04/12/2006 Entry: "A Bad Case of Worms!!!"

A Bad Case of Worms is in all likelihood the earliest toy I can remember specifically asking for, and praise Nord the Barbarian, it's in my arms again.

God, how I loved these. People call you a liar when you say you remember things from when you were 4 or 5, unless you arbitrarily decided you were kidnapped or molested as a child after catching a Melrose Place rerun. I swear to you, I remember getting these. I remember getting these from the KB Toys in the Staten Island Mall, back when it was called "Kay-Bee Toys," and back when there was a McDonald's next to it filled with lightweight tin ashtrays with the golden arches etched in. The ABCOW tiny toy briefcases were stocked near the register along with all of the assorted candies and other impulse items, and every time my mother brought me to the mall, I got a new ABCOW toy. I cannot express the joy I found in these things, but I think I can explain it. I was really young. Maybe young enough to still have some lingering traits from that whole animism period all children go through. To me, these sticky and impossibly cute rubber worm figures weren't rubber worm figures at all -- they were pets, alive, ready to party and needing me.

For almost twenty years I sat by candlelight every night trying to remember what the fuck the toys were called, and it was actually an X-E blog poster who shed light on the mystery back in January of 2005. After that, I researched the holy hell out of ABCOW toys, not finding much outside of a few old marketing articles retelling the success of the toys' ad campaign. I have no idea if I wanted the toys because of the cool commercial or just because they were there, but after finding and reviewing the TV ad, the sight of bad cases of good worms made my mission clear: I had to find them again. And, as you've seen above, I have!

Each small plastic briefcase opened to reveal a pair of sticky (like, sticky for crawling down walls kind of sticky) worm figures in various colors, and because God loves me this week, the pair I found are greens, which was my favorite as a child because it was harder to roleplay faithfully with neon orange worms. The figures look much more like snakes, each with the most adorable facial features you've ever seen, including a smile that will make the day my parents die not as bad as I'm thinking it will be. Though the whole idea behind ABCOW toys was in their supposed "gross factor" and the idea that you could throw them at stuff and watch them creepily crawl down, I never saw them as anything but my own cute little pets. I treated them like gold, carried them everywhere and never once gave into the obvious temptation to turn their briefcase house into a coin purse. When you're five-years-old, every container is a piggy bank waiting to be had.

I purchased them recently at a price so ridiculously overblown that I'll never confess what it was, but that's the only ABCOW toy I've ever seen for sale since the line's retail days. If you're thinking what I was thinking, stop thinking it, because the chances of you finding A Bad Case of Worms toys are about as good as the chances of me living past 40. In other words, I'm here to brag and I'm here to spite you: I got worms and you don't, motherfucker.

Use the comments section to talk about some of the weirder, lesser and more obscure toys you worshipped as a kid. And get your damn hands off my worms.

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 04/12/2006 02:04 AM EST

I know this is a little behind, but I had a lot of Illusionaries as a kid. In fact I still have two of the smaller ones. One's a wizard that turns into an owl and the other in an invisible man that removes his bandages.

Chestnuts roasted by mnpchan @ 04/12/2006 02:29 AM EST

And by 'Illusionaries' I mean 'Super Naturals' Illusionaries don't even exist, I was thinking of the Visionaries. Anyway, yeah, I have Super Naturals.

Chestnuts roasted by mnpchan @ 04/12/2006 02:36 AM EST

Well let's see...
-Army Ants
-Super Naturals (just the ghost figures)

Also, when I was really into virtual pets, I had a cheap one of a fish. The thing about it was it not only needed food and entertainment, but you also needed to adjust the tank temperature, dress it for the weather and read to it.

