Where are the Toy Commercials?

 Every now and then, I like to give a little rant about where collecting action figures goes from here. I have been a fan of former Mattel/Jakks Pacific toy line manager Scott Neitlich's YouTube channel Spector Creative, and I disagree with his views on some points. For instance his recent video about Masters of the Universe Origins and Masterverse toy lines ending in April. Now, could it be true? Possibly, I could see Target and Wal-Mart shrinking their aisle presence, in some ways that's happened. I do enjoy MOTU Origins as much as I enjoy the Star Wars Vintage Collection. If MOTU Origins were to vanish, it would be a sad thing, as like the Star Wars VC they have faithfully stuck to the old style card from the 1980's. It's a nostalgia trip! Now whether Scott is right about the line going dead, there is one major thing he is right about in all his videos: kids determine the success or failure of a toy line. And the bottom line is, kids aren't playing with action figures.

While adults are the ones who buy the majority of toys, Spector Creative has claimed that only 20-25% of all toy sales are exclusively the adult collectors. Now, I don't know if that's a true number or not but for the sake of this blog post I will take it as true. The other 75% is kids driving their parents, grandparents, etc to buy toys for birthdays, Christmas or for being good at school or not flinging spit balls at various shoppers or the person offering food samples (is that still a thing post Covid?!). Even taking a look in toy aisles, you see "kid friendly" toy lines. Hasbro makes a 5-6 inch Marvel scale with limited articulation and action features. Spin Masters does the kid friendly DC stuff. Mission Fleet is Star Wars kid friendly line. There's also Playskool, LEGO's, and Playmobil toys. All kid friendly for the most part, although LEGO and Playmobil have gone for the adult collectors with deluxe LEGO sets for James Bond and Playmobil making the Original Series USS Enterprise for Star Trek.

But what do you not see, or hardly see on TV anymore? Toy commercials! With kids now playing mostly video games or watching YouTube they are a rare commodity. More families choose streaming over basic cable but ads can run. So why not make toy commercials?! Kids imitate what they see, my generation (1980's kids) were definitely like that! If we saw a kid in a commercial playing GI Joe, we'd have a friend who had one and I would need to get one to play with my friends as we took on Cobra. It was playground networking, and it was fun! Go look up old toy commercials for Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, Masters of the Universe, Barbie, Strawberry Shortcake, etc. About the only toy commercials I see are for Barbie now. Playmates YouTube channel has John De Lancie (aka Q) doing commercials for the new Star Trek figures. Hasbro, where are YOUR commercials?!

Now, let's face hard facts: kids are NOT getting Vintage Collection or Black Series figures. I mean, it would be cool if they did! But Hasbro doesn't really want them to appeal to kids, those are largely for the collectors, especially the Vintage Collection! How many kids do you see playing with Marvel Legends figures? Same thing. Hasbro has kid friendly Marvel and Star Wars lines. Hopefully as those kids get older they see the appeal in collecting VC, Black Series and yes, Marvel Legends to keep the line growing. But there in lies the problem. The adult collector is currently in their 30's and 40's, some are in their early 50's and are looking to get out of the hobby as other life events force them to evaluate spending habits for retirement in the future. Your current collection may not finance a large part of it, but a small portion. Your 1980's era figures might fund a slightly larger portion of it. Hasbro should want these lines to continue, and should STRONGLY reconsider casting kids to make commercials of them playing with toys. Kids often imitate what they see on whatever screen they watch, especially when it comes to playing with toys. If the kids on TV want to play with toys, so will they.

But retailers now are scarce. In the 1980's there was Sears, K-Mart, TG & Y, Wilson's who became Service Merchandise, Howard's, and of course toy store chains like Children's Palace, Circus World, KayBee, Children's Palace and a few others I might have missed but I'm just going on what was near me where I lived. Wal-Mart and Target are the top brick and mortar retailers now as all of the ones I mentioned are now gone. Walgreen's and GameStop are reducing their toy aisles drastically. Amazon is the most dominant chain, but they have no physical store, just multiple centers to ship out stuff. Online ordering is where it's at now. Amazon dominates that, but other companies like Entertainment Earth & Big Bad Toy Store ship stuff as well. Dorkside Toys and Old Republic Collectables have gone the way of Howard's and Service Merchandise, they're gone. Without any major toy store chain in existence in the US, getting toys on shelves is tough. Wally World and Target have limited space. It's one of the reasons you don't see lots of vehicles or playsets anymore. Going to look at toy sections 20 years ago was fun, especially when Toys R Us and Kaybee were options on toy hunts. Now? You rarely find anything. I was late to getting an account for online shipping as until 2019 I counted on finding what I wanted at retail. Or I went the eBay route. Today's collectors have to get stuff online now, if only to guarantee they can get what they want.

I don't know if MOTU Origins and Masterverse will end as Spector Creative says they will. One day, yeah. April? I am not sure. Amazon, EE and BBTS plus Matty Collector could sustain the line via online retail if Wally World and Target pulled them off their shelves, or stuck them in the collectors section near electronics, which would be a better place to put them anyway in my humble opinion. Collectors can keep a line alive, but only a little while. But kids need to fall in love with these lines as well. MOTU Origins could be the best selling toy line simply because you can mix and match figure parts, and the more recent figures are more durable and are built to be played with roughly. Kids would love this! So why aren't they being properly marketed?! I doubt a 6 or 7 year old knows about MOTU Origins, Star Wars VC & Black Series or Marvel Legends. Or Marvel kid friendly figures. Or Mission Fleet.

Bottom line toy companies: you have to connect to your buyers. That includes fan sites. Years ago Hasbro did fan site Q&A's on the fan sites. This can be seen on YouTube at times but it feels like a disconnect. It feels like this is the only time they talk to these people and I wonder if they even read the collecting sites anymore. People are willing and want to buy your products, but you have to let them know they're out there. And you have to show kids why Indiana Jones and Spider-Man toys are better than video games and YouTube videos. Because unless they reach today's kids and convince them through advertising that toys can be fun, when my generation meets it's end it's likely that action figures may join the retail graveyard.