re: Why are toys so expensive?

The new Star Wars toys look terrible compared to the ones in the late nineties. The quality and paint jobs are terrible with no articulation yet they cost twice as much.

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It's not so much the toy itself. Rather, it's the licensing and intellectual property that the toy represents. Kids want Star Wars toys and GI Joe toys. They pay for the brand.

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The toy industry has also evolved into having to be safety tested almost as badly as the pharma industry. Safety testing, trials, more testing, publishing studies on swallowing, breakage, small parts, sharp edges, pointy things, color, coloring agents, dyes, chemistry.....the list goes on and on.

Add 40-50 testers onto the payroll to make any product and throw in a handful of govt. agencies to oversee and regulate and see what happens to the price of the product.

Toys and electronics were more expensive when I was a kid than they are now. For instance my parents paid more for my Intelivision than what a PS4 is now.

A VCR then was $1200.
I remember getting a $50 Star Wars toy back then and they had expensive Lego sets and this was back when the average Middle class pay was in the $35k range.