Ghost of Christmas Toys Past

[freckafree]

@aruvqan

Actually I did get a pony when I was 5 and freshly back in the US from my Grandfather. I loved the erector set and lincoln logs, and those architectural blocks, and legos and tinker toys … and another year I got the classic bicycle - I think I was 7.

One Christmas morning when I was well into adulthood, I was at my parents’ house (the same one in which Blaze had appeared) and looked across the street to a neighbor’s house. in the front yard stood a live pony with a big red bow on its halter. What a Christmas that must have been for those kids.

[campp]

Anthing from Mattel that involved cooking goop. Creepy Crawlers, Creeple People, etc.

Loved those things. Nothing like burning plastic on children’s skin!

[Becky2844]

Clothilde your post made me laugh. I can only imagine your mother’s momentary terror.

[Gagundathar]

I got a lot of what would now be called ‘educational toys’ for Christmas, not because my parents were mean but because I wanted them. It is a toss-up between the various electronics kits, microscopes and chemistry sets as to which was my favorite. Yes, I was a geeky kid.

[FriarTed]

@Clothilde

When I was very young, I got a “Show ‘n’ Tell” tv one year for Christmas. It had a record player on top, and you could get story packets that contained a record and a film strip. (Whippersnapper #1: Hey old lady, what’s a record? Whippersnapper #2: Forget the record, hey old lady, what the hell is a FILM STRIP??? Me: Google it, you obnoxious little creeps, and get off my lawn!) You would put the film strip into a slot in the tv and start the record. The film strip would automatically advance as the story was told. You couldn’t watch regular tv on it, though, but I just loved that thing.

In one of my last Barbie years, before I discovered Danielle Steele books, clothes, high heels, nail polish, and why Fonzie was really the CUTE one and not just the “cool” one, I asked for and received a Growing Up Skipper. You’d twist her arm around and she would grow up an inch or two and grow “out” quite a bit as well, heh. Everybody laughed about that. I guess it was actually kind of weird how she grew the human equivalent of about 6 inches in height and about three cup sizes with just the twist of her arm. That would have been kinda convenient back during my teen years (the Barbies were long since gone by then) if I could have done that and avoided some of the angst and stress girls that age go through.

And, finally, one year, again when I was pretty young, my grandmother gave me a doll for Christmas which was about 1 1/2 to 2 feet tall and walked. It had a battery in its back with a switch. When you turned the switch on, it would start walking. You had to play with it on smooth floors, though. We had that dark green sculpted shag carpet, and if you tried to make it walk on the carpet, it would fall over. It also had better “balance” if you put its arms out in front a bit. It had sort of a stilted, lurching walk (thanks, early 1970’s technology) so it walked a little bit like Frankenstein’s monster in a frilly blue dress.

It also had a short in its electrical system, which I found out later.

One day I was playing with it in the entryway, which opened into the kitchen. All smooth floors. I had to leave for some reason - I think my dad took me and my brother somewhere. I turned off the doll’s switch and left it standing in the hall.

Later after we got back home my mother told me angrily that she almost kicked the doll down the basement stairs. I thought that was a REALLY mean thing to say to me, so I demanded she tell me why. After all, I had done what she said. I had turn off the switch so as not to let the battery run down. And my GRANDMOTHER had given me that doll!

That’s when she told me the whole story. It turns out while we were gone my mom was in the kitchen cooking supper and, about ten minutes after we left, she started hearing a buzzing sound, and out of the corner of her eye she spotted this stilted, lurching doll making its stiff-legged way from the entryway into the kitchen, all by itself. And she knew SHE WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE HOUSE! There it was, lurching and buzzing, with its frilly blue dress, making a slow but determined beeline for my mom. If it had had bolts coming out of its neck, it couldn’t have been more monster-like. Remember that short? Well, the doll somehow managed to turn itself on and walk from the entryway, through the doorway into the kitchen, right up to my mom, arms out in front a little. She said it was possessed! She managed to knock it over with a rolled-up newspaper and told me that it lay there on its back, staring up at the ceiling, buzzing, arms up a bit in front, and uselessly moving its stiff legs up and down until finally the battery ran out.

Heh, heh, heh. I still laugh about that to this day. I was never allowed to play with that doll again, and it was given away to charity a few years later. But I’ll always remember my mom accusing me of my doll being possessed. At this point in my life, looking back, I think that maybe that was one of the best. presents. ever. I love you, Grandmother! Heh.

Thank you so much for this! I laughed like hell!

[blondebear]

The present that I recall most fondly (and that I mention every year in these threads) was the “Jet Propelled Whoosh! Gliider”, found on page 480 of the 1966 Sears Wishbook.

[Grapefruit]

Wow, you guys had a lot of old timey toys! And damn, now I’m looking into getting a Winnebago for my next diorama scene.

My brother used to get the educational toys… and used them as weapons. My father hated having toy guns in the house, and I remember one Christmas when my brother got a microscope and manipulated the levers so it sort of resembled a gun shape and started “shooting” at me and my sister. He got a whupping for that, and the next year when he got a telescope, he had a “bazooka” and started killing the family. And when all was said and done, they’d sit in his closet until they were put in to a box for charity. I wasn’t allowed to touch them in the meantime because they were HIS!

