Has anyone else noticed a distrubing lack of cartoon toys for atleast the last 2 years...

Has anyone else noticed a distrubing lack of cartoon toys for atleast the last 2 years? Whatever happend to jazwares making toys out of every CN show? Its like they were there one moment and then the next just suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. Im still hoping OK KO gets some toys and that SU gets some proper articulated action figures.

There's probably plenty of high quality statues but now funko pop's seem to dominate the cartoon merchandise area and even other things like dbz.

>look like complete shit and nothing like their respected characters because of those beady soulless eyes
>cant articulate worth a damn and have way too big heads
>is preferred by normal fags in favor of actually good action figures
The state of normie retardation, ladies and gentlemen. North korea cant nuke us soon enough.

China has moved on to making cars and stuff and America is yet to realize it is now the sweatshop factory for cheap plastic. Dream on my illiterate friend - in no time you'll be hotglueing US made figurines.

>making my own figures
Will i get a discount on the toys i make?

Jazwares knew how to sculpt a toy but not how to really engineer one. Their Sonic line was a mess because it had to deal with BIG heads on thin bodies. Then the HB/Nicktoons line came in, which had that and sideways elbows. it also may have to do with market saturation. Minions and Marvel were the new hot thing, then the funkos and blindbox shit started coming in to clog shelves and sell well. pretty much the only things left are Ben 10, TMNT and Voltron.

western cartoons don't usually work as figures. They frequently make no sense in 3d space, and part of their appeal is how they can constantly warp and shift, something a figure can't do
jazwares' AT shit was so low quality the limbs just snapped if you tried to move them.

Honestly the only good modern cartoon figure I have seen in the last 5 years has been the McDonalds happy meal BMO. It's cute as fuck.

good lord, that marceline figure was a disappointment.

See, the thing is, id rather have a crappy figure of a character i love then no figure at all or just a shitty funko pop. Why are those things even popular with normies again. Thankfully with SU some blindboxes came out with half decent representations of the characters, but they still dont move. I am willing to soend money on action figures for shows like SU and ok ko, why is CN so hesitent to tap a market that would gladly give them their cash?
I have that in my room somewhere. Its adorable
They still can work as a 3D space if there on model. Hell, if invader zim, whose characters angular points typically end in stick figure like limbs, can get a good toyline by the late great plaisades, then theres no excuse for other companys to do the same. Also, jazwares, as much as i praise them for making toys of cartoons no one else would, had terrible QC in the past and alot of defective toys got past their radar and onto the shelves. They mostly fixed that by their gravity falls line, which ended prematurely because hirsch is a lazy cuck and refused to give us the third season we deserved.

truth!

simplicity is a premium onto itself. do we really need BMO with 50 points of articulation, series accurate accessories and several interchangable faces?

probably but this one is more than sufficient.

The market has changed, sadly. You could pump out decent quality toys of any property in the 80's and 90's and worst case scenario it'd just sit in KB toys bargain bins for a year or so. Video games were still very much treated as toys and kids played with them as much as they did with more traditional toys. With the internet becoming more easily accessible to the common person and technology just getting more and more advanced and small, action figures saw increasing competition. Most kids use action figures as a means to role play or create stories alone or with friends, but there's only so much you can do with a 5POA Earthworm Jim figure. Video games were now so complex and detailed that you could create your own character and interact with other people across the world. Even outside of MMO's, stuff like Mario 64 was mind blowingly immersive. An entire 3D world with sub worlds and endless interactivity that blows any old Castle Greyskull or Gotham City playset out of the water.

Most of the kids I knew usually had to pick between getting some action figures or getting a new game due to how expensive games were, and more often than not they'd pick the game because it seemed like a better investment. Then when they got a bit older they'd just hang out online and maybe RP on some forum or something. Technology was the cool new toy and what kid wouldn't pick the cool new thing over the old, analogue dinosaur? Companies got wind of this and tried to adapt in different ways with varying success. Over time the focus shifted more to digital playthings over physical playthings, and that reflected in the quality and quantity of plastic toys. Something like RS would have probably had big, chunky TMNT-esque figures with crazy accessories in the 90's but the market is different. Luckily there's been an uptick in companies pandering to their collector demographic but it's still far from perfect.

Also forgot to mention, apps are pretty much the new toys. Look at something like Mighty Magiswords. In the 90's it would have been a marketer's wet dream to make it into a toyline. A bunch of colourful characters and an endless array of swords you could limit to certain character packs to increase sales? I'm not even a fan of the show myself but I probably would've been as a kid if not just for the hypothetical toyline. Instead of a massive glut of action figures we have the app game CN is always pushing. You don't even need to buy it (at least not to my knowledge) and the way you get more swords is by just watching shows on CN. Having kids keep an app open generating ad revenue while generating views is so much more streamlined and effective than taking a huge gamble on making a show and hoping the toys and maybe GBA game sells well enough that it won't be a financial disaster.

Thats weird, because when was a kid and still feel like video games are less interesting and fun as normal toys. Maybe its because me and my sick demented mind could come up with weird stories for my figures, and video games where constrained to one single narrative and levels you were made to pass. Could it be kids are getting less imaginative and are expecting game devlopers to make up their playing experiance for them because there too lazy to make one up with optimus prime or skeletor?

But for all i know is you just collect the swords on the app. Whats the play value in that? I really dont understand kids these days. Maybe its because my mom thought video games were violent and would inspire me to be a serial killer(i made darth vader cut off victims limbs so not playing video games didnt stop me from being a sick fuck), but ive never been seriously invested in video games and to this day i dont own a single console.

