The Toy of the Film, Or the Film of the Toy?

How movies and TV shows have come to dominate the toy market

It's impossible to ignore how today's toy market has come to be ruled by films and television programs. From action figures to bicycles, soft toys to dressing-up clothes, the vast majority of kids' toys and games these days are tied in with the likes of Darth Vader, Jack Sparrow, or Dora the Explorer. And if existing toy ranges want to compete, there's only one thing for it - make their own movie! Transformers, Bratz, and Masters of the Universe are all lines of toys that have received the movie-star treatment, with more to come. But when did this relationship between toys and films begin, and how did it get so big?

A brief history of movie merchandising

The first notable production of a toy based on a film is still popular, and instantly recognizable around the world, today. In 1928, Walt Disney created the character of Mickey Mouse, who was an instant hit on the silver screen. Two years later, the first stuffed Mickey Mouse dolls were on sale, beginning a successful tie-in that has lasted more than eighty years. From Snow White onwards, successful toy ranges were produced to accompany Disney's feature films. Other popular cartoon producers followed suit, licensing toys and other merchandise to cash in on the popularity of their characters.

In 1952, Mr Potato Head became the first toy to be advertised on television, netting over four million dollars in his first year on the market. Mr Potato Head would later experience a revival after his appearances in Disney's Toy Story movies, which rejuvenated sales for several classic toy ranges. These days, Mr Potato Head continues to follow movie trends, and can be purchased with Darth Vader and Spiderman outfits, amongst others.

In the 1960s, a line of dolls were manufactured, based on US TV show The Lieutenant. Called GI Joe, this range of figures were instantly successful in the US, and are still popular there and in other parts of the world to this day. Other television and film series, including Batman and James Bond, had great success with merchandising spin-offs aimed at children.
The explosion in toy and movie tie-ins

But the relationship between film and toy was taken to a whole new level in 1977, with the release of the movie Star Wars. The film's creator and director, George Lucas, shrewdly realised that the heroes, villains, monsters and spaceships that populate the movie, lent themselves effortlessly to the toy market. Kenner's range of Star Wars figure and toys came to dominate the toy industry for years to come, and original items of Star Wars merchandise are now highly sought after collectibles which can fetch a high price.

Toys start starring in their own movies

The massive success of Star Wars toys showed toy manufacturers just how important television and the cinema could be in marketing toys to children (and their parents). The 1980s saw an explosion in this style of toy merchandising, especially in the world of TV. In the early '80s, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe became the first cartoon series to be based on a range of toys, rather than the other way around. This technique led to huge sales of the toys, and led to a spate of toy-related TV shows and movies based on toy ranges, including Care Bears, My Little Pony and Thundercats. In 1987, He-Man got his own movie, called Masters of the Universe, with Dolph Lundgren portraying the plastic action figure.

This was the start of a trend which would lead to the blockbuster movie Transformers in 2007, the biggest film so far to be entirely based on a range of toys. Another Masters of the Universe movie is in production, with a bigger budget than the original and the benefit of modern special effects techniques. The advent of CGI makes it much easier for filmmakers to recreate the world of toys on the big screen, and much loved toy ranges like Thundercats and GI Joe have films in the early stages of development.

Film and toy tie-ins are here to stay

Some may argue that such collaborations are cynically exploiting the "I want that" syndrome in the modern child. But it can also be said that the relationship between films and toys encourages imagination, story-telling, and creative development in children. After all, once the movie is over, children can continue the adventure at home, deciding for themselves how the story continues.

Toys That Work For Both Boys and Girls

Okay, girls love Dora the Explorer, and boys love action figures. But, there's something to be said for toys that brothers can share with their sisters and vice versa. The way kids spend most of their free time is playing, and if you can give your children some toys based on a common interest, you can encourage sharing, and playing together, which can strengthen the sibling bond and make for a more harmonious household.

One of the real hurdles for brothers and sisters playing together is that most girls really don't care about Batman, and most boys wouldn't be caught dead playing with Barbie dolls. So, more often than not, you'll need to provide your kids with some "gender neutral" toys if you're hoping to see them getting along and learning to share.

In the 1980's, we had He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He-Man had initially been marketed to boys, but because of the generous number of strong female heroes and fantasy elements, as well as a female animation director taking on a lot of episodes, the show actually wound up having a lot of crossover appeal, hence the spin-off series and toy line, She-Ra Princess of Power, starring He-Man's sister. The whole He-Man/She-Ra family of toys was nothing if not an excellent way to get brothers and sisters playing together and enjoying the same shows. Unfortunately, children's entertainment today has very little in the way of popular franchises with equal appeal for boys and girls.

But then we do have Dora and Diego... while Dora the Explorer may have limited appeal for boys, the spin-off series, Go Diego Go, is definitely a boy's show. Each show shares a number of characters with the other, and the overlap can help bring brothers and sisters together, meaning less fighting over the remote when one show or the other comes on TV, and playing together to create adventures for both Dora and Diego to conquer.

Then there are completely gender neutral toys, like Legos. Legos usually tries to cater more towards boys, licensing properties like Batman and Indiana Jones, but the basic premise of this toy has a lot of appeal for boys and girls: Build whatever you want to build. Challenging your daughter and son to build a castle together may yield interesting results, like a palace with a ballroom and an armada of cannons and archers along the outer wall.

While space adventure is primarily a boy-focused genre, Star Wars actually tends to appeal to both boys and girls as well. By providing the audience with a strong male lead in Luke Skywalker, and a strong female lead in Princess Leia, every kid watching the movie has someone to root for.

