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I miss the good old days when things were a lot cheaper than they are
today. For example, back in the late 1970's when Star Wars was just out and
the 3.75" line of toys were coming out for new fledgling companies, the
average action figure cost $1.99 and you could pick them up virtually
anywhere. These days the average 3.75" action figure is about $6-$7, but you
can find them for less at places like Wal-Mart or Target, but not by much.
The new GI Joe 3.75" line is the perfect example of this. One figure from
the line on a card as opposed to multi-packs of figures runs about $5.99
plus tax. The Star Wars line has special versions of their figures that has
the figure mounted on a reproduction of the original card (from the 1970's
and 80's) and comes in a plastic figure holder that you can reseal. These
figures run anywhere from $11.50-$12 each and I can barely justify the cost
of these figures to myself at retail. If you can try to get them for less
through e-bay or on-line retailers.
Is it just me or is there just too many variations for characters? For
example, in the Spider-Man line there are more variations of Spider-Man than
any of the bad guys that come out in the line. I can see this happening in a
toy line like Star Wars because the characters changed so much that multiple
versions of the characters is justified. With a line like Spider-Man where
there is only one official version of the main character and maybe one or
two versions of the bad guys depending on outfits and things like that there
is vary little justification for Water Squirting, Rope Climbing, Spider-man
with optional Jackhammer attachments. Lets say I like the Spider-Man
character and I want to find a version of him without any special gimmick
except maybe a few extra joints so I can pose him. I go to the nearest store
with a Toy aisle and start looking for something that might meet my needs. I
wade through the Star Wars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other toy
lines that really need a break, and eventually I get to the Spider-Man
figures. I start looking at the pegs for a posable Spider-Man. I wade
through the verious versions of Spider-Man and find nothing like what I was
looking for. I refer to various price guides and find out that the version I
was looking for was put out over 3 years ago and is worth 2-3 times what I
would have paid in the store.
What happened to the imagination that kids are supposed to have when
they play with toys? When we got Black Suit Spider-Man back in the Secret
Wars line we had to knot a string around the figure's wrist to allow him to
have webbing for him to swing from. These days kids have the option of
getting any sort of action figure they want with virtually any option they
want.
That's all for now. If you have any questions for me, direct them to my
editor and she will see that I get them.
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