Disney Playmation

It's not often that I set my alarm on a Sunday, but when there is an opportunity to check out some new toys before they arrive on the market, I have been known to be motivated enough to drag myself out of bed. I've been eager to see Disney Playmation in action ever since it was announced, and even though I'm not the target demographic, I happened to know a would-be Avenger that was more than willing to try out the new toys, too. What kid doesn't want the opportunity to be Iron Man for a day? There hasn't been much news about Playmation since its big reveal in June, but the Disney Store just started hosting public preview events earlier this month. Disney Playmation came about in response to a Disney-funded study that revealed parents wished their kids spent more time being active, but didn't want them to have to give up newfangled technological advances. Created by some of Disney's best and brightest Imagineers and developers to nail the intersection of that big Venn diagram, and with a little help from Hasbro, Playmation was born. Thirty minutes after arriving at "Avengers Labs," I had a much clearer idea of what Playmation was and what to expect. Even though I now have a better notion of how Disney Playmation works, I have concerns about whether or not it can accomplish the lofty goals set for it.

Before we begin, yes, Virginia, there will be a Black Widow figure as part of the Disney Playmation series. Announced yesterday, Hasbro and Disney have teamed for a new set of role-play toys for kids dubbed Disney Playmation. The toys combine wearable accessories with figures that interact with one another, and put the kids right in the action with heroes like Captain America, Iron Man and the Hulk. Of course, Disney has much more in mind for the upcoming playsets, including Star Wars and Frozen, but the Avengers-themed collection will be hitting stores first this year. Playmation was born out of a recent study Disney commissioned, where the company learned parents were nostalgic for the way they used to play when they were younger. New parents wanted their kids to be more active and use their imaginations (like they used to with the stick and hoop), but also recognized that technology was an important part of growing up today. Most importantly, the third-party study revealed nine out of ten parents were keen on the idea of new tech that could keep their kids active. With those results in mind, a team of Disney technologists, Imagineers and storytellers got to work in developing what would eventually become Playmation.