Tag Archives: Toys

Five More Classic Christmas Commercials

Posted on by
3

A couple of years back, I wrote about Five Classic Christmas Commercials. That post featured some commercials that I’m most nostalgic for, as they still stand out in my memory from childhood. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get back to the concept, but we’re going to look at five more Christmas classics.

Hills Department Store (mid-80s)

We all had favorite department stores when we were younger, you know, back before Wal-Mart and Amazon were the go-to destinations. In my area, that department store was Hills. Going to Hills was a treat any time of the year, but at Christmas, it was simply magical. No other store around had as big of a selection of toys as Hills, and they always made sure to flaunt that fact. They weren’t lying when they said “Hills is where the toys are”, as you can certainly see in this commercial. And man, seeing that U.S.S. Flagg is still quite a sight even today.

McDonald’s Holiday Chicken McNuggets (1987)

McDonald’s Holiday Chicken McNuggets have quite a reputation in the retro community, as a lot of people seem to remember the promotion fondly. In short, at Christmas, you could get McNuggets in 9-pack or 20-pack boxes that looked like Christmas presents, and they came with seasonal dipping sauces different from their normal offerings. What’s not to love about all of this?!? These things could hit the market today and become a big hit all over again.

Nintendo Action Set (1988)

For a period in the ’80s, Nintendo was THE toy on everybody’s wish list. I actually got mine at a random time of year and not for Christmas, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the hell out of it. I am jealous of all the cool kids though who got this action set with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, and the zapper gun. Mine only came with the Nintendo Player’s Guide.

Pound Puppies at Hardees (1986)

Pound Puppies were a big deal for a while in 1986, and I wanted them as much as the next kid. But they were pricey when it came to the full-sized versions, so getting a miniature from Hardees was a sweet deal. I think I had two of them from this promotion, and they were the only Pound Puppies I was ever fortunate enough to have.

Burger King’s Chicken Tenders (1985)

W covered the Holiday McNuggets earlier, and while their presentation was cool, Burger King’s Chicken Tenders were vastly superior when it came to taste. And while you could get a 9 or 20-pack of McNuggets, you could get Chicken Tenders in 50-pack boxes! You were going to be the hero of the family Christmas party if you showed up with a 50-pack of these things!

Highlights From the 1984 Montgomery Ward Catalog

Posted on by
Reply

As I’ve said before, nothing reminds me of Christmases gone by more than browsing through old catalogs. As a kid, I could sit for hours looking through the many pages of possible gifts, circling the things I wanted in hopes Santa Claus would make my dreams come true. As we’ve already done with the 1988 Sears Catalog, and the 1991 Sears Catalog, we’re going to uncover some highlights from an old catalog, and this time we’re looking at the 1984 Montgomery Ward catalog!

Bed Tent

I had one of these bed tents, but I didn’t have it by 1984, so I would have been asking for one I’m sure. I’m not really sure what the intent was with these bed tents, but I can tell you that I used mine in a multitude of ways. First off, it made for a great fort in my bedroom. And when I wasn’t using it for defensive measures, I was using it to imagine I was camping out under the stars. And sometimes, I liked to imagine I was sleeping in some fancy bed. You know, the old four-posters that you could draw the sides on.

GoBots Power Cycle

I probably had at least a dozen different power cycles through the years. My cousin Tim and I would just wear them out going up and down the hill at my house. We’d do down the hill at top speeds, and then lock up the front wheel for a sliding stop. All of those sliding stops would wear flat spots on the front wheel, and before long, they would be un-rideable. But I never had this GoBots cycle. That kind of surprises me as I was a big GoBots fan, and this looks like a cycle I would have been asking for.

Books on Tape

I was also big into books on tape, and books on records, especially when they featured properties like these G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe ones. I don’t remember having any of the ones shown here, so I’m adding them to my list.

Rocky III Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots

Oh man, I always thought that Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots were pretty damn cool when it was Red Rocker vs. Blue Bomber, but this set featuring Rocky Balboa vs. Clubber Lang is so much cooler! You could replay the fight of the century over and over again, and if you were really feeling your oats, you can dare your friend’s sister to come over and find out what a real man was like, just like CLubber Lang!

Crayola Designer Kit

The designer kit on the left is the one that my brother had, and I was always so jealous. Mainly because he loved the damn thing so much that he would never let me touch it. He designed so many cool cars on that drafting table, that he developed a lifelong love for stuff like that and ended up pursuing a career in blueprinting. But since he never once let me have a turn at trying my hand, I’m adding it to my list now.

