (born 1963), didn't play with action figures as kids today would know them - but we did play with 1/76 scale Airfix figures and Matchbox cars. We'd make up stories, and have favourite figures that would be our heroes. We would play games based on books we had read, or TV shows we loved. We had toy forts and castles, and die cast cars from shows like 'Batman', or 'Captain Scarlet', or 'UFO', and play for hours. Sometimes we'd make alien bases out of interesting looking plastic packaging, and make games up around that, too. The video game seems to have taken all that away, sadly.
Computer games are not 'real', though. You might have everything, but you can't play with whatever you want on it - indeed, some games, you have to pay for some upgrades, or never finish the game. A physical toy isn't like that - and you can play with most of them in the wet, and with no power, only that of your mind.
Imagination is so needed for kids to grow and understand the world
I remember getting my cousin's Major Matt Mason Space Station Playset, it was a perfect addition to my Star Wars Figures and Vehicles.
It was an amazing set!
As an 80s kid we did do both at first. We would get together and play Nintendo (great times!) but then we would also go outside play kickball. Run through the woods. Or play with our figures (GI Joe. Transformers. Star wars). It was until the early 90s when 1) we were older and 2) Super Nintendo came that we stopped with the toys all together and was 100% video game time. Part of that was my love for games but also the cultural influence of the home consoles (Nintendo had competition. Arcades were giving way to home consoles).
My son did start out with the figures and it was fun playing with the playskool batman sets with him. Brought back nostalgic memories.
And they did work (or play) together, but as one came in, the other did get cut into
I remember always going over to my friends and playing with gi joe figures. I was always Cobra (My choice). It seemed like no matter how strategic I was and how calculating my friend would go to the far reaches of imagination land (that’s the only way he could win is by making something far fetch up) and create some instant gadget that the joes created and say he won the day. And I would be flabbergasted saying “that’s not how this works, that’s not how any of this stuff works. The difference between cartoon reality and comic book reality. Because in the comic book the so called bad guys could win.
And that is what imagination based play is all about
I always believed that playsets flew too close to the sun and got burned. Star Wars started out with cheapy plastic and cardboard tiny things... and then grew bigger and cooler, then Grayskull and Snake Mountain... and GI JOe was getting more elaborate than anything....
And then Eternia and the USS FLAGG.... Gigantic insanely expensive beast that were also very 'gimmicky' where the size was the main draw and the rest was just kind of.... 'there'. I would love to know the sales data for those two, because I only knew one kid with a FLAGG and he never played with it because it was too big and took too much room... and nobody I know had an Eternia. At least with my parents, That was the line in the sand. Took big, Too expensive, and you have enough toys anyway :P
After those two, it seemed that sizes plummeted back down to the toybiz 'danger room sizes or nothing.... with the only real exception being an unending flood of Batcaves... because Batman :P
Video games probably played a part in the action figure decline... but i think a big part of the playset crash was just parents stopped buying them. I've always had a dream that somewhere is a lost warehouse of Eternias and Flaggs just waiting to be discovered :P
Oh yes once you go cheap it is hard to come back
Never got any of the playsets first hand. My uncle and aunt worked for the model shop for Grumman Aircraft and used to design and build something that was in my opinion better than what was available at the store.
Well that is amazing!
I remember getting the TARDIS playset and being blown away by the Time Rotor moving when in flight.
Wasn't that an awesome feature!
80's playsets ruled. I still have Castle Grayskull, Jabba's throne room, the USS Flagg, the Ghostbusters firehouse. and the turtles sewer in my collection.
Such a better time
Boulder Hill was the only playset I had, and it was awesome. Oh, we also got the Starriors base at Odd Lot because it was in the clearance section.
Oh I so remember that one!~
One friend of my friends had that huge GI JOE battleship! I remember it was so big we couldn’t get it out to play with because the room just wasn’t big enough…😂. I still want one…🤨
This was an interesting topic and I never thought to add video games into that equation. I figured it was just lack of interest in them on the kid's part but driving to video games over playsets I could see that being the case I guess. Though it is interesting to see Grayskull come back as a playset in Origins and we had the Batcave in the Funko DC Primal Age line.
