6 ms·

Naw, kids from Netflix homes are just watching long-form commercials. Dino Trucks, Nexo Knights and Ninjago all dominate my boys' Christmas wish lists this year

Naw, kids from Netflix homes are just watching long-form commercials. Dino Trucks, Nexo Knights and Ninjago all dominate my boys' Christmas wish lists this year.

megaman22 9y ago
That's kind of an inversion of who's leading things, but kids television and the toy industry have always gone hand in hand. Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers and HeMan were cartoons before they were toys (I think...) but it was all about the merchandising.
- pfranz 9y ago
  He-Man was an action figure made by Mattel. TMNT started as a comic book, but from what I understand was a parody of popular things; Teenagers, Mutants, Ninjas...not sure why turtles were thrown in there. TMNT didn't get gain popularity until they started making action figures.
  - zhengyi13 9y ago
    I hadn't ever thought of TMNT as being a parody, at least not in original Eastman and Laird form - I missed most of it, but parts of it were pretty dark, particularly Raphael's character IIRC. I got introduced to it by way of Palladium's adoption of the world/setting as an RPG, who expanded the world with a whole bunch of amazing sourcebooks that never went anywhere near the silliness of the later incarnations involving "COWABUNGA DUDE!".
baq 9y ago
real money is in merchandising. george lucas understood that. even elon musk understood that recently ;)
- ynniv 9y ago
  If you haven't seen it, Musk was quoting a great scene in Mel Brook's Spaceballs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgRFQJCHcPw#t=36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgRFQJCHcPw#t=36
hkmurakami 9y ago
Ha. Reminds me of reading stories about Japanese children's robot hero tv shows in the 90s where the merchandise planning came before the tv show creation itself!
bllguo 9y ago
at least Lego is a reasonably healthy toy, right?
- megaman22 9y ago
  I'm a little disturbed how far in they've gone on the licensed content. But I'm a child of the 90s that grew up with the classic System themes; I guess kids aren't into non-Star Wars space, castle, pirate and Wild West Legos anymore.
  - isostatic 9y ago
    Lego city is still popular, and playmobil do a large selection of various castles.
- eat_veggies 9y ago
  The kits with multicolored bricks and no instructions are healthy. Everything else LEGO puts out are just action figures. Source: grew up with both Bionicles and the multicolored bricks. Bionicles sat put together on a shelf while I reconfigured the bricks every day.

Naw, kids from Netflix homes are just watching long-form commercials. Dino Trucks, Nexo Knights and Ninjago all dominate my boys' Christmas wish lists this year.

megaman22 9y ago

That's kind of an inversion of who's leading things, but kids television and the toy industry have always gone hand in hand. Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers and HeMan were cartoons before they were toys (I think...) but it was all about the merchandising.

pfranz 9y ago
He-Man was an action figure made by Mattel. TMNT started as a comic book, but from what I understand was a parody of popular things; Teenagers, Mutants, Ninjas...not sure why turtles were thrown in there. TMNT didn't get gain popularity until they started making action figures.
- zhengyi13 9y ago
  I hadn't ever thought of TMNT as being a parody, at least not in original Eastman and Laird form - I missed most of it, but parts of it were pretty dark, particularly Raphael's character IIRC. I got introduced to it by way of Palladium's adoption of the world/setting as an RPG, who expanded the world with a whole bunch of amazing sourcebooks that never went anywhere near the silliness of the later incarnations involving "COWABUNGA DUDE!".

baq 9y ago

real money is in merchandising. george lucas understood that. even elon musk understood that recently ;)

ynniv 9y ago
If you haven't seen it, Musk was quoting a great scene in Mel Brook's Spaceballs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgRFQJCHcPw#t=36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgRFQJCHcPw#t=36

hkmurakami 9y ago

Ha. Reminds me of reading stories about Japanese children's robot hero tv shows in the 90s where the merchandise planning came before the tv show creation itself!

bllguo 9y ago

at least Lego is a reasonably healthy toy, right?

megaman22 9y ago
I'm a little disturbed how far in they've gone on the licensed content. But I'm a child of the 90s that grew up with the classic System themes; I guess kids aren't into non-Star Wars space, castle, pirate and Wild West Legos anymore.
- isostatic 9y ago
  Lego city is still popular, and playmobil do a large selection of various castles.
eat_veggies 9y ago
The kits with multicolored bricks and no instructions are healthy. Everything else LEGO puts out are just action figures. Source: grew up with both Bionicles and the multicolored bricks. Bionicles sat put together on a shelf while I reconfigured the bricks every day.