[Gagundathar]

@Grapefruit

Wow, you guys had a lot of old timey toys! And damn, now I’m looking into getting a Winnebago for my next diorama scene.

My brother used to get the educational toys… and used them as weapons. My father hated having toy guns in the house, and I remember one Christmas when my brother got a microscope and manipulated the levers so it sort of resembled a gun shape and started “shooting” at me and my sister. He got a whupping for that, and the next year when he got a telescope, he had a “bazooka” and started killing the family. And when all was said and done, they’d sit in his closet until they were put in to a box for charity. I wasn’t allowed to touch them in the meantime because they were HIS!

Well, I didn’t share my microscope with my younger brother until he was old enough, but he definitely played ‘Igor’ to my ‘Victor Frankenstein’ for quite a number of months every year in our laboratory (the downstairs porch) with my chemistry set. If you had been my sister, I would have treated you the same.

I hope your brother grew out of his homicidal stage.

[JohnGalt]

Not me, but my wife: A Chatty Cathy. It spoke until it said “I love you” to one of her mean brothers, who punched it and misaligned the voice box.

Fast forward four decades: she found a Chatty Cathy club and a dealer who repairs the dolls, so Cathy is again Chatty!

She also discovered eBay, and since each Chatty Cathy is slightly different, right now Cathy has a couple dozen doll sisters…

[edwards_beard]

An Atari 2600 with two games…Space Invaders and Asteroids.

[Rocketeer]

@Grapefruit

… the room boxes and other dioramas I’m making a hobby out of).

We need to see some pictures!

[Rocketeer]

@Canadjun

erector, not erection!

You sure?

[Rachellelogram]

The barbie limousine. It had a spa in back! That held actual water! Lots of hottub parties with our barbies and kens that year

Oh, and cats. But they’re not a toy.

[Rhiannon8404]

Holly Hobbie sewing machine.

I felt about it exactly the same way as Grapefruit. I loved it so much. Made lots of clothes for my Sunshine Family (hippie Barbie type family of dolls).

[Grapefruit]

@Gagundathar

If you had been my sister, I would have treated you the same.

I hope your brother grew out of his homicidal stage.

Do you mean you would have treated me like my brother would have or like you did with your brother?

I think my brother is now content with not killing anyone… except when he gets behind the wheel…

@JohnGalt

She also discovered eBay, and since each Chatty Cathy is slightly different, right now Cathy has a couple dozen doll sisters…

Nightmare fuel!

@Rocketeer

We need to see some pictures!

My personal blog/website is a mess right now, but here’s one from the online portfolio I’m trying to cobble together: Reading Room | Resources for Architectural Design

I’m sure Dopers will love it and wish they could shrink down to 1:12 scale.

@Rachellelogram

Oh, and cats. But they’re not a toy.

I never really understood the live animals under the Christmas tree concept… do people really get the puppy or kitty and put a big shiny bow on them waiting for the kids to come down Christmas morning (where was it kept before?) or is it more of the “Well, the last present today will be a visit to the shelter to pick out the new pet”?

@Rhiannon8404

Holly Hobbie sewing machine.

An antique style machine that takes batteries! Why, I never!

[aruvqan]

@campp

Anthing from Mattel that involved cooking goop. Creepy Crawlers, Creeple People, etc.

Loved those things. Nothing like burning plastic on children’s skin!

We had the EZ Bake oven, the goop cookers, there was also a version that made cooked gelatin worms and such, the classic Snoopy Sno-Cone maker, a pretzel maker [it was a little swiss chalet looking case and a conveyor belt you put the pretzels on to go through the case and be cooked as I remember] a cotton candy machine. We also had the old style fairly dangerous Chemistry Sets by um… Edmonds? A rock tumbler, which was loud and sort of fun. A do it yourself electronics kit to teach whatever that had a lovely soldering iron that was very similar to the wood burning kit

My parents noticed that I really wasn’t into dolls, and just started giving me the same stuff my brother got. I did get quite good at making doll houses and furniture though, I regifted any dolls that I was given and usually my female cousins were thrilled because I made Barbie sized doll houses that were much nicer than the plastic crap Matel made. I learned to do counted cross stitch because someone gave me a tiny persian rug kit for dollhouses.

[Battle_Pope]

How about a book?

Would have been around 1977/78 I got a copy of Great Space Battles, which for a SciFi mad 6-year-old who was on a major Star Wars high, was the greatest thing ever.

[Zebra]

My Monday Night Football game was the first gift that I campaigned for and got. My brother did this all the time and got insane toys.

(REALLY, Boxing gloves for him and me. He’s only two years older than me. This is loads of fun mom and dad. This only means "Andrew, if you wear the boxing gloves, you can hit your little brother.)

[Soylent_Juicy]

I just remembered this one - a Holly Hobby playhouse. It was made out of cardboard and big enough for 4-year-old me to hang out inside it. I played in that thing for YEARS until I was way too big for it and one day it literally collapsed around me.

[Count_Blucher]

Sears Telescope when I was 10. Loved it, used it. Both my sons have used it (it’s in the closet behind me).
The Sizzler set when I was 6 was great, but the rechargeable battery technology just wasn’t there to make that a toy that would last the test of time.
Still, it kept me busy enough that I’d stop pulling the baby Jesus out of the kresh & running him over with the my brother’s Lionel train.

Never could find a toy Mountie to save him…