A frugal life is an easy life!

Back in the 70's there were two standards of toys, the ones made in Great Britain and those made in Taiwan. Price wise, of course the British made toys cost a bit more, but they could survive the 70's child's hammerings.
The running joke at the time was "made in Taiwan" it was made of lower spec materials and lasted as long as a Christmas tree does.
By the next Christmas, the British made toys were mostly complete and still used, the Taiwan toys, were just a memory.

The simple toy car, British made was die cast with a metal base, it took some real hammering, but the wheels stayed on, didn't bend, the windows didn't break and it didn't come apart. Years later it was still in use, even after being kept under a bed for 3 years, etc.
The Taiwan toy car, looked OK, played with fine for a few days, but an accidental standing on, or any weight or pressure placed upon it, the "axel" would bend in, the plastic base would crack or break off altogether.
I am not having a go at them, you get what you pay for and the Taiwan made ones provided goods for people on lower incomes, as they were cheap to buy.

I walked around our local tescos on Thursday night, it was after 2am, as we had ran out of milk. Whilst there I thought I would have a look around the toys just incase I spotted anything for a Christmas gift.
Firts off, the choice was absolute pants!
Secondly, the quality of the goods was absolute tosh!
Reknown company like MB games, all their prices for their stocking filler games, had shot up to £12???

Most of everything else was cheap tacky tat, which was packaged up to correspond with a TV program or film that's been out. No wonder their value doesn't hold unless they remain unopened and in their packaging, take todays toys out of the packet, within a week, bits would be missing, other plastic parts would be eaten by the dog or damaged with no chance of repair, rendering the toy useless.
The most shocking part of all this, is that the prices were expensive and not based on the actual cost of the product to make, instead, based on paying for the film or TV show copyright licence and the designer packaging that comes with it!

No wonder our kids would rather sit in front of TV screen playing video games, they do not have any good quality toys to play with as they grow up.
Parents are paying for the same toy, made cheaply, over and over again, which comes in different packaging with the cost reflecting the film or tv licence.

What ever happened to quality?