Was born in 87 . Toys R us was heaven to us. An entire store packed with toys and video games ( n64 was huge then) I remember when they started phasing in kids clothing when I was about 14 and I knew it was all down hill from there. Now in 2024 our Toys R Us sits abandon across from the valley mall in Hagerstown
I'll tell you what happened. Walmart and Target don't give a crap about toy sales. It's a very small percentage of their overall sales so they can't be bothered. Put that together with the fact that distribution is horrible from toy companies these days and you have the current state of the toy isles.
Also forgot to add in the transition from in-store shopping to online shopping from those like Amazon. Brick and mortar shops are becoming obsolete to the online stores. Just like how the introduction of the diesel locomotive made the steam locomotive obsolete.
I’m pretty sure more people steal toys than buy them nowadays. Every week my local police is finding nearly $100,000 worth of stolen legos in some UHaul. Kids simply don’t play with physical toys anymore, they either play video games or rot their brains on social media. Adults are also the primary buyers of physical toys like legos and action figures so you can imagine why all 3 of these factors have changed the toy aisle.
We love u Bobby. Your just a Real dude like us. Not some corporate greedy dude sitting behind a desk looking at numbers, who can careless about what he sells.
I got into Lego in my adulthood because while I had been away they really uped their print game. So many unique faces and torsos. I went and ordered a bunch of parts and made minifigs of my brother and his family. So it was him, his wife, and son. As well as three pugs. I then went and made one of myself, my mom, my dad, step-dad, and best friend. The ability to customize with so many universally compatible parts really did it. Now with my personal minifig I can drive cool cars, fly space ships, pilot a mech, or cross lightsabers with Darth Vader. It's the versatility that really appeals, at least to me.
Also the fact that the versatility goes back decades. LEGO pieces that are out of production from 10-50ish years ago are still compatible with LEGO today. So if your house needs a window of a certain design not produced anymore, or if a spaceship needs transparent neon orange pieces that can glow under blacklight, or maybe you want to make a funny diorama of your personal minifigure running from a floppy armed skeleton minifigure, LEGO of the past has you covered too as they are all still compatible with LEGO of today.
Its kinda crazy how the toy market is kinda in shambles, i work at a retail store and most of the actuon figures we get are so lame, getting some random stranger things characters or like witcher, side character(which has been cancelled), we have a bunch of starwars that nobody buys when i was a kid i eat them up! Its pretty sad..
@@aikou2886Bro, I remember the Cybertron and ROTF toylines. Those were amazing, minimum stinkers, maximum bangers. Still mad I didn't buy that Bludgeon toy 😢
@@lyrilmtv2428yeah when we talk about other toys they get good and decent sales or the stock literally is gone but action figures have gotten sooooo boring there are no good ones.
As someone who also works in retail and used to absolutely love collecting and playing with toys-especially action figures-I feel like a big part of the problem is that there's not very engaging packaging for most things, *and* most of the characters they choose to make figures for (especially Star Wars...) just aren't characters that kids (or anyone really) actually want.
Gotta give him props. He started his company from nothing and made it into something special Its really hard people. Sometimes people dont realise how hard it is to create a new company that creates original content.
The toy sections are vastly different than what they were like back in the 80's and 90's. Back then you had toys for all ages. Now you walk into one and it's mostly toys for the 7 and under. And the action figures that used to be targeted to the 7-12 year olds and were generally cheap. $3-$7 now are targeted to 30+ year olds and cost $15-$35😞
Imagine being a toy hunter out on your normal route and you see Bobby Vala at one of your Targets….i wouldn’t know how I’d react. I’d like to say I’d just be myself and say what’s up.
I have too many issues with the blind box stuff. It's early age gambling and so much packaging waste. At least with a kinder surprise, you get a consumable, and don't tease you with what you "could" get.
LEGO is on a bit of a downhill spiral, at least for me. The licensed sets are just too expensive for all you get out of them, and they almost never have any decent buildings anymore, unless it's Hairy Plodder stuff (which is overpriced AF because of licensing fees) and it's all cars, planes, etc or weird stuff like a bouquet of flowers or abstract paintings, or a model of the earth and sun or some weird stuff like that. Heck, even the "City" theme is just firetrucks, cars, race cars, race tracks... no buildings. You can't even make a "City" out of the "City" Themed sets and even when they DO release a building, it's a very bare-bones facade front of a building that has big giant windows to save on pieces most of the time. Now, there was this somewhat neat set last year that had like 4 small buildings side by side as like a street feature, but... no road plates? That would have been perfect to include a road plate that goes along that street. Just go to bricklink or something and look up the sets they used to have and compare them to what they put out nowadays... night and day difference. EDIT: Also, I hate how they inflate piece counts by including LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of small smooth pieces to cover up all the studs. The studs ARE the iconic look of lego and if I wanted smooth toy models, I wouldn't be buying LEGO.
I’m finding they don’t have a verity they do but it’s all licensed stuff. Like for example if I just want to build a boat or a car or some type of random building they don’t have any of that it’s all licensed shows and movie stuff. When I was younger I remember all these cool set the lego Battleship was awesome now it’s just here’s more Star Wars here more Animal Crossing here’s more Harry Potter.
