Imagination Not Needed...Anymore.

Afternoon, Fam…

So, this morning we were talking about the difference in toys we had compared to toys nowadays.

Take, say, Stars Wars.  It could be any figure for that matter, but I most had Star Wars figures from Kenner.  They looked like the characters, maybe not as good as the 3-D printing done today, but you could definitely tell who you were holding.  However, they were small and you had to pose them manually.  What’s more, you had to make the blaster or lightsaber sounds.  The same for the ships.  As the Original Trilogy expanded, we got action models of set pieces to place our figures and ships, but still had to use our imaginations.

Hasbro bought Kenner in the 90s, but as with all takeovers, a new guard wants to do things their way.  By then, the Prequel Trilogy was made with Lucas capitalizing on the CG technology that came up.  Some say he overused the technology, ruining the trilogy us OT fans’d been waiting 15-odd years to see.  That technology carried over to the new line of figures and ships.  Now, they made sounds from the movie in monotone, tinny sound effects.  We could make better, fuller sound effects with our mouths.  Of course, they looked more like said character, but that in itself was weird.  You know that creepy feeling when you feel something’s watching you, because they’re so life-like?

As Lucas sold the Star Wars property and the new trilogy started rolling out, a new line of toys started rolling out with today’s technology.  Nowadays, toys practically move on their own…damn near like Chucky from Child’s Play…no imagination needed...at a little over double what we paid for for figures the exact same size.

It’s a sad testament to technology doing the work for the kids.

Be good to each other.

-J-