Top 5 toy-driven anime for boys? For some reason I've been really noticing lately how much of the magical girl genre is essentially really pretty toy commercials and I'm kind of fascinated now by whatever the gendered flipside of that is.
Keroro's a funny case because it wasn't always a toy driven franchise, it was just a boy's comedy manga heavy on anime references/parody and romcom hijinks, but once Sunrise & Bandai decided to be a sponsor for the anime adaptation you better believe it became one.
One aspect you have a team of color coded alien critters that are screaming to be made into marketable plushies. Each one even has a corresponding human character they're best friends kids can identify with. So there's that merch avenue
On the other hand you have Keroro's great love of Gundam model kits, a trait they leaned into hard. The show served not only to promote Keroro's toys but also real world Gundam models and other Bandai ventures. The funniest part of the 3rd movie to me is when they're all building a giant gundam model to fight against the bad guy and as a test of their friendship - and when they finish an orchestral cover of "Tobe! Gundam" plays in the background. Gundam models can solve all your problems kids!
Where to even start with Digimon man...
It's strongest aspect as a toyline frachise was selling these guys with the ideal of having your own personal pet that can have conversations with you and all beat up your bullies, save you from danger, loves you unconditionally and help you grow into the best version of yourself. Digimon are the ultimate magical girl mascots if you ask me. While Pokemon has a big emphasis on collecting and working together as a big team - I like Digimon's spin on making it more personal.
(I'm adding the "Women of Robotech" dolls because I think they're neat)
Macross may have more of a reputation for its music these days but in the 80's it was all about the giant robots & transforming planes! The VF-1S Valkyrie also went on to famously be added to Hasbro's Transformers toy line so when Harmony Gold wanted to make Robotech toys they couldn't sell it! 80's toy deals were a mess! Love it!
That all aside, the heart of Macross is it's drama and it's analysis of humanity adapting to weird af conditions. What do we fight for, how do we solve conflicts, how do we create, how to we continue to grow - the answer is to sing pop music until the aliens leave us alone. In my mind the planes & robots are just a fun bonus to everything else lol.
I had a huge Yugioh phase in early High School so I gotta mention it even if I wasn't really into it for the toys. I liked the monsters and the characters/story and tried to get into the card game but it didn't stick. I didn't have a hard time learning the rules though.
I'll be real, I've never been really into Saint Seiya's story or characters much, but I LOVE its aesthetics. If I was a kid in the 80s I probably would've gone nuts for this. A bunch of cool fighters named after stars and you can go and collect them all and collect all their cool outfits? I keep trying to get into it each iteration (the closest was probably Saintia Shou or Saint Seiya Omega) and it never sticks, but dang it looks cool
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[Shine Up]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/12b21dceefc1e1449396b05eacf0af19/c5caf50c07faa121-10/s512x512u_c1/e20554e861974f2492f79e5bda8e2df5da07ded8.jpg)
