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.
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.
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.
Collectors' cars have done the same thing. With cars, there is a peak price in cars that people of age 50+ can finally buy the car that they dreamed about in their youths. There have been other collectors fads which were valued primarily for investment, that have had their bubbles burst. The most famous of these is tulips, but it has also happened with stamp collecting (crooks bought stamps as an easy, portable way to move value).
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