mikethemartian
macrumors 65816
And subverts your expectations by going in a direction different than the one you think it should be going in?
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Sphero Discontinues Disney Products Including BB-8 and R2-D2
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So you’re going to give a $1000 collectible as a toy?
I’d either store it for the future (I love that functional vintage toys exist today) or sell it now and up the presents budget (for a more challenging toy - not more toys - and something extra for the wife).
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macduke
macrumors G5
Yeah that’s easy for you to say. So you wouldn’t even consider it? Not even for a moment? I bet you go silent like the last guy. Like my kid couldn’t be happy with another toy…you must have never been poor in your life if you can just shrug off $1000 which buys a whole lot more toys and then some. It’s difficult for me to get out of that mindset sometimes. I grew up in a lower income abusive household.
Lots of people love to crap all over fathers. Makes me wonder how many of the accusers are trying to make themselves feel better about being a bad dad themselves. I had a bad father growing up. A father who abused me physically and verbally. A father who played mind games and always had me scared. A father who would slam my head into the side of the bathtub repeatedly, punch holes in walls, throw me across the room, tell me how I was a bleeping piece of bleep among other things, who punched me so I ran away from home, a father who placed his job above his family, a father who became a grandfather and at the earliest hint of him starting to do the same thing to his grandchildren was cut out of their lives forever by me because I had the courage to finally stand up to him. My own mother disowned me because of that. I lost two sisters over that. They are still captive to him.
I am definitely not a bad father and have been praised before on the forums for the way I parent in other discussions. I teach my kids that possessions like toys aren’t important. When I’m building something or fixing something on the house I include my daughter, and more recently my son now that he is old enough. I get them involved and allow them to gain a sense of pride from a job well done that they had a role in. When they have a question about the world I more often than not take the time to sit down with them and explain the basic science behind what is going on in a way that they can understand (including sketches on the iPad), along with related processes and how it all works together. I have been recruited to much higher paying jobs in my field (I am basically what is known as a unicorn, I do full stack web design and development and am also a photographer and app/print designer). I took a lower paying job at a university and is less stressful in a smaller town so that I can be with my family more (no overtime, 10-15 minute commute) and raise them in a safe place, while also building platforms and resources for people like George P. Smith who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a few weeks ago and is working to make the world a better place.
And you know what? By the time you had written your comment I had already decided to give my daughter the one thousand dollar robot toy so stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Being a good father is a process that you have to work at it every day. I may not be father of the year but I’m definitely a contender, so get off my back and go find someone like my dad and harass them.
Branmonkey
macrumors regular
It is EXACTLY this. Not only was the price of licensing difficult to make money but Disney was VERY restrictive on what the products could do. That makes it difficult for some of the items like Lightning or Spider-Man to really be updated or customizable towards supporting more apps and such. I know a few friends who worked for Sphero and it did help them get known in the world but it also held them back quite a bit. Kinda sad about this though.
az431
Suspended
Is the problem that it's not enough money? What if someone offered you $10,000? How about $100,000?
"I happen to look it up online a couple days ago and it's going for nearly $1000 on Amazon (link)."
I hate to break it to you but it's not worth $1000. Never look at a price someone is trying to sell something for on Amazon as its value. Fair market value is what price people actually buy it for and several have sold on Ebay in Mint condition in packaging never opened. It looks like true value is somewhere around $300. More of them have to be played with or damaged for the value of a mint one to get up to $1000. But hey... $300 is better than a sharp stick in the eye!
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Porco
macrumors 68040
Epic rant was epic. Good for you and I wish all the best and a happy Christmas.
FWIW, I’m not sure now old she is, but I would ask your daughter what she thinks you should do. You could show her the toy, then explain how much money you paid for it and how much someone else might now pay to buy it from you. It’d be a value-of-money + maths (I’m a Brit, so it’s it’s ‘maths’ for me 😉) + philosophy + decision-making lesson all rolled into one, with either a cool toy or a pile of money for more cool toys at the end of it. 🙂
MadeTheSwitch
macrumors 65816
So this seems like a VERY shortsighted decision to do at the present time. Why? Because Disney is currently building not one, not two, but three Star Wars themed lands at their theme parks which would result in sales day after day, months after month for the foreseeable future as two of these projects will open next year.
Unless someone else has gotten the license and is making new toys for the theme parks. Perhaps that is what this is really about, because I can’t see such an opportunity just squandered away like that. These new lands will be VERY popular and packed with people for years to come.
Unless someone else has gotten the license and is making new toys for the theme parks. Perhaps that is what this is really about, because I can’t see such an opportunity just squandered away like that. These new lands will be VERY popular and packed with people for years to come.
macduke
macrumors G5
She is almost five and ahead of the curve for her age but not to the point where she would rationally think about it much beyond me telling her "Hey if I sell this I could buy you lots more toys!" lol. And I don't really want to do that because she already has too many from relatives who have no impulse control or just enjoying spoiling, lol.
Porco
macrumors 68040