In finding a good image to post, I was somewhat amazed to learn they still make Socker Boppers and you can buy them. The perfect gift for any kid with a sibling!
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Still have my Battling Tops in the closet. Smarty Smitty rules!
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My brother and I collected these too; I was particularly into Models of Yesteryear and still have them. My brother is now the guy people call to learn about the most obscure toys in the universe. I also still have a cardboard road layout Lesney produced.
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I have the first one and would like to get them all. I need to move into a bigger apartment, though.
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When I was young there was this thing where some toys were sold only in grocery stores. Many of them were named “Johnny (Something).” Anyway, the Tiger Joe was one of them, and probably the best Christmas present I ever got. Parts of it are in the attic.
Also high on my list was the Fright Factory version of the Thingmaker. I greatly appreciated the host segment about kids playing with a hotplate.
Finally, it was the end of the classic model-making era, and Aurora had put out models of Universal monsters, plus others. Here’s some re-issues of those and other models I put together a few years ago. Still very cool.
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My sisters and I were obsesssssed with Barbies. My mother only ever bought maybe 4 brand new Barbie dolls in our lives, but we had at least two dozen that we got secondhand from other people along with clothes and a house and stuff. Including two awesome campers
We also commandeered a lot of my brother’s toys
(I loved the Snaliens even though I had no idea what they were, and I don’t come across many other people who remember them lol)
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And then he lost his job to a potato.
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Donald Pleasance?
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Tale as old as time … one marketable skill, and you get replaced by a tuber. Sad.
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But then he went on to be a rock star AND a big wheel in the Australian government!!
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RiffTrax fans who are otherwise unfamiliar with Hugo will now recognize him living on a shelf in Kevin’s office/studio.
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I made the mistake of using the glow-in-the-dark parts on them. Fooey.
I have the Polar Lights reissue of the Godzilla model half-assembled in my basement.
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Aw yeah Hugo was creepy, nobody needed that.
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I’m surprised my brother and I only had a few Batman toys since we were both prime target audience age at the time. I remember we had
And a lot of my allowance went towards these.
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I can’t find a picture of it, but I had some kind of Spider-Man colorforms type thing where there were 2D cutouts of Spider-Man, the Green Goblin and others on a cityscape.
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I did not know that. So I stand corrected on “rip-off” but I’m doubling down on “cheap.” They were never as cool, interesting, or quality as the others. My Go-Bots (Go Bots?) were my least favorite toys.
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There were Go-Bots that transformed into “meteors.” Basically they turned into a rock. That’s so supremely unimaginative that it’s sort of brilliant.
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I had a couple of these cards mixed in with some OG Mars Attacks cards, Wacky Packs, and baseball cards, handed down from my brother. I think they got tossed with a bunch of my comics, thanks Mom.
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Rock Lords!!!
True enough, Hasbro clearly beat Tonka in that regard. I will say if you want cheap…
The first Christmas after the launch of Transformers, they were pretty much all I wanted or cared about, but all I received were 4 blister packed off-brand Gobots from Eaton’s. I was honestly disappointed especially when some friends got a ton of “proper Transformers”.
Sometime in the year that followed my Dad quit his job and started up his own business. It wasn’t until I was much older, I realized that christmas that year was so lean, was my parents building savings up in case he did need to leave his job, so we could live without much changing for us. Still hated those Faux-Bots, but in retrospect I wish I still had them.
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