LOT of ground to cover today folks, so let’s get right to it.

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Phil Reed of Battlegrip recently posted “Five Reasons Why Action Figures Cost More Today.” Phil knows what he’s talking about and you should check out the whole thing, which focuses largely on economic factors such as rising labor and materials costs. But one thing that interested me was the first comment on the post, which mentioned the declining birthrate in Western countries. That reminded me of this post by Richard Gottlieb that I read recently, “U.S. Birthrate Plummets; Look for Fewer Children in Four Years.” Richard begins the article with, “If there was ever a case to be made for marketing toys to adult end users…” Hasbro has clearly embraced this idea, but if I had to guess I’m willing to bet there’s still a struggle going on at Mattel between the generations over how to approach the collectors’ market.

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On a related note, Richard also posted “A Tough Year for Toys; is Wal-Mart Part of the Problem?” in which he states, “there is far more play product available than there is demand.  Mobile devices and apps (many free or nearly so) have joined video games and traditional toys in the fight for people’s time and dollars.  I see this as a non-cyclical issue which is going to take a long time to shake out.” (Walmart’s role is that because it’s the biggest toy retailer and is struggling, that may be part of the reason the industry itself is struggling.) Again, worth a read.

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And returning to Battlegrip, I wrote a lengthy comment response to Phil’s post “Five Points of Articulation is Plenty for Play.” Give the post a read and let me know what you think. I’m a big fan of Phil’s and this was the first time I’ve ever disagreed with him this strongly on something. But I’m glad he wrote it and that a (civil) discussion can be had, because it’s an interesting question and one I’d love to see examined in more detail. What do you think? Are we adult collectors too obsessed with articulation?

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More than a few of you emailed me about Back to the Future II screenwriter Bob Gale’s disappointment with Mattel’s hoverboard prop replica. You can read about it here. Money quote: “[…]I really don’t understand why they didn’t get in front of this issue when they made this compromise instead of choosing to disappoint their customers at delivery time.   But no one likes to own mistakes or compromises, especially in corporations. ” Look, I know some people think I’m biased against Mattel, which isn’t true. They’ve made some of my favorite toys over the years. But a pattern is a pattern.

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–NECA has been tweeting photos of their upcoming Aliens Hicks, Hudson and the new, even-more-articulated Warrior Alien. They look amazing. These are the toys 12-year-old Poe always wanted. You can see the other photos on their Twitter page.

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Just a reminder, this week’s Figure It Out ends tomorrow at 11:59pm ET.

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–And finally, Pacific Rim looks awesome. More than ever, I’m wondering who will get the master toy license. Someone has to, right? If I had my druthers, Tamashii Nations would get it for S.H.MonsterArts and their various robots lines. If I had to choose a U.S. company, though, it would be NECA, who have been hitting at all cylinders lately and have been hinting as to some big licenses for 2013. So, fingers crossed.