Okay, consider this a little brain-spin from yours truly, courtesy of checking the message boards right after watching a few Star Trek episodes on tape, and then reading about that "hulu.com" Web Site over in "Off-Topic" where you can watch episodes of various TV series, and it being mentioned that ones of the shows was Exo-Squad.
One of my bigger toy regrets is that I sold my Exo-Squad collection. There's a lot of things I regret selling. That one's pretty close to the top of the list.
So between that, the Star Trek shows, and my imagination, I started to think (always potentially dangerous) -- suppose matter replication and transporter technology existed? Imagine what that could do for toy collectors.
Picture a Web Site where you could call up almost any toy product, past or present, order it, and it would be beamed to you within seconds for a nominal charge. No different than the original, fully functional. Maybe just a subtle little mark on the bottom of a boot that this is a replicated item. Otherwise perfect.
Imagine (for instance) being able to rebuild your entire Exo-Squad collection for fifty bucks. Imagine getting a mint condition USS Flagg beamed into your living room for around a hundred.
Now, imagine taking it a step further. Imagine being able to custom-design your own toys. Finally want that Big Lob figure? You got him. Want a traditional-style Pythona? No problem. There's a full design program available.
I can see a few hurdles, even if the technology existed and was foolproof. Doubtless the toy companies would charge licensing fees, as would character owners. Nobody's going to build a Clone Trooper army without paying Lucas something for it. And I have little doubt that people trying to sell their "original format" toy collections would be raising hell over this. And doubtless there would be some who would see these toys as cheap copies and want nothing to do with them even though they're indistinguishable in quality. And there'd have to be some way to keep people from custom-designing and mass-marketing their own toys if they were based on an existing copyrighted property.
But I think most of those problems could be managed.
Personally, I think it'd be very cool. Now we just need the technology...
