There Seems to be a Resurgence in 80’s and 90’s Toys
I have written several times about my collection of Transformers. It was my favorite toy as a kid followed by G.I. Joe, He-Man and Legos. Something I have noticed over the last several months is a resurgence in these toys of the 80's and early 90's. For the eternal kid in me, it's glorious seeing these toys in their original packaging and molds on stores shelves again. But what is driving this? The short answer is, nostalgia.
Yes, nostalgia. If you are around my age of 43, you probably had the same toys growing up. Now, we are adults with steady income and kids that are about the same age we were when we had these. It would certainly make for some cool stories to tell your kids. It would go something like this:
We would get up about 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning, the only time we were willing to be up so early. We would flip on the TV to find our favorite cartoons. With our bowl of cereal in hand, we'd sit down, have breakfast and get lost in those fantasy worlds. We'd take a nap after lunch then head outside either by our self or with our friends and play out our own stories with the toys of those cartoons.
Those fantasy worlds would extend into the week as well. As soon as we got home from school, we'd be indulged with Transformers, G.I. Joe and many others until 4 or 4:30. After that, we'd get busy on our homework until dinner.
It was a simple time as a youth. A time that we look back on fondly and wish it was something that existed for our kids today. Cable, video games and this urge to have everything be educational took a lot of that away.
Companies like Hasbro, who has the rights to toys such as Transformers and G.I. Joe, are feeding off that nostalgia with the reintroduction of the toys, exactly modeled, from the packaging to the figure, to take us back to those awesome days. A cash grab? Most likely. But it seems to be a cash grab that we're willing to fall for to take us all back to those weekend afternoons in the dirt in our back yards.