@@ryans413 And of course all of the sets are more expensive because of those licenses, because they have to cover the cost of such licensing. If you look at the Piece-to-Cost ratio, a lot of times, you can get 10:1 pieces to dollars or better on the non-Licensed Stuff (usually, there are outliers). But on the licensed stuff, it's usually way less than that. So, for example, I remember I bought that 3-in-1 Castle Set last year. It was something like 1,400 pieces for $100. That's 14:1, a great deal. Then you see Star Wars sets that are 800 pieces for $110. That's not even 8:1. And again, too many sets are full of 1x1 smooth tile stud covers and small tiny little greebles. A few months ago I bought a 3-in-1 beach house set, and it was a bit smaller than it looked on the box. Piece count sounded nice, except at least 50+ pieces of the set were 1x1 smooth stud cover bricks and other tiny little detailing pieces that sets are full of nowadays. You can't really build anything with those. Looks like if you want to build your own stuff, the only way to do that is to buy the "Classic" sets, but then if you do that, you won't get stuff like wings or cockpit windows if you ever wanted to build, say, a spaceship. Also, the Classic sets are full of weird colored bricks, I remember looking at a 1500 piece Classic set and seeing that half the set had purple and pink bricks. Like, I understand they wanna reach out to young girls too, but WTF am I supposed to build out of square pink blocks?
@@aikou2886 I view Harry Potter as being very highly overrated. /shrug I just don't like the fact that they put so much effort into HP and not non-licensed stuff, because of the price, and because you know, it just gets old after awhile, where there's very few buildings outside of HP stuff.
That is literally ALL Target stores: empty pegs, toys randomly strewn about, clearance tags seemingly placed on stuff randomly. The collector section keeps expanding. There was an Aladdin toyline. We had almost all the figures. Even Genie Jafar.
It's insane, we're down to really just two brick and mortar retail stores for toys and both of them look like desolate warzones I think it honestly has a negative effect on my chances of impulse buying because it just looks so visually unappealing, strange as that may sound.
@@mechadekaI think it’s the same reason Hobby Lobby doesn’t carry a lot of new kits. I work at Target, and one of my coworkers was telling me about how Target and Gamestop were testing the waters with model kits. Target used to carry kits like MG Barbatos, and you could order PGs from Gamestop. Nowadays, it’s mostly HGs, and it’s not a lot. I can literally list off everything we got in the two years I’ve been working here and it’ll just sound like a small shipment for my local Gunpla shop: 2 HG Wing Zero Sky 2 HG Gouf Crimson Custom 2 HG Gundam Urban Ground Type 2 HG Gundam 00 Command Qan[t] 2 HG Gundam Barbataurus 2 HG Perfect Strike Freedom 2 HG Livelance Heaven 2 HG Gundam Helios 12 EG RX-78-2 America Color Ver. 12 EG Nu Gundam 4 RG Wing Gundam TV 12 HG Gundam Aerial That is 4 cases total of Gundam Breaker Battlelouge HGs, 2 cases of both EGs, 2 cases of Aerial, and 1 case of RG Wing TV. Keep in mind that these counts are for two years. It especially sucks because I went to other stores for inventory this year, and they had kits that have never come to our store. Stuff like HG Aerial Rebuild, HG Calibarn, the rest of the Gundam Team suits from the HGAC line, G-Armor kits, Artifact kits, and Mobile Suit Ensemble blind kits. Hell, Target carries Exclusive Gundam Universe figures, and we only ever got one box of the G-3, and we were two months late on getting the Trans-Am version of 00 Qan[t]
Collectors section of my Targets is always a disaster. So disorganized, like the employees just dump the stuff and don't care about making it easy to find what you want.
How odd. Just yesterday my kid showed me a Mini-Brands pizza that I thought looked like the right size for 6" action figures. Amazing how many things seem to happen at about the same time.
Awesome getting Bobby's perspective as a toy designer but also as a consumer buying stuff for his kids. This is why Valaverse is raising the bar for every toy manufacturer, independent & mainstream.
Even the lul before the michael bay movies took off weren't this dead. It's tough. 90% of the time I have to order it online And the prices has effectively doubled since 2010.
This I know people like the larger Deluxe, and Leader class figs, but I like the smaller Legends/Cyberverse Legion/Core class figures, they're pretty good in some cases, like usually being cheaper, and good for perspective shots in stop motion But you can barely find any of the new releases unless you go online
Bobby, these videos are great because we get a behind the scenes look at some of the things that you look at for motivation, inspiration, and insight as to how you can further push things to the next level.
My walmart's toys section is a literal mess, figures or toys with missing heads, there was a plushie stuck in the roof, another plushie had a cut off head, and the transformers toys also got it bad, some of them were almost torn out theyre boxes, a bumblebee was literally torn apart without damaging the box somehow, some of that mess is still there
I worked for target and they have to be ashamed of themselves 😂 every target down here has empty toy isles yet when you go into the backstock rooms there’s tons of figures just laying about. Put them shits on the shelves and let them sell! I would say make room for them just get them out there 😂 an entire wave of aqua man 2 dc multiverse just sitting back there shelves along with marvel legends
stores in general have become souless honestly. Not just toy sections. I used to love going shopping but.. now days it's kind of boring. As if they want you to go in and out. Everything is about shelf space, and it's tight hard to get around sometimes.
I agree 1000%. Going shopping used to be a really fun escape for me. These days it feels more like I'm in a prison than a fun shopping center. There's no "experience" to it anymore-just suffocating and empty.
