I'm studying Industrial/Product Design because I wanted to go into the Toy industry. One of the concepts in the course is the idea of "good design". Dieter Rams is famous for his 10 principles which are: "Good design is innovative, makes a product useful, is aesthetic, makes a product understandable, is unobtrusive, is honest, is long-lasting, is thorough down to the last detail, is environmentally friendly, and is as little design as possible." Google it for a clearer description.
This is a great list for products or tools with purpose but not really for Toys. Toys don't aim to be unobtrusive or as little design as possible, they often try to be the opposite. Instead of trying to achieve timeless universal design they're usually trying to ride the current trend or use superfluous gimmicks to sell.
I love toys, so I think that there can be examples of good design in them, but I'm starting to think that the industry is more akin to something like the fashion industry which tries to satisfy individual and group expression instead of the masses. What do you think?