New York City. The old Greenwich Village had all these eccentric little personally owned stores that would open whenever they felt like it. Now the place is gentrified- how do you gentrify a city??? with the same cookie cutter chain stores as everywhere else.

Unfortunately, eccentric doesn't pay the bills. With all the talk about doing your own thing and individuality, people still flock to the brand names.

But it's not just the Big Apple. I am a huge fan of small stores and buying things from local artists, and every time I travel, I try to find little shops and get something the town's artisans make. So many of those stores are disappearing. Even in Ontario where I live, those stores are a dying breed. It's disgraceful...

I grew up with the Polly Pockets with the homes that fit in your pocket as well- and my favorite one actually had a cord on the back that could be worn as a necklace. Ah, the good ole days. Also miss the original Scooby Doo and the other shows. The new Scooby Doo is a travesty!

I remember the Sailor Moon dolls and how they changed the instant they became popular. Major decline in quality, I hated it. Can't seem to find any good pictures to display the two against one another. Sorry.

I was too busy looking at the giraffe legs. I'm a 5'1" girl. :(

Lol. D'awh. Don't feel bad. I know a girl who is 4'11", and fully grown, but she can belt out opera like nobody's business.

I'm 5'6" but I have short legs. It runs in the family.

Okay I disagree they are quiet similar. I actaully prefer the new barbie because from the side it looks like a real person. The old barbie is just a triangle on top of legs. But I don't actaully think Barbie is any sluttier than before. The idea of beaty has just changed. Before the style was to make the shoulders look larger and that is what they did, now it is skinny tiny waist. The boobs are exactly the same size, if anything from the picture you showed us the new ones are smaller. But honestly Barbie is just as trampy as she used to be. I mean the idea of this girl who has every possiblity is good but they just take it the wrong way. When you get down to it she is and has always been an ilprotioned girl who has served a major part in making girls feel their amazing bodies are bad. I mean it is comman in China for young girls to get surger so they could look more like her. Didn't like her when I was a kid don't like her now

Then don't buy kids toys you don't approve of? :lol:
I don't think a Barbie doll is what ruin's girls self esteem. If I had a problem with the clothe's being released, I could custom order or make clothes that I found more fitting. You don't need to just buy what's available in stores, the joy of barbies is that you can make your own clothes for them. :) I always wanted to as a kid, but my parents never had the time to help me, so it never happened.
I also know that I loved playing with barbies as a little girl, but I had stopped long before the girls in middle school started picking on me and telling me I was fat for being a little overweight, mostly "friends", too, who were all effortlessly thinner than I was (but ate 3x as much).

Long legs and long necks has long been a sign of beauty, and I don't think there is anything wrong with making a pretty doll for girls (or even boys) to play with.
Why would you make a doll that's unattractive or incredibly plain? That's no fun--the joy of Barbie is that she is beautiful and successful and she can be whatever she wants to be--but she only comes in one size--you are what you get. You know?

n__n;

Indeed, I was just pointing out the unrealistic features of the dolls, like everyone else in the world does, lol. What bothers me is that people tend to think that Barbie is the "perfect" woman. She doesn't exactly promote much diversity in body types. On that note, you are right. The point of a doll IS to be gorgeous and a sort of "role model."

I'm not going to say that all of little girl's problems come from dolls...because they don't. I think it's just generally sad that even tiny little girls are beginning to hate their bodies. I was a camp counselor two years ago and an eight year old girl (that's a high estimate) came up to me and told me she hated how she looked and that she was ugly...you could tell by her tone that she was serious too. This was the most amazingly gorgeous little girl in the world.

I wish there were something out there promoting girl's self esteem and diversity. Actually, I think American Girl Dolls are good on that front.

I also loved making clothes for Barbies. I did it with my grandma all the time. We'd have fashion shows and compete. She'd always let me win. :) I knew what I made sucked, and she was just letting me win, but it was fun. Lol.

Yeah, but the old dolls were even more unrealisitic, IMO. As someone else said, it was a giant triangle on some "hips"--freakin' weird looking!

I think it's sad too that girls are growing up younger and younger--but I don't think it's the dolls. They've been around decades, but why is this only showing up so severely now?

