Listening to: Men Without Hats - Pop Goes The World
Weather: 47 Degrees but feels like 42 because of these darn winds!
Every adult today I can wager, has a toy that can bring back floods of memories about their youth. A time when things were so much more...childish? Carefree? Full of robotic teddy bears that could move its mouth in sync with the cassette tape story going inside its radio-filled back that sounded like the girl from the Exorcist when the battery started dying? Raging lunatic mothers and fathers fighting each other for weird dumpling shaped head dolls that apparently grew from cabbage patches?
Welcome to the 80's toys section!
Below are some of my fave toys, the ones that have directly influenced and shaped the person I am today...well, maybe not that big of a deal, but they were still super cool and I will always cherish the memories I had...No specific ranking for today's list...Enjoy!
Nintendo - I can't even begin to talk about the millions of different games we played that I still talk about fondly today. There was of course the revolutionary Super Mario Bros. which is still making a huge impact today. I mean whoever thought of using two Italian plumber brothers, magic mushrooms, evil turtles and Goombas, an evil dictator Koopa and of course poor helpless Princess Peach...but the game I miss the most was the Karate Kid game. In it you karate chopped your way through the basic fighting levels, but the bonus rounds! So much fun! You had to move your joystick (we had a large joystick controller for this game) around to maneuver the chopsticks to catch the flies, or help Daniel-San break through the ice...it was really fun...I sucked at the wax on wax off level...must...find...this...game!
Lite Brite - Ah Lite Brite. Too bad I was and still am devoid of any artistic abilities. I don't think I made anything creative, just copied what the box cover had or let my super artistic sister guide what our project would be for the day.
Monchichis - I don't know what the heck these things are but I know we had two dolls with those little hands whose thumbs conveniently fit perfectly in the little mouth...and in hindsight, they're a little creepy!
Glo Worms - The perfect companion for those nights when the boogie monster was way too close by, this little guy could light up and scare those bad boys away. At least that's what we said when we were cowering under our covers at night.
Cabbage Patch Kids - My parents still remember vividly the madness that was these creepy looking dolls. My sister and I treasured our little babies as though they were real and carried them around everywhere we went, tucking them when we had to be away from the house. My parents' house still has two and they are treated as royal members of our family. Do you blame us? These critters were born from cabbage patches that were blessed by little fairies...snort.
Teddy Ruxpin - When my sister opened her birthday present and exposed this high-tech bear, I felt my tiny little heart blacken with rage and jealousy. How did she get such an amazing gift? Where was mine?! To this day, me and Mr. Ruxpin do not get along well...
Care Bears - Care Bears Share! Out from their uniquely given bellies, the bears' special gift would pour out and rescue the evil/dark situation and bring everyone back into a world of joy and happiness, and of course lots of caring. All would be well again and the bears would go back to being silly rambunctious things that lived in the clouds for goodness sake.
Micro Machines - The only thing I can remember, the thing that stands out to me most vividly of these tiny little cars was the fast talking commercial guy. I still don't know how he did that.
Pound Puppies - These adorable puppies came packaged as puppies who need to be adopted, something akin to the Cabbage Patch Kids, and I was a sucker for them...I had a few along with their little babies.
The Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters - I had to name both because apparently Tomy company had lost the rights to The Sylvanian Families dolls so came out with their own Calico Critters...or something like that...anywho, these dolls were basically a pack of animal families that you could play with, and you'd collect other families and eventually buildings to grow your little town. They were and still are so adorable and I think that I value them today because they are away from a lot of the violent and unnecessary things young kids play with these days...seriously, why do elementary kids have their own Ipod Touches? It's ridiculous. These types of toys encouraged imagination, creating scenarios...I don't see that much in toys today, it's sad.
Hoping to see a generation of kids brought up on toys that foster imagination, which a lot of our 80's toys were about...!
No comments:
Post a Comment