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The Secret World of Toys (2)
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Selling toys to kids gets trickier every year, but the big news is that grown-ups are buying playthings for themselves in record numbers...and paying astronomical prices.
They're cute, they re fun, they take adults back to their childhood... and they couldn't be more collectible.
In the U.S., little girls own an average of eight Barbie dolls. Many adult collectors own between 300 - 7,000 Barbies.
People have always collected things that have appealed to them because they're intrinsically beautiful, because they're stores of value, because they are of a sentimental nature. Beanie babies hits all the key things that release this behavior.
I just think they're really cute.
I have seven grandchildren and I have them all addicted now.
From grandchildren to grandmothers, many have been bitten by the beanie baby bug. Made by TY incorporated, they come with poems and birth-dates that make them real to their owners. And for die-hard collectors, they've become a mania.
I've tried figuring out exactly how much I have into this and I think I came up with right around $40,000 and that's a lot of money.
It's hard for me to say how many I have. I probably have about 288 or 289.
Nothing fuels collectors like the need to complete a set, and with over 250 different beanies, it's a never ending quest.
I feel like I'm complete but in my mind as a collector, I'm really not. Like I have all six colored new-face teddies. But I haven't got any of the old-face colored teddies.
New beanies are released into the wilds of retail regularly. But the most valuable animals are the end angered species that have been "retired" from store shelves.
The only place to really get the retired Beanies is at the trade shows. It's a great place to find everything you're looking for if you're a Beanie enthusiast.
I buy them through the internet and get contacts and then resell them on the second market because in the stores they only have them for so long and they're gone and that's what makes the market for all these people here.
At trade shows, enthusiasts stalk retired beanies and the new releases that have sold out of stores.
Hi.... Good... How are you?
They share a thirst for the hunt that only they can understand.
I get so excited. I say oh my god! Especially if it's a new one. If it's one I've never seen in person I go "Oh this is one I wasn't going to get. Now I have to have it!"
Scoring a deal demands expertise in everything from tush tags to furry fabrics, but when the right beanie's been found, a true collector's just got to have it.
I've questioned myself many times, like oh my god I can't believe I spent $4,600, and I thought there's nothing else that I need or want, so this gives me something to look forward to.
I got all the new releases today. The only one I did not get was the bear named Fuzz. And no one has him here today. I don't know why that one is so special.
I think everyone's trying to find some meaning in their lives. And I think that when somebody has a very specific collection it gives their life a certain focus and a sense of direction.
Hey, Kim do you have all the new releases yet?
It's just why do people climb mountains? A sense of purpose. A sense of completeness. A sense of accomplishment.
That completes my mystics.
I'm not collecting them because of their value any more it's just, it's just they're a family of, of friends now and they all need to be together, so.
For collectors, the real fun of toys is the treasure hunt, which has no end.
From a virtual chicken...to a musical playpen... toys of the future are being assembled by an unlikely group of elves.
At the MIT Media Lab, researchers are discovering the serious consequence of play.
And they're trying to change the world ... with toys.
Toys today can do some cool things. But toys tomorrow will really push the boundaries of technology and, even more importantly, encourage children to push the boundaries of what they think they can do.
There's always been a fundamental philosophy here that says that you can get more out of life the more you're actually playing. Play isn't something that you do when you're supposed to be doing something serious. It's what you do with your most creative energy. And really everything we build, everything we do is a kind of play.
Researchers at the Media Lab's Toys of Tomorrow Program are inventing toys that make technology more fun.
One toy hatched in MIT's Research Lab has already found its way onto store shelves.
Lego's windstorms enable kids to invent their own interactive toys.
Windstorm is a set of Lego blocks with motors, gears, wheels, and sensors that respond to light and touch. They're controlled by a microcomputer called an "RCX", but ultimately they're driven by kids, because kids program them.
Mitchell Resnick is refining the technology that went into windstorms, with smaller computers called crickets.
With these new little computers they can make things behave. So in the old days you used to be able to build a house that would just stand there. What the computer lets you add is that it makes it a more dynamic construction kit. You can make things that move, interact react to one another.
When kids play with little creatures like this, they start wondering how the sensors of this are similar to my own senses? Is this similar to my eye? So just by the process of building up these little creatures that interact, kids start asking a lot of questions about how the world around them works.
