The Toys With No Names

Oooooh, spooky, eh? However this post is in no way, shape or form spooky and is in no way associated with Hallowe’en, but you know I’m going to use it in the tags, just for extra hits 😉

Anyhoo…

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It’s not that many weeks to xmas now (*shudder*) so of course TV advertising and the big supermarkets are already trying to force-feed us with the spirit of rampant materialism. The obvious targets for their attentions are children, and by extension, the parents who finance them. At the risk of sounding old and grumpy, and I am old and grumpy, I’ve become very aware that childrens’ toys are not as good as they used to be.

Why?

Let me explain…

When I was young, I had teddy bears and other cuddly toys. I had a cuddly dinosaur and a cuddly octopus amongst other things. I had little Lego people, and PlayMobil figures (I think that’s what they were called…) I had robots and toy soldiers and cowboys and indians and whatever else. The one thing they all had in common is that they didn’t have names when I bought/received them. It was entirely up to me and my imagination to decide what they were called and what their relationships with each other were. That was part of my creativity, and I did it unconsciously, creating a little world within my mind, as children will do.

Things have changed…

Hero or villain?

He-Man is credited with being the first simultaneous TV/toy tie-in. You could watch the cartoon series and buy the action figures that represented his allies and enemies. Children already knew all their names and how they interacted with each other. You could buy a Castle Greyskull for them to ‘live’ in and vehicles for them to ride. Barbie, and to a lesser extent Cindy, had already paved the way for the ‘marketed’ toy, as well as the still slightly ambiguous Action Man figure in the UK (basically a doll for boys) but He-Man took things to the next level.  Although children still needed to use their imaginations to create the dialogues and situations between these characters, their names and motivations had already been provided for them.

Fast forward to now and it’s difficult to find a toy that doesn’t come pre-loaded with a name, a group of friends/family/enemies, familiar scenarios and an associated TV series. Even the Lego brand has jumped on board and gone for branded tie-in sets now. I’ve seen it first hand with my own kids. I could have put a Dragonball Z sticker on a dog turd and they would have thought it was something special, simply through their association with the TV show…

I must admit even I can name every character here…

It’s not just toys of course. Pencil cases, lunch boxes, clothing, bedding, stickers, comics, video games… The list of commercial tie-ins is endless (you can even get Hello Kitty loo roll!) Absolutely anything that can extract a little more money is fair game.

Anyhoo, I’m digressing…

I guess what I’m trying to say, and I’m no expert in child psychology or whatever, is that I think it was better when children were obliged to be more creative and imaginative when they played with their toys. It’s good exercise for the brain. For most people imagination seems to be something that evaporates as they “grow up” anyway, maybe just as a process of maturity, or maybe it atrophies through lack of use. Imagination is something that should be encouraged and stimulated, especially in the early years of a person’s life when it is most active. It’s a skill that should be nurtured, but as long as there are companies out there who continue to exploit the commercial potential of their products, from Peppa Pig to The Teletubbies to Ben 10 to the latest Disney and Pixar franchises and even Harry Potter, I fear it’s a skill that will see a sharp decline over the coming years. Sad…

After having written the majority of this post, I remembered that I still have a few bits and pieces from a Magic Roundabout themed train set that I must have owned when I was around five, so even back then there was an element of marketing going on. The Magic Roundabout was great though, so it’s allowed 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zCGjSoZzkY

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Back sometime soon, with something or other… Promise!

Until then… ses x