May be a breeze of air but I never would see a big toy aisle at my Wal-Mart, yesterday I had to pick up a prescription and like always I sought out the toys like always and I was amazed. While it is further back than it use to be the aisle length and I even heard families picking up toys like well Bobby here. It is a false statement that kids don't want toys like we did in the day. Because I see as many kids in those aisles as grown adults. Kids are everywhere at my Local Comiccon every year too. The kids love it all, especially if you limit time on computers and such.
It's got to be both great, and incredibly suck as a kid to have a Dad with his own toy company. He buys cool shit because he likes the designs. But having your toy collection limited by design decisions seems like it can be weird. "But Daaad I just want Spider-Man!" "No! Do you see those knees! We have better knees at home!"
1:54 it’s crazy that you said you’re not a Lego guy, yet that’s the Lego guy-est thing you could’ve ever said 😂 No but in all seriousness, this video was randomly recommended to me, but I’m glad I clicked! This was such an interesting watch! It was so cool hearing about all the little bts details that go into toy production
Love this video!. One of the things I always miss about toy runs is just walking the aisles and just experiencing all the cool stuff out there. Not just the regular go-tos of the collectors like Marvel, Star Wars, DC, GI Joe, or Transformers, etc. but EVERYTHING in the toy section/store. Boys stuff, girls stuff, puzzles, play sets, role play... EVERYTHING. It's all fantastic.
If you are looking to get into retail, you should probably go with a price point similar to legends or those GI Joe classifieds don't go the collector route. The price points on NECA and the other brands is absurd hell even legends and classifieds are getting insane. What is off with the price points as you stated is the fact that they know the adult collectors will pay that price for those figures.
That Collector's Spot is about 3x the size of my two local stores in WA state. To hear someone complain about how small that section is when it's that size cracks me up. We're getting scraps over here.
This was awesome and fun Bobby, it is refreshing to see the perspective of a toy & story maker in a toy aisle. None of this was boring, I collect, but I also have kids an it’s just refreshing, thanks man.
I love how Bobby just likes toys. Just toys, all sorts of toys. Adult collectibles, roleplay items, boy's toys, girl's toys. As a toy maker, he just enjoys making fun stuff that people would like to play with.
You should run a contest where the top prize is spending a day with Mr. Vala. Would love to sit and listen to his thoughts on the toy industry and be able to ask questions.
You should do a series of videos on getting into Lego from the perspective of someone who is more into action figures, and how different/similar they are. The Lego community would eat that up!
@@Valaverse yeah I never thought about paint (and all the technical aspects involved in superior paint application) at all on anything that wasn't Action Figure related.
I miss non-licensed toys. Everything is licensed now. I want generic lines. Like those old CORPS army figures or some generic fantasy action figures not based on a movie/tv show.
As a lifelong Lego fan, I couldn’t agree more. I grew up on Lego’s original lines, but now those are so few and far between because of the fact that their licensed products overshadow everything else. I miss the days when they’d put out new, original stuff every other year or so.
Targets and walmarts here in northeast Pennsylvania are absolutely atrocious, nothing's ever stocked it's always the same crap being restocked, literally nothing new everytime i go, it's horrible I hate Pennsylvania. We only have one comic shop/toy collector shop in my area😭😭 I hate NEPA so much if you're a toy collector or a comic book fan DO NOT COME TO LIVE HERE THERE IS LITERALLY NOTHING GOOD HERE FOR TOY COLLECTORS!
Funny how you go from looking at the Sonic stuff to talking about Jazwares. Back in 2011 around the 20th anniversary of Sonic, Jazwares did that entire line of brittle Sonic Generations figures. I loved my classic Sonic that came with the classic Amy comic two pack.
I wouldn't be so sure about those Sonic the Hedgehog figures. I see them all the time at Walmart, and I can't help but feel disappointed -- they don't make 'em how they used to. Does anyone remember the "Super Posers" and other Sonic figures from the previous manufacturer, back when Toys 'R Us was still around? Back then, Sonic figures had more areas of articulation.
And that's a good thing. Jazwares' were terrible toys from articulation to material. The Super posers had more joints, but none that helped the figures balance properly and they were pretty brittle. The basic lines were no better neither for the same reason. What Jakks figured out was giving them ball joint ankles and stronger material. If you miss the old 6" scale, their Prime line also blows the old Jazwares out
I had a super posers Shadow and broke his leg and his ear the first day of owning it. Sure they had more articulation, but they suuucked as actual toys. Way too fragile. Jazwares' 3 inch figures however were great.
definitely intrigued by the thought process as you walk through the aisles, its one thing to be a designer, but you definitely seem passionate about it, and we need more of it!
That’s the best stocked Target I’ve seen in a while. Honestly saw the make a food thing and didn’t see if it was edible or not (in the 10 second look). That may become an issue.
I work in a small but well established toy store and am a huge fan of your brand. I always tell my fellow workers about your industry knowledge but this video in particular is a wonderful insight and learning tool.
My Target toy aisle especially when it comes to Transformers and Star Wars is nonexistent. Usually all they got are figures nobody cares about like "Third Sister" and The Client"
I'd love to see Action Force in Target and Wally World, 100%. Also, that is the most organized collector area that I've seen. The stores in my area are always a wreck and they vary in shelving unit size too. One Target has 4 shelving units of the "Collectors Spot" while the one 8 miles away has almost 10 shelving units. The Wal Marts are all over the place where the Collectors section is. It is wild.
