>>8261912We're stuck in a cycle of "everything old is new again". The people who used to be children of the 80s, 90s, are now grown adults that fondly remember all the goofy Rock Lords and Trash Bag Bunch toys they had as a child. It was a time where shows like Thundercats and He Man were popping up as advertisements for toys and we were porting over Japanese characters to westernize like Power Rangers and Transformers, mainly so we could sell merchandise from them.
Today kids are stuck in a technology bubble and the market has shifted to the grownups who want the Voltron, Thundercats, and Transformers toys they had as children, but better. That new GI Joe line isn't for kids, it's for the 35yo who wants a Snake Eyes that looks advanced and grown up for his advanced, grown up tastes. And every 10 years or so someone will make a bigger and better Snake Eyes, or Optimus Prime, or Lion-O until the people who remember the cartoons like us are too old to care or have passed away.
I don't know what comes after that however. We don't have Saturday morning cartoons anymore to act as advertising agents for toys. Kids can hop onto Fortnite any time they want and get their 'toon fix' or just stream something on their phone. They don't need a Wreck it Ralph toy anymore because they have Ralph at their fingertips and can play the app, watch the movie, see the newest web short, or download the pictures as their phone backgrounds. They don't have to wait for the next episode of Brand-X and see what new character or villain shows up because they binge watched the whole series.