>Could it be kids are getting less imaginative and are expecting game devlopers to make up their playing experiance for them because there too lazy to make one up with optimus prime or skeletor?
I wouldn't say that at all. Kids today are the product of their generation just as much as we were products of ours. Their parents probably used tech as a babysitter like ours did with toys. Anything to keep their kid occupied and having a glass tablet with an infinite library of every possible form of entertainment is a pretty good option. Figures break and kids grow tired of them quick, or something new comes out that they beg for until the next month when another new figure comes out and it starts over. The same happens with tech, sure, but new phones come out much slower. They play with what they know. Can't play with figures if your parents don't get them for you.
Collecting is fun, whether it be Pokemon cards, pogs, or crazy bones, kids will always go nuts over having something to accumulate a lot of. This is pretty much the new generation of that, and you don't even have to pay for endless booster packs (to my knowledge? maybe you do). Heck, adults play Hearthstone and that's more or less the same idea save for collecting them by watching cartoons.

"he who dies with the most x wins"

are trading cards still a viable money earner today or rendered obsolete by apps like the magisword thing?

>He doesnt realize the adult toy collectible market is now more lucrative than ever

true but it depends on the property. even if they somehow managed to make a high premium toyline of regular show (with the prices to match), someone will call you out that you could've spent your money on something else (or on a property that no one will call you out for buying).

but that's just petty random people, no one important

Yeah, it's really just Dreamworks who still thinks it's somehow a good idea to make a cartoon for the express purpose of selling toys.

true.
still it's a hard market to get your feet into and getting the right property can decide if you have a chance at success or not (how many would buy them because of the property alone).

if it's a niche property and your product doesn't live up to the standard? it's company suicide.

Kids today have sandbox games like minecraft that are less constrained than old toys let alone old games. They are infinitely more creative than we were.

>trading cards still a viable money earner today
>viable money earner
wait whaaa?
can i get some info on this because i don't believe you

It's uniform; like beanie babies for IP you care about. It's utter genius, really.

i'm asking. not saying they are viable money earners to this day.

when was the last time marvel released a trading card collection (i don't think DC did much trading cards)? I remember them doing mostly the x-men in the 90s but when did it became clear to them cards aren't selling anymore unless they're in some sort of gaming format (like magic the gathering).

How did you miss "are"??

I still have those figures, they were fucking awesome. Rigby came with baby ducks.

And for why Jazwares lost the Cartoon network license, I have no fucking clue. I emailed them a long time ago about their Gravity Falls stuff and they said they didn't have any more licenses to Disney or Cartoon Network franchises after Gravity Falls. I asked them about Gumball and they were never approached to make any.

It's a shame because Jazwares makes a variety of their toy lines. I've collected almost all of their Adventure Time shit and it's so cool. Like those grow your own Finns and Jake's, splat toys, those tiny miniatures, the pillows. It was unique and even if their figures aren't too great everything is else was. Cool stuff and I'd wish they would make some new stuff for Steven Universe, Mighty Magiswords, and K.O.

That figure was so fucking weird. I still bought it though. The other figures were cool though, like the Mordecai with moving beak and pops with moving mustache. I could never find Benson though. Does anyone know if a Benson figure ever existed?

Yea with a flame of rage and walkman

Oh wait, there are two of them? I thought there was just the tiny Benson on the back of the box. You know, the 3 inch ones.

Yea, there's the tiny cake topper sets, and I think the Park Crew box set might be a different thing, and then there's single-character packets like Rigby with Coffee Pot, Ducks, Trampoline, and Pizza King crown- Mordecai with Soda and Lawnmower, and Benson with Flame of Rage and a Walkman, and it's pretty well done- good luck finding it in acceptable condition.

There's also these other 3, might be a Pops somewhere? I think the Skips one is great. When I get enough money I'll attempt to find a mint package

Found Pops, he doesn't come with anything though. He might just be a larger Park Crew design.

There's also THESE AREN'T EVEN THE COOL CLOTHES FROM THE 80S Mordecai and Rigby bobblehead things, which are decent.

That's the one I have, it sits on my work desk. Really cute figure, I've been trying to find the other figures but they are pricey as hell on Ebay.

Like the other guys said, video games/apps have replaced toys for many kids, and many adult collectors are content with Funko Pops.

It happened with fashion dolls too. When monster high came out it was a hit with kids and collectors alike, but now the brand is going in an ultracheap direction that no one likes.

All I can say is wait for the pendulum to swing back and toys to become popular again.

>I've been trying to find the other figures but they are pricey as hell on Ebay.
Same, so far I've settled with buying comic variants and getting the iffy funkos- of which I only have Skips.

I'm saving money checking Ebay every couple days if I can waiting to see if anything great pops up, something rare or valuable.

Most of the mid/late 2000s shows were built around
Make popular show > Make toys > Profit

They continued this into the 2010s but I think either CN is desperate for hits or they find they can make more money off the show by licensing out the rights to the show to different companies (for instance, FunkoPops, the little mystery bag shit they do for Steven Universe, etc)

What seems to be working as well is getting those rights to the show off to multiple *brands* than one single toymaker. So little jimmy might not buy just the toy, but he'll get the shirt, the backpack, the folder, etc.

Ben 10 has consistently had decent toys, and the new ones actually remind me of the ones for the original series. I think Hasbro is making them so they're a little bit better, much better than Bandai cashing in with garbage at the end of AF/UA where they just made colored variations.

card hype was pretty much dead by the late nineties, that Fleer Ultra X-Men series was the peak

whats with his stache?

...

With 3d printers? I don't see anybody hotgluing anything in mass in the future.