NOOL, Art Mathieu B.

October 26,2017
Eng 13 WFR1 Conceptual proposal

From Sticks to Screens: How Technology Shapes the Toy Industry

Introduction

At the very beginning of a human being’s life, toys have already been a part of it. From baby

rattles and mobiles, eventually moving on to toy cars and dolls, these playthings play an integral role

in the cognitive development of children. In fact, the very idea of playthings being synonymous with

childhood has been around for much longer than most of recorded history. Suffice to say, toys hold

a great degree of relevance that is often overlooked by most people as they get older, often times

just purchasing them as a means to satisfy children, with some exceptions like toy collectors

enthusiast communities, like yours truly is a part of. Counter-intuitively to this, however, is the fact

that the business of manufacturing and selling toys to the general audience has become a global

multi-billion dollar industry.

Recent events, however, might imply that the traditional toy industry is on massive decline.

Last year, industry powerhouse “Toys R’ Us” filed for bankruptcy and closed down its stores. There

also seems to be a massive shift in public interest towards electronic devices and video games as the

primary means of entertainment for children, with traditional toys being left behind. Advertisements

and marketing campaigns for smartphones, tablets, computers and video game consoles, particularly

in social media, have an increasing presence in society. People nowadays, millenials, would much

rather see new Fortnite DLC on a billboard more than they would like to see the new Transformers

Masterpiece Movie Series MPM-7 Bumblebee toy. This kind of presence is simply not there for the

advertising of traditional toys, albeit not to the extent of what it used to be back in the late 1900s

until the early 2000s. With this noticeable preference for gadgets and electronic entertainment, and

the waning presence of traditional toys, a question seems to be begging to be asked: are millenials

and their gadgets effectively killing off the toy industry?

Problematique

This paper aims to analyze how the increasing trend in electronic devices and video games as

playthings affects the traditional toy industry both economically and in terms of innovation. It

presents how toys have evolved over time; particularly when it comes to the design process in

conceptualizing a toy and the purposes for which they are designed, the manufacturing processes

that are involved in the creation of these toys, and the intended audiences that such toys are being

marketed to. Relating to this topic, another concept that comes to play is how the current

generation’s close relationship with technology affects other preexisting industries, the

preconceptions of older generations on this notion, whether or not these notions bear any truth to

them, and the implications that they entail.

Background

Traditional toys are defined as any physical object not entirely dependent on electronics that

is used for play. Despite having very little apparent practical use aside from the novelty it provides to

children, studies show how they are integral to the cognitive development of children, and their

effects, especially when compared to electronic devices and video games, allow … Children should

play in order to grow, as they have for eons now.

During ancient times, children mostly played with sticks and stones, or whatever they could

find to entertain themselves, although some items that are created for the purpose of being toys

have been found in ancient civilization sites, like a 3000 year-old ivory hedgehog standing on a cart

with rolling wheels from Susa, Iran. At that time, and for thousands of years after, toys were

relatively quite rare since the technology to mass produce toys were not at all developed at the time,

as well as the fact was impractical to do so since resources would then be diverted from where they
were more needed within a community. This changed with the arrival of the industrial revolution

when both of these problems were rendered obsolete. Toys were cheaper and easier to produce, and

the increase in real wages meant that the general populace had enough spare money to spend on

their children. This presented business pioneers with an idea to capitalize on. Thus, the toy industry

in the form that we see it today was born.

As with most industries, a lot has changed from the way toys were made back then to how

they are made now. Before the invention of plasticine in 1897, toys were being manufactured using

materials like metals, such as Meccano and die-cast model vehicles like Matchbox, or wood, like

more artisanal and small scale toy makers. These materials were harder and more expensive to turn

into functional toys. When the former was introduced, it gave toy makers less restrictions and more

room to experiment with their craft. Plastic toys like LEGOs and Dolls were particularly popular

from the 1930s onwards.

During the 1960s, there is an abundance of media that depict wars and soldiers, both due to

the aftermath of World War II, as well as the prevailing tensions surrounding the Vietnam Warm the

Cold War, and the opposing superpowers at the time. As result, young boys exposed to this kind of

media found the concept interesting, and of course wanted toys related to it. Running parallel to this

development, is the continual research and development on manufacturing methods and materials

that allowed for the production of more complex assemblies and designs, such as more details on

toys and more articulation where there is needed. A combination of the boys’ fascination with

“action heroes” and the ability to make more articulated toys resulted in the creation of action

figures, which were like what dolls were to young girls, except marketed towards young boys. This

kind of toy proved to be popular even to this day, with its appeal attracting an entirely different

market audience in the form of collectors.