Love this slice of life video and the commentary was interesting! This is probably the most personable a toy company has been, and that’s great marketing!
Then there's FYE don't even get me started on the overpriced Marvel Legends there.... 50 bucks for a single Marvel Legend that's supposed to be 25 to 30... Unless you have the VIP card thing and you're not even guaranteed that working without any issues because I got mine over a month ago I havr yet to make a purchase with it and the system on their end is errored out when it comes to my newly created account for some reason. North East Pennsylvania is an absolute joke when it comes to nerd collecting and toy hunting.... A horrific and distasteful joke I hate it here😭
I personally don’t dislike Target for looking toys, I found some great deals like a Super Mario Movie action figure for 15 dollars or the TMNT Mutant Chaos for 8 dollars
What? (time 17:10) Mr. Vala wanted a dinosaur toy re-issued? There is a good reason why things should be re-issued. (Maybe not all the time, but often enough to take advantage of people's interest - and to make money.)
And yes these videos are awesome. Keep your customers in the know and without antagonizing target you need to stay on point with them to keep your brand out there.
You are gonna love the Size my Wal-Mart has taken up, I have not seen a Toy section this big in almost 10 years I check them out all the time like Michael. But for a town this big in the Midwest, cannot wait for Valaverse to be on pegs my friend.
When I was a kid, the best toystore in NZ was The Toy Warehouse. It was this enormous building full of some really cool stuff, and I remember my Dad taking my friend and I to buy GI Joe figures. But the best thing was seeing the USS Flagg; it was so long, they just put it on the floor because it would have taken up too much shelf space. Nowadays, all there is is Kmart, Farmers, The Warehouse and Toyworld, and none of them even have GI Joe Classified
you were responsible for that upside down ab crunch for those 12 inch legends? may i ask why? you can't rotate the waist when the torso's crunched like you could if it were 2 diaphragm style cuts like on jada figures.
Would you like to see more videos like this from us?
Your going to make it easier for me to buy your merch...LETS GOOOOOO!!!
We are trying very hard to do this!
Yeah I dug this, great stuff.
Shocker there was no MOTU stuff.
Definitely yes.
Hell Yeah! These kinds of videos are very fun, and informative. I would love to see more of the Collectible places you shop at.
Was born in 87 . Toys R us was heaven to us. An entire store packed with toys and video games ( n64 was huge then) I remember when they started phasing in kids clothing when I was about 14 and I knew it was all down hill from there. Now in 2024 our Toys R Us sits abandon across from the valley mall in Hagerstown
I'll tell you what happened. Walmart and Target don't give a crap about toy sales. It's a very small percentage of their overall sales so they can't be bothered. Put that together with the fact that distribution is horrible from toy companies these days and you have the current state of the toy isles.
Kids play A LOT more video games compared to physical toys nowadays too
Yeah, my stores can go for like 6 months without even restocking. Pretty sad.
Also forgot to add in the transition from in-store shopping to online shopping from those like Amazon. Brick and mortar shops are becoming obsolete to the online stores. Just like how the introduction of the diesel locomotive made the steam locomotive obsolete.
I’m pretty sure more people steal toys than buy them nowadays. Every week my local police is finding nearly $100,000 worth of stolen legos in some UHaul. Kids simply don’t play with physical toys anymore, they either play video games or rot their brains on social media. Adults are also the primary buyers of physical toys like legos and action figures so you can imagine why all 3 of these factors have changed the toy aisle.
We love u Bobby. Your just a Real dude like us. Not some corporate greedy dude sitting behind a desk looking at numbers, who can careless about what he sells.
I got into Lego in my adulthood because while I had been away they really uped their print game. So many unique faces and torsos. I went and ordered a bunch of parts and made minifigs of my brother and his family. So it was him, his wife, and son. As well as three pugs. I then went and made one of myself, my mom, my dad, step-dad, and best friend.
The ability to customize with so many universally compatible parts really did it. Now with my personal minifig I can drive cool cars, fly space ships, pilot a mech, or cross lightsabers with Darth Vader. It's the versatility that really appeals, at least to me.
Also the fact that the versatility goes back decades. LEGO pieces that are out of production from 10-50ish years ago are still compatible with LEGO today. So if your house needs a window of a certain design not produced anymore, or if a spaceship needs transparent neon orange pieces that can glow under blacklight, or maybe you want to make a funny diorama of your personal minifigure running from a floppy armed skeleton minifigure, LEGO of the past has you covered too as they are all still compatible with LEGO of today.
Its kinda crazy how the toy market is kinda in shambles, i work at a retail store and most of the actuon figures we get are so lame, getting some random stranger things characters or like witcher, side character(which has been cancelled), we have a bunch of starwars that nobody buys when i was a kid i eat them up! Its pretty sad..
I used to love Transformers until I saw how cheap and simple the new figures were.
Some toys will always sell quite well but the action figure market is absolutely destroyed. Full of Disney garbage :(
@@aikou2886Bro, I remember the Cybertron and ROTF toylines. Those were amazing, minimum stinkers, maximum bangers.
