Toys

A few weeks ago, PA talked about Skylanders touching on the issue of our kids' toys vs. the ones we grew up with.**  I was set to violently disagree, because my own kids' toys are either the same as those we had (Playmobil, Lego***) or look pretty for display, but aren't good for actual play -- however, my only real basis for comparison are the Star Wars figures (the Galactic Heroes line holds up fairly well for play, but the figures are less poseable than the old Kenner line).  Completely separately from this, I discovered Shortpacked!**** when Dave Willis guest drew for QC this week.  While catching up on back issues of the comic, it was interesting to see Willis' take on the Battle Armor He-man action figure vs. today's toys.

At any rate, I looked up Skylanders, and it seems that the innovation is that your action figure is also a gussied up flash drive that holds your character information and achievements from playing the video game.  Okay, that's cool, but to my eyes the figures themselves aren't really good for play outside the video game.  They're a step up from static *collectible* figures, but are orthogonal to *action* figures that you actually play with.  


** The news associated with the comic has little to do with the comic itself, but is a must-read for Andy Schatz's commentary on how the one-button Mac mouse influenced his game design.


*** You could argue that Lego is better now because of the Star Wars / Harry Potter / Indiana Jones / etc cross-branding, but I would argue that many of the SWLego vehicle designs, while they look pretty for display, don't hold up to extended play the way, say, the Battrax did.


**** It's a comic about toys, but even if you don't play with or collect toys any more, you'll like this.