 It was during the 90s when toys started to drastically change. The integration of electronics

with toys became much more commonplace, and items like Gameboys, Furbies, Hitclips, Bop-its

and a whole slew of electronic toys started to gain popularity. Nowadays, most toys marketed

towards children have some kind of electronics in them.

Toy marketing campaigns have a lot of associated history as well.several tie-in or spin-off

cartoons, comics, radio shows, and starting around the 80s, video games, all of which are marketing

ploys in order to reach a broader audience for the toy line to be marketed to. Notable examples

would be the eponymous blocks by the LEGO Company, Transformers, G.I. Joe and My Little

Pony toy lines by Hasbro, Barbie dolls by Mattel, and Beyblade by Takara Tomy in Japan. While this

practice is still being done today, it has unquestionably become sidelined, starting when the

popularity of video games began to grow, first getting a foothold in the market in the 70s from

arcades and prototypical home consoles like those made by Magnavox and Atari, subsequently

gaining a rapid boom in their following among young children during the 1980s thanks to the release

of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which to many was their first experience with video games,

as it was during this time that game consoles first started to become more affordable to the general

populace. Eventually, rival companies like Sega started popping up to compete with Nintendo,

releasing other consoles and other “exclusive” game titles, and by then the video game industry has

become an economic titan in a fraction of a time that other entertainment industries have taken to

get to a similar status. Nearly all households that could afford a console had one as this was, other

than going to the arcade, the easiest way to get to play a video game, and for a long period of time,

this was the case.

The 2010s saw a dramatic shift in the way entertainment industries operated. With the

iPhone signaling the birth of the archetypical smartphone that is now a staple in our daily lives,

compounded with improvements on internet technology, speed and reach, internet-dependent

media has risen by an exponential rate, and as a result, the way the general audience consumes media

has also changed. Having access to the internet from a handheld device wherever the user is, means

that written periodicals, radio and television do not necessarily have to be the primary means to

entertainment anymore. You can now watch television shows and movies without having to watch a

television set or go to the movies, all within the convenient package of a smartphone. Video games

are no longer restricted to a box connected to another box that is your television set, and instead is

accessible through a handheld device that has much more functionality anyway like making calls,

surfing the internet, and playing music and videos. This led to video games even more accessible to

children, which by today’s standards most probably own smartphones or have easy access to one. As

a result, companies pander to this desire, and the mobile video game industry in its current state is

now one of the largest digital entertainment industries in the planet. Children now more commonly

play with gadgets. If that is the case, then what now of traditional toys?

Framework

With this paper discussing how technological advancements and innovation lead to the

evolution of how traditional toys are being designed, manufactured, and marketed, and ultimately its

reception by the general populace, it will rely on socio-economic concepts to present its main points,

primarily the concept of Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” and innovation economics.

Joseph Schumpeter describes a “gale of creative destruction” that is present in every

industry. He reasons that if a new industry is to grow and possess any form of innovation that would

benefit the system as a whole, it will inevitably result in the decrease in the value of existing

industries, resulting in their eventual destruction over time. He calls it a “process of industrial

mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying
the old one, incessantly creating a new one.” Examples of this occurrence are how door-to-door

milk delivery is no longer a common practice as milk is now readily available in very accessible

convenience stores and supermarkets, or how Blockbuster and other similar movie rental stores

have lost almost all of their business as streaming movies and shows on Netflix has become more

popular and easy to do. This paper would analyze how gadgets affect the toy industry under the lens

that it is quite possibly an example of this occurrence in effect, and whether or not there is a

correlation between the increasing popularity of gadgets and video games among children, and the

apparent decline in the traditional toy market.

Another point that this paper would like to analyze is how the “gale of creative destruction”

caused by the electronics market affects other pre-existing industries as well, and how older

generations who are very much accustomed to life involving these industries would perceive this

occurrence that results in the decline of such industries; whether or not they think this is a good or a

bad thing, or whether they blame this occurrence on the attitude of the current generation towards

technology. This paper attempts to relate this concept of creative destruction with geriatric

technophobia, or the aversion and sometimes even vehement distaste of members of older

generations towards advanced technology, to how they are linked the notion that gadgets are killing

off the toy industry.

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