Hey all.

Recently (past two years) I've been stockpiling Star Wars for my kiddo (8 months old). I know certain pieces will get tough to find and expensive - so when I can, with coupons, sales, etc, I pick stuff up. I got the last AT-AT (Hoth version) from TRU last year, snagged a clearance BMF last weekend, B-Wing from Marshalls, etc.

It has never occurred to me to "stockpile" Joes. Looking at it, I know certain pieces would be fun - the SHARC, the Eaglehawk, etc...but I'm just not sure he's going to be "into" Joes. I also know if he's not "into" Star Wars, I can turn the entire collection into cash overnight - something I can't say for the Joe reissues.

Is anyone keeping some back, or are your kids into Joes enough that you picked up the Eaglehawk for them or something similar? Just curious.

PS - I figure if he is into Joes, it will be relatively simple and cheap to pick up the reissue toys from the past 6-7 years from eBay.

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My collection is my stockpile. If they want to play with it that bad, here ya go kiddo.



Certain pieces excluded of course.

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So here's a learn from my failure post.

I have stockpiled a large number of joes to save for my son and daughter. I have a lot. And I am coming to the decision that this is a mistake. Here's why:

1. Kids get overwhelmed by toys. Remember when you got your favorite Joe/SW figure and slept with it for a week? Obsessed with it, and looked at every detail? What if you had gotten a dozen at a time instead. Or gotten a figure every day of the week. The scarcity allowed you to focus on it and love it. Kids may love a lot of things, but they only love one thing at a time.

2. Kids like what they choose. You'll feel pretty bad if he turns out not to be a SW fan, (Ack he could even be a My Little Pony fan. Guys do that now, or so I hear). But part of loving a toy is buying it with your own money or receiving it because you chose it over the other things in the toy store. The experience of making the choice to obtain it above other things makes it special.

3. Kids taste in toys is shaped by different elements than adults. Army builders for instance are often completely uninteresting. I was trying to explain the appeal of a Crimson Guard to my 7 year old daughter. "Under that mask, he could be a lawyer or a politician!" Her response? "Lawyers and politicians don't wear masks when they do bad stuff. they smile and do them on TV..." The crimson guard is a silly character to anyone without the nostalgia and context to make them interesting. Your kid may not have that and may not see enjoyment in a figure, just because he's the last cantina alien extra that they finally made after 30 years.

4. Peer groups may push your child in a different direction. If your kid is the only one playing with action figures in a peer group that's into a different type of toy, they may have difficulty maintaining the enjoyment of the toy. When I was a kif GI Joe was THE thing. The new year catalog thing was huddled around in the school yard like a stolen playboy. But now, there are a lot of other brands that vie for attention.

5. The mountain of toys is less enjoyable than you might think. Kids do not do well when they are saturated by toys. One or two in an empty room are generally better than a room full of toys. If presented with a refirgerator box full of joes, they'd each pick one joe, and then play with the box. Worse, if there are too many of the toys they get a decision paralysis about what to play with and start becoming unhappy and tense.

I just gave my boy a voyager (I think that that's what it's called) Starscream. This is a huge toy that turns into a spaceship. He hated it because it wasn't a good guy. He doesn't want to have bad guys in his room. So we sat down with it and roleplayed him turning into a good guy. We gave him new autobot stickers and made him Jetfire. So now he loves the toy, but not because it's a cool toy, but because he now has an emotional attachment to it as a toy.

So I no longer think that the stockpiling is a good idea. Hopefully this is food for thought.

- R

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Thanks for that Raptor - well thought out and well put.

My reasons for stockpiling are a few:

1. Availability - I just don't have a guarantee I can afford the vehicles IF he wants them.

2. Spread out over time - I don't intend on dropping them on him all at once. If he goes with Mom to the grocery store and is good, does chores, etc. he can earn a loose figure. Also, boxed vehicles will be presented on birthday and Christmas.