Most recently, we've seen electronic toys for both boys and girls drop considerably in price thanks to the very nature of technology getting cheaper every day. You can actually buy a kid a digital camera, toy laptop, or even a camcorder for the price of dinner for one at the Olive Garden. By their nature, these are non-gender specific toys, but bear in mind that most boys wouldn't dare touch a pink and purple camera, whereas girls rarely have a problem with blue.

That's something to remember, by the way. A lot of gender-neutral toys are coloured blue for boys and pink for girls. Boys oftentimes hate pink, but girls don't have to worry about being called a sissy at school if they show up with a blue backpack.

Experience the thrills with Toys Gundam

The Japanese are known throughout the world as the original animation Anime ---- Gods shortly. I come from a nation together for years and had deprived food and suppresses the oil after World War II the Japanese, their desire to be the world's leading challenger, and then the anime series Gundam or a giant robot created to destroy Create and dehumanization of all the forces of evil in the world, this mood is reflected to a large extent. A variant of the official Gundam Bandai offers fullMechanisms of 5 ½ 'and accompanied by assorted accessories as part of his Gundam Fix Figuration figure line.

The enthusiasm for the anime series Gundam is the acclaimed TV series "Mobile Suit Gundam" series created a goal back in 1979. The number of successful fiction has been phenomenal for Bandai has acquired the license for the marketing of toys and accessories Gundam robot based on giant robots and war. Set in a fictional universe of the Universal Century 0079, enter the Zeonprovide a one-year war of independence with the Earth Federation and his superior tactics humanoid weapons, the Mobile Suit against the enemy.

On the verge of complete destruction of the armed forces of the Federation to join the Amur Ray & Young Citizen of the Federation where the new Arsenal-RX-78 Gundam Zeon and destroy. After his victory, was the Earth Federation, their RX-78 with more extra armor. Gundam is a collective term used for the Universal Century (UC) series like Mobile Suit Gundam chain and in different periods as Gundam Wing, prepared by Sunrise Inc.

their life cycle such as size, Gundam toys are different "from" Mobile Suit Gundam meta-series and the subsequent "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny" and a number of other anime sequel, prequel, and stories side on the same subject and produces video formats and distributed to TV at home. If you go near thes' segment> Toys in a department store, you will be amazed by the wide range of games available.

Gundam toys present a remarkable collection. In contrast to the super-robots are the Gundams, with this realistic touch, realistic science have been in use for the design of weapons and ammunition found. In a design competition for students Gundam competed against each other in a new version of PF-78-1 Attractive and Gundam.

Youusing very detailed plastic in attractive colors printed Links, the toy Gundam installed without glue and with different levels of assembly capacity. Intended for adults 18 +, amazing space-age weapons systems such as radar-guided missiles from a distance, anti-aircraft guns, along with early warning systems are branded as an accessory. With additional weapons such as cannons blasting, rocket packs, reaction tank including toys Gundam, these high5 ½ "and can be renewed depending on the choice.

Robot enthusiasts from all over the world wish for its unique collection of Bandai's Gundam-branded toys. You different poses and weapons systems, different brands of presentation of the "Mobile Suit Gundam" series handle to be mounted. This well-documented and scientifically sound gizmos Gundam also referred to various studies, space research, "Bio-Suit for astronauts developed at MIT, the" Mobile Suit Gundam normal dress ", whileNASA and the design of nuclear thermal rocket engines on the mobile suit in Gundam universe, while the research on them.

Gundam toys are one of the longest series of consecutive versions of meta-sized robot with a soul of life. For the 30 years of franchising Gundam toy, toy manufacturer Bandai Park has installed a giant 59 foot replica of the RX-78 Mobile Suit Gundam robot in Tokyo, Odaiba Shiokaze. It has a number of one of the most successfulBrands in television, novels, video games and toys' s segment

The Fabulous Dragonoid Bakugan Maxus 7 in 1 - Top Christmas Toy 2009

The Bakugan Dragonoid Maxus 7 in 1 is one of the best selling and most popular toy of the year and is "great for the special gift" for Christmas 2009. This is one of the largest and most powerful Backugan so far and definitely a "cool toy" have much in particular when trying olds, 5-15 years.

For those not familiar, an original strategy game Bakugan Japanimation based on the popular TV series "Bakugan: Battle Brawlers. The series about a groupchildren struggling with dual cards and monsters. Had a variety of "Bakugan warriors" against each other for points. The Bakugan have magnetic spheres spring was suspended when a metal part of the paper "the door opened to reveal a fearsome warrior. The result of this is usually your children play and fully enjoy a 7 in 1 and have Maxus Dragonoid very quickly to a geek Bakugan. and avid collectors.

That also means the great Bakugan Maxus 7 in 1Dragonoid is that there are many components offer the possibility of multiple combinations of game that makes the piece Maxus Dragonoid contains very profitable, as it offers fun and entertainment.

The set contains a Bakugan warrior (called Neo Dragonoid) Bakugan and six traps (Grakas Hound, Hound Dark Grafias, brachium and Spitarm SpyderFencer.) These pieces can be combined to form this massive Bakugan monsters.

The transformation process is a bit 'complicated, althoughThe kit contains clear instructions make assembly easy. Each of the seven that make Bakugan Dragonoid be used individually in the strategy game. The set includes a special ability card, which is helpful when planning a strategy for the fall of the enemy. However, to properly Bakugan, several other balls Bakugan / tickets are required. These are not included in this package. Children who are new to Bakugan might be better with a different starter packs and then build theirLibrary.

Package Contents: A warrior Bakugan, 6 Bakugan traps, the ability to map and chart holder metal. A little note for parents and children: there are 3342 articles composed Bakugan action figures, games and a set of battle. So get your children in a Maxus 7 Bakugan Dragonoid and go fight