I gotta say, I don't miss the lights and sounds at all and was glad to see them eventually get priced out of the toys. Hasbro has shown proficiency at tapping into lots of other play patterns and catchy elements that wouldn't hobble an individual toy as much (or necessitate unwieldy proportions). And these days, idk, kids get a lot of their lights and sounds fix from other sources anyway.
And yeah, I dispute the supposed lack of appeal for articulation, and frankly suspect the claim comes from a false dilemma. I can see kids not specifically needing their toys to have ankle tilts or an crunches or finger articulation that only ever leads to one thing anyway, but there's a reason articulation became such a premium until it became a standard across numerous action figure genres: a generation of kids grew up wanting their toys to have more of it. I don't think the pendulum has swung the other way and that kids now prefer bricks.
