Monday, April 30, 2018

It Was the 90s That Killed Toys R Us

With Toys R Us going out of business, it feels like the end of an era, but looking back on it all that era ended some time ago. And while there are many factors that have led to the company shutting down, the real reasons can all be linked to the 90s.

Over the time I have been raising my two boys, I have noticed that none of their friends collect toys, even on the level when I was young and all my friends traded with each other. At that time you did not collect for value. You collected to play with the toys. And I remember in Junior High being told toys were for kids, but that did not stop me from collecting.

In the 90s everything switched around. Everyone, even the kids, collected toys for the value. I worked in a toy department and was blown away by how often a kid would look at what figures to buy fully based on the value of it. And it was mostly adults who were buying the toys, most of whom were very open about buying them as an investment.

Back in the 80s you had full aisles in the toy departments dedicated to just one toy line. And the toys were in production for several years at a time. By the 90s a toy line was big if it got a full four foot section dedicated to it. Attitudes were changing, but due to the idea of making money off the toys, they sold. New stuff was hitting the shelves like mad, but none of it was in production that long. The secondary market was jumping back and forth on the prices as everyone tried to guess what would be valuable.

And then the bubble exploded. All the collectors had boxes full of unopened 'investments' that no one was interested in because everyone had them. As the realization that there was no guarantee of a great return on investment hit people, the collectors cut back drastically.

Now that alone would not have been as big a deal, except for various reasons, the kids were not as interested as previous generations in collecting toys. Just looking at my sons' friends, most of them just have not been that interested in action figures.  My boys grew up with me, so they both have an interest in them, but never at the same level as my friends and I did. A big part of that I would say is the insane growth in popularity of home video games systems.

Toys R Us grew the most thanks to the boom in the 80s and they gladly jumped on the craze of the 90s, investing heavily of exclusives that collectors had to have. When the 90s bubble crashed, they weren't able adjust. They couldn't offer anything for video games that everyone else was offering and their business model fell apart. They tried to adjust with expanding into other areas like clothes and baby supplies, but once more they had nothing to offer that other stores weren't already offering.

In truth Toys R Us died about 20 years ago, but crawled on zombie-like, barley clinging on to life.

As my generation starts fading away, I get the feeling the whole concept of collecting toys will vanish with us. A collection like mine will end up being a true curiosity. There are not that many of the present generation taking up the hobby and most likely there will be even less in the next one.

Of course one of the more amusing things is that due to the lack of interest in collecting right now, most likely right now is a great time to invest in toys. Star Wars is bigger than ever now, yet the toys are not seeing anywhere near the production levels of the past. If any children do end up becoming collectors, they will most likely want to have toys that are being made now, but no one is buying.

So Toys R Us dies because they just were never going to be able to keep up with changing times. It happens. It was always going to happen, and it really is impressive that it took this long. The 90s did a lot of harm to collecting, and not just the toy collecting. It was  time everyone was looking for easy money through such investments, and that has fallen apart like such things always do.

Now we wait and see where it all goes. Something will be coming along to burst the home video game bubble and create new obsessions. Game Stop and such stores will see their demise as the new market takes over.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Why The New Star Wars Expanded Universe Isn't Working

One of the issues many fans have had with the new Star Wars trilogy is how it had dumped all the Expanded Universe story lines that had been put together over the last few decades. These were extensive story lines expanding on the stories of the original trilogy. There were several epic story lines that took the Star Wars universe to all sorts of new places, with interesting new characters.

Now we are getting a new expanded universe built under the new story lines, but one thing I have come to realize is that in the end this new EU is not going to be able to live up to reputation of the old one. I am reading Liea Princess of Alderaan and of thing I have realized is that there is something missing. Then thinking about the other new EU books I have read, it is missing from those as well.
This is not review of the book. I have problems with it on many levels and am only a few chapters in, their take on Liea is really bothering as it very openly is going against set canon from the movies, which the old EU seemed to have understood and followed.

This post is a commentary about the limit that are obviously being placed on what the writers can do.

With the old Eu they had a lot of freedom in where they could go. Lucas Film still had final say over it all, but there was clearly a lot of freedom for the writers.

This new EU clearly has next to no freedom.

