Hasbro vs Lego

[unclephn]

One thing that I've observed is that cartoons these days aren't marketed to sell action figures like they did back in the 80's. Back then, there was G.I. Joe, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, He-Man, etc., which were all franchises specifically marketed to sell action figures. New characters and vehicles were constantly introduced with the purpose of selling it in toy form. In this day and age, cartoons are marketed to sell different kinds of toys (Beyblades, Bakugan, etc.). These toys are more interactive and hands-on, which are the types of things that can actually keep kids entertained nowadays.

Action figures these days are pretty much targeted at adults, the one's who used to be those kids who played with G.I. Joe's, Ninja Turtles, etc.

Like sadowsk1 mentioned, the edge that Lego has is that environments, buildings, vehicles, etc., can be built, limited only by your imagination and creativity. Because of this, minifigures had that extra little bit of interactivity that most action figures might not.

[legohunter]

Speaking of action figure, look at Mcfarlane, Hot toys, Sideshow, bandai, and some japanese toy makers, they were thousand time better than Hasbro.

Not to derail this topic, but I have to interject that my brother and I amassed quite a few McFarlane toys when we were younger and most of them, while intricately detailed, were relatively not geared towards actual play. They were more like inaction figures, sculptures with minimal articulation, and a lot of them broke relatively easily.

I would not argue with this. It is ture that Mcfarlane toys were designed for display more than playing with. The articulations were mainly used for making post.

[legohunter]

I think Lego has more edge with the customizable environments that can be created to go along with minifigures. Action figure playsets and buildings are too rare. That was my experience back when I collected Star Wars action figures more seriously.

Right, one of the reason that I get back to lego because I could make a simple/complex diorama with the minifigures. The brick build is flexible, extensive, and full of fun.