The three biggest mistakes (most) toy companies are making

Scott ToyGuru Neitlich discusses three trends that the toy industry has been chasing to "save the toy industry" and why none of these will ever work.

[stanleyteriaca]

You know what would save the toy industry? Toys.

[Toylytics]

Another example of a failure when integrating toys and apps is the LEGO Hidden Side theme. The sets interact with an app through Augmented Reality and become haunted with ghosts. Most people who like the sets like them because they are interesting LEGO builds and not because of the apps. My kids love playing with the sets but lost interest in the app relatively quickly. The theme has been discontinued after only a year on the market.

[jamesdlin]

On 3D printing: Do toy companies really think that shifting responsibility for manufacturing toys to the consumers willl somehow save them? That seems shortsighted.

[vaders]

Couldn't agree more, ... just absolutely right on target here in thinking. Wished more meaning companies understood this concept.

[korydoe]

You are a brilliant man, please save the toy industry!

[Thunderwing]

“Spectre Creative, this is what we do.” That’s your new tagline.

[wallbiewtf]

I'm almost a year late to this video. Funny story about play patterns. My three kids at varying points have played with my loose MOTUC collection. My oldest son played with the figures to pose them and have them fight. My daughter focused on Battle Cat and Panthor saying they were cousins and messed with Swift Wind because he's an alicorn. She also said Loo-Kee was a bad guy and locked him up in the Castle Grayskull dungeon. My youngest son is three and he'll mix them up with my old Definitely Dinosaurs toys and explores Castle Grayskull's moving parts. Like you said, identifying play patterns seems to be the real key for producing toys that connect with kids, and I've got three different kids who played with the same toys and each found a different locus in how they interacted with them. Also, I thought you might find my daughter calling Loo-Kee a bad guy amusing.

[manjiimortal]

Keep kids away from screens is a fine and dandy idea Scott, but this has been a decades-long issue, starting in the 1960's, when TVs became more affordable, and there were more hours of content available, to the early to mid-80's, when the VCR became the supreme babysitting tool to keep kids entertained for 60/90 minutes at a time, to the 90's and videogames exploding, and becoming yet another way for parents to not actually do parenting, and nowadays with Ipads and smart phones.

Screens have been used as parenting-replacement tools for as long as they've existed, and before there were screens there were other parenting-replacement tools. Just think of the whole concept of a governess/nanny, which is centuries old.

History shows us that parents have been skipping parenting duties for centuries.

[theotakux]

Every toy store I saw them in had the Forces of Destiny toys in the doll aisle, away from the other Star Wars toys.
Well, there and the clearance aisle...

[kristianvillarosa]

Play patterns is one of my favorite subjects on this channel.
excited for the possibility of a tooling vid.

[FreedomCompatriots]

Thank you science! I know its hard to believe but science rules!

[gerainthorton]

I have two young boys. Paw Patrol and PJ Masks show you can still get to kids via TV shows. Kids don't see ads anymore so they can skip that.

For action figures you need bad guys and consistent product at the same scale. My boys have tons of ninja turtles at different scales and barely bad guys. Transformers have too many waves/styles to keep up with.

[renardnoir]

Hmmm, I have no idea who you are or why this poped up in my recommendations. But this was interesting and informative.

[JurassicFunatic]

You’re videos are very informative as always! I believe what will save the toy industry is good stories. Kids and kids at heart alike love stories and character development. For example, MOTU and Monster High both had a very intricate story and “world” they fit into. Toys with story get kids interested in the whole environment that toy exists in. I’ve noticed a lot of toy lines nowadays (that aern’t licensed or already successful brands) are just following a trend, which will be successful short term, and fail long term. Which while this method can bring in a lot of money, it’s more work on the designers to have to come up with a new idea more often. If toy companies put more time into creating an immersive world where toys have a “life” beyond just whatever it is, it will be successful and less work for designers, as they don’t have to look for the next big thing every month.

[paluxyl.]

One of my hobbies is to look what all the toy companies produce, the companies are often strange they release "uncool" toys or with little play value I often just need one single look to know it will fail .
An other thing are the overpriced toy, it starts with little figures and ends with big dollhouses it's just plastic, why does sometimes little figures costs over $15 or some Barbie houses over $150 ?

[speedygonzales]

I think trying to to make toys that work with an app is not good, its kind of encouraging kids not use their imagination, when I was kid I had he man figures and some of the playsets, i would create stories in my head and then act them out with the figures, i had great fun using my imagination, i hope that physical toys never go away.

[PhantomHarlock]

For curiosity, was LOL Surprise a hit by accident or people knew what have in hand when created?

[gsmadmax]

I agree that a 3d printed product (today)is probably bad. i have shoe making Experian's, and we had BIG injecshonmolding mashens for soles, moldes wher way $$$$ mainly becos the tools r huge chunks of mettel finely machined, thats not good for small runs, but cant u find a 3d printer to slash tooling cost, just 3d print the TOOLS/MOULDS? :)

[vermis]

"Open ended play, going into the building and out of the building, they didn't want roofs, they wanted to get to things easily."

So... when Lego designed sets for girls, they made doll houses, because that's what girls like to play with?

[FandomWithReploidBill]

I've watched at least half of your channel now and there's one main thing that I find interesting and while I agree I also disagree slightly. I noticed that you worry a lot about the dopamine hits that screens give you. If while this is true it's mostly an app kind of thing. Specifically apps that are designed to do just that that we're scientifically studied in a way that guaranteed to keep people playing. I think however we could argue that the nintendo was doing the exact same thing and video games have become more efficient at doing this as time has gone on. I come from a generation that was also raised on screens. If it was different sure but it was also the exact same thing. I watched TVA lot and when I wasn't watching TVI was playing video games and I did this from the age of 5 years old on. I started with a tarry on a black-and-white television and can remember spending an awful lot of my time playing super nintendo in playstation later in life. At the same time however I remember having a lot of toys and I remember playing outside and in the basement with those toys. I have a child and she does spend an awful lot of time on YouTube and an awful lot of time on screens. She doesn't offer a lot of app play on her phone and I can see that from time to time she's enthralled with it. However I can remember playing the 2nd Genesis from 9 o'clock in the morning till 12 o'clock at night many days in a row over and over and over again. When she has an opportunity to walk away from the screen she plays outside she enjoys playing with other people and enjoys using her imagination she likes to build models old models and do a lot of other massive activities if the activities that are physical. So when I hear you talk about how screens constantly affect kids with major dopamine hits that causes the same kind of problems as alcohol or smoking smoking I can't help but wonder if you're talking about a very specific kind of kid. As if yet my kid is 11 years old and I have never had a problem with her. She does her homework she plays with her toys she cleans her room she plays on her screens she uses her phone she watches YouTube and she plays the switch. Looking from the outside it seems to be very much the same life that I had when I was growing up surrounded by different forms of technology. She doesn't like a super hard challenging game that defeats her over and over and over again she thinks that's stupid. However give her something that she actually enjoys like spider man on the playstation 4 and she can literally platinum that game on the hardest difficulty meaning that if she is engaged properly with with a challenge that she believes to be fair she will rise to meet.