Call me paranoid, but I think the toy companies and the battery companies are in cahoots.
Chrsitian and I have an allergy to battery toys. Our commitment to NOT having toys that require batteries in the house is a source of neverending amusement to our families. In our four years of parenting we have bought exactly two toys that require batteries, and 90% of battery toys that are given to our kids never get batteries put in them; those that come with them are not replaced, with a few notable exceptions (the star stacker, the Mozart cube).
We are on srike against Fisher Price Little People toys, because they lack the capacity for creative inspiration of the previous generation of play things. If we could get the “classic” ones without spending a fortune (check out the prices on ebay!), we’d do it in a heartbeat, choking hazard and all. Those toys are a huge hit with the kids when they go to Grandma and Grandpa’s. They hold the kids’ attention way better than any “sounds and lights” nonsense you can buy now. Plus, they’ve survived five boys and a girl in Christian’s family, and four girls in mine, and the worst that can be said for most of them is that they’re mising pieces. These things were built to last.
Which, naturally, explains why they had to change formats. Choking hazards, my eye. Kids have been playing with small objects for thousands of years. This is about sales. The toy companies saw that the old toys lasted for generations, and they realized if they wanted to sell a lot of toys, they had to make them flashy and cheap and crappy so they’d break and have to be replaced. As an added bonus, they got in cahoots with the battery companies so that the battery companies would also get a slice of the pie. (Or are they owned by the same company? Hmmmmm….) Then, to top it off, they designed the new toys such that kids would have zero attention spans (since the toys do everything for them, so no imagination is required), and thus, kids would get sick of what they had and clamor for new ones.
Exhibit A: Fisher Price Barn. The old barn made a cow noise when you opened the door. This required no batteries. Clearly, the ingenuity is there to make toys do interesting things without batteries. (Or anyway, it was.)
Exhibit B: Woody. Remember Woody? Toy Story? Cowboy? He had a pull string. A *pull string,* mind you, and he had two or three sayings. Yesterday our little neighbor boy brought over his new Buzz and his new Woody. Buzz does almost exactly what Buzz in the movie did. But Woody? Woody has a BATTERY and a BUTTON!!!
Kathleen M. Basi 
I’ve told my friends who have kids that we don’t want any of these “noisy” toys and they all tell me there’s no way around them….we shall see!
One word: “Imaginex.” I should give FP credit; these toys are good. As for the baby toys, you just have to accept that you have to look harder, and have fewer. But we found basic, “real” (though plastic) drums, and a real xylophone without batteries, and a real popup. All these things require the kids to make the music, to work the levers, etc., instead of just learning to push buttons. It can be done, Jenny. It can. You just have to be vocal, and stand up for your convictions. 🙂
I have a 17 yo, a 14 yo and a 5 yo. The biggest difference I noticed when shopping for the baby is that EVERYTHING now takes batteries and has computer chips. The baby’s kitchen set even took batteries (Mom just couldn’t figure out how to get them in). Funny thing is the toys that really get played with are the Barbie dolls, puzzles, dress up clothes and art supplies.
Target is currently carrying some classic Fisher-Price toys – the old clock, the old wooden phone, that old wooden dog you pull… I want them, but feel silly buying them for me. 🙂
I used to have Capsela toys when I was a kid. They used a battery-powered motor, but you had to build your own toy with it. I’m glad to see that it still seems to be sold!
Glad to see that Jenny and I are not the only ones who want our kids to do something besides pushing a button whenever they want gratification!