That batcave was cool but it just did not sell
My family got my Ghostbuster firehouse second hand from a garage sale missing stickers and other various bits and I still loved it to death as a kid. I had a friend with the GI Joe Shuttle and aircraft carrier and they blew my mind at the time. I always wanted a Boulder HIll from MASK too. Playsets were such an awesome part of childhood.
I know right! So many memories
Good video Scott! I do agree that video games have had a big effect on imaginative play especially with boys. But, I do think there's room for both if the toy companies are willing to invest in toys for kids and not just collectors. It feels like there are not any NEW toy lines being made anymore. Mostly just a different take on the big 4, Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, GI Joe and Transformers.
And a big reason why things are so different now
Imaginex is out and I think a big reason. They split younger kids to other action figures.They had a castle set, a pirate set, dinosaurs set. I’m not familiar with everything thing but I think this is where a lot of the energy went.
TLDR: Imaginext.
As a parent whose 9-year-old's floor is covered with hunks of cheap plastic that cost too much and take up too much space, I can confidentially say that the playset in general is alive and well. I think part of the death of the "action figure" playset in particular might be down to the birth of a new age-range of toy and the action-figure as we know it starting to target older kids.
I don't know if this was the full reality, but my perception as a child in the 80s and early 90s was that you had "baby" toys like Little People, that weird phone with a face, or rubber Sesame Street characters. Then you had "big kid" toys like He-Man, GI-Joe, Ghostbusters (Real, none of that fake monkey malarkey), Transformers, Batman, and other action figures. Again, this is just based on my perception of toys as a 6-year old, but I would put the split as something like “baby” toys being for ages 0-3 and “big kid” toys being for ages 4+.
Now you have an entirely new age range of toys. You have "baby" toys, "little kid" toys and "older kid" toys. I’d still put “baby toys” as around 0-3, but “little kid” toys would be more like 4-8ish, and then “big kid” toys would be for older kids and us adults.
These days the playset magic is happening in that "little kid" category. If you are a kid who is too old for "baby" toys, but not quite big enough for more detailed, posable, and fragile "older kid" toys, then you are going to have no shortage of big awesome playsets that are more jam-packed with play features than anything we grew up with. I'm talking about Imaginext, Paw Patrol, Rescue Bots, and the like. Imaginext in particular blows almost any playset from the 80s or 90s out of the water.
To put it simply, kids who are the same age that we were when we fell in love with Castle Grayskull are still falling in love with playsets, they are just scaled to 3" figures instead of 5" figures.
Now, as adult collectors it is easy for us to write that stuff off as "baby toys," but I would direct any skeptics to this 1984 article that describes He-Man as being most popular with boys ages 4-8, (www.nytimes.com/1984/12/18/nyregion/he-man-a-princely-hero-conquers-the-toy-market.html) and the recommended age range of 3-8 for most Imaginext toys on Amazon.
Oh yes, toddler toys is the best category these days for playsets. I so wanted to do MOTU imaginext while I was at Mattel for this reason!
I love the argument of action figures vs video games. Growing up in the 80's, I always played with toy and only found video games as a hobby.
It is more closely related than many think at first!
Great video! I'm still mad at you for yesterday's video though.
Feel free to address all complaints to the Montecento Corporation
I just recently got the masters of the universe origins Castle Grey skull. Boy that thing brings back a lot of memories from my childhood.
Exactly the emotional thrill they are going for
Mind blown! That was a great explanation for how video games replaced toys.
Pleasw feel free to share with others, it helps the channel a ton
I grew up in the late 70's to 80's in playsets, mostly Star Wars. After researching in books, I found out that Kenner who did Star Wars line up used the same molds for the Land of the Jawas and used it for Empire Strike Back's Hoth Ice Planet and Sears Exclusive Hoth Command Center. They also used the Droid Factory and made it into Sears exclusive Jabba's Torture Dungeon, and yes, manufactures uses the same mold to save costs. Playsets were wonderful because you get to either re created scenes from movies, cartoons, etc or make up your own adventures. Star Wars ruled the toy line, until video games dominated in 1985 when Nintendo came out with it's own platform and video games dominated since then. Playsets and the action figure line went down hill, until the 90's when Star Wars came back with the re release of the original trilogy and later their prequals, action figure lines went up in value. There were even cardboard sets where you can set it up and play with it, then fold it up and store it until you want to use it again.