The new EU novels are not so much stories as fill in character pieces. These books are not introducing new story lines, but are filling in areas of the stories from the movies. We are getting to see what the characters were up to before the movies, but little else. We already know where all these characters end up, their fates already played out in many cases. These novels are not taking the EU anywhere new, with no surprises or unseen twists. Right now it is all fairly straight forward stories which are actually a little bland.

I do understand why this is happening though. With them actually making movies right now, they do not want to have the EU introduce aspects that might be go against the story lines of any new movies. The old EU had a freedom that the new EU will most likely never have. Before the Disney deal, Lucas ha give up o the idea of doing any future movies and so there was no concern about what the EU did. It was not going to interfere with any future films. Since right now we are seeing a long term plan of making movie after movie, it will be some time before the new EU will be able to have that level of freedom, if ever.

Personally I wish there was a way to go back and let the old EU start up again, with the understanding that all of those story lines are a separate universe. The freedom they had allowed for noticeably better story telling.

For good or ill, if anyone wishes to keep up with the new EU, they will not be getting the quality of the old EU (Not saying it was all good). I myself do not plan to put any effort into keeping up with it, which works well as my expendable income is not what it used to be.

Saturday, April 7, 2018

My Writings

Hello everyone,

Its been a while since I put together a list of my writings and figured I should try to promote my works a little. So if you want to support me and see just what comes out of this warped mind of mine, here is what you might want to check out.

I have four stories now in The Divided States of America,
http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/dividedstates.htm


While each is a stand alone story, they do follow the same character and this is the recommended reading order for them

What Lies in the Wastelands: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/…/what-lies-in-the-wastela…/

Can't Go Home Again: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/…/produ…/cant-go-home-again/

Where Do You Go From Here: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/…/where-do-you-go-from-here/

Trial of Payne: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/trial-of-payne/

And my awesome girlfriend Lorelei has one story in that collection,
Delivery: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/delivery/

Disharmony of the Spheres (http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/disharmony.htm) is a new anthology that my story 'Time of the Bursting' is in.
I think it is the most intense piece I have written.

Here is my amazon page (https://www.amazon.com/…/B006JD…/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1) which has most of my other published stories.

Feel free to share this list and if you do read any of them, please leave reviews everywhere you can, they really do make a difference.

 Thanks

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Wait a Minute, There's a Market For This Stuff?

Today I was screwing around on Amazon Prime just looking at what they had, hoping to find something interesting. In the end I guess I found something interesting.

First odd movie I decided to check out was 'Psycho Bettys From the Planet Pussycat' (2011).

And no, this was not soft core porn.

I lasted 10 minutes before I just could not watch any more.

Yeah, this was real low budget. Cardboard and aluminum foil sets. The costumes were clearly just whatever the talent wore to set. We even get an old television, covered in foil, as a set piece.

Then they had musical numbers... With some really awkward editing to it.

I'm not even sure how to describe what I was watching. It just didn't make sense at all. I couldn't keep watching.

So then I scrolled through some more and found 'Space Boobs In Space' (2017) written by and staring Dee Flowered.

Believe it or not, once more NOT soft core porn.

Again this was about as low budget as it get. Painted water guns for the weapons and such.

Lots of cleavage shots, which I didn't mind.

Just couldn't watch more then ten minutes of it.

The acting, writing, editing, lighting and so on were all just so horrible on both these films. This is the quality level of the films I did in high school on no budget, when I had no clue what I was doing but just wanted to make movies. Back when I had to do all my editing in camera, with no access to things like youtube videos on how to do things. I was just winging it back then.

Not sure how an adult now days could justify such low levels of quality. The cheaper cameras are so much better quality now. There are many cheap and free editing programs that are so easy to use. You can get on-line and find so many videos that will help you learn how to up your quality.

I'm really not sure why these movies got made and how they have made an money. If anyone knows how there is a market for this and where you can sell such movies at, please send that info along to me. I want to know who these movies are made for. Somehow they are making money, as they are on Amazon Prime and I can't see that happening for free.

I have been working with my boys on short films, and I very much believe their projects are far more watchable.

In this day and age I am at a lose as to how films of this low quality level get made and end up with some level of distribution. There must be people who enjoy watching these films, maybe not altogether sober. But I'd be willing to give making such films a try if someone would be wiling to pay me to do it.