G.I. Joe Toys

So at this time, my two main toys were G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe. When it came to G.I. Joe, I had several figures pictured in the above scene, but none of the playsets featured. My brother had the Sky Striker, but like a lot of his things, I wasn’t allowed to even touch it, let alone put it through its paces. But it’s the Hovercraft that really catches my eye. Of all the toys to be produced for the line, it’s the one I always wanted the most, with the notable exception of the USS Flagg Aircraft Carrier. So I’m definitely putting the hovercraft on my list from this catalog.

Snake Mountain

As mentioned above, MOTU was one of my two favorite toy lines. I don’t know what year I got my Castle Grayskull for Christmas, but Snake Mountain came the year after that. I want to say I got Grayskull in ’84, and would have gotten this Snake Mountain in ’85. But memories are funny, so I can’t say that with any certainty. Regardless, it was an awesome addition to the MOTU line and a toy that I would go on to play with for hours and hours after getting it. We had a fireplace in our den where I played, and I would set this thing up in front of it, and the fire behind it became kind of like a Mount Doom before I knew what that was.

I also had the Fisto figure pictured here, and he was one of my favorites. I want to say that I had the dragon walker as well, but my memory is a little fuzzy on that, so don’t quote me. But for shits and grins, let’s add everything seen here to my list.

Construx

Construx was another big toy for me. I had several of the sets through the years. Whenever I got a set, I would build it the way it was supposed to be, but then quickly take it apart and incorporate the pieces into my larger collection and make my own creations. I had the big set pictured on the left, as well as the truck and helicopter at the top. I know I had several space sets, but can’t remember exactly which ones. Let’s assume I had one or both of the ones pictured here. Again, let’s just everything seen here to my list.

The Fall Guy Remote Control Truck

The Fall Guy was a kick-ass show, and I never had a remote control car as cool as Colt Seaver’s truck. I would have taken this thing everywhere and run it up and down my long driveway. It probably wouldn’t have lasted long as I can see myself wearing it out quickly, but that’s not going to stop me from adding it to my list!

I don’t want to be too greedy, so we’re going to stop this list right here. Getting even some of these things would have made for an awesome Christmas back in ’84. Hell, it would make an awesome CHristmas this year. C’mon Santa, work your magic and bring me some of this stuff this year!

Five of My Favorite Christmas Gifts

Posted on by
1

With Christmas getting ever so closer, let’s take a break from everyday life to remember some of our favorite old Christmas gifts. I’m listing five of mine here for you to check out, but please, drop some of your favorites in the comments at the bottom!

Castle Grayskull

I’ve got a feeling I got this in 1984 since it probably wouldn’t have been like my old man to buy it in 1983 when my fandom was just blossoming for all things He-Man.  He generally liked to wait until he was sure I was really into something before dropping a lot of dough on it.  But what kid out there who was lucky enough to get this for Christmas wouldn’t enjoy it?  I know I flipped for it.  I’ve got an old polaroid of me just after opening it, and I’m crying.  They had to be tears of joy.  But this was the highlight of my Christmas that year, and countless battles were fought around, in, and for Castle Grayskull in the following months and years. 

Cobra Terrordrome

You’ll remember that I rambled on in-depth on the Terror Drome back when I described my mega haul of Christmas toys from 1986, so I won’t add much here, except to say that this was the largest piece I had in my assortment of G.I. Joe toys.  With G.I. Joe being both my favorite toy and cartoon at the time, it was a huge deal for me to get such an important piece of the toy puzzle with this thing.  I absolutely loved this thing and used it for so much of my G.I. Joe play.  It was also very handy when it came to having wrestling matches with my figures too.  Forget War Games, I was having Terror Drome matches.  The REAL most dangerous match in the world. 

G.I. Joe Tomahawk

Also from Christmas morning of 1986, the Tomahawk would also go on to see a ton of playtime in all of my G.I. Joe battles.  The Joe side of the battle had plenty of vehicles, and with the exception of the Whale Hovercraft, this was my favorite one.  I never owned the hovercraft myself, so this was the best thing I owned on that side of the fence. 