I do love the American Girl Dolls. n__n I had a whole bunch--but I wanted to dress them up in clothes I made myself--but again the problem of my parents not giving a shit. LOL. I do not want to be a parent like my parents were. I want to be involved in my kid's life. :) And let them explore and learn what they want to do.

Ah, jeeze. I said somewhere in this thread that I hated those old dolls too. I remember being a little girl, and absolutely adoring my Barbies, but silently praying that I didn't end up growing up to have a triangle rib cage too. XD I was so happy when the myscene dolls came out. I thought they were so pretty. =3

I think it's just the media that's making them grow up faster, and the fact that they're being raised by women who were taught by their mothers to hate their bodies. I remember once that my grandmother told somebody over the phone that I was chubby, and I overheard her. I ate almost nothing for two weeks. People need to relearn two simple things: Accept people for who they are, and what they are. And don't criticize people.

Yeah. My parents weren't around much when I was little. I was pretty much raised by my grandmother until I was eleven, and trust me...after she moved away, my parents still had no idea how to raise me. My father has recently figured it out, finally, and has become what I need in my life out of a male figure. My mum's still getting there. (she's so judgmental of everyone and everything) I know that if I ever have kids that I'm going to have to strike a fine balance with raising them and doing my own thing. I'm going to be a very busy, crazy adult. (I want to go into the med field and such) So I'll see if I think I can handle them.

For me, something that has been ruined is Sesame Street. What really bothers me is that Cookie Monster can no longer eat cookies on the show....he's obsessed with eating vegetables now...that's just against his name...his name is Cookie Monster for a reason.

I was *just* getting too old for dolls when the Bratz dolls came out and my parents refused to buy them for me. * n* I loved them though, they were so trendy looking and awesome! :heart: I stole my sister's all the time. :lol:

I don't think there's anything wrong with constructive criticism, but I think people often forget how to use their words effectively, and end up coming off very poorly, even when they don't mean to.

But that sounds like a plan--I want to be a therapist ("omg a psychology mom, my kids are fuuuucked"...xD;; ). But I'd also be okay with being a mostly stay-at-home mom. It doesn't bother me much doing the housework--currently the problems I have with cleaning and nonsense are the fact I have to clean up after a dog that isn't mine and poops and pisses inside--that is NOT okay--and usually leaves me ill for a week after I clean.

But really, the thing people need to learn is balance. :) I don't think sweets are always a bad thing, nor are toys like Barbies that are "skinny" inherently bad role models. Oh, and a lot of parents forget that kids are more likely to mimic their actions than their words. xD Like if parents fight and curse and throw things at each other. The kids will learn that behavior, even if the parents say "don't do that."

Oh look at me ramble. xD This is getting a 'little' off topic.

Moral of the story? Toys are awesome.

----------

Yeah I've heard about that. Force feeding kids veggies isn't going to help the fact they are now dozens of times less nutritious because of genetic modification and selecting the types of said plant that are disease resistant not tasty or healthy.

xP

Ugh... marketing. It seems that everything these days has been tuned to be relavant, so to speak, for a "new generation." TV so many times deserves a mention, like what greendragon said (Ah, soccer moms... forever the bane of fun), on that note Pokemon gets a slight mention for having no more Game Corner and... um... what are these things?

...That being said, games in general. Man, everything seems so copy/paste when it comes to mainstream stuff anymore. I mean I know megaman or sonic didn't really change over time originally, but when you look at it you have 10 different games that feel almost exactly the same and it makes you wonder where the originally went sometimes.

I've seen drastic changes in things like Polly Pocket, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Littlest Pet Shop, and Furby, not to mention just about every board game I ever knew as a child, over the years and I have to say, it makes me wince every time--especially when there's more than one such change. It's like, "You already ruined it once. Now you have to make it even worse?"
Changes of style aren't so bad when they're just an evolution of the product/character and it's clear that they're working more toward the original goal, like when the style of a long-running cartoon show changes a bit over time--though I have to admit that I still don't tend to like it just because I've been used to the original look.
When it comes to the major changes in a lot of these toys and such, though, it isn't an evolution so much as re-doing or over-simplifying for the sake of being cheap and current. A lot of these things have really lost their charm since trading their original looks in for something you can find anywhere else on the shelf.
And don't even get me started on remakes and years-later "movie versions"/sequels. >:/

everything..pretty much. :l movies and crap nowadays are just filthy...

