DEATH TO TOY FADS

[jjllbb]

What i hate most about the toy fads are the EBAY guys who buy the entire store's supply to sell them for 3x as much.

They're the ones who create the frenzy. Grown men who seem to have nothing better to do than be at a toy store at 9am every weekday morning? They probably make enough money doing it i guess. Ripping people off and all.

They're the reason no one can find any hot wheels, zhu zhus, etc. I hate them.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

What i hate most about the toy fads are the EBAY guys who buy the entire store's supply to sell them for 3x as much.

They're the ones who create the frenzy. Grown men who seem to have nothing better to do than be at a toy store at 9am every weekday morning? They probably make enough money doing it i guess. Ripping people off and all.

They're the reason no one can find any hot wheels, zhu zhus, etc. I hate them.

It's like that for buying concert tickets now too. The resellers combined with the great satan known as ticketmaster are enough to make me almost never go to shows anymore unless I really like the performer.

[jackfaire]

speaks for itself

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/17/ps...on-launch-day/

[AriGriffin]

I remember seeing an ad for Oopsie Baby, a doll that crawled, fell, cried, and called for 'Mama,' when I was around three-years-old. I had to have that doll. I begged Mom for it for months. Finally Christmas Day came around and there was one waiting for me under the tree. Mom turned it on and it scared the crap out of me. It was way too loud. I refused to go anywhere near that possessed doll.
Mom was mad because that toy was not cheap. She ended up taking it back to Toys-R-Us and getting store credit. I got a soft-body baby doll that didn't make any noise (still have her), a plastic body sheep dog, and a few other toys.

[LadyAndreca]

It's like that for buying concert tickets now too. The resellers combined with the great satan known as ticketmaster are enough to make me almost never go to shows anymore unless I really like the performer.

Ughhhh, tell me about it. My husband promised his dad tickets to a Giants game for his birthday. Then found out after the fact that thanks to resellers, tickets are $300 plus 'handling fees' (for being willing to sell you a ticket at all) per person for the third level of the stadium! And since the game in question is on my birthday, the only way I could stop the crapstorm that started over THAT ("You said 'any'!" "I didn't expect you to pick her birthday!") was to go with. Not that I really mind seeing a live football game, but I don't care for either the Giants or the Cowboys. (I cheer for the Vikings.)

So we're out something like $1050 after tickets, extra fees, and taxes...ouchies...this had better be the best damn game of the whole season, that's all I'm saying!

I told them next time, we might as well get round-trip tickets to Minneapolis, stay with my parents, and watch them play the Vikings in the Metrodome. It would cost...let me check Orbitz and Ticketmaster...about $50 more than going to Giants Stadium and we'd get to spent the weekend with my parents.

[xaenon]

Wow. I have a 16 year old, a 14 year old, and a 4 year old. How did I not manage to hear about these things until this thread?

We've never done the toy fad thing. If aunts/uncles/grandparents want to, more power to them, but we will not.

Count yourself lucky. I worked at Kmart for three years in the 1980s, quitting
just before Thanksgiving day in 1988 because I did not want to endure the hell of Black Friday ever, ever again. I recall there was some 'fad' toy that year (cannot now remember what it was) and given the war zone of the previous year, I swore
I would NEVER work retail during a holiday season again.

My instincts were correct - two of my ex-coworkers were injured in the rush. Not
seriously, thank (insert deity here), but still.

Every time I think I have faith in humanity again, another holiday season arrives
and that faith is crushed into fine powder and scattered to the four winds.

[tigress666]

I can't believe htose zhu zhu things are the fad of the year. I've seen the ads and it just looks like a cheap hamster with wheels and a track.

I think the fad I fell into is I did collect beanie babies. Even have a collection of them (and one I paid more for because it was a black cat and my first kitty was a black cat). Shoot, I have a pic of one of my current cats sitting next to my collection (it's very cute, she looks like she's part of the collection).

What can I say, they were cute? But I didn't go collecting htem all, only ones I found cute *shrug* that happened to be in the store (save the black cat).

When I was a kid, I did get a cabbage patch doll. I had no idea until college they were some fad thing though. Have no idea if they were a fad when I got one (I did actually want it, which is odd since I usually don't like dolls. Shoot, I'd fall for the barbie ads and then my parents would get me barbie and I'd play with it for 2 minutes. They stopped getting me those). The toy I was always excited to get was your random Radio Shack remote control car of that year. I just loved remote control cars. And transformers and G I Joes (Which I have a collection of as well, what can I say, I never really grew up . Those guys at least a few years ago still commanded a price for an original Transformer toy).

[jackfaire]

I think the fad I fell into is I did collect beanie babies.

