Was a member since 2011 but I lost my old account, I will say though that this place used to be brimming with discussions, not just about toys but anything under the sun, I really wondered what happened? I know the site rebranded after losing a bid to affiliate with Sideshow but did traffic slowed down to a crawl because of that or people just grew out of collecting?
A lot of people shifted over to using social media for most of their online engagement/discussion.
The traditional "forum" like this, is antiquated in the eyes of many younger people.
As price points rose, many collectors were priced out. I can't speak for the statue side of the hobby, but for the 1/6th side of the hobby, when a large cross section of the loose parts market collapsed, it took a lot of collectors with them. Lots of people won't spend 80 dollars for a single head sculpt.
Hot Toys made a major shift. It started with "Holy Grails" like a Robocop or Predator or a Tech Noir Terminator, that people wanted for decades. And eventually it ran out of iconic licenses. Then it became Iron Man/Avengers/MCU/Batman/Disney heavy, and if you aren't into those lines, it's easy to opt out.
As more licenses get made, that collapses the custom market. Also 3D printers has started to crush the custom accessories market. And let's be honest, while there are a few honest customizers, many who took in a lot of money and commissions ended up stealing from people. That caused attrition too.
As collectors leave, many dump out their collections. So now they are creating competition for dollars where brands and dealers have to fight harder and watch edition sizes drop. The more collectors leave, the more editions sizes get smaller, which boosts the price point, which refeeds the cycle of pricing people out. 150 for a HT boxed set was palatable for many, but 270+ to 350, etc, that's too far for many people. You compound that with inflation in current times, the massive spike in the cost to ship anything and Ebay experience turning into a nightmare for sellers ( losing the main access point for the secondary market), and it all adds up.
The other issue is space. A collector who runs out of space is naturally adverse to buying more. Or some get married and/or have kids. You can't rationalize spending 500 a month on the hobby when you have a newborn, etc, etc.
At least from the 1/6th side, HT could have helped stem the tide by creating a "budget" line. Also by infusing more accessories as the prices points spiked as a type of ratio, to support the loose parts market. Loose parts buyers stay invested and might pull the trigger on a boxed set more often.
As collectors leave, fewer people to talk about anything.
Collecting anything has a "life cycle" There's no way around it. From the 1/6th military side of the hobby, a lot of the aging collectors died off. Or they became so small in number, they couldn't support the edition sizes needed to make new consistent releases possible. It's also why you see more push into the 1/12th scale. Less of a footprint, costs less, gives collectors a different direction to head.
In effect, we all got old, our shelves got too full and everything around us costs too much against our hobby frame of reference.
, I'm just seeing who still comes on the boards
. I was absent from here for a few years and came back.
Everything is different and not for the better. 
