LOL yeah... I mean 05 ok that was big and it felt like it was spurred on some with TLC and Clone Wars but yeah I by no means would say kids were just full tilt into Star Wars up to 2012 then suddenly TPM3D and 5POA killed their interest. Kids were on board for a short time in the TCW era but I mean it was obvious that just the line in general was declining in overall interest and popularity, then add on incremental price increases year after year after year... I mean we were there but I distinctly recall that time was when my gfs kids lost interest significantly.
It was great for US and I wholly believe kids love articulation too, I know for me as a kid it mattered anyway, but I say again that a LOT of collectors have rose colored glasses on about that 06-12 era cuz there were tons of sales tons of clearance and tons of product dumps then just as there are now. And that says the line wasn’t cranking on all cylinders and mega popular across all demos... you can even look at how the secondary market was then to now and add that evidence in. I used to get 06-12 stuff for pennies on the dollar and now it is selling like mad. Even older is rising in price and that’s testament to Star Wars being in your face with new media yearly not with long gaps where kids and others dropped off.
I had a bunch more crap typed up but it’s meh. I just will say I didn’t see kids in the aisles AT ALL during the TVC era... that was purely for us. I think things had crapped out pretty damn fast after TCW media blitz ended. 5POA doesn’t have a ton to do with it. I do think 5POA sucks, but so does the rapid line replacement schedule, and the fact “good figures” are quite simply expensive. IMHO the line should aim for a $10 pricepoint and articulation being more selective and less “ball joints galore”... but that’s just my take on what I think would help make everyone (relatively) happy. Of course there will be people who say figures should be both cheap and SA and nothing but that should happen, and I call those people delusional.