3. The current plan is one movie per year. We'll start with A New Hope. We won't introduce the rest of the trilogy right away, just the one. Start with a handful of characters (Ben, Han, etc) plus an X-Wing, a TIE fighter. If he continues to show interest, we'll do ESB the next year.

4. If at any point he seems to not be into SW that much, I have a massive stockpile of mint in box out of production toys I can turn and burn on eBay. The money then goes to whatever he is into at the time.

I'm not above thinking that episodes 7, 8 and 9 might be "his" Star Wars.

Speaking of, does anyone have any idea what the "G.I. Joe" of this generation currently is? What is the common denominator that draws all the boys together? Just curious.

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Personally, I think action figures still play a role, but I think there is a competition aspect from things like Skylanders that are a big hit. The collectible, plus the fighting and interaction.

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I have 4 kids, one is an infant, the others are elementary school age. I’ve learned a lot from them. And it makes me want to weigh in on this. IMO you can stockpile all the Star Wars or GIJoe or Ben 10 or Dragonball Z or whatever else that you want to. But it’s only safe to hope it’s appreciated as you want it be by the offspring… but it could go either way. Kids will take a liking to whatever speaks to them, no matter if it’s due to parental influence or outside world influence. We never heard of MINECRAFT before our kids discovered it online through youtube and now it is a constant fascination with them just like things we DID introduce them to such as Monster High, Super Mario Bros, Transformers, and Squinkies are.
You as the dad can introduce him to “the universe that George created” but whatever his reaction is, I guarantee it will be unpredictable. Ideally the boy would love the whole SW mythos and appreciate the treasure trove of toys from it. Or he might like just one or two characters from all of Star Wars (my younger daughter only cares about R2-D2, she’s age 7), or just one of the movies (my 30-year-old sister only likes ROTJ), or just the Clone Wars (my older daughter, age 9), or only storm/clone troopers (my middle nephew, age 7), or even ONLY the Angry Birds version of SW (my older son, age 6). And youngest nephew, 5, has zero interest in anything Star Wars despite his dad being an SW nerd from way back.

Plus what Raptor said. Or he could fall in love with a Jedi Starfighter you give him and use it for years as a Jedi fighter as intended or he might just pretend it’s a submarine for the bathtub with no ties to a galaxy far far away. And the rest of the stockpile goes untouched even in small chunks, just taking up space.

I say keep the stockpile, wait it out as he grows up, and just see what happens. Your plan to introduce it to him slowly is a good idea.

I kept my New Sculpts Joes in the hope that my nephew will be interested in them.
He's really into planes and I gave him the Sky Striker reissue and he's having fun with it, although he has no ideas what GI Joe is.

In the age of Angry Birds and games on the smart phone or high def game consoles, his main motivation to play with action figures is to have someone to play with him. So two figures, a small vehicle and someone to play the other character will go a longer way than a whole army of figures and nobody to play with.

Maybe the key to playing is simply interaction.

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I am stockpiling for my 2 year old, and if he doesn't like them, no biggie, more fodder for me. I also am gradually buying all the GI Joe and Transformers shows to try and expose him to them eventually in a year or two. Again, if he likes it great, if not, a chance for me to relive old memories.

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not that anyone asked, but here's how it's worked in my experience:

1. Fischer Price Little People (including Sesame Street) = Fail
2. Fischer Price Adventure People = Fail
3. Hot Wheels cars and tracks = Fail
4. Barbie = Partial Success
5. Johnnie West = Partial Success
7. Star Wars = Fail
8. GI Joe = Partial Success (some vehicles)
9. Marvel Universe = Partial Success
10. Marvel Famous Covers = Partial Success
11. Random Costumes/Dress Up Clothes = Big Win
12. Random Instruments = Win
13. Small Tent = Win
14. Small exercise trampoline = Big Win
15. Cabbage patch dolls (new and vintage) = barely partial success
16. Ipad = HUGE win
17. Comic Books (new and vintage) = so far, minimal success
18. Legos = the one from birthday (friend) = success, the ones I bought/saved = fail
19. Haven't broken out the race car or train set yet. don't need the disappointment....
20. Yard toys & big wheels, etc., = fail; swingset & bicycles = WIN

So, no. I would not stockpile Joes for kids.