Still mad I didn't buy that Bludgeon toy 😢
@@lyrilmtv2428yeah when we talk about other toys they get good and decent sales or the stock literally is gone but action figures have gotten sooooo boring there are no good ones.
As someone who also works in retail and used to absolutely love collecting and playing with toys-especially action figures-I feel like a big part of the problem is that there's not very engaging packaging for most things, *and* most of the characters they choose to make figures for (especially Star Wars...) just aren't characters that kids (or anyone really) actually want.
Gotta give him props. He started his company from nothing and made it into something special Its really hard people. Sometimes people dont realise how hard it is to create a new company that creates original content.
The toy sections are vastly different than what they were like back in the 80's and 90's. Back then you had toys for all ages. Now you walk into one and it's mostly toys for the 7 and under. And the action figures that used to be targeted to the 7-12 year olds and were generally cheap. $3-$7 now are targeted to 30+ year olds and cost $15-$35😞
Imagine being a toy hunter out on your normal route and you see Bobby Vala at one of your Targets….i wouldn’t know how I’d react. I’d like to say I’d just be myself and say what’s up.
I have too many issues with the blind box stuff. It's early age gambling and so much packaging waste. At least with a kinder surprise, you get a consumable, and don't tease you with what you "could" get.
LEGO is on a bit of a downhill spiral, at least for me. The licensed sets are just too expensive for all you get out of them, and they almost never have any decent buildings anymore, unless it's Hairy Plodder stuff (which is overpriced AF because of licensing fees) and it's all cars, planes, etc or weird stuff like a bouquet of flowers or abstract paintings, or a model of the earth and sun or some weird stuff like that. Heck, even the "City" theme is just firetrucks, cars, race cars, race tracks... no buildings. You can't even make a "City" out of the "City" Themed sets and even when they DO release a building, it's a very bare-bones facade front of a building that has big giant windows to save on pieces most of the time. Now, there was this somewhat neat set last year that had like 4 small buildings side by side as like a street feature, but... no road plates? That would have been perfect to include a road plate that goes along that street. Just go to bricklink or something and look up the sets they used to have and compare them to what they put out nowadays... night and day difference.
EDIT: Also, I hate how they inflate piece counts by including LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of small smooth pieces to cover up all the studs. The studs ARE the iconic look of lego and if I wanted smooth toy models, I wouldn't be buying LEGO.
The downfall of Lego was them stopping Bionicle
I’m finding they don’t have a verity they do but it’s all licensed stuff. Like for example if I just want to build a boat or a car or some type of random building they don’t have any of that it’s all licensed shows and movie stuff. When I was younger I remember all these cool set the lego Battleship was awesome now it’s just here’s more Star Wars here more Animal Crossing here’s more Harry Potter.
@@ryans413 And of course all of the sets are more expensive because of those licenses, because they have to cover the cost of such licensing. If you look at the Piece-to-Cost ratio, a lot of times, you can get 10:1 pieces to dollars or better on the non-Licensed Stuff (usually, there are outliers). But on the licensed stuff, it's usually way less than that. So, for example, I remember I bought that 3-in-1 Castle Set last year. It was something like 1,400 pieces for $100. That's 14:1, a great deal. Then you see Star Wars sets that are 800 pieces for $110. That's not even 8:1.
And again, too many sets are full of 1x1 smooth tile stud covers and small tiny little greebles. A few months ago I bought a 3-in-1 beach house set, and it was a bit smaller than it looked on the box. Piece count sounded nice, except at least 50+ pieces of the set were 1x1 smooth stud cover bricks and other tiny little detailing pieces that sets are full of nowadays. You can't really build anything with those. Looks like if you want to build your own stuff, the only way to do that is to buy the "Classic" sets, but then if you do that, you won't get stuff like wings or cockpit windows if you ever wanted to build, say, a spaceship. Also, the Classic sets are full of weird colored bricks, I remember looking at a 1500 piece Classic set and seeing that half the set had purple and pink bricks. Like, I understand they wanna reach out to young girls too, but WTF am I supposed to build out of square pink blocks?
Do you hate Harry Potter or somethIng?
LEGO Minecraft is my favorite theme.
@@aikou2886 I view Harry Potter as being very highly overrated. /shrug I just don't like the fact that they put so much effort into HP and not non-licensed stuff, because of the price, and because you know, it just gets old after awhile, where there's very few buildings outside of HP stuff.
That is literally ALL Target stores: empty pegs, toys randomly strewn about, clearance tags seemingly placed on stuff randomly. The collector section keeps expanding.
There was an Aladdin toyline. We had almost all the figures. Even Genie Jafar.
It's insane, we're down to really just two brick and mortar retail stores for toys and both of them look like desolate warzones I think it honestly has a negative effect on my chances of impulse buying because it just looks so visually unappealing, strange as that may sound.
One side effect of collecting Lego is that your money tends to disappear quickly
Look, just build more money! I mean... its lego
stores need to start carrying gundam model kits more
Yes, more gundam, more often
They seem to sell pretty well at Target, so I don't know why their selection remains so small.
@@mechadekaI think it’s the same reason Hobby Lobby doesn’t carry a lot of new kits. I work at Target, and one of my coworkers was telling me about how Target and Gamestop were testing the waters with model kits. Target used to carry kits like MG Barbatos, and you could order PGs from Gamestop.