Chestnuts roasted by RewolfJ @ 04/12/2006 03:04 AM EST

Ryane's story prodded my sluggish memory to cough up one of the finest, weirdest toys of my childhood--the Mr. Peanut Peanut Butter Maker. It was a thing of sick genius--a huge plastic-and-metal Mr. Peanut figure with a hopper in his hat. I think it was made in the late 60s and early 70s, and involved enough whirling-hopper-blades action that it would never be allowed today. Peanuts went in the hopper; eager, grubby hands turned the crank in Mr. P's right ear; and, if you didn't flip him over with your lack of advanced motor skills and complete failure to understand the ramifications of Newton's Third Law, the mushed-up peanuts would ooze out of his left ear onto a tray he helpfully held up to it.
The appeal of earwax-colored goop that actually came out of a cartoon character's ear is obvious (The defense calls upon Shrek as an expert witness), but there was also the fact that it was one of the few things my younger brother and I could do together without turning it into a two-man scrum--which meant Mom never refused to let us have the thing, even though it meant a ton of cleanup for her later.
Ah, Mr. Peanut...I see from a quick search that he's going for about 12,000 Yen these days, which I believe converts to about $140...so it's unlikely I'll have one again anytime soon. But that was a great toy.

Chestnuts roasted by Hodsthorn @ 04/12/2006 03:35 AM EST

I saw that Mr. Peanut thing featured on Disturbing Auctions.

Chestnuts roasted by RewolfJ @ 04/12/2006 03:37 AM EST

hmmmn... i can vaguely remember a random furry toy worm that was attached to a piece of 'invisible' string. I think the idea was to pull it around so it looked alive but i just kept one as it felt kinda hairy'n'nice - also doubled up as a great killer snake monster to battle my SW figures... ooh, according to Googglees they're called Squigglees.

Chestnuts roasted by Toeknee @ 04/12/2006 04:08 AM EST

not obscure, not wierder, but one toy that ruled my childhood was the Real Ghostbusters ghost trap. That thing was amazing, and I still love it, have since thought about bidding above $40 to pick one up on ebay when I can barely afford to pay rent. I remember my little brother and I saving up for a new one for two months because ours broke, and then finally going to Toys-R-Us to buy a new one, and then finding out that they discontinued all the traps, and one had some of the slime guns from GB2 movie. We were crushed. oh my god, I'm going to start crying if I think about it for too long.

But yeah, Ghostbusters Trap.

Chestnuts roasted by danglad @ 04/12/2006 04:31 AM EST

I don't know if this toy is really so rare (judging by ebay) but it was certainly not very popular for long... The Galoob Star Trek TNG action figures circa 1988.

http://members.aol.com/RDBousquet/Galoob.html

I only had a Picard and a Worf and my sister had a Geordi LaForge but the adventures they went on.
I know the Playmates series that replaced those little guys is superior in almost every way but my heart still goes out the the original series... of erm the Next Generation, shit now this is getting confusing!! heh heh.

On that note here are some bootleg Star Trek toys that are pretty funny:

www.bootlegactionfigures.com/ startrektng.html

Actually the WHOLE site is worth a look.

Chestnuts roasted by rockasoo @ 04/12/2006 04:42 AM EST

Ryane: With smells-like-peanut action?

I think the weirdest toy I had growing up was probably a stick. No, seriously. It was a squared-off log about a foot long and maybe two inches to a side, with a knot coming out of one side about halfway off center. It was usually pressed into service either as an aircraft carrier for my green army men to assault or as a gun/truncheon to get my cousin and I seperated for the rest of the day. I kept it in my toybox for years, and when the time finally came to pack my toys away, the Stick went with them.

Of course, I lived on a farm complete with our own junkyard, so I spent a great deal of time playing with scrap metal and fence posts, and my first secret clubhouse was a gutted combine harvester, but still. The bonds between a boy and a stick should never run that deep.

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 04/12/2006 06:36 AM EST

Ok, I can think of three obscure toys

1. Mexican Jumping Beans - those were really cool to see in the store and even more fun once you got home and put them on a heat pad.

2. Spiderman webs - it was this glue like substance in which you could make webs. It was a mess and lasted about 2 hrs before I had put so much webbing up my mom nearly killed me

3. Spiderman webslinger - it shot a suction headed dart attached to some string. It was very cool but I think I like the silly stinger webblasters better.

Chestnuts roasted by Greg @ 04/12/2006 07:00 AM EST

Nothing wrong with a stick. I stand by the opinion that a refrigerator box should have been number one on I Love Toys.

