WTF is it with kids toys. I remember when big buckets of lego were £20, now its like £500 for a little kit. A talky minion is £40, you used to be able to get talky toys for a tenner.
Build quality is crap too. Those Thomas take & play things are especially shocking. My nipper broke one within about a minute of it coming out the box.
Even classic board games and things now seem to cost a fortune, its obviously not just inflation either but you wouldn't mind so much if the build quality was there on most of it.
It's called economics, the companies will charge what the market will accept. And I would agree that a lot of it is badly made trash.
Then again the same could be said of commercial toys that were available when I was growing up. My favorite toys as a youngster were made, not by a commercial company, but by my parents. Don't see your lot agreeing to that in the modern world though!
One area where good things are actually happening is children's books - I picked up a great up to date space science/astronomy book for my nephews in John Lewis yesterday:
http://www.heals.co.uk/invt/730351?Source=119_74&gclid=COvCuaWto8ICFasfwwodxXwAnA (http://www.heals.co.uk/invt/730351?Source=119_74&gclid=COvCuaWto8ICFasfwwodxXwAnA)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professor-Astro-Cats-Frontiers-Space/dp/1909263079 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professor-Astro-Cats-Frontiers-Space/dp/1909263079)
Goods kids toys are getting more and more expensive, but its just a reflection of whats happening in the wider market. It wasn't our generation that saw the worst of it, standard toy cars haven't been die cast for 15 years, now a decent mental car (small size without horrific axles and plastic base) will cost you £7+, which is ridiculous.
Most are disposable tat which is par for the course with anything you buy nowadays, but some of it is awesome, there are so many more light up, remote control, musical, intelligent games out there for amazingly reasonable prices. Build quality/longevity is down but complexity is definitely up.
Ill take that.
My boy loves books, puzzles and his wooden train set - nothing expensive there you'd think but I went to a toy shop yesterday and some of the floor puzzles were £8-9 each :o