Super NES Super Set

I was a Nintendo guy.  I had friends who were Sega guys, but this old boy was firmly in the Nintendo camp.  I played Nintendo daily, so when this thing came out, it was all I could think about asking for in the 1991 Christmas season.  It was touch and go on whether I would actually get one or not.  My brother kept telling me that I wasn’t getting one because my Dad’s line of thinking was that I already had a Nintendo, so why would I need a new one?  But it turned out that was just a ruse, because on Christmas morning, there it was under the tree.  Of course, it went on to see hundreds or thousands of hours of playtime, and it still ranks as my favorite video game system of all time. 

DC Comics Silver Age Classics Box Set

I got this set in 1992…right at the beginning of my comic fandom zenith.  I was soaking up whatever comics I could find like a sponge, so my Mom thought I would like this set.  It featured old stories, so it would have to be worth something she thought.  Well, in monetary value, she was wrong.  But in pure enjoyment, she couldn’t have been more right.  I was over the top with excitement at the fact that I could now read some of the most important stories in the history of the DC Universe.  It was a twelve-issue set and featured reprints of the issues that featured the first appearances of the JLA, Flash, Green Lantern, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Swamp Thing.  It also featured the first team-up of Green Lantern and Green Arrow, as well as the first appearance of the “new look” Batman.  Who knew you could put such a price on happiness? 

Well, there’s some of my favorites Christmas presents from through the years.  Be sure to share some of yours in the comments. 

Highlights From the 1991 Sears Wishbook

Posted on by
1

Now that we’re past Thanksgiving, I’m all in on Christmas, and that means features like this. We’re going to look at a few things that really caught my eye while browsing through the 1991 Sears Christmas Wishbook.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

I’m going to kick things off with the main event…the SNES! As I’ll be describing in an upcoming feature, the SNES was all I wanted for Christmas in 1991. Being a Nintendo kid, seeing that an upgraded system with better graphics was coming out just kept me on the edge of excitement all through the fall. The 1991 Sears catalog didn’t have a very big spread for the SNES but I guess that was because it was so close to press time when it came out. At the bottom of the listing, it listed just a few games with a note that said more games would be available on Nov. 1st, but you had to call and inquire about those.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Action Figures

TMNT was the hot property in 1991. The catalog had a couple of pages of just the toys, but the book was filled from front to back with licensed Turtle merchandise. Pajamas, clocks, roller skates, skateboards, and just about anything else you could think of were available with the Turtles emblazoned on them. But I like these action figures. I had a couple of the main Turtles roster, but I was at that age where I was transitioning from playing with action figures to more “grown-up” toys, so I didn’t go all in on the line. Looking back now, I wish I had. The figures were just so vibrant, and the well was deep when it came to unique characters.

Nintendo Game Watches

As I said above, in 1991 I was in a transition period when it came to the things I was buying. These game watches are a great example of the kinds of things I was spending my money on at the time. A watch is a “grown up” thing, but being a game watch, they were also fun enough to still be a toy in a way. I don’t know how fun the Super Mario 3 watch could have been with the limited graphics and gameplay ability, but Tetris is a game that is perfectly suited to this kind of offering. Being the big fan of Tetris that I’ve always been, I’m surprised I never had the watch.

Baseball Card Collector Kit

1991 would have been right near the beginning of my obsession with trading cards. My friends and I spent every afternoon trading cards, and whole summer days were taken up with the hobby amongst us. A set like this would have been something I probably actually circled in the catalog back in the day. I mean, it comes with random cards, sleeves, 9-card pages, an album, and a price guide. What more could a budding collector ask for?

Canyon of Doom Slot Car Track

I was bin into slot car tracks from an early age. My older brother had them, and he and my dad used to race them as a way of spending time together. I had several tracks of my own through the years, but nothing quite like this Canyon of Doom track. It’s pretty much just a basic track with a corkscrew in it, but it’s the theme elements that make this one stand out. Racing across the rickety bridge and through the volcano is pretty badass. Not to mention racing behind the waterfall. My cousin Tim and I could have killed many an afternoon with this track.

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Toys

I was all in on the Robin Hood movie back in 1991. Hell, I’ve always loved the stories of Robin Hood in all their forms. So when these toys came out, I was almost compelled to revert back to the childhood ways that I was desperately trying to shake at this point in life just to play with these things. And it’s not really the action figures themselves that I salivate over today, it’s the playsets. The re-purposed Ewok village that is the “base” for the Merry Men, and the net launcher and boulder slinger really grab my attention. Especially since the net launcher and boulder thrower were re-purposed from the Bone Age toy line that I never had but always wanted.

