It's a problem, mostly because I remember how I treated my toys and have an unreasonable expectation of how I want my kids to treat their toys.
That's right, their toys. Everything from the modern line (and some sturdy vintage pieces) are free game to my 6, 4 and 2 year olds.
Some things I need to constantly remind myself about:
1. There are way more toys today than I ever had, and we own a lot of them. It's impossible for our kids to keep them picked up and put away. Ships are constantly missing parts and missiles, and figures with weak elbows and removable parts are always in numerous pieces. Usually on the floor.
2. Hasbro isn't Kenner, and a lot of today's toys are MUCH more fragile than the vintage toys I had growing up. And they break. Say goodbye to your gunship cannons that came with the AOTC pilot. Those broke right away.
3. My kids have toys at a younger age than I did. Star Wars came out when I was 5, but I got most of the toys when I was 7+. My kids have trouble getting modern figures to fit in ships, then again, don't we all? These toys are tough for little kids.
4. So many toys makes it easy to trash a figure and not care about the loss. Okay, my 4 year old broke the Evolution Emperor's lightening hand off at the peg. He doesn't care, there's another Emperor five feet away, or Darth Maul is cooler. Speaking of which, the day he couldn't find Vader's lightsaber, he decided to just break the Evo Maul's blade in half. Score! TWO Vader sabers!
I'm still learning. We put a lot of auxiliary figures away because I tired of cleaning them up. I'd say stage the giving over YEARS. Be super selective about not flooding kids with lots of Luke or any other figure. Choose the figure and features carefully, maybe even hold stuff back until they're old enough to watch the movies, and then produce the toys to go along with the movie. Space the movies out over months or even years, that would be an interesting way to make it last.
Anyway, more later. I need to get back to work.