Thursday, December 6, 2012

Love Birds' Top 5 Retro Toys Gift Guide

All the gift guides spilling over in my Google Reader are making me feel dizzy so rather than copy the trend I thought it'd be fun to do a retro toy gift guide and share some favorites for those us who grew up in the 80s and 90s. I remember getting the JC Penney Christmas catalog (does that even still exist?) and drooling over it, dog-earing pages for things I knew I wasn't going to get. Nowadays are kids on Pinterest making their wishlists? Who knows.

Anyway, here we go . . .  

#5

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I adored my Sit 'n Spin and being an only child until I was nearly 8 years old it provided so much entertainment for me (that sounds sad and depressing now that I think about it - just sitting on a spinning disk all alone). Anyway, I loved this toy, but with its awkward size and not a lot of space in NYC apartments I think this is more of a suburban toy! (You can catch this pathetic toy in all its glory at the beginning of this retro commercial.)

#4
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I think the oversized eyes are what made Pound Puppies so endearing. We had a family dog but I loved my Pound Puppy more (I think because it didn't try to knock me down when I was learning to walk O_o). I remember having a big puppy and a few little puppies. I guess that would be a dog and puppies, but that's just being technical! There was a TV show too which was a favorite of mine as well. Those puppies always needed rescuing!

#3
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Cheri-Anabel Sloan - that was my Cabbage Patch doll's name and I adored her! I only had one official Cabbage Patch doll, and I think a well-meaning family member gave me an off-brand one  - the nerve! I didn't treat it the same as Cheri-Anabel, but would feel sorry for her occasionally and bring her out to play. I was a bit of a toy snob I guess! I heard earlier this year that they brought these back - did you hear about that too?

#2


Oh my! Just the sight of this reminds me of how much of a nerd I was. I don't think I knew any other kid that had this but I was obsessed with it. I had the Domino Rally that glowed in the dark although now that I think back I never used it in the dark! This toy required so much patience for a child and I would often give up and just go ahead and knock them down. There were sooooo many pieces! Now I would never let my Lil Love Bird have such a toy - how my mom dealt I have no idea!

For bonus nerdy fun check out this 80s commercial of this rad toy in action:


 #1


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Finally, this was a toy I coveted so badly but sadly never received (and no I wasn't jealous when my sister nearly 8 years younger than I got one when she was a preschooler) - the Barbie Power Wheels Corvette. I was slightly older than my next door neighbor and she would oblige my tantrums requests to ride on the back thus creating so much drag I can still hear the motor struggling down the sidewalk to this day.

Did you have any of these toys? What were the toys you coveted in the 80s and 90s?