Every year, there will be at least one or two big movies with licensed toys packing the shelves. These are the Hot Toys, the ones that every kid absolutely HAS to have.
Sometimes, these toys have a real lasting appeal. Some of us still treasure the memories of playing with our Ninja Turtles, or we still own our Jurassic Park dinosaurs (Geez, are we really parents already?!).
But then, there are some toys that come and go in the blink of an eye. These ones wind up in the bargain bin at the toy store a month after the film leaves theatres, and most kids lose interest just as quickly. Remember the movie Congo? Yeah, neither do the kids who owned all of the action figures way back when.
With licensed toys, the basic rule that applies to storytelling also applies to buying toys. The only characters that really matter are the ones that we'll still remember years after seeing the movie. Even parents can name half the cast of Finding Nemo, we'll probably always have a soft spot in our hearts for Wall-E, every single one of Jim Henson's Muppets, and Indiana Jones. All of those properties had toys packing the shelves, and many of us still own our childhood favourites. The reason why is simple: Those were interesting, endearing characters. When movie producers make a film with dollar signs in their eyes, hoping to sell a lot of toys at the expense of telling a good story, you wind up with Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin, which tanked so bad, in both box office and toy sales, that the Batman movie franchise actually had to take a near decade-long hiatus.
We're not saying you need to tell your kids what to like. Heck, some kids loved Batman & Robin, there's nothing wrong with that. Get your kids what they like. Just bear in mind that a lot of the buzz and the hype surrounding these summer blockbusters is generated by the studios in hopes of suckering parents into buying junky toys that the kids probably won't even like.
If there's one piece of advice we can give on this subject; don't buy your kids the toys until they've seen the movie.
It's not uncommon for kids to see the commercials for a movie and say "That looks fun!" They ask for all the toys and even clip out the proof of purchase cards on the back of the packages and send away for the mail-order secret decoder ring. Then... they actually watch the movie, and... it winds up being kind of boring. They put all the toys in a box, put the box under the bed, and forget all about it. Then a month or two later, they get the decoder ring in the mail, and they say "what the heck is this?" You could name dozens of movies like this off the top of your head, if it weren't for the fact that you've already forgotten that they exist!
That's how it can be with hype sometimes. It's easy to buy into, even when the characters the toymaker is selling aren't really all that interesting. Character toys are all about coming up with new stories for your favourite fictional characters. If the characters are boring or cliché, it can be tough to come up with any memorable adventures. Better characters make for better creative toys, and better memories.
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