Nowadays, it’s mostly HGs, and it’s not a lot. I can literally list off everything we got in the two years I’ve been working here and it’ll just sound like a small shipment for my local Gunpla shop:
2 HG Wing Zero Sky
2 HG Gouf Crimson Custom
2 HG Gundam Urban Ground Type
2 HG Gundam 00 Command Qan[t]
2 HG Gundam Barbataurus
2 HG Perfect Strike Freedom
2 HG Livelance Heaven
2 HG Gundam Helios
12 EG RX-78-2 America Color Ver.
12 EG Nu Gundam
4 RG Wing Gundam TV
12 HG Gundam Aerial
That is 4 cases total of Gundam Breaker Battlelouge HGs, 2 cases of both EGs, 2 cases of Aerial, and 1 case of RG Wing TV. Keep in mind that these counts are for two years. It especially sucks because I went to other stores for inventory this year, and they had kits that have never come to our store. Stuff like HG Aerial Rebuild, HG Calibarn, the rest of the Gundam Team suits from the HGAC line, G-Armor kits, Artifact kits, and Mobile Suit Ensemble blind kits. Hell, Target carries Exclusive Gundam Universe figures, and we only ever got one box of the G-3, and we were two months late on getting the Trans-Am version of 00 Qan[t]
Collectors section of my Targets is always a disaster. So disorganized, like the employees just dump the stuff and don't care about making it easy to find what you want.
I kinda like it that way. Makes it like a treasure hunt haha
How odd.
Just yesterday my kid showed me a Mini-Brands pizza that I thought looked like the right size for 6" action figures.
Amazing how many things seem to happen at about the same time.
As a guy in my fifties, I miss Toys R Us.
I miss Bionicle
Me too. Bionicle is that got me into LEGO on the first place.
It's all been downhill since bionicle ended
Awesome getting Bobby's perspective as a toy designer but also as a consumer buying stuff for his kids.
This is why Valaverse is raising the bar for every toy manufacturer, independent & mainstream.
19:39 You can get that at Ollie's for $8, along with all of the other Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney junk that no one wants anymore.
that’s where i got my ponda baba and hellboy figurines
They never stock the Transformers sections like they used to :(
Makes hunting harder :/
Even the lul before the michael bay movies took off weren't this dead. It's tough.
90% of the time I have to order it online
And the prices has effectively doubled since 2010.
This
I know people like the larger Deluxe, and Leader class figs, but I like the smaller Legends/Cyberverse Legion/Core class figures, they're pretty good in some cases, like usually being cheaper, and good for perspective shots in stop motion
But you can barely find any of the new releases unless you go online
Love it, I don’t think of Bobby as a “Toy Company CEO”, but a Toy Fan/collector who just happens to run a brand!
Love that
The answer to nearly every retail question is, "Amazon."
Bobby, Can we get an episode of you going into a super 7 store? 😂
Bobby, these videos are great because we get a behind the scenes look at some of the things that you look at for motivation, inspiration, and insight as to how you can further push things to the next level.
My walmart's toys section is a literal mess, figures or toys with missing heads, there was a plushie stuck in the roof, another plushie had a cut off head, and the transformers toys also got it bad, some of them were almost torn out theyre boxes, a bumblebee was literally torn apart without damaging the box somehow, some of that mess is still there
I worked for target and they have to be ashamed of themselves 😂 every target down here has empty toy isles yet when you go into the backstock rooms there’s tons of figures just laying about. Put them shits on the shelves and let them sell! I would say make room for them just get them out there 😂 an entire wave of aqua man 2 dc multiverse just sitting back there shelves along with marvel legends
You should check out stores like Ross to get an idea of what things dont sell at retail prices very well.
stores in general have become souless honestly. Not just toy sections. I used to love going shopping but.. now days it's kind of boring. As if they want you to go in and out. Everything is about shelf space, and it's tight hard to get around sometimes.
I agree 1000%. Going shopping used to be a really fun escape for me. These days it feels more like I'm in a prison than a fun shopping center. There's no "experience" to it anymore-just suffocating and empty.
May be a breeze of air but I never would see a big toy aisle at my Wal-Mart, yesterday I had to pick up a prescription and like always I sought out the toys like always and I was amazed.
While it is further back than it use to be the aisle length and I even heard families picking up toys like well Bobby here.
It is a false statement that kids don't want toys like we did in the day. Because I see as many kids in those aisles as grown adults. Kids are everywhere at my Local Comiccon every year too.
The kids love it all, especially if you limit time on computers and such.
Scalpers.. that is what has happened to the toy sections.
That's definitely a factor sadly.
When the TMNT crossover happens and hear me out: "Mutated Pandora! With her a muscle bound cat girl!"
For some reason cross sells on the back of action figure packages are missing.
That's really annoying.
I want to see what else is available.
It's got to be both great, and incredibly suck as a kid to have a Dad with his own toy company. He buys cool shit because he likes the designs. But having your toy collection limited by design decisions seems like it can be weird. "But Daaad I just want Spider-Man!" "No! Do you see those knees! We have better knees at home!"
“We have better knees at home!” Im legit dying 🤣🤣🤣
1:54 it’s crazy that you said you’re not a Lego guy, yet that’s the Lego guy-est thing you could’ve ever said 😂 No but in all seriousness, this video was randomly recommended to me, but I’m glad I clicked! This was such an interesting watch! It was so cool hearing about all the little bts details that go into toy production
Did we get a subscriber out of you!?
