>>6835785I'm in my 40s and I've watched as toy popularity ramped up in the 70s, had a huge upswing in the 80s, and then started a slow decline in the late 90s.
Now we're in 2018 and toys are growing ever more expensive while even more cheaply made, with shoddy construction and QC, beholden to ridiculous safety laws.
There have been brief upswings, but most of the industry is slowly going down the tubes as digital entertainment gains popularity. The death of the retail toy ecosystem is evidence enough.
A significant portion of every retail toy selection is a rehash of something designed to cater to the nostalgia of those who grew up during the 80s toy boom, and literally everything on the shelves is trash made in China. Even Lego minifigs.
The only chance future fans of the toy industry as a whole have is a renaissance born of 3d printing.
