[K Dubious]

I just wanted to put this thought out there, as it came up when talking to my Girlfriend's Dad last night. I still remember watching Saturday morning cartoons, which were more or less commercials for toys with a story attached. Plus I vividly remember all the actual commercials for the new toys. I recall loving the Batman Animated series toy commercials, but for whatever reason I never collected them.

This all got brought up because we were talking about the original Transformers movie, the one from the 80's, which was slightly before my time yet still hits hard to me. Basically TMNT, Transformers, and He-man were all created to sell toys. The Transformers Movie was released to kill off all the characters/toys you already owned so that they could introduce more characters/make more toys and keep the kids constantly wanting the newest characters.

It never failed when watching the newest episode of TMNT and a new character would be introduced on the show, then as soon as the episode is over the commercial for the new toy of that character would air. It was a science that proved to work, every new cartoon had a toyline that co-existed with it, it was great.

So now fast forward 20 some-odd years to the technological age we live in now. I know there are still cartoons on today, but the toys that go along with them are hardly toys. I feel like there are more like statues, with little to no articulation. If you can't actually "play" with them why would a kid want it?

Other than turtles which were brought back in 2013 I believe (I know they have been brought back a few times over the years) and are still being made by playmates the original company that made them in the 80's, I can't think of any other cartoon that makes quality toys based on the show.

Also through other conversations on other threads here it seems that the younger generations have been spoon fed tech their entire life. So the ages of imaginative play range from only about 3-7 and then it is all video games and ipads, which makes me horribly sad.

I know that I am a 30 year old kid that refused to grow up, which I honestly felt was the vibe of the late 80's and 90's. I just hate that future generations will not have that same sense of attachment to their childhood toys and shows since everything seems to cater to video games and technology. I feel I should also note that I am an avid gamer and have always loved games since the days on Nintendo, but I never let that control my actions. I played outside and had some pretty elaborate battles with the neighborhood kids and toys as well.

I guess my point is that I feel the golden age of toys is over. I wish that a new cartoon could be released that the future generations could stand behind and have it be their piece of childhood that could never be replaced. I like that we are still getting versions of TMNT, Marvel, and Transformers in movie form, I just wish that creativity still existed and that something new could come along and actually stick.