Oh yes i know those sets well!
I think you're discounting the immersion of video games a little bit. It's less of you're this character's master telling them what to do and where to go, and you are going through this adventure with them, it might not be one that you entirely think up yourself, so the play isn't as imaginative, but it's still immersive. That character's adventures are your adventures, you share their fate in this adventure you're playing.
One of the strongest factors is that unlike action figures and toys, video games haven't nearly been as effected by inflation as much as toys. You look at the trends of how much cost of action figures and playsets have increased, but you compare that to games, had they increased in price at the same rate that action figures had since 1985 no one would be playing them today.
Points taken, but you are in command 100%
Castle of Fangs and the Starriors Armored Battle Station got way more play time out of me than most video games; you can't beat that kind of awesome ;-)
That is so awesome
The sewer play set was one of my absolute favorites!
It was so cool for its time
I seem to remember the last playset I saw was Tracy Island from Thunderbirds. At least the last one that was a full thing.
Until they all went 50/50
I've always felt that video games were an extention of playing with toys, an evolution of sorts. I loved them both as as a kid and love them both as an adult.
Video Games are more passive to watching TV but being in control vs Toys are interactive
Damn. Scott knows EVERYTHING about childhood, and business. You should be the Big Boss at Hasbro…
Look how far we've come - now we buy our video games in pieces (DLCs) and not as a complete experience anymore... and they won't even work properly in some cases while they are new!
DLC's are addons to keep us playing the games we've beaten and keep them relevant long enough to help the initial game continue to sell. This is because the technology is their to do it. Games being released that are buggy and choppy is a legitimate problem Cyberpunk being the most recent offender.
@@ReverendPONT But there are also games where they remove content from the game to sell it later as DLC! A terrible practice.
It is all a circle that winds up at a garsage sale
Bought several of the last two big playsets Wal-Mart sold on clearance - the Spider Man City playset and the Batman v Superman Ultimate Batcave. Wal-Mart took a bloodbath on those things(clearanced for $30 & $40 respectively). And unfortunately they've been having bad luck with Playmobil too. Bought the totally not Noah's Ark for $13, marked down from $50 - and iirc that $50 was a Rollback price from$59.99!
Yup, they just don't sell these days
Good analysis. Another factor is that comic books and films started making superheroes cool for adults in the late 1980s, and toy companies appear to have started catering to this older audience which was more interested in collecting and displaying toys than actually playing with them. So there were endless variant figures of popular characters, but much less depth in variety of characters/vehicles,/accessories. Since these consumers were not really into worldbuilding and definitely weren't into playing, a playset didn't hold as much appeal as a 7th version of Batman. Plus the figures grew larger and larger with their purchasers, making playsets too expensive to build, and 20-something consumers would typically have much less shelf/floor space available than kids anyway.
I don't know is comic books were cool with adults until the 90's. I mean Maus and Dark Knight and all, but still.
@@spectorcreative1872 Watchmen, The Crow, and The Sandman also, and in general comics took a darker turn after Dark Knight. Venom was introduced in Spider-Man in '88 for example.
And Hollywood took notice - there was a big shift in tone from the family friendly Superman IV in '87 to Batman and Darkman in "89-90, which targeted older audiences.
Great video and discussion!
When talking about this topic I always take as an example Minecraft x Lego. While Lego can limit you according to the playsets you have or even the number of bricks you have, Minecraft is more inclusive because everyone has the same basic resources to play. Even though I was born in the 80s and enjoyed my action figures, playsets and played like there was no tomorrow, I can see how some games made it more accessible for everyone as long as you have a smartphone or a PC.
And you are in total god mode control
Imagine my surprise to see you address my comment in this video about what what happened to toys after Nintendo! It was the closest I've ever been to an actual spittake!
Also disposable income changed in a lot of households from the 80's into the 90's. When the price-point for a child purchase went down the playset lost out. That's a big reason we saw a lot of those playsets recycled. Companies had already paid for the tooling and didn't make the money it needed to so they re-used it for another playset.
Oh this still happens. That tooling is expensive!
More and more often, for just about everything, I find myself quoting that taco commercial : "Why not BOTH?" :-P
Action figures & playsets AND video games. A little of both provides balance.