Oh god I was working at a McDonald's when that particular fad was on and we sold mini beanie babies with happy meals. TY made a special one given only to employees as a thank you for putting up with the craziness. The thing was never worth anything. My mom freaked out on me the day I ripped open the package tore off the tag and gave it to my baby girl.

[South Texan]

I can't believe htose zhu zhu things are the fad of the year. I've seen the ads and it just looks like a cheap hamster with wheels and a track.

And it is. Your point?

Never underestimate the power of stupid consumers in massive groups.

(And since I just got in line yesterday at 5:30 to get one, I can say that.)


.

[workerbee222]

I remember during the Cabbage Patch craze, one un-crazed mother asking a friend "What does it mean about our culture when every child has to have the exact same toy?"

I had forgotten about the Beanie babies until a year or so ago when I saw a basket of them at Salvation Army for fifty cents apiece.

And I thought it was funny when I heard that representatives for the company who made Tickle Me Hellmo had tried mightily to sell the toy to various retailers months earlier, so it would be in the stores by Christmas. The retail buyers just didn't think it was that interesting, and the public didn't care either...until Rosie O'Donnell commented that her child loved his and gave one to everyone in her audience.

I'll date myself here - the hot toy when I was a kid was a Spirograph.

[Sliceanddice]

i miss pogs.
i was into pokemon and i had a virtual pet.
thats about it.
furby scares me

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I think the fad I fell into is I did collect beanie babies.

My mother drove me absolutely batty over those Beanie Babies back in the late 90's. We'd search flea markets, yard sales (one could come across one once in a while that what pretty cheap b/c some people didn't know the value of these things back then) and local stores. She and one of her girlfriends even started hitting the drive-thru at McD's during the mini Beanie craze and each of them eventually got an entire series each. There were even websites you could keep tabs of the value of each beanie that were updated constantly (at one point, I recall Garcia, the tye-dye bear, was at one point worth over $400.)

I sometimes wish we had all that money that was spent on those things so I could do something else with it.

[bunnyboy]

I managed to get hit by about 4 fads over the 28 years on earth...

First was when I was about 3 or 4, yes I managed to get a Cabbage Patch Kid, thing kept me entertained until TMNT hit.... I was aving up my allowance every week for them, mainly because hey I liked the whole anthropomorphic thing. Then in the late 80's early 90's it was video games, however the only launch system I ever got was the Dreamcast for 2 reasons... 1) it was released on my birthday... my 18th birthday 2) I was a total sonic fan. And finally I actually put money down to hold a copy of Burning Crusade on launch, ended up going right after work to pick up my copy, still play but only off and on now.

I doubt I'll ever get a Wii until mayber, just maybe the next big system hits (like that, I'm pretty much wait until the price drops, or it's no longer super hot and get it.)

Even more fun was the glares I got Black Friday 2007, me and roomy find out line outside is just for Wii's. Me and roomy are coming in for computer headsets and maybe some DVDs we want, Me and roomy bypass line. Me and Roomy get murderous glares. Me and roomy get out with headsets AND DVDs. Me and roomy drive back home and rest after hard days work and realizing we survived Black Friday intact.

[protege]

I'll date myself here - the hot toy when I was a kid was a Spirograph.

LOL I remember those! Granted, I wasn't around for the original release...but there were versions available in the early 1980s Still have one somewhere, but I don't think all the discs are still with it.

[Andara Bledin]

Grown men who seem to have nothing better to do than be at a toy store at 9am every weekday morning? They probably make enough money doing it i guess. Ripping people off and all.

They're the reason no one can find any hot wheels, zhu zhus, etc. I hate them.

It's not the speculators that are the problem. It's the marketers who hype whatever-it-is as this years big thing. It just dominoes from there down through the speculators and the people.

Don't complain about the sellers making the prices too high. The sellers don't set how high the prices go. The buyers dictate how expensive things can become. The sellers are responsible for how low the price can go.

The resellers combined with the great satan known as ticketmaster are enough to make me almost never go to shows anymore unless I really like the performer.

The worst part is that you can't even buy tickets at the box office most of the time any more. You have to deal with the racketeers at TM to see anything.

I'll date myself here - the hot toy when I was a kid was a Spirograph.

You have to admit, though, the Spirograph not only kicked ass, but it was creative.

Spin Art also kicked ass, and was nice and messy, too.

i miss pogs.
i was into pokemon and i had a virtual pet.
thats about it.
furby scares me

I still have a couple of binders of Pogs...

I don't like all of these hyper-realistic mommy-trainers that are out, though. I've always (even when I was 6) thought they were creepy.

Give me some action figures or a bucket of Legos any day.

^-.-^