What?! they got rid of Samantha?
She was like..THE CLASSIC American Girl Doll. :?

I am so glad I still have mine at home...Well, I SHOULD. My family probably threw her out. =___=

Noooo! No...seriously??? The cookie monster can only eat vegetables now? Friggin' politically correct garbage.

@monstahh: Lol. I had dolls until I was probably 13. I loved them. I had a few Bratz dolls, and I had their awesome convertable. =3 It always bothered me that their feet came off, though.

I'm looking forward to the day that I've learned so much about psychiatry that I can mind-fuck people without a thought to what I'm doing.

And, yeppers. Balance is the key to everything in life.

@Faerie: THEY GOT RID OF SAMANTHA AND WERE BOUGHT OUT BY MATTEL??????? /seethes

I hate Mattel, and I loved Samantha. :\ Mattel ruins everything they touch if it wasn't originally owned by them.

--------

I've been wanting to post this for awhile when I mentioned "ruined car models" in the original post, but I kept forgetting what car I was talking about. I now realize it was Impalas.

I mean, really...how could they take a sexy beast like this:

http://i56.tinypic.com/23r2vmd.jpg

and turn it into this garbage?
http://i54.tinypic.com/2qs9h07.jpg

Urggh.

Totally agree with you about cars, Elysium.
The old style muscle cars were sexy beasts. Cars today are way too generic unless you have some serious money to dish out on something cool.

I had this polly pocket mansion! (Although a mansion sounds big..)
http://www.use.com/media/2009/0413/105724/p_001.jpg

And one that was like a tropical island. The bigger (non-pocket sized) rubber-clothed dolls did ruin polly pocket for me. Though I did take to the idea of the rubber clothes, they sound fun. I've never seen those new, child looking ones before but you are right, they look really cheap.

Also what was ruined for me are Myscene dolls.. They replaced the main doll with another character and on the illustrations (also on the website) they look childlike with big heads. Myscene were supposed to be aimed at a slightly older audience, making them look like teenagers as aposed to Bratz. I think they have changed what the actual dolls look like too. Bigger lips and eyes. They used to be so beautiful!

Original Illustrations which I love:
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/poll...80048_full.jpg

New Illustrations:
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/poll...74655_full.jpg

I remember the old My little Ponys, I didnt really like the looks of them::
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...bathFigure.jpg http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...ELISTIC322.jpg

I liked the 3G ones::
http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/i...g3valenshy.jpg

and NOW the made the new ones......
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/HNI_0020.jpg
they are only cute and nothing else.

----------

ADJL... I agree they messed it up good.

I had Polly Pocket and my brother had Mighty Max. We loved those toys (and the Mighty Max cartoon) but I can understand making her bigger. She was kinda hard to pick up sometimes. The latest redesign does look kind of cheap though.

My biggest gripe would be with Nickelodeon. It's so different than it use to be. There were so many good cartoons and then those went away, replaced by less interesting shows. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Changes to cartoons and movie Remakes and sequels? You mean like...

The Land before time 2-a bajillion? (Yeah they commercialized, packaged and sold that film to death with a barrage of absolutely terrible direct to video sequels)

or the "Fraggle rock" cartoon

Or almost every sequel to every Disney film ever made?


Oh and don't you just hate it when they down-grade the animation and story to make it more "cartoony and kid friendly"?

Faulkner: ummm 'Fraggle Rock' was a show back from 1983.
Between 2005-2009 they released the series to DVD collections
with the arrival of teletoon retro, current generation can now happily enjoy the lost wonders of Fraggle Rock.

There was an animated version that ran in 1987...
There was talk of a movie back in '08, but in June of 2010, the writer quit, and as far as I know no one has taken up the possible movie script.

So really nothing wrong has ever happened to the Fraggles.