To toss this in, here's what my girls have liked (5 and 2):

1. Ponies, ponies, ponies. Anything ponies.
2. Books
3. Castle Grayskull (for awhile) - they saw it in my closet and wanted to play with it
4. Fisher Price Adventure People Castle (from 90s) - It's "Batman's Castle"
5. Tiny version of Tangled's Rapunzel
6. Some barbies

I really have no way to predict what they like. A boy will be even harder I think.

BTW - I don't want to sound cranky, but I am just absolutely against having my kids have iPhones or iPads to play with, and I'm even a little leary of them being on PBS.org on the computer. I want them developing their imaginations, not having someone program them.

In a way, Muppet Babies as a kid was a huge influence on me, as it spurred my imagination. I have since shown them a few episodes and they got that takeaway too - so much so that I went into my daughters' room the other day and my oldest informed me "they were using their imaginations!" I love it.

I guess ultimately even if they don't like Star Wars, I want all of them to have fun and use THEIR brain, not have a marketer do it for them.

And oddly, to answer my own question, I honestly have this weird feeling that my boy won't care about G.I. Joes at ALL.

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you have to use moderation on the technology, no doubt. Also be creative and find ways to use it as a tool for your own teaching of the child. No app (but also no toy/show/program/or hell, even school or teacher) should be left to do that for you, I agree 100%

When my son was 3-4 I used the draw program on my ipad like a chalk board and every night at bath time I would write funny stories on it, which he had to read aloud to continue to the next page of the story. It was more engaging than just reading a book because I was literally making it up on the spot, and he could steer where the story went. Also, because they were usually funny, he really wanted to get to the next page and see what I would do (sound effects provided by me). At 4, he was reading 4th grade materials. Just a thought. I'm not saying he couldn't have done that without it, but I know it helped.

He also plays strategy games that most kids his age weren't playing. Ticket-to-ride (think Risk, but with trains) is a game he could beat the computer at (via ipad app) 2 years ago. Because of the app, we actually went old school and bought the board game. There are things in there that can trigger development if you're involved with it.

And as for imagination, see the rest of my list. Though he loves the computer type stuff, I feel like my kid plays more toy-based activities than most. His imagination might be even bigger than mine was.

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There are WAY too many learning apps out there not to take full advantage of them. Any tool that makes learning fun and easy for them, you need to take advantage of. But there is also a lot of free crap out there where level one of that fashion dress up app is free but all of the accessories have to be purchased with real money. Or even apps that make you run out of ammo or stamina making you contemplate purchasing more battle coins to keep playing.

What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Here's a true story from last weekend. My uncle (72) was trying to show use a bow thruster he installed on his sail boat so he could parallel park it into his slip at the boat yard. He'd hit a locations button on his phone and couldn't figure out how to get back to the pictures. I gave him crap about how he could install a bow thruster but not work his phone. Later my daughter (3) came over and wanted to show my aunt pictures from my phone, unlocked the phone, turned up the volume, scrolled to the pictures, and played some of the videos for her.

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Chiming in on the success list. Maybe we can get someone to graph all this data for us.

1. Fisher Price Little People = Short Term Moderate Success
2. Hot Wheels cars and tracks = Short Term Success
3. Thomas the Train = Short Term Win but killed by having too many of them and too much track to put out all at once.
4. Barbie = Total Fail. (and I am proud of that)
5. Johnny West = Not tried
6. Cars (the movie) toys = Short Term Success, The boy's first collecting, but again killed by having too many of them.
7. Star Wars = Fail.
8. GI Joe = Limited Success, though they love the Cobra Mountain set and play with it a lot.
9. Marvel Universe = Moderate success with Ironman and Captain America due to peer group pressure.
10. DCIH = Not Tried
11. Random Costumes = Win; Random Instruments = Partial Success
12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles = Partial Win.
13. Toy Story anything = Fail (No movie support)
14. Wii Skylanders = EXTREMELY HUGE Win (we've got over 300 worth of them and they were mostly bought with the kids spending money. They love them.
15. X-Box 360 - Don't have.
16. Ipad (blackberry) = EXTREMELY HUGE win - I have blackberries old and new rather than an Ipad, and they love them absolutely. Movies and games. Plus for me since all of them were free.
17. Comic Books (new and vintage) = Fail. Junior Novels = HUGE WIN
18. Superhero movies and cartoons = Win
19. Star Wars movies = Fail. I was concerned that they were going to be freaked out by the violence. the reality was that they were too bored to get through the first 15 min.
20. Legos = HUGE Win (including Kreos)
21. race car or train set = Don't have
22. Swingset = Win bicycles = partial win; Power Wheels = Fail.
23. Soccer gear and ball = fail T-ball - Fail
24. Dinosaur/archeology excavation kit = Fail.
25. Imaginext Superheroes) = Partial Win.

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I don't have any kids, so my observations here are probably next to worthless, but I agree with those that are leery or cautious about how much time their kids spend with some technological contrivance where they do little more than sit there and twiddle their thumbs. It's way too easy to get sucked into the electronic landscape and miss out on the real world and real play.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the way the world is going. Do I think it's a good thing? No. Do I think it's inevitable? Sadly, probably it is. And kids need to be prepared to be part of it. It's an unbelievable balancing act, no question. I've been seeing a commercial for one of these tablet devices that has an automatic shutdown feature after a kid has spent X amount of time on it. The commercial then shows the kid putting down the device and going outside to play. Nice world to imagine. I have the feeling that the kid would more than likely throw a tantrum until the device was turned back on.