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This is probably a guarantee across the board. I have a two year old boy who asks for and can operate an ipad to get to his learning apps on his own. If he likes learning letters, numbers, and colors this much, imagine once it starts with really entertaining games and videos in a few years.

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I tried this with Cars for my boys. Got all the big sets and such one Christmas and the town pieces. They were interested in McQueen, Mater and a few others. All have made their way to a Rubbermaid tote in closetdom somewhere. So, I guess my answer would be no. Let them find what they are interested in on their own. I echo nfc's take on Minecraft. My boys are addicted to it. There is still some degree of creative play, just not quite like when we were kids.

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I started doing this early on and then just stopped. Her interests in toys are way different than mine. Even as a kid I was fascinated by character, design, and how things worked (even if it was something as simple as attaching an accessory to a backpack). She is way different. All her toys are friends who go over to each others houses and do stuff. All of the animals talk. Only Superman flies. And she has just as much fun playing with some marbles and a box as she does the ipad or toys.

Using most of joemichaels' list here's what she likes/dislikes

1. Fischer Price Little People (including Sesame Street) = partial success, loves the Disney characters but only uses the playsets when friends come over.
2. Marvel Super Hero Squad = Success! Thanks to Hypno Hustler for hooking her up with some "Iron Girl!"
3. Hot Wheels cars and tracks = partial success, she likes rolling them across the floor or sorting them by color but doesn't care for the tracks.
4. Barbie = Fail, no idea why, and I'm ok with that
5. Anything with a castle or horses = partial success, for a week that is all she plays with and then it fades away
7. Star Wars = partial success, she likes them, likes the Clone Wars cartoon, but no extended play unless I play with her
8. GI Joe = partial success, ditto
9. Marvel Universe = Fail
10. As seen on tv stuff (ie pillow pets, stompies) = Fail, with the exception of the flashlight friend but she loves flashlights.
11. Random Costumes/Dress Up Clothes = Big, Big, Big Win!
12. Random Instruments = Win
13. Small Tent = Win
14. Small exercise trampoline = Big Win
15. Baby dolls = partial success, sometimes she has to have one travel with us, and sometimes she leaves it in the bakc of the car for two weeks
16. Ipad = HUGE win
17. Comic Books (new and vintage) = so far, minimal success, only if it is based on a cartoon she has seen
18. Legos = partial success and only the huge ones so she can build a tower to knock over
19. Thomas the Train and Chugginton train sets= Success early on, but now she only pays attention to them in the stores and usually with "I use to like these when I was younger (she's 3)."
20. Yard toys, tricycle, swingset, pool, slip and slide = partial success, she has her moments where she really wants to play with these and moments where I couldn't pay her in chocolate to play with them
21. Bean babies = Bears: SUCCESS! Anything else: minimal success

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I'm not stockpiling any toys for my boys. I want them to come into their interests on their own without any influence of what their dad likes. In a few years, if G.I. Joe or Star Wars are still around and they want them, I'll get them a few. I'll only look at out of production stuff if it's cheaper than original retail and there is a some symmetry in the play patterns they are developing on their own.

My 10 year old nephew gave me a crash course in appreciation of old toys yesterday. He talked about how cool the G.I. Joe Movie was. So, I showed him my display case of figures. He immediately grabbed a couple of figures he recognized. I tried not to hold my breath as he held thirty year old figures like they were just off the factory line. But, he lost interest in them in a matter of minutes. He wanted to go play on his phone. His 14 year old sister actually had more interest, especially after she learned of the origins of the figures from South America, Europe and Asia.

