What was the first fandom that normalized modern geek culture consumerism worship? I know Trekkies have been a thing for years, but being a Trekkie was considered a joke. No way mainstream. Comic cons used to be for current comic fans. Professional hot girl cosplayer wasn't a thing until the early 2000s as a full time job. Was it the brony fandom? It feels like it normalized adults watching children's cartoons and organizing online. Bronies were like furries without baggage at the time. Not to mention Bronies had a political feminist element of defying gender roles shit.
It was a push by large companies in the early 2010s, it was never organic.
They realized they had an entire generation that had grown up mass consuming vaguely nerdy cartoon products (He-man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, Batman, all the Star Wars, X-Men, Power Rangers) as well as osmosis of more adult aimed media from their parents like Star Trek. Majority of the generation had at minimum a fondness of one of these big IPs even if they weren't mega super fans who went to cons. There was also the booming online social spaces that kept growing (the number of 100% normal housewives and men I worked with who played World of Warcraft in 2007 was insane.) So they started to market the ever loving shit out of it. I remember the social push coming out of nowhere pretty distinctly around 2010-2011, particularly in online marketing and sales. The venture capital began to flow.
Anyway thread tax. I like kitbashing occasionally for fun and naturally that leads me into really interesting consumer territories I didn't know existed via the customizers appearing in my youtube algorithm.
Behold, Littlest Pet Shop Collectors (I'm sorry this 24 year old woman is insanely annoying in advance.)
What I find the most interesting about this consoomer group is it seems to be a never ending cycle of resellers buying and selling to each other. I've been watching the community for around a week now because I find it fascinating. There are a good chunk of legitimate mouth breathing collectors don't get me wrong, but this chick makes her hustle by buying used LPS from ebay resellers (who also only sell LPS, which they have hundreds if not thousands of, likely bought from OTHER LPS resellers). Unlike most other collector circles of adults, these people are also 100% fine with paint chips and dings, as well as encouraging buying Chinese knock offs.
There is like, 2 actually talented customizers in the community I could find, but because the community is so niche most of the popular ones have the same talent as a high school student hobbiest. This cost someone at least $200:
This is considered one of the best and most popular artists.
The community will also make like full length TV series and 2 hour long movies with multiple voice actors and full sets with hundreds of these little buggers. Honestly I at least find that creative part impressive, because they're at least doing something other than buying, even if its all pretty terrible. The fun part is they're in a constant battle with Youtube whether or not their stuff is for kids and demonetization.