Oh, I'm all about obscure toys, but mine lean toward the girly persuasion. Wish World Kids were three inch high dolls with little playsets that transformed into a different playset. For example, one had a chair that transformed into a car, one had a bathroom that transformed into a bowling alley, and yet another had a desk that turned into a rockin' keyboard, I think. There were tons of them, and they were SO AWESOME, with great accessories.

Even more obscure were my favorite toys: teeny tiny dolls and horses with a sprig of hair called Cutie Club and Cutie Colts. I could stuff a handful of them in my pocket whenever we went somewhere and have a whole array of toys to play with. I still have about 80% of them, and that's a lot considering their "easy to lose" value.

Chestnuts roasted by Julie @ 04/12/2006 07:57 AM EST

Well. Purr-tenders, but I think they did hit mainstream when BK made mini versions. There's always Sweet Secrets of which I only own the MIP Crystal Bright, though hoping to add on to the collection. I had a thing for puzzles, too. My mom used to order me the odd ones that they used to offer in the back of the Avon catalog. Cupcake Dolls, Lady Lovely Locks.... I dunno. I'm a chick, most of my toys are kinda obscure. Damn male dominated internet.

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 04/12/2006 08:07 AM EST

Favorite obscure toy ever? Back when NO ONE was making 12" figures, in 83 I got a 12" super articulated Ninja action figure. No idea what line it was from, but I LOVED that awesome Ninja.

Second place? Spiral Zone baby! 1987'ey goodness...awesome plot, 65 episodes and I bought every toy in the collection on clearance. Woooo Spiral Zone! Check out Spiral-zone.net for more awesomeness.

Chestnuts roasted by Terror Claws Cole @ 04/12/2006 08:14 AM EST

It's not a toy, but does anyone (would probably have to be a girl) remember those little rectangular tins of lip balm that were flavored like strawberry or watermelon and they slid open? I would always have one of those on me when I was about 6 or 7. It seemed all the little girls had one.
Also, the boat happy meals. Where the whole meal came in a plastic boat. LOVED those. I'm gonna go on ebay and look for one right now.

Chestnuts roasted by kb @ 04/12/2006 08:15 AM EST

I remember the lip gloss. I don't know why. I had an older brother so I mostly had to play with boy toys. for some reason, i remember loving these little plastic/rubber monsters. they were a little bigger than a quarter and came in a bag of a million. i think we got them at the dollar store. and don't make fun, Pittsburgh in the early 80's was not exactly booming.

Chestnuts roasted by bitchpants @ 04/12/2006 08:24 AM EST

I remember I had a stretch armstrong style Junkyard Dog (the wrestler) figure. Over time I punctured his skin to reveal his weirdy goodness inside.

Chestnuts roasted by Geoffinsanity @ 04/12/2006 08:28 AM EST

I have a few. I remember the boat Happy meal but more importantly the toys thta came with them. For some reason, I was never allowed Legos (I later found out why at about 2am during a cussing fest after my father stepped on one). but Happy Meals came with Construx. They were these little plastic girder things, and they had little eight sided joints to hold them together. Made all kinds of crazy stuff with those.There were also Stompers, little battery powered 4wd cars that inevitably lost their battery doors and therefore usefulness. And then there were these one things, and for the life of me, I have no idea what they were called. But they were like little balls with round "ports" coming out of it like on each side of a cube. Some had gears in them, some had driveshafts, some had differentials, some even had little electric motors. You could build all kinds of stuff with them, moving cars, boats helicopters, but mostly, implements of death and dismemberment.

Chestnuts roasted by mndsm @ 04/12/2006 08:39 AM EST

The most random thing I remember as a child were these little dressed up mousies. There was a store at our default mall called "Let's Pretend" which was the type of place that sold Playmobil, dress up costumes, dollhouse furniture, etc...one of the items they sold were these teeny fur mousies, very similar to the fur mousie cat toys, except these mousies were upright, had teeny pipe cleaner arms, and were dressed in a variety of crazy outfits. I had SO MANY of these and I absolutely loved them. I forgot about them until last year. I asked all my friends if they remembered them, and only one of them did...I learned they were made in West Germany at the time and just called "real fur toys." I ended up buying one on eBay last year and he is my desk mascot...you can see him here:

http://www.geocities.com/scarfire2001/Bertha/skimouse.jpg

Chestnuts roasted by B-Dawg @ 04/12/2006 08:58 AM EST

One of my favourite things was the bizarre 'tank' thing that He-man and
man-at-arms used to bust around in, the cockpit would slide from one end to the other and the back part would switch over, to allow the cockpit to slide forward again ... it looked pretty cool .. but it would have taken ages to get anywhere in it, and youd probably vomit before the end of the journey.