Mini Golf Set

Oh man, this set of mini golf toys may look cheesy, but let me set the stage for you. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was doing all kinds of stuff to mimic things I was seeing on TV. Like, I would see bowling on Wide World of Sports, and I would then go and make a “ball” out of Construx, set up empty soda bottles as pins in the hallways, and I would spend the rest of the afternoon bowling. Stuff like that. So to get a set like this that I could set up a 9-hole course through the house and play some mini golf would have been right up my alley.

Nerf Bow

As I mentioned earlier, I was overly into Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves at this time in life, and as I just mentioned above, I was usually into re-creating stuff I was watching. So here comes this bow and arrow from Nerf that would just have made my playtime a whole lot easier. This Bow could easily make one of my lists of toys I always wanted but never had because I never did get my hands on one.

Days of Thunder Go Kart

Besides the Super Nintendo, this Days of Thunder Go Kart is the best thing I found browsing through the catalog. Days of Thunder was another movie that I was overly into back in the day, and I had a lot of merchandise surrounding the movie but I never had something as cool as this. While I would rather have a replica of the green and yellow City Chevrolet, I would still take this pink and white Superflo car. Do you realize how cool it would have been to cruise this thing up and down the road to trade cards with my friends instead of riding my bike? I would have been able to dazzle them so much I could have talked them into any trade I wanted.

Those are just a small snippet of highlights from the 1991 Sears Wish Book. Considering there are over 700 pages in that book, I could easily do a list of a hundred things I want from it, but we’re stopping at these nine. You can check out the full catalog, and many more, over at WishBookWeb.com. And if this kind of post is your thing, check out these other highlights posts here on Retro Ramblings:

Hot Wheels Sto and Go Playsets

Posted on by
5

Oh man, what a rush of nostalgia this past weekend. I’m sitting on the couch watching college football, and at the same time, checking out the TRN Slack Channel. It’s where everyone at The Retro Network congregates online and share all kinds of retro stuff and family life with each other.

Courtesy of Rediscover the ’80s

So anyway, I’m checking it out and come across a picture that Jason had posted of his latest thrift store find. It was the Hot Wheels Sto and Go “City” playset. This particular playset holds a special place in my nostalgic heart for reasons I’ll explain in just a bit, but first, let me explain what a Sto and Go playset was for those who may not know.

In the early 1980s Hot Wheels started releasing their Sto and Go playsets. It was a playset that doubled as its own carry case. You could carry it around and when you wanted to play, you just popped it open, pulled out some cars, and away you went on whatever adventure your mind could come up with. All of the Sto and Go playsets had a theme.

The first one released was the Service Center. My brother owned this one and being in the same house, of course, I got to play with it. It was more fun than just imagining that you were taking your cars to the gas station or to get them washed, but in comparison to the other sets they would release, I found it a little lacking in the fun department.

The only one I personally owned was the Construction Site playset. It was great fun when you owned numerous construction vehicles as I did. That crane you see in the picture was the most fun part of it. I used that crane to lift so much stuff to the top of the playset, that I almost broke it on numerous occasions. When the weather was bad, and I couldn’t take my construction cars outside, I could always bust this out and let the good times continue.

The City Sto and Go playset was the one I really adored. Neither me nor my brother owned it, but it was one of the “community” toys that were at my grandparent’s house. The buildings that this playset had look a whole lot like the buildings on main street in Hazard County from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. My cousins and I all had the ERTL Dukes of Hazzard cars, and I was always sure to take mine along for a visit to the grandparents. We’d take this playset outside with our Dukes cars. Being how most of Hazzard County seemed to have dirt roads, we’d set the city playset up in the middle of the action, and then incorporate all the dirt and grass around it as the rest of Hazzard County. The garage that says “Fire Station” above it became Cooter’s garage, and the Police Station was still the Police station where Roscoe’s car stayed when he wasn’t chasing the Duke boys. We had so much fun out of this playset, that one of my cousins and I still talk about it to this day.

Hot Wheels put out several more Sto and Go sets through the years, but these were the only three I ever had the joy of playing with. There was another one of them that really caught my attention, and to this day, I still hate that I never got to play with it. It was the Sto and Go Freight Yard. I’ll leave you with a picture of it, but I’ll save my thoughts on it until the next “Toys I Never Had” post.