Comments on: Less is More

By: gl666

gl666 — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:23:18 +0000

law makers protecting us?? really? Most NY law makers are stealing from me. Pull your head out of the sand.

By: gl666

gl666 — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:20:29 +0000

lol – maybe the govt should give out cupcakes so we’ll all feel wanted? Or maybe we could just leave the idiotic politics out of toy collecting?

By: ed case

ed case — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:57:11 +0000

Yeah, I’m failing to see the part where anyone is forcing anyone to do anything.

By: Fallen Eldor

Fallen Eldor — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:25:40 +0000

Just because we have the space to dump trash now doesn’t mean we will in a 100 years. What then? Not your problem right? I won’t apologize for caring about future generations.

By: Fallen Eldor

Fallen Eldor — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:25:09 +0000

That’s an excellent point. Of course thieves will always find a way to steal. Have you ever seen Poe Ghostals’ Toy Aisle Troll articles?

http://www.poeghostal.com/2011/04/toy-aisle-trolls-galactic-zeroes.html

By: Fallen Eldor

Fallen Eldor — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:21:09 +0000

It’s attitudes like yours that affirm my believe that laws need to be in place. If your efforts where to prove my point I thank you. at any rate I’m done debating the issue with you.

By: Fallen Eldor

Fallen Eldor — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:20:34 +0000

Just because we have the space to dump trash now doesn’t mean we will in a 100 years. What then? Not your problem right? I won’t apologize for caring about future generations.

By: GeekSummit

GeekSummit — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:19:07 +0000

well it does suck how much packaging has to go into these figures, be it a playset, vehicle, or figure but like I point out the sad fact to my daughter: It seems like the packaging has become so complicated and excessive simply to reduce the loss of one easily stolen item. So now we have to safeguard entire product lines…. entire company offerings even!!! So next time you open a figure and you have to remove just one too many twist ties or rubber bands that may or may not knock off some appendage of your $20 figure just think…. If I were any less of a person I could have gone through all this trouble to steal this figure and leave the box strewn under the shelf of my local WallyWorld… It sucks but it is absolutely true that everytime a product is stolen a lesson is learned which leads companies to have to engineer yeat another way to make packaging more sophisticated, secure, excessive and wastefull… Go as green as you like…. The problem is US!!!!

By: Shellhead

Shellhead — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:58:12 +0000

Because it is cheaper to just dump all of it into the trash. I, for one, am not going to sort my trash into THREE separate recepticles everytime I eat at a fastfood joint.
Besides, Japan’s hurting for space to put their garbage so they need to recover more of it. We’re not, so we don’t. It’s that simple.
Congrats on getting to visit Japan, though. That’s on my bucket list.

By: Willis

Willis — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:10:36 +0000

I agree on this whole subject, but when you mentioned McDondalds I had to mention that last summer I visited Tokyo, Japan and to my surprise every fast food restuarant I stepped foot in was the ideal of perfection. Recylce bins for everything and not to mention this was everywhere not just in the restaurants. Basically procedure was when your done you had a section for wrappers/sandwich containers then a small bin for straws and lids and a cup holder and even an actual “trash” section for left over food all incorporated into this one “trash can unit” per say. It was pretty remarkable, and awe inspiring because as much as America talks about recycling and what not or being green, I didnt understand why we didnt have such a simple process put into place for our fast food restaurants.

By: DanMan

DanMan — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:01:27 +0000

Nice article, though it’s kind of crazy to see people coming in complaining about the government when you never even brought that up! Mattel is doing better than many other companies in my book simply because they have started imprinting the recycling code on many of their plastic bubbles. They could still do a lot more, but that little step makes me able to recycle those in my city.

By: Shellhead

Shellhead — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:57:04 +0000

But when the government starts ordering me to lose my liberties (such as the freedom to throw out any part of anything I happen to own, including GASP aluminum cans), it’s time to change that government.

Personally, I tried to recycle whatever I can conveniently recycle. I’ve had bins in most of the places I’ve lived. But when I lived in an apartment that didn’t recycle, I just threw it all in the trash.

I have no right to tell you NOT to recycle, and you (and whatever Nannystate you envision) have no right to tell me TO recycle.

So go hug a tree, Greenpeace, and leave the rest of us alone.