While some toys inspire questions and wonder...
Other toys are just designed to get people to play ...like a jean jacket with a built-in keyboard.
Playing a musical instrument's hard. There's no particular reason why it has to be hard. We can actually physically make it rather easy - to use things that everybody does naturally, like use your hands, use your voice, use your body. We can turn those into expressive controls for a toy for an instrument.
Using everything from their fingers to their vocal chords, Tod Machover's research group at the Media Lab is building musical toys that are sensitive to all kinds of gestures.
A ball with electronic embroidery allows a player to manipulate sounds, including voice.
The more I squeeze, the more embodied the sounds get, so children can experiment, experiment, ex-per-i-ment.
A sensor chair sings with a mere wave of the arms...
I grew up with a mom who made music out of objects around our house all the time. So in the back of my mind was this idea that there was really a different way of introducing kids to music.
Machover's music toys sprang from a project called the Brain Opera... an orchestra of instruments that look like sea creatures and weird science projects that hum and vibrate when people interact with them. And when they're played all together, they become a symphony.
The musical playpen introduces toddlers to tunes with colored balls that jingle with the slightest movement.
But sometimes it gives graduate students a chance to play too.
In the spirit of play, researchers are dreaming up an array of fantastic toys that will animate the world of the future.
They'll tread where no toys have gone before...
But there's always been more to toys than meets the eye.
From the fantasies of children to the opportunities of adults, toys continue to propel the imagination and generate serious fun for everyone.
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玩具世界(下)
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向孩子们推销玩具,越来越需要技巧。然而令人吃惊的是，成年人为自己购买玩具的数量大增，而且他们不惜代价。
它们可爱。它们有趣。它们把成年人带回到童年时代。它们确实很有收藏价值。
在美国 平均每个小女孩，拥有8个芭比娃娃。而许多成年人收藏的芭比娃娃却在300-7000之间。
人们都愿意收集让他们感兴趣的东西。也许因为这些东西很漂亮，或者有储存价值，或者可引起人们的感情共鸣等等。而"比尼宝贝"就拥有这些令人着迷的条件。
我就觉得它们很可爱。
我有七个孙子，我让他们都迷上了它。