Chestnuts roasted by MgwR @ 04/12/2006 09:02 AM EST

Hmm... Well, many a night in my household was spent listening to Mr. Gameshow spew bad insults at us.
Also, I greatly enjoyed ROB from the original NES package. You were supposed to use him with Gyromite and such, but I just played with him. Spinning his tops, moving him around... (Sigh)
Oh, and lest I forget, parachute guy. I didn't even own this thing personally, but whenever I would go over to my best friend's house I would want to play with this thing. It was a stupid little plastic army guy with a really nice plastic parachute. We'd go to the third floor of the spiral stairwell and drop him between. Good times. Of course my friend always wanted to watch TV or play some Star Trek role playing game he just made up. Meh. I tried to get my own parachute guys, even make one with a shopping bag, but they were never as good. Grass is always greener, right? On the plus side, I did manage to make a really sweet boat out of soda cans.

Chestnuts roasted by Rhino @ 04/12/2006 09:05 AM EST

Wow... i don't remember McDonalds next to Kay-Bee, and i was born in '79. Some weird SI Mall kay-bee toys I remember gteting were Return of the Jedi Presto Magic, these action figures shaped like food with guns (i think they were called Food Fighters), GUTS, and these little rubber guys (not totaly unlike MUSCLE- just bigger and painted in multicolors) that would come in a trashbag... you didn't know which one you were getting untl you went home and threw the trashbag in water- it would disolve and reveal the figure inside.

Chestnuts roasted by Lou @ 04/12/2006 09:11 AM EST

Something I inexplicably treasured were these lil' rubber kung-fu guys from a 25-cent machine at the local grocery store. Going to the grocery store was great, because it almost always meant getting a couple more Rubber Kung-Fu Guys.

But the odd thing about them was that they all looked exactly like characters from the Kunio (River City Ransom) series of games - except this would have been circa '85-87ish, a couple years before Renegade started the Kunio franchise. Though Renegade did come out in '87, but I doubt the game was popular enough to inspire bootleg Rubber Kung-Fu Guys.

Also, Renegade sucks. Technos hadn't got it together quite yet, it's like Double Dragon's down-syndrome older brother.

Chestnuts roasted by lugnut @ 04/12/2006 09:26 AM EST

BDAWG
That mouse is freaky!

Chestnuts roasted by kb @ 04/12/2006 09:28 AM EST

Wow. I remember seeing the comercial for these one saturday mourning then going to a store here in Canada called Wilco or something, forget the spelling but they where bought out by walmart 15 years or so ago, and going straight for the toy section to get them. Mine made many trips down the wall. I also got one of those ocotpus sticky toys the next day froma box of cereal and he lived in the container with the worms.

I found the container a few years ago at my moms, but the sticker was ripped of the front, so i forgot the name until now.

Thanks again Matt.

Chestnuts roasted by Hudak @ 04/12/2006 09:34 AM EST

Z-Bots!

Chestnuts roasted by Tommy @ 04/12/2006 09:38 AM EST

mndsm: Capsella! I used to have a set of those. My greatest triumph was using them to graft a working propeller onto this big giant floating air craft carrier the kid down the road owned. We spent the whole summer sailing our Ninja Turtles around ponds and stock tanks. Until it capsized, sending Mondo Gecko and Antrax into Casey Jones' Locker, never to be recovered.

Now I made myself sad.

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 04/12/2006 09:50 AM EST

He's not freaky! He just likes to ski!

Chestnuts roasted by B-Dawg @ 04/12/2006 09:51 AM EST

When I was four or so, I love love love loved Penguin Race. Though I just did an ebay search and found out that they're now somehow connected with Baby Einstein, they were freaking mesmerizing. And I played with it in the bathtub.

Chestnuts roasted by Jessica Marie @