Love this video!. One of the things I always miss about toy runs is just walking the aisles and just experiencing all the cool stuff out there. Not just the regular go-tos of the collectors like Marvel, Star Wars, DC, GI Joe, or Transformers, etc. but EVERYTHING in the toy section/store. Boys stuff, girls stuff, puzzles, play sets, role play... EVERYTHING. It's all fantastic.
If you are looking to get into retail, you should probably go with a price point similar to legends or those GI Joe classifieds don't go the collector route. The price points on NECA and the other brands is absurd hell even legends and classifieds are getting insane. What is off with the price points as you stated is the fact that they know the adult collectors will pay that price for those figures.
Always love it when you talk shop Bobby, it's great to hear the insight of a toy designer about the industry.
That Collector's Spot is about 3x the size of my two local stores in WA state. To hear someone complain about how small that section is when it's that size cracks me up. We're getting scraps over here.
Same for my Targets here. That section is barely a fraction of the size and it's just mostly funko pops and Neca figures.
LEGO City is the best line.
LEGO should bring back Castle and Space.
The other licenses are fun, but nothing beats the original themes it had.
The reason there’s no more displays is because of vandalism and the cost of maintenance to even place them
that's not really the main reason, kids are on tablets, they barely play with toys anymore these days, and if they do people order from amazon
Can we expect Valaverse dollhouses any time soon? 🤓🤓
TMNT Valaverse crossover? The thought only cracks me up...😂
Dude, your one Target store stocks so much more Jakks Sonic than my Target, Walmart and Kohl’s combined!
This was awesome and fun Bobby, it is refreshing to see the perspective of a toy & story maker in a toy aisle. None of this was boring, I collect, but I also have kids an it’s just refreshing, thanks man.
This was great insight, having someone who's worked at multiple companies take you thru the aisles and talk about the products on the shelf.
I love how Bobby just likes toys. Just toys, all sorts of toys. Adult collectibles, roleplay items, boy's toys, girl's toys.
As a toy maker, he just enjoys making fun stuff that people would like to play with.
You should run a contest where the top prize is spending a day with Mr. Vala. Would love to sit and listen to his thoughts on the toy industry and be able to ask questions.
You should do a series of videos on getting into Lego from the perspective of someone who is more into action figures, and how different/similar they are. The Lego community would eat that up!
Shut your dumb ahh up 😭🙏💀
Your perspective on toys and the toy aisle was refreshing. I'll not look at toy aisles the same way again.
Oh really?
@@Valaverse yeah I never thought about paint (and all the technical aspects involved in superior paint application) at all on anything that wasn't Action Figure related.
I miss non-licensed toys. Everything is licensed now. I want generic lines. Like those old CORPS army figures or some generic fantasy action figures not based on a movie/tv show.
As a lifelong Lego fan, I couldn’t agree more. I grew up on Lego’s original lines, but now those are so few and far between because of the fact that their licensed products overshadow everything else. I miss the days when they’d put out new, original stuff every other year or so.
@@pink_ice9454 Exactly this. I am craving a new Castle or Pirates line.
@@RickKoeppen Especially Hero Factory, things like Galaxy Squad, and Agents.
🤩 I learned so much from your walk through! Thank you for for looking at all this IP and giving a Cliff notes version of information!
Imagine being on a toy hunt seeing some other collector holding what you are looking for and it’s Bobby Vala.
Targets and walmarts here in northeast Pennsylvania are absolutely atrocious, nothing's ever stocked it's always the same crap being restocked, literally nothing new everytime i go, it's horrible I hate Pennsylvania. We only have one comic shop/toy collector shop in my area😭😭 I hate NEPA so much if you're a toy collector or a comic book fan DO NOT COME TO LIVE HERE THERE IS LITERALLY NOTHING GOOD HERE FOR TOY COLLECTORS!
I enjoyed this. I don’t collect everything, but I love toys in general, so it was kool to see your take on various lines and industry goings-on.
Yes I would definitely like to see more of these kinds of videos. It’s cool to see Bobby’s opinions on other toys
You could tell from this video Bobby is a K-BEE TOYS/TOYS-R-U KID!!! MORE VIDS LIKE THIS PLEASE!!!!
You can never have enough Bobby Vala!!!! More, more, more!
You can really see Bobby's passion for toys in this video!
Thanks for saying this!
Buy that Dino mask!!
Ha. I thought about it!
Him talking is like edward norton talking about toys and its fascinating
Oh yea?!
Funny how you go from looking at the Sonic stuff to talking about Jazwares. Back in 2011 around the 20th anniversary of Sonic, Jazwares did that entire line of brittle Sonic Generations figures. I loved my classic Sonic that came with the classic Amy comic two pack.
I wouldn't be so sure about those Sonic the Hedgehog figures. I see them all the time at Walmart, and I can't help but feel disappointed -- they don't make 'em how they used to.
Does anyone remember the "Super Posers" and other Sonic figures from the previous manufacturer, back when Toys 'R Us was still around? Back then, Sonic figures had more areas of articulation.