Who got chocolate in my Peanut Butter
As someone who had NES, but spent countless more hours playing with action figures in the 80s/90s, I think about this all the time. Digital entertainment VS nurturing creativity thru imagination play.
My favorite video games of that era gave me the same "kids as champions" and conquering a fear vibe as playing with my figures. Early games with a focus on the adventurer (Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid) instead of simply the action like alot of games today. Just a thought.
A very interesting thought to go on. We went through a very changing time with play
Its ashame the play sets went down hill. Hey young man haha this is #sledgemaster watching another show.
Truly it was
I loved play sets once upon a time. But now Lego scratches that itch for me. It’s the right form factor in terms of size and the construction element is just satisfying to me. I had no interest in getting the giant Classics Castle Grayskull due to its enormous size, but when Mattel brought out their Mega Construx version, I was right in line. That’s just me, though.
LEgo does make amazing sets with a great accomplishment emotional payoff
The Lost World bus play set always looked cool imo. The Batman playset even got reissued in the HasMatt line.
True! Crazy right!
My Atari 2600 was awesome, but some of the best memories of my entire life were with 'kid-powered' toys and playsets like Castle Grayskull, GI Joe Headquarters ( fort ), and Hot Wheels USA stuff.
Those made the best memories
I was one of those kids who love to play video games as well as play with action figures but when i was playing with TMNT or Super Heroes i wanted to have the the city playset like you would see in the tv ads and when i got my 1989 Batmobile from toybiz i never put the bat logos on the sides of the car because i wanted it to look like the movie. i loved using my imagination to make up things with my action figures. We also use to take the WWF ljn video games and use the them music to have that WWF Hasbro wrestler come down to the ring then wrestle. Now that i am a adult collector and make my own customs i still play with my actions figures using stop motion and still playset and backgrounds are a thing that is needed along with little props to make it look great.
That is awesome! I think that the whole "Robot Chicken" thing was invented by many of us individually.
@@spectorcreative1872 Thank you and i would have love to do that too but i was using a vhs camcorder and doing stop motion in 1996 and 1997 and was inspired by Nightmare Before Christmas and Rakin and Bass and i am sure if you seen my MOTU video i did on here you would laugh because i do it with still shots now and use my lap top.
I think one thing that may have affected things was that play sets are kind of big. My uncle passed down much of his older GI Joe vehicles and play sets, while i was getting into some of the newer sets. Most I had were reasonably sized but once you get much past 4 play sets you start to run our of physical real estate. I know at one point my mom sort of told me to start moving some of the play like the turtles sewer to be outside toys to sort of make room for others. When you add in the cardboard stuff that came (after I aged out mostly) parents would really consider whether it was worth the investment of a play set when the old ones were still there from older siblings, handed down from cousins etc you might invest in one or 2 but not the giant higher quality investment type pieces.
Combined with the cardboard types it's pretty hard to justify the investment into a play structure like that. I hadn't considered the video game aspect previously but that is a good point.
That is so awesome
Amazing video... One of your best yet..keep it up
Thrilled you like! Do pass it along online, it helps the channel a ton
I always wondered about this, god video👏🏻👍🏻👍🏻👌🏻👌🏻👊🏻👊🏻💯🤔.!
A theory but a good one me thinks
Seems like building block brands (Lego and Mega Construx) are the only ones making "playsets" these days and most of those out of the box are just facades. At least with those facades you can add more blocks to fill them out to full classic style playsets. And the Mega Construx figures are articulated enough to live up to the name of Micro Action Figures and interact with those brick built playsets in classic late 70's to early 80's play style.
Yup, them and playschool toys
when i was playing with my action figures from various lines, i would have to make up playsets using different parts of different toys from the past, like the fisher price? 3 story garage because it had an elevator and ample room for figures to stand on and around. i would use other things as well but that was just one example.
Oh you were not the only one!
The only line that gets semi-consistent play sets today is the Star Wars Vintage Collection, and that's aimed at adult collectors, is pretty telling.
Which is why it doesn’t sell!
Are playsets arguably more popular with the adult collector than kids currently? I see different playsets every year, and my nephews love their Bowser castle, but the bigger more involved sets I remember from the past few years have been more geared towards adult collectors (though to be fair I am thinking of Classics Grayskull and Snake Mountain...)
