Slashdot Mirror
Low Tech Toys?
hypertex asks: "Remember those cardboard tubes you used to look through and see all patterns the crystals produced? I've been looking for a kaleidoscope (for my 3-yr old) and no brick and mortar retailer seems to carry them. Even finding an knowledgeable employee was difficult. Walmart, Toys R Us, Kay Bee, Discovery and Disney stores are just a few to 'just say no' or 'it's too low tech' How can something so simple fade into obscurity? What else is gone?" What are some of the toys that have such a universal appeal that they should never be removed from the shelves? What toys surprised you when they fell into obscurity and what items have shocked you by their ability to stay on the shelves?
Remember those cardboard tubes you used to look through
Any cardboard tube that came from wrapping paper, paper towels, whatever, became a light saber. Too bad they broke so quickly.
Little yellow squares of construction paper glued to bigger red pieces of construction paper taped around our wrists so we could be Space Ghost.. that was great. I think I reached my creative peak there, probably because I became distracted by the glue.
Lawn darts (way before congress banned them). Now that I think of the games we played, it was probably good that those went...
What else is gone?
Gyroscopes! Simple, cheap, die-cast gyroscopes. There's not a store within 50 miles of my place that sells them. (And a few guys I talked to didn't even know what the hell they were)
Such amazing little widgets, too.
=Smidge=
That explains why I couldn't find any waterballoons!
... it's not like I've read a market report on this or anything. Still, ignorance doesn't stop anyone from becoming a stock analyst for Merrill Lynch!
As for crackpot, I'm not sure you're quite on the money; I think the availability of cheap plastic and price-sensitive consumers has led the race to the bottom. The patent (?) on a toy only increases profit to the producer; I think the retailer would prefer extremely price-competitive generic merchandise that can be marked up to what a consumer thinks is an "appropriate" price. The retailers are not making killings -- rather they are bing killed with the switch to game consoles, even Toys'R'Us has had troubles -- so the high prices probably reflect their inefficiencies and any higher cost in the wholesale would be passed straight through to the consumer.
But