time for an old lady rant
I'm not old and crotchetty enough yet to go ranting about how 'them kids have no respect these days', but I do feel the need to vent about how them toy companies have no respect for kids' intelligence these days.
What the heck has happened to all the cool toys from our childhood and our parents' childhood and even before that?!
I remember being annoyed as a kid about how you couldn't get a half-way decent jump-rope in this country. They're all cheapo light plastic that gets blown about in the wind or else those horrendous plastic-cylinders-strung-on-a-string things that were probably designed to double as deadly weapons, with dual pinch-and-slap action. How hard can it be to make a jump-rope out of decent heavy rope (they make them for competitive rhythmic gymnastics but those are ludicrously expensive)? Same thing for hula-hoops. The uber-light, sparkly, break-in-a-day ones annoyed me as a kid. And now, it seems a non-crappy hula-hoop is pretty much impossible to find (as we discovered during our ditch day adventures).
Speaking of ditch-day related discoveries in this vein... Apparently you can't get those small bouncy balls very easily nowadays 'cause they're a choking hazard. And then there's the Erector sets. Remember when construction sets were made of durable metal and came with a sufficient selection of basic parts to build scores of different models? Well I do, just barely. Nowadays, you're lucky if you can find anything at all that isn't made of easy-snap-together plastic, no tools, thought or creativity required, no sharp edges, and heaven forbid some part be so small that it could be swallowed. And even if you can find an erector-like set on a toy store shelf, it'll be designed to make one thing and one thing only. Which pretty much completely destroys the point of a construction set in the first place, as far as I can see.
These things irritate me periodically whenever I find myself in the position of needing to buy presents for little kids. I went shopping today to get a New Year's present for a 5-year-old girl. I don't much want to encourage her pretty-pink-princess obsession, which pretty much rules out 90% of toys in the girl-toy section of the store. I thought I had a great idea this year, though. Remember spirograph? Those geared wheel things that you could use to draw really cool patterns without needing any artistic skill whatsoever. I personally think it's an awesome toy - or at least it used to be. But it turns out that only one company makes them. And they've been bought up by Hasbro. Who've apparently decided that clearly the way to improve spirograph is to take out half the gears and most of the larger shapes, use a thinner plastic so that it's impossible to draw without slipping, and then color it in neon colors and try to convince buyers that it's as good as the real Spirograph they remember from their childhood. So, yeah, unless you're willing to buy vintage 1960s - 1980s versions off of ebay (or can dig out your own set from an attic somewhere), say goodbye to the spirograph method of entertaining this generation of children.
Honestly, how hard can it be to set aside a tiny little section of your business to making toys that don't have computer chips and don't flash neon lights, and don't involve glitter and general pink-ness, but are just good quality, durable classic toys (at non-vintage prices would be nice). Is it really too much to expect that the next generation of kids get to play with at least as nice toys as we had? Will somebody *please* think of the children???
What the heck has happened to all the cool toys from our childhood and our parents' childhood and even before that?!
I remember being annoyed as a kid about how you couldn't get a half-way decent jump-rope in this country. They're all cheapo light plastic that gets blown about in the wind or else those horrendous plastic-cylinders-strung-on-a-string things that were probably designed to double as deadly weapons, with dual pinch-and-slap action. How hard can it be to make a jump-rope out of decent heavy rope (they make them for competitive rhythmic gymnastics but those are ludicrously expensive)? Same thing for hula-hoops. The uber-light, sparkly, break-in-a-day ones annoyed me as a kid. And now, it seems a non-crappy hula-hoop is pretty much impossible to find (as we discovered during our ditch day adventures).
Speaking of ditch-day related discoveries in this vein... Apparently you can't get those small bouncy balls very easily nowadays 'cause they're a choking hazard. And then there's the Erector sets. Remember when construction sets were made of durable metal and came with a sufficient selection of basic parts to build scores of different models? Well I do, just barely. Nowadays, you're lucky if you can find anything at all that isn't made of easy-snap-together plastic, no tools, thought or creativity required, no sharp edges, and heaven forbid some part be so small that it could be swallowed. And even if you can find an erector-like set on a toy store shelf, it'll be designed to make one thing and one thing only. Which pretty much completely destroys the point of a construction set in the first place, as far as I can see.
These things irritate me periodically whenever I find myself in the position of needing to buy presents for little kids. I went shopping today to get a New Year's present for a 5-year-old girl. I don't much want to encourage her pretty-pink-princess obsession, which pretty much rules out 90% of toys in the girl-toy section of the store. I thought I had a great idea this year, though. Remember spirograph? Those geared wheel things that you could use to draw really cool patterns without needing any artistic skill whatsoever. I personally think it's an awesome toy - or at least it used to be. But it turns out that only one company makes them. And they've been bought up by Hasbro. Who've apparently decided that clearly the way to improve spirograph is to take out half the gears and most of the larger shapes, use a thinner plastic so that it's impossible to draw without slipping, and then color it in neon colors and try to convince buyers that it's as good as the real Spirograph they remember from their childhood. So, yeah, unless you're willing to buy vintage 1960s - 1980s versions off of ebay (or can dig out your own set from an attic somewhere), say goodbye to the spirograph method of entertaining this generation of children.
Honestly, how hard can it be to set aside a tiny little section of your business to making toys that don't have computer chips and don't flash neon lights, and don't involve glitter and general pink-ness, but are just good quality, durable classic toys (at non-vintage prices would be nice). Is it really too much to expect that the next generation of kids get to play with at least as nice toys as we had? Will somebody *please* think of the children???