By: Zodach

Zodach — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:34:51 +0000

Good article Jeff. It always amazes me how many people don’t recycle, or don’t care about recycling. Since I’m a loose collector, I don’t care much about the packaging. I would really like to see Mattel reduce the size and limit the materials that they use for their action figure line. Remember to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

By: Fallen eldor

Fallen eldor — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:14:59 +0000

even if the plastic twisties aren’t recyclable, they are reusable. I never throw away a twistie. Often times I use them to sculpt energy blasts for my toys.

By: Fallen eldor

Fallen eldor — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:51:31 +0000

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/1000dollarfineforlitteringsign.jpg

By: Fallen eldor

Fallen eldor — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:48:27 +0000

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive. ~Theodore Roosevelt

By: suprdave71

suprdave71 — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:42:45 +0000

I think tickets should be given to people who buy action figures. They’re not necessary – a complete waste of resources. Mother Earth is hemorrhaging, and all you care about are your little plastic men! Made from OIL!!!

Come on, are you serious? I understand that this is the New Religion for you guys, and maybe that’s how it should be approached. Therefore, your religious expression ends where it infringes on my rights. That means no forced recycling. Sorry.

Mattel can act like they’re taking the high road to “save the planet”, but I guarantee this is 99% about cutting costs. Reducing packaging materials means saving money, period. And the shareholders rejoice.

By: superfriend

superfriend — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:32:02 +0000

Thanks for writing this, Jeff. Caped Crusader wrote a great article along these lines a few years ago.

I whole heartily agree. Action League packaging, for example, is over-sized. But all action figure packaging needs a way to be recycled. Packaging alone is a huge turn off to this hobby. I know Mattel is proud of their extra special packaging for exclusives, but at the end of the day, it is just packaging. I have piles of action figure bubbles waiting for someone to offer me the chance to recycle them.

I think this is a great step Mattel. Let’s see you follow it up with reducing the amount of plastic used in packaging of every product you make.

By: Shellhead

Shellhead — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:25:45 +0000

Except this country is supposed to be about freedom. Which should include the freedom not to recycle if one chooses not to. Just like you should have the freedom to buy the biggest, most inefficient vehicle you want or the dinkiest matchbox electric car you desire.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:21:21 +0000

Couldn’t agree with you more

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:24:21 +0000

Great article. I was just considering this very subject when opening my MOTUC Panthor. MOTUC in general has an access amount of packaging, which frustrates me to no end. However, the twist ties holding Panthor in his packaging were paper, easily recyclable, but even better, reusable. It’s nice to see Mattel step up and take responsibility for something.

By: Fallen eldor

Fallen eldor — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:47:47 +0000

If individuals aren’t making informed decision, it’s up to our educators and law makers to protect and inform us. When I moved from Cali to Ohio I was astonished to find so few recycling centers. I was even more befuddled to find out that this state doesn’t have a Redemption Value on drink containers! That is not to say California’s CRV is without problems.

http://www.inlandsocal.com/business/content/enviroment/stories/PE_News_Local_S_crv03.461b75a.html

But that leads me to my point. Our waist management needs to be drastically over hauled. First, I think recycling bins need to to be provided by the government for business and residential areas. As it is, a lot of people have to pay additional fees to have a recycle bin for trash pick up. That is wrong. Secondly, I think there should be penalty fees for not recycling. Garbage men should be like recycling police in that way, handing out tickets to people who violate the law.
In addition to making a cleaner more save world, think of the jobs that would be produced. I honestly believe that if the human race is to endure corporations need to be held accountable for the waist they produce and everyone needs to recycle!…Remember what Captain Planet had to say “The Power is Ours!”.

By: The Penguin

The Penguin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:46:47 +0000

So, instead of writing your grand expose, you wrote about writing about it, and slipped in as much commentary as you could anyway. Boring. And a waste of my time.

By: MrBear

MrBear — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:36:38 +0000

It should be encouraged and companies like Mattel should do their best to implant such policies. The government should be active in implementing recycling as a normal action. The government needs to be active in altruistic endeavors instead of acts such as funding an imperialist military and giving tax breaks and grants to corrupt companies.

By: Shellhead

Shellhead — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:19:26 +0000

Hippie.

But seriously, I’m in favor of recycling. I just think it should be voluntary. If Mattel wants to cut back on the packaging, that’s great. Just keep the government out of it.