By Jeff Cope

Quite naturally for somebody in my line of work, I think about toys alot. Some may say too much. Lately, I've been thinking about the action figure industry over the past several years, and all the changes that we have seen it go though. As I wander up and down the isles of Toys R Us, Target or Wal-Mart I have found myself wondering "where have all the good toys gone?"

That is not to say there are no good toys being produced any more. Of course there are. I wouldn't be in this hobby if there still weren't toys that interest me. But I find that there are fewer and fewer that do. There are fewer that spark the imagination in me, and put me in touch with that eternal six-year old inside that keeps me liking toys, comics and cartoons. I don't think most of the stuff being sold today can hold a candle to the toys of, say, 10 or 20 years ago.

There's been considerable advancements in the action figure world since I first seriously started collecting figures (back in the day of the original Star Wars line), but I'm not so sure all of the advancements are truly for the better.

To put things into perspective, let me state that the reason I collect toys is because - well, simply that I like toys! While there have been amazing leaps forward in the area of sculpting, especially since McFarlane Toys (then Todd Toys) first began to push the envelope with his Spawn figures, I think the "toy-ness" (for lack of a better word) has suffered. As I said, I like toys. I'm not so crazy about statues.

Frankly, and this may seem obvious, the best toys are made for kids. As an adult collector there can be a certain, intangible charm to certain toys despite being well out of the age group they are intended for.

Some of my personal favorite toys come from the 1980s. Lines such as Battle Beasts, Starcom, Super Powers, M.A.S.K. - just to name a few - were created primarily for kids. That they held some appeal to collectors was just a bonus for the toy companies who designed and made the toys.

Battle Beasts (Takara, released in the U.S. by Hasbro), for example, is one of my all-time favorite toy lines. It was such a simple concept, and basically an action figure extension of the old rock-paper-scissors game (except in their case it was wood-fire-water) featuring humanoid animals wearing armor. There are scores of the little critters, each only about 2-1/2" high. More than 70 saw release in the States, but well over 100 were available in Japan (including the much-coveted Laser Beasts).

Plain and simple, Battle Beasts were fun - and durable.

Starcom, by Coleco, was another great line. Sure, they weren't the best sculpted toys on the market - but they were amazingly well made. 2" tall fully-poseable action figures (with knee articulation, even!) plus a whole slew of cool space ships, vehicles and a massive starbase. It was a great line that didn't get the respect it deserved at the time it was released (circa 1986), but is starting to find quite a following now.

Now, it seems, so many lines try to appeal to the collector first and the kid (or kid-in-you) second. While many of today's toys look great, they just don't feel right. They don't feel solid. Some, in fact, feel downright fragile! How many times have you been afraid to move a joint on a particular figure that you know should move, for fear of it breaking? Too many, I'd wager. Maybe that's why so many figures today are already posed for you. Less risk of breaking that way, I suppose.

Another disturbing trend I see in the toy industry is the inclusion of more and more technology. Interactivity is all the rage these days. While most people in the industry think that such interactivity will further stimulate a child's imagination I hold that it will, in the end, stifle it.

So many toys today do everything for the child. They move, they talk, they laugh, they light up. In short, they don't leave anything up to the child. Even something as simple as a voice chip incorporated into a figure provides a few minutes, or hours at the most, of amusement before the toy is relegated to the toy box.

I think back to when I was a kid, and the toys I had then. Pretty much it came down to G.I. Joe Adventure Team (the non-military 12" line) and Megos. With G.I. Joe, especially, the sky was the limit for imagination. There was no cartoon. There wasn't a comic book. The "characters" didn't have names. It was all a blank slate for me to invent - and I loved it. G.I. Joe gave me the opportunity to create a world from the ground up. That toyline cause me to use, stretch and challenge my imagination.

Mego figures, although mostly based on licensed properties, were similarly stimulating in that they were all in the same scale. Back then you never got to see Spider-Man hang out with Batman in the comics, but I got to see it everyday. Superman could visit the Starship Enterprise and join Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock as they visited the Planet of the Apes. Sure, these things might never happen in the "real worlds" of these characters but that was the fun! There was no limits!

At Toy Fair I saw a lot of amazing technology incorporated into toys. While these items, whether talking robots or cybernetic pets or programmable vehicles might (and I stress might) entertain a child for a few weeks (months if you're lucky), I suspect they will soon be gathering dust up on that top shelf. Granted, it is amazing what some of these toys can do they just won't spark a child's imagination because they're doing everything for the child.

I think, as collectors, we can easily lose sight of toys being made for kids first, and to a degree, as toy collecting has boomed in the past decade, some of the toy companies have lost sight of that fact as well. We underestimate the imaginative capacity of children, and we limit it rather than feed it. I doubt you will find few adults today that hold fond memories of their favorite calculator, but I bet they could tell you a hundred stories about their favorite toy - because they were invested in it.

Where have the good toys gone? Oh, they're around. You just have to look harder to find them amidst all the bells and whistles clamoring for your attention. Personally, I've found myself doing more toy shopping at toy shows, and on eBay - looking for those missed items from yesteryear - then I do at Toys R Us. While it may sound like I'm down on today's toy industry (which, in some regards I am) it just makes me appreciate the gems all the more.