I've noticed a new trend on You Tube. At least it appears new to me. Its the trend to buy mystery boxes of vintage toys and unbox them on screen. I think its called retroblasting. It certainly seems to be popular and the presenters all appear to be young, which has to be good for the hobby.
Have you come across this trend readers? What do you think?
Retroblasting - a new term for me. I've seen plenty of unboxings of old toys on YouTube, but of mystery boxes is a whole new trend. Could you link an example?
ReplyDeleteHere's a link Arto. I may be mistaken about the term retroblasting. Looks like its simply this channels name! Doh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pSHCkdUBfI
DeleteI have seen various unboxing videos, some by Laura Legends. Often the boxes appear to be of things that various viewers have sent in, rather than something the presenter has ordered. Since they did not order the items themselves, this means that they do not know what will be in the box. There are also unboxing videos of new, unopened outer boxes of toys such as Hot Wheels or Matchbox, which contain several dozen different toys, including some duplicates. These are the boxes that a manufacturer would send out to wholesalers and retailers. There are also openings of the various blind bags or mystery packs, where the packaging is opaque and the buyer does not know what is in the pack until it has been opened.
ReplyDeleteWow. So who is the sudience for this stuff Paul. Young 'uns? Adults? Kids?
DeleteSo the retroblasters receive free mystery boxes of vintage toys and get to keep them - now there's a business idea!
ReplyDeleteI agree though I would want vintage toys though Arto and nothing from 2020!
DeleteI am not sure. Laura Legends and others are mainly covering what I would consider modern toys, from the 1980s and 1990s, but even the children who once played with these are now adults, so I would assume the audience would mainly be adults who remember these toys. The new release stuff is rather different, a box of the very latest Hot Wheels or action figures, would often give collectors their first look at the production toys, rather than publicity photos of prototypes, and tell them what is in the shops now. That does not work if you live in NZ, and are at the far end of the global supply chain. Despite 2020 being the one year I would gladly forget entirely, there have been some nice Hot Wheels models, kits, and other items I have been very glad to add to my collection.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Paul. I suppose we speak to the generation we grew up in. A bit like Moonbase. Babyboomers born in the sixties and seventies. Those You Tube presenters are a helluva lot younger than me so your're right I reckon. Eighties and 90's generation.
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