从老人到孩子，许多人都喜欢上了"比尼宝贝"。这种玩具娃娃是TY公司生产的。每个娃娃都附带着一首诗和它的生产日期。因而对买主来说，它们就好像真的有生命。而那些收藏迷们更是为之疯狂。
我曾计算过为买娃娃花了多少钱。我想大概有40000美元。这真是一大笔钱。
很难说我究竟收藏了多少。大概有288或289个吧。
收藏者们最大的渴望就是收集一整套的玩具。"比尼"娃娃拥有250个不同的型号，那将是个永无止境的收集过程。
我觉得我的生活是完整的。但作为一个收藏者，实际上并不是这样。比如 我已经有6种新的彩色"泰迪熊"，但我还没有老式的彩色"泰迪熊"。
新式的"比尼"娃娃又定期地投放到了市场。但最有价值的玩具，还是那些已被撤下货架的"过时"玩具。
唯一能够买到老式"比尼"的地方就是交易展览会。这真是个好地方。如果你是个"比尼"迷，你可以在这里找到你想要的东西。
我通过互联网买下了这些玩具，然后与买主取得联系，再拿到旧货市场卖给他们。因为在这个时候，一般的商店已经不卖这些玩具了，而旧货市场正好顺应了人们的需要。
在交易展览会上，玩具迷们四处搜寻老式的"比尼"，而那些在商店已经售完的新式"比尼"。
你好！
他们对所搜寻的玩具的渴望，只有他们自己才懂。
我兴奋极了。我说"天哪"。特别是当我发现一个新玩具的时候。
如果那个是我从未见过的，我会想"我以前没买到这个，现在可一定要买下它。"
要想买到一件物美价廉的玩具，就必须了解从标签到毛皮质地等一切相关的知识。而一旦发现了某个称心的"比尼"玩具，真正的收藏者会毫不犹豫地买下它。
我不止一次地对自己说："噢 天哪 我竟然花了4600美元。"我想我也没什么其它东西想要了，所以这就是我期望的东西吧。
今天我买到了所有的新玩具，唯一没有买到的是一只叫"毛毛"的玩具熊。今天这里谁都没有它，我不知道它为什么这么特别。
我想，每个人都在寻找生活的意义。当一个人开始某种收藏后，他的生活就有重心了，同时也有了方向。
“嗨，克姆，你买齐新玩具了吗？”
这就像人们为什么去爬山一样。这是一个目标。一种完整的感觉。一种成就感。
我终于收齐了。
我不是为了等它们升值而去收藏。现在它们就像是我的朋友，是一家人，它们需要在一起。
对收藏者来说，玩具的真正乐趣就来自于，那种永无止境的探宝过程。
从"虚拟鸡"到"音乐围栏"，一群顽皮的人们正在创造着未来的玩具世界。
在麻省理工学院的媒体实验室，人们正在研究玩耍对人类生活的意义。
他们也在试图用玩具来改变世界。
今天的玩具有许多了不起的功能，而未来的玩具将推动技术的发展。更为重要的是它能鼓励孩子去拓展自己的能力。
这里有这样一种哲学观点，就是玩得越多，从生活中学到的东西越多。当你应该严肃地对待一件事时，就不能采取玩耍的态度，而要充分发挥自己的创造能力。但实际上，我们做的每一件事都可以说是一种"玩耍"。
媒体实验室的"未来玩具"研究小组，正在研制一种能让技术变得更有趣的玩具。
麻省理工学院研究实验室研制的一种玩具，已经在市场上打开了销路。
"乐高"公司的"大脑风暴"玩具，能让孩子制作自己的互动式玩具。
"大脑风暴"是一套玩具组装块，其中包括发动机、齿轮、车轮和光感传感器。
它们由一个叫"RCX"的微型计算机控制，但最终还是由孩子来操纵。因为是孩子们为计算机编写程序。
米切尔·雷斯尼克正在对"大脑风暴"中使用的技术，做进一步的改进。玩具中将使用一种叫"蟋蟀"的，体积更小的计算机。有了这些小计算机，孩子们能使东西运动起来。
以前，你常常用积木搭房子，而房子站在那里不会动。现在计算机能让你制作出动态的结构。你可以让它们行走，彼此互动。当孩子们在玩的时候，他们会奇怪："这些传感器与我自己的感官这么相似？""这个东西和我的眼睛一样吗？"于是，通过制作这样的互动式玩具，孩子们开始对周围世界的事物提出许多问题。
有些玩具能激发孩子们的好奇心，而另一些玩具则纯粹是让人们娱乐的，像这件带有内置键盘的夹克衫。
演奏乐器很难，没有什么特别的原因能解释这是为什么。实际上，我们可以从肢体上使它变得容易起来。使用人们与生俱来的工具，比如你的手、你的声音、或你的身体。我们能把它们转变成控制信号，传达给玩具乐器。
媒体实验室的托德·马柯瓦研究小组，利用手指和声音研制音乐玩具。它能对人体动作做出反应。
这个表面带有电子刺绣的球，可以让人们控制各种声音，还包括人的嗓音。
我挤压得越厉害，得到的音量越大。孩子们可以试验。
一把带有传感器的椅子，能随手臂的动作奏出音乐。
我小的时候，妈妈总是用房子周围的各种东西演奏音乐。因此我就想到，的确可以利用一些不同的方式向孩子们介绍音乐。
马柯瓦的音乐玩具起源于一个叫"大脑歌剧"的项目。这个"管弦乐队"看起来就像海洋生物。在人们的操纵下，它们会发出声音和震动。
如果将它们一起演奏，那就是一首"交响乐"。
"音乐围栏"则告诉蹒跚学步的小孩，只要稍微一动，里面的彩球就会发出不同的叮当声。
不过，有时候那些研究生们也可以在里面过过瘾。
玩心未泯的研究者们梦想着制作一系列神奇的玩具，它们将使未来的世界更加生机勃勃。
他们将涉足以前玩具从未进入的领域。
但玩具的意义远不只迎合顾客的需要。
从孩子们的想象空间，到成年人的发财良机，玩具总能激发人们的想象力，并让大家享受无穷无尽的乐趣。
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