>>10019536What's popular in action figures waxes and wanes. Right now, vehicles and playsets are kind of on the outs which is pretty sad, but to be fair, there hasn't really been a piece of media recently that makes kids go crazy about wanting to own a plastic representation of everything in the show/movie/game. Star Wars in particular is in a really sad place with how much it's had to downsize, going from massive oversized vehicles in 2010 to the massively shrunk down Micro Galaxy line, which is all you'll find for vehicles in stores now.
Batman remains an evergreen IP though. Even the R-Rated The Batman got a full line of toys, and I applaud Spinmaster for actually pricing them where kids can actually buy them. If Spinmaster can put out a 3.75" Batman action figure for $8 I see no reason why Hasbro has to sell GI Joe and Star Wars figures for $16-20 a pop. I didn't even particularly care for The Batman but I'm happy that it's at least given kids a good selection of Batman toys to pick from.
Given that we're at the start of a recession, I applaud any toy maker for putting action figures on shelves for under $10. I have no doubt that playsets will eventually make a return if they are focused on being value-focused. One of the reasons the Bat Cave was such a successful playset is because the same mold got used for every version of Batman up until the rights changed hands, and that also kept the price within reach if a kid wanted to save up for it.
