By James Casey
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 5, 1998

Toy Story: What went wrong in the action figure world

Photo courtesy of Hasbro Toys. Arizona Daily Wildcat GI Joe: A real American hero, fighting Cobra and Destro. Knowing is half the battle, little dudes.

5 a.m., Dec. 25 1981: A bleak and bleary Christmas morning for anyone over 12, but for me, and millions of other 3-11 year olds, it is the greatest day of the year. I fondly remember dashing into our living room wearing "Star Wars" PJs and mustering enough childish energy to dive under the tree while simultaneously tearing the wrapping off a somewhat gargantuan box. What I found inside was more precious than gold, rarer than platinum and better than any other toy to come before it. Many of you, I'm sure, had experiences similar to this during the holiday seasons of your childhoods, be it a large Millennium Falcon from Santa, or a whopping Barbie playhouse from Mum and Dad.

In my time, there were three dynasties of boy's toys: "Star Wars," "GI Joe" and "He-Man." "Star Wars" was the first for me, with Han, Leia, Luke, Darth and Obi-Wan.

These somewhat immobile figures offered a good three years of entertainment until the wee "GI Joe" figures turned up with their movable arms and legs, readily armed for all modes of combat. "He-Man" was the alternative to these figures, with a somewhat smaller following and less range as far as characters went.

Nowadays, toys seem to lack that magical quality that their predecessors possessed. Market research has shown that today's toys rarely live on for more than a year. "The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" illustrate this perfectly; three years ago, if you had a full Power Ranger suit, you were the bees knees, but now, any self-respecting kid wouldn't be seen dead with one in his closet, let alone on his torso.

Photo courtesy of Hasbro Toys. Arizona Daily Wildcat Star Wars action figures.

The main reason for the success of the old toys was probably due to the ways in which they were marketed. "Star Wars" was an epic movie and therefore the toys reflected this huge potentially-collectable empire; "GI-Joe" had numerous comics, cartoons and gadgets to lure kiddies in, and "He-Man" - well, he had his muscles and scared children into buying his toys.

The only promising new toys today are the new "Star Wars" ones. The main problem with the plastic buggers is that their bodies have been re-molded and they now look more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than a scrawny Mark Hamill. Eight out of the top 10 current action figures (according to Toy Fare magazine, March 1998) are from the new "Star Wars" collection, illustrating the appeal of old-style figures, which weren't solely based on ripping the kids (and their parents) off.

All in all, it seems as though we had a far better selection of quality toys back in the old days, although perhaps that's just my sense of nostalgia speaking. However, if multimillion dollar corporations like Kenner and Mattel want some real advice they should look at the older figures and realize what went wrong.