Currently, way more with adults. Which is why they don't make them.
Can you do a video about tabletop role-playing games?
Like Magic or Star Wars decipher? Sure.
I do not mind cardboard playsets. I just think they could be sold with toys in sections that make a full playset when assembled. Hell, I miss when packaging and parts of packaging could be used as playsets. I did that with my toys as a kid, making view screens, dioramas, etc.
Cardboard is okay in my book, but I much prefer a full plastic playset if I can get it!
Also there's a Toy Story short involving a dinowarrior playset and how the kid who owned it got into the new video game system and wasn't playing with the toys
Excellent point!
As a kid I always made my own play sets. All I needed was a big piece of cardboard, scissors, and some markers. Good times!
Indeed they were!!!
I remember my fave sets : Castle Greyskull, G.I.Joe Training Center ,& the Exploding bridge set w/Batman/Bat-mobile .I had a lot of fun with G.I.Joe Mercury splash-down capsule set with 45 rpm.I grew up right by the ocean ,so i could really throwit up ,while wading around in the ocean....like...sharkbait? we did some dumb shit back then....
Hey, we were kids!
The same goes for Lego sets as well! I had wondered this a lot in past!
Oh yes very much so
Loved this very informative video, even though playsets are not a part of my 80s childhood at all. Must come down to economic background.
Glad you enjoyed! Please feel free to share with others as well. It helps the channel a ton!
Using the analogy that a video game contains an entire wave (perhaps multiple waves) of action figures and their vehicles and playsets, paying for DLC and other extensions suggests a return to to the financial model used in traditional action figures.
Could be...
That ghostbusters playmobil firehouse is a worthy successor to the original kenner playset.
OH it is quite a toy. I enjoyed putting that one together
The Fisher Price Great Adventure Castle toy had the best of both worlds and served as the HQ for many a hero and villainy in my day.
Oh yes!
It's interesting. I never thought of it like that. I will take it further and I wonder and fear if one day LEGO will be the only surviving physical toy. All the rest will be replaced by videogames. I think the fact that toy stores have all gone out of business and toys occupy a small section of department stores is not a good sign.
When I was a kid, I had all of it. There was videogames, and toys (including action figures, Hot Wheels, LEGOs, etc,) but also playing outside.
It is funny you mentioned toys being more immersive and imaginative. In those older games I imagined quite a bit outside of the given presentation, which you almost had to with those older games. And some games, I got very immersed into and actually felt like I was one of the characters, or the characters were like my friends at times, especially with RPGs and more story driven games.
As I mentioned before I never saw myself as any of the action figures, but instead I was acting out an adventure for them. It was definitely immersive and imaginative, but I never saw myself as the characters.
And some games don't have such a set adventure, many give you lots of choices and whatnot. Of course they all have limits to what you can do, even the most open world, non-linear games.
If LEGO is the only physical toy that survives, it will be quite fitting, given how imaginative it is.
LEGO is a bit different. Whole you make environments, these are construction toys with a very different play pattern and emotional connection
I think the one toy line that still makes play sets is Sylvanian Family. Yeah, they are most likely doll houses, but they continue to make new versions such as cottages, lighthouses, windmills, and even large market malls that allow for interaction with the figures they release.
And these doll houses I’ve seen are very detailed with electronic lighting.
Oh those toys are so cute and furry
Scott, I wish there was a company that specialized in quality but generic playlets for superhero toys. But the playsets could be connected together over time to create a whole city of building and mansions and sewers and subways.
Some companies have tried it, the problem is major big box retail won't take things like that so they tend to not get the sales needed
I think a part of your analogy falls apart when you pointed out that with the play set you had to buy the figures separately. The flaw is that you're making the cartridges analogous to the play set, but they're actually analogous to the figures. The SYSTEM is analogous to the play set. Thus, video games actually were more expensive.
While I follow what you are saying, the system does nothing without a game vs a play set does not have to have figures to play with. It can be fun on its own.
I used to have a Marvel World Adventure playset...roughly a foot and a half in height, the whole thing was pasteboard, as were the Marvel characters included....loved it anyway.
Nice I recall that one!@