If my kids ultimately do want Joes or Star Wars figs, I'll easily be able to pick up scads of them for under retail online in the future. That won't be the case for all the figures, but my kids aren't going to want the convention Horrorshow when some collector hated figure will be just as cool to them since they won't have the backstory investment.

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Would I? I have been. But I now agree with the above comments. I say stockpile those items which, if push came to shove, you would either find use for yourself, or be able to re-sell later. Hope that the kid likes them, but don't bank on it. I have several boxes of unopened 25th Joes to support this stance.

Now, mind you, I don't begrudge what I bought. The run on buying Joes "for my son" who was just born at the time, ultimately led me here, which was worth the investment. But my son is 6 and has zero interest in G.I. Joe characters. He's developed (without prodding from me) interest in Star Wars, TMNT, Indiana Jones, and Superheroes. (Not coincidentally the same properties which produce LEGO toys and video games, or cool cartoons, or both).

End result is that I stockpiled a bunch of figures that he doesn't really want. I was smart enough to not push them on him, of course, and I look at it as having been a good investment if he had liked them. And not a bad investment anyway: Figures which were cool without being character sensitive I still gave to him to use with his other action figures (he loves action figures btw, and especially custom made ones). Others that had decent resale value I put up on ebay. Some I found a custom use for, and others are still in the box.

I want to say that the problem wasn't in stockpiling, but in the fact it was Joes. G.I. Joe was a central part of my childhood, but not of his. He doesn't have an afternoon episode of a Joe cartoon to look forward to - he looks forward to TMNT episodes instead. So I think your stash of SW toys are actually much safer than my stash of Joe toys. We at least know now that the property will maintain relevance indefinitely.*

*Unless you are stashing the 5 poa figures for him. I know you've said before those strike a chord with you, but my 6 year old will reject figures - even of characters he doesn't have yet - if they don't "move enough". Something to think about at least.

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my take on JM's and pluv's itemizations - for fairness understanding the difference between sons and daughters.

1. Fisher Price Little People = Short Term Success (mainly bc it was a cheap garage sale find; would be a fail, realtive to use, if I paid full price)
2. Hot Wheels cars and tracks = Moderate Success
3. Thomas the Train = HUGE Win (though he was mostly done with it by 5, the time he spent on this was invaluable AND his baby brother likes it already)
4. Barbie = N/A (though he probably secretly wants one)
5. Johnny West = Partial Success
6. Cars (the movie) toys = Short Term Success, holding all for baby brother
7. Star Wars = HUGE Win
8. GI Joe = Limited Success (more if you count my customs)
9. Marvel Universe = Success
10. DCIH = Partial Success (now has given them all back to me)
11. Random Costumes = Win; Random Instruments = Partial Success
12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles = EXTREMELY HUGE Win.
13. Toy Story anything = BIG Win
14. Wii (especially LEGO video games) = EXTREMELY HUGE Win
15. X-Box 360 - Moderate Success (likes guitar hero, but most of my X-Box games are for older kids)
16. Ipad = EXTREMELY HUGE win
17. Comic Books (new and vintage) = so far, moderate success
18. Superhero movies and cartoons = Win
19. Star Wars movies = Win
20. Legos = EXTREMELY HUGE Win (he bought a TMNT Shellraiser set with his own 6th birthday money, then spent 6+ hours on a Saturday afternoon/evening putting it together 100% by himself.
21. Haven't broken out the race car or train set yet. don't need the disappointment....(JM's line - lol)
22. Swingset & bicycles = Win; Power Wheels type Dune Buggy = Win.
23. Soccer gear and ball = HUGE Win; T-ball - Fail. That one breaks my heart.
24. Dinosaur/archeology excavation kit = Win (can't believe how patient he's been with this thing)
25. Imaginext anything (mostly Superheroes) = Win. These were quickly replaced by regular action figures though. I have to think that if his dad wasn't already exposing him to older figures so soon, that Imaginext would have been an even bigger win. These are so damn cool. Hopefully the brother digs them, though at 1, he's already eyeing up our figures!

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