And that's a good thing. Jazwares' were terrible toys from articulation to material. The Super posers had more joints, but none that helped the figures balance properly and they were pretty brittle. The basic lines were no better neither for the same reason. What Jakks figured out was giving them ball joint ankles and stronger material. If you miss the old 6" scale, their Prime line also blows the old Jazwares out
Survivorship bias. There were plenty of absolute trash toys back in the day.
I had a super posers Shadow and broke his leg and his ear the first day of owning it. Sure they had more articulation, but they suuucked as actual toys. Way too fragile. Jazwares' 3 inch figures however were great.
It’s sad kids don’t have that fun experience anymore…I remember basically living in toys r us & other places it was the best
definitely intrigued by the thought process as you walk through the aisles, its one thing to be a designer, but you definitely seem passionate about it, and we need more of it!
How on Earth is Mr. Vala saying some nice things about Hasbro?
It's like he's a reasonable human being, or something.
Very interesting tidbits about inkjets and decorating the toys.
I'm certainly going to re-watch that and then look up more information about that.
Hydrographics/ Hydrodipping is keyword search to help you
That’s the best stocked Target I’ve seen in a while.
Honestly saw the make a food thing and didn’t see if it was edible or not (in the 10 second look). That may become an issue.
That's the common look of most Target stores right now
These industry insights are fascinating.
Not going to lie, I wasn't expecting one of my local Targets to be in the video.
The shelves have way too much open space.
How can they ever get new customers and fans if new people never even see the toys and action figures?
I work in a small but well established toy store and am a huge fan of your brand. I always tell my fellow workers about your industry knowledge but this video in particular is a wonderful insight and learning tool.
My local Targets shoved the Collector Spot into the figure aisle, it's not a separate section any more.
My Target toy aisle especially when it comes to Transformers and Star Wars is nonexistent. Usually all they got are figures nobody cares about like "Third Sister" and The Client"
Yes please more videos like this Bobby
Couldn’t help but notice that those fully articulated Ninja Turtles with a slew of accessories were the same price as those 5-POA Marvel figures.
Awe Bobby, You.made that little kid cry!🤪 Seriously though, Very nice video. I enjoy your insights into toy retail. Fantastic.
Really love hearing stories about you and your family. I'm a sucker for a father who loves his family.
Theres always a giant basket or box of squishmallows at every single pharmacy/walmart ive been too
Sonic’s 20th anniversary toy line maaan… you had to be there
I'd love to see Action Force in Target and Wally World, 100%.
Also, that is the most organized collector area that I've seen. The stores in my area are always a wreck and they vary in shelving unit size too. One Target has 4 shelving units of the "Collectors Spot" while the one 8 miles away has almost 10 shelving units. The Wal Marts are all over the place where the Collectors section is. It is wild.
Love this slice of life video and the commentary was interesting! This is probably the most personable a toy company has been, and that’s great marketing!
Keep the videos coming!!!! I enjoy them every Saturday! Go Action Force!!!!
Did we miss the Transformers, Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, NECA, Barbie, Roblox, RC Cars, and other sections of the toy aisles?
Please more toy history analysis videos
Transformers: are we a joke to you?
Me and my brother were crazy about Weapons and Warriors. We would have battles everyday. Good times
I hear a lot of love for playsets, please bring some small affordable playsets to Action Force (modular would be awesome).
Then there's FYE don't even get me started on the overpriced Marvel Legends there.... 50 bucks for a single Marvel Legend that's supposed to be 25 to 30... Unless you have the VIP card thing and you're not even guaranteed that working without any issues because I got mine over a month ago I havr yet to make a purchase with it and the system on their end is errored out when it comes to my newly created account for some reason. North East Pennsylvania is an absolute joke when it comes to nerd collecting and toy hunting.... A horrific and distasteful joke I hate it here😭
This is one of my favorite videos on the channel! Love the walk and talk through Targets toy dept. 🔥
I personally don’t dislike Target for looking toys, I found some great deals like a Super Mario Movie action figure for 15 dollars or the TMNT Mutant Chaos for 8 dollars
What? (time 17:10)
Mr. Vala wanted a dinosaur toy re-issued?
There is a good reason why things should be re-issued.
(Maybe not all the time, but often enough to take advantage of people's interest - and to make money.)
And yes these videos are awesome. Keep your customers in the know and without antagonizing target you need to stay on point with them to keep your brand out there.
That G.I. Joe Classified Action Soldier sure does look familiar lol
X-Shot and Dart Zone are my favorite blasters.
You are gonna love the Size my Wal-Mart has taken up, I have not seen a Toy section this big in almost 10 years I check them out all the time like Michael. But for a town this big in the Midwest, cannot wait for Valaverse to be on pegs my friend.
In NY the only Joes I see are Lady Jayes and maybe some PP figs. The ML selections are hardly any better.
I wish you guys could make Power Rangers action figures
When I was a kid, the best toystore in NZ was The Toy Warehouse. It was this enormous building full of some really cool stuff, and I remember my Dad taking my friend and I to buy GI Joe figures. But the best thing was seeing the USS Flagg; it was so long, they just put it on the floor because it would have taken up too much shelf space. Nowadays, all there is is Kmart, Farmers, The Warehouse and Toyworld, and none of them even have GI Joe Classified
Marvel legends should be $10 retail lol also giJoes
you were responsible for that upside down ab crunch for those 12 inch legends? may i ask why? you can't rotate the waist when the torso's crunched like you could if it were 2 diaphragm style cuts like on jada figures.