As for action figures and a lot of other conventional toys -- I wish I was optimistic about their future... These days, that's tough.

meh. i just send them out to the swingset with the iPad.

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I have daughters and they are nearly teens now. But I will answer your question anyway.

Would I stockpile for my kids, NO,NO, NO I stockpile for myself and it is unlikely that I would even share, I might let them play with MY toys under severe supervision. Seriously though these are my toys, my kids get the toys they want.

Just for a note, vehicles (10 years out or less) often take alot longer to raise in value. They often sell for less then value (opened) for decades. Less people collect vehicles due to the size restrictions. I buy lots and break them down, sort them out and resell them, I usually do not even bother listing the vehicles because it is just more work then it is worth.

I dunno man, I turned a near $100 profit mailing a TRU AT-AT out of the country. People are NUTS for MIB Star Wars vehicles. If I sold the hoard today I could probably clear $1,000 or more. What's gonna be really fun is watching him play with/lose pieces to toys that might be worth $500 just for fun.

Because they are toys and are meant for playing with. A mint in box Flagg is only cool because once upon a time I got to PLAY with a USS Flagg.

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I specified opened vehicles for your buying purposes. MISB vehicles will climb but generally still climb in value slower then figures.

For instance I just bought this lot

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gijoe-Lot-70-ac ... 7675.l2557

The figures will break down to roughly $700, I wont even bother selling anything else. The truth is as a lot the vehicles added nothing to the final value of the lot and may have even caused the auction to end for less then it should have.

International buyers tend to pay more because of the lack of sellers offering to ship international, a lot of sellers are afraid of it for what ever reason they may have.

Also large or more expensive vehicles that less people tend to buy will usually climb quicker in price and be harder to buy on the after market. For instance I sold my Grizzly tank $120 that I bought on clearance in 05 or whenever it was for $25.

Is that possible with those figures? Aren't they ARAH? I had lousy luck selling ARAH in recent years. Must be someone in that lot worth some bucks eh?

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There are a few ARAH but 90% of them are modern. I estimate $10 a figure on modern figures with most of their weapons (which the pile of weapons would suggest that most have several weapons) to set a minimum sale value and then I will pay up to roughly 25% of that number for the lot and then they usually list and sell for somewhere between $9 and $30 a piece.

The breaking them down and sorting and listing is where the work is. I hate sorting weapons and it is a never ending process which is why most of these sellers just sell the figures and weapons in piles. It is much easier but loses alot of value.

I've been lucky. Two boys. I just gave the oldest the Eaglehawk as a reward for finishing Camp. He said it was the best. They both LOVE vehicles.
Started them with Thomas trains to get them into a franchise with characters (MOTU was my first poison).
They love toys AND the iPad, and use them in balance (for those who lament the lost imaginations of our descendants).
I have personally only stockpiled Skystrikers and Eaglehawks. I consider it a twofer. Giving my boys great vehicles and incentivizing Hasbro to do the right thing.
But, I HAVE also considered stockpiling large Star Wars vehicles for my boys, even though I don't collect SW lines.
Finally, Macross, I've been reading your posts for years, and you always seem to do the right thing (IMO).

Lots of good comments here! I've got twin girls (4) and boy (1). There's definitely a sense in which, if you're very involved in your kids lives, they will latch onto at least some of what you like. E.g., my bro is very into legos and so his kids have had a lot of fun with him with those over the years. And they play some of his phone apps/games with him, and then they each have their own interests as well. My girls love my Joe/military stuff - but not every day, and most of it they only get to use with me on the weekend. Which makes it special. But of course tanks become vehicles for Schleich animals to ride around to go to a tea party or whatever. The helos mainly function as amusement park rides for little animals to swing on a dangling string flying through the air, etc.

None of my kids may ever really get into the whole Joe mythos, and that's fine. But as long as we all love hanging out together, and dad has a bunch of cool figures and vehicles, they're going to get some good use. And it goes both ways - I play ponies or baby dolls or LeapPad or blocks or whatever with my kids; they see I'm willing to go into their world, and they venture into mine as well.

Since mine are all over 33 now, all I can share is this.

For me and the kids at the time, the huge fun was not in me giving them the toys or even in me having some already available in the hopes they would like it, it was the hours and hours of the day out with Dad as we hit ToysRUs, KayBee, and even Woolworth looking for toys. I did Joe runs with the boys and oddly, tool runs at the various hardware stores for the stepdaughter. Her most favorite thing beside a left-handed guitar with hot pink picks, was a small hand tool set where the handles were neon green, yellow, and pink. That night she took apart the vacuum cleaner and put it back together again and it worked as before.

I think even if I was blessed to be a father again, I wouldn't stockpile, but rather make those memories of watching them pick what they like to enjoy. Learned that the hard way long ago, when I was pushing my son to the action figures and historical sets (Western, Space, Army Men) and the ex was pushing him towards cars and stuff, only to surprise us both when he went straight to the stuffed animal aisle and bought a Sesame Street Big Bird. Then he bought Wembley from Fraggle Rock, whom he took on vacations, sleepovers, and occasionally stuffed into his backpack for days out with me.

But best of luck and hope for grand memories.

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