Death of a Medium

Whenever a store that sells exclusively one media closes, I have a tendency to think that the medium is dead.  This happened to me with Sam Goody, an old CD and DVD vendor I used to go to when i was younger.  They sold some games, some movies, game assecories and the like, but they're primary focus was CDs.  I remember buying my tenacious D album (an album i still have to this day) from Sam Goody.  But, long story short, Sam goodies is closed.  It does not exsist, it has ceased to be.  The ITunes store, torrenting, rapid share and album burningkilled this mega franchise, and with it, the medium has gone by the way side.

The same thing happened recently, with KB Toys.  If you waren't familiar with KB toys, they were the  toy store with the barking robot dogs and displays of children in cheap above ground pool outside their store, fasioned under a yellow and red banner.  They sold nerf guns, and legos, and cheap made for children video games.  But really i went in for nerf guns (almost spelled nerg funs, which i will probably call them for now on) and legos.  Apparently employees shoplifted from there all the time.  If that can lead to the fall of a retail chain maybe I should start picking up some 3rd hand video games (for the good of the industry ofcourse, but this is a jooooke.)

So my point is, that if KB toys falls, does that mean that toys are dead?  I mean, CDs are kinda dead, as are DVD (in a way, most people are about blu-ray, net flix or D2D).  How are hot wheels sales doing?  Do they make nearly as much money as the next itteration of Burnout? or Grand Turismo?  Maybe kids want to play the next avatar game.  And if you can play Avtatar, the game, why bother with an avatar action figure?  One moves beautifully in a 3d world, constructed to look and sound just like the TV show.  Maybe kids just perfer games now.  I hardly think its cheaper.  I mean, a nerf gun plus darts is less than 20 bucks.  Can anyone thing of a recent console/game como you can get for under 40? 60?  Didn't think so.

But how is it that toys could die?  I mean, they're toys!  I love video games, but nothing beats a nerf gun fight down your dorm hallway.  Or how about spending a saturday morning building legos?  What about the literal hours spent smashing action figures against each other, over and over and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world?  Is this experience just...Dead? not Economical? not what the next generation of kids is looking for? I' certianly hope not.  How am I supposed to play with action figures again if my kids don't think they're fun?  I mean knowing -exactly- what game is on my kids christmas list (and probably some of the people who worked on it) would be really cool, but what about toys? I always find it so sad whenever stuff like this happens.  Part of me understands, I mean when i was a kid I'd rather Video Games over toys, but toys aren't even sell able to the point of a chain store anymore?

I hope I'm wrong.  Maybe online dealers like amazon just give better deals, or maybekids are still asking for legos and nerf guns and action figures, I just don't know any more.  But I always found it odd when i was a kid that not only can elfs program, but they can recreate the hardware of an NES perfectly, and happen to know how to recreate Sigeru Miyamoto's legacy in gaming pixel perfect.  I was too smart for my own good when i was a kid.

But its just a thought, I doubt toys are dead.  Bakugan sells like mad and happy meals still feature plastic wind ups.  I guess toys aren't in trouble until happy meals start providing 1.99 games...Actually, some one call nintendo, I just got a good idea.