My mother banned Gak from the house. My brother had an amazing talent for working the goo into the couch and carpet. My sister, on the other hand, had an odd obsession with dropping the stuff right into a huge pile of grit on our driveway and then “washing” it off.
I never really liked that stuff. The smell stuck to my hands all day, even though I washed my hands several times. And there wasn’t very much to do with it. At least with Play-Doh I could make something.
jessica
Argh…it turns out that I know every. single. word. of the My Buddy song. It’s on continuous loop in my head. Thanks a LOT.
I wanted a Cabbage Patch Doll soooooo badly. My mom, however, took the stance that there was no freaking way she was going to get in a fistfight over any stupid doll. I was sad, until she got me a really nice handmade soft knockoff. I still have that doll.
I had lots of plastic horses too! They all had names, and my friend and I used to have huge long dramas with them (I wasn’t allowed to have Barbies). My favorite was the ‘Black Beauty’ set.
We used to have tons of Star Wars stuff, but thanks to Mom, we never had any other fad items that I can think of. She wouldn’t buy us an Atari 6400 either. We were deprived!
I had a neato-bandito red plastic Transformers wristwatch. The little robot guy snapped off of the watch and you could unfold his legs and twist his little head around and stuff. He had a digital watch in his stomach. Then I dropped him in a glass of chocolate milk and the watch didn’t work after that, but I wore him anyhow.
My father also got us a Rubik’s Cube for Christmas in 1985, but I hated it. None of us could figure it out; I think my dad currently uses it as a paperweight.
I also had one of those plastic charm necklaces. It was a blue plastic wide-link “chain” that you hooked cheap charms to. My favorite was a little frying pan with a fried egg inside of it. I still have that necklace.
Trolls! I forgot about trolls. I had a bunch of those. My brother had a few too. We still have them, they’re all lined up on the basement wall. Now they’re in a plastic bag. I had a little green haired St. Patrick’s Day dude, a couple of baby trolls, a cowboy one, one with a little blue gem in its stomach, and I even used to have three bigger stuffed ones. One with pink hair and a cute dress, a boy troll with purple hair in a little suit, and I think another girl one. I put lipstick on them.
Oh yeah and I had horses, too. Not tiny ones, but big ones. Not huge, though. I had a horse that came with a rider, one with a three mustang set, and a cardboard type Black Beauty. And when I was REALLY little, I had those My Little Pony horses. 
When I was about eight or nine, I had those “Littlest Pet Shop” toys. I had dogs, and cats, and fish, and mice, hamsters, and a lot of dogs, and whatnot. Even a pony and a zebra that came with a mouse.
God, those were the days. I must seem like the girliest, girl, huh?
I never had Gak though. My mommy wouldn’t let me get it. That pissed me off.
Breyer horses! Best thing in the world for a horse-crazy little girl who couldn’t have the real thing. (The story has a happy ending. I saved my pennies and got one eventually.) I never knew they were popular, though – the only place I ever found that had them when I was collecting them was a hardware store in our small town, and the stuff would literally collect dust until I would come in, allowance in hand, and buy one. I never slept with 'em, but they made great mounts for my barbies. 
With that one exception, though, most fads which involve collecting something pass me by. I’m not sure if that’s because so many of them involve dolls (which I hated except for Barbies) or stuffed animals (which except for my beloved Raggedy Ann, I could always do without) or because I’m just stubborn enough not to get something even if I like it if I see that everyone else is doing it. 
I did, however, borrow my eldest stepson’s Tamaguchi after he killed the critter ninety-something times, and despite my best efforts, proceeded to kill it 90 something more. Good thing there’s no such thing as an ASPCA for virtual pets, huh?
How about Magic 8 balls? That’s one thing I remember dying for as a kid. How about Merlin and Simon? And did anyone else’s dad threaten to beat their Merlin and/or Simon to a a bunch of plastic fragments because of the constant ‘beedly-boop’ ing?
My earliest memory of a product fad I wanted to participate in was getting a Mrs. Beasley doll (does anyone else even remember these old-lady dolls with the square glasses?) I wanted one for Christmas when I was about 4, and my mom could not find one on the store shelves anywhere. And so I learned the hard lesson of “you don’t always get what you want in life”. I did, however, get a stuffed Snoopy doll (complete with pilot headgear and flight goggles) for graduating kindergarten, which somewhat made up for my loss. He’s still with me thirty years later, and lying on my bookshelf over yonder.
Speaking of obscure playthings, does anyone else remember those goblins and witches and things that you made by pouring this stuff in a mold, letting it set, then taking the rubbery figure out of the mold and watching it shrink until it was dry, and then you would paint it? I used to love making those things. I still like painting ceramics and stuff like that.
For those who so desire: http://www.sea-monkey.com/
I got a food dehydrator, does that count? Love that puppy. Made me a whole bunch of jars of pepper flakes: jalapeno, tobasco, habanero…chili kicks at my house.
“My Buddy[sup]TM[/sup] and me like to climb up a tree,
My Buddy[sup]TM[/sup] and me, we’re the BEST FRIENDS THAT CAN BE!!!” [sub][sup]…whimper…[/sup][/sub]
Personally, I’d rather have Triops than Sea Monkeys…but that’s just me. I really wanted one of those Ka-Bala things. No such luck. Mom thought it looked scary. Parents…what’rya gonna do wit’em?
Well, dangit. {url=“http://www.triops.com/”]Triops.
Buggers.
That does it. I’m going to lunch.
Eyeing that Showtime Rotisserie…
Littlest Pet Shop! I loved those things! I had a board game where you go around collecting food, carrier, and finally pet and once you have collected all three you spin to see if you get to adopt the toy. I was in love with the turtle. It had a little roller on the bottom and when you ran it across the floor the little legs would move…
How about freeze-dried foods? Particularly ice cream. Definitely a big hit for elementary school kids going to the science center. We’d get a huge list of all the things the store sold and how much they were, to save time at the actual center, and we’d give them our order form and money and collect our goodies as we left.
All that stuff tasted like crap, but it was just soooo cool that you had to buy as much of it as you could with the money your mom gave you for the day, along with a couple cheap items to prove to her that you didn’t blow your money on ice cream. I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Clearwater, FL (MOSI for short) where they had tons and tons of freeze dried foods. I bought some cinnamon apples and man were they good. Even though they cost $2.99 a bag for less than half an apple, it was Space Food™ so it was special.
I’m still thinking though, I’ll be back.
I never heard of My Buddy or his song. Nor of Gak. I do remember Silly Putty.
I have about six (de-tagged) beanies. And two Cow Parade cows: a blue flowered fabric one, and a winged ceramic one.
::shudder:: The memories… I was the only kid in my class that hated freeze-dried ice cream. Everybody else would stock up on the stuff when we visited the planetarium. I tried it once, claimed that it tasted like strawberry-flavored styrofoam, and never ate it again.
And now I have the first little bit of the My Buddy jingle repeating in my head, thanks to this thread. Now I’ll have to do something drastic to cleanse my mind, like listen to the Pokemon theme song.
jessica
They were real? The only time I’ve ever heard of one was from the show The Critic and the movie he was reviewing was a parody of The Brady Bunch, with Marlon Brando as the butler. The Cindy look a like says, “Can you make a sandwich for Mrs. Beasley?” and Brando says, “Yeah, sure, that’s exactly what I want to do. Make a sandwich for your stupid little doll.” It was one of the better Brando moments they had on that show (the other one being the one where he was Barney the Dinosaur).
Yo-yo’s, a couple years ago became insanely popular with the pre-teen boys I knew.
Pokemon…well, my little sis got into that.
I’m glad somebody else remembers that freeze-dried ice cream tasted like styrofoam…
IIRC the Mrs. Beasley doll was from the show Family Affair, with Jody and Buffy. (am I the only one who remembers that?)
When I was a kid my favorite toys were Mrs. Beasley and the Barbie hippie bus (it was like the Mystery Machine on Scooby-Doo, only pink).
Unfortunately as a little boy I had to visit my next door neighbor (a little girl BTW) to play with them.
Ah, one more: Popples. Anyone still have one? My friend, DJ, brought her Popple into school one day, about seven months ago, and says that her peers (who were freshman) in one of her classes had no idea what they were. The one I had was the pink one (Party Popple, I think), but it got thrown away during my mom’s spring cleaning. I currently have one, that I had bought at a garage sale, and it’s the white one.
What the hell is a Popple???
Am I the only one who wore a pair of Reebok Pump shoes? As far as I know, this line of shoes, along with Air Jordan, is totally responsible for the obession with overpriced athletic shoes that kids have today. I do admit, though, they were pretty good shoes and fit really snugly.
I also begged for, and got, a pair of British Knights when the Pumps gave out to my pubescent feet.
Is Star Wars really a fad? I mean, it’s been a steady cash cow for 20 years. All fads inherently die out, and that hasn’t happened yet. Though I’m sure it was quite the zeitgeist back in 1977, 2 years before I was born.
Laser Tag! That was a fun little game. I’m glad laser tag places are still around today. I spent many Friday nights in my high school years at them.
I have a small collection of Beanie Babies. I only collect some of the more unusual ones, like the lizard, hedgehog, bat and platypus. Basically, if they’re a stunning example of evolution at work, I’ll get it. I also have the 2000 edition of Lefty the Donkey and Righty the Elephant, which my now ex-girlfriend surprised me with after I had coveted them for four years.
Transformers. I still consider them the greatest toy ever made. The day I won Optimus Prime at a grade school raffle was one of the happier days of my childhood. When I got my DVD player, the movie was one of my first purchases.
I, too, have the My Buddy jingle stuck in my head, but I’m wondering what was so damn special about this doll? I don’t remember it doing anything special at all. What was the big deal?
<<What the hell is a Popple???>>
It’s a little stuffed critter with a sort of kangaroo pouch thing, which if you work just right you can stuff the WHOLE THING into the pouch and make it into just a big, fuzzy ball. Think of a nice, soft hedgehog, designed by a committee on hallucinogens.
Of course, I had a tremendous number of My Little Ponies. Probably…um…forty or fifty, plus the pink plastic castle. Sold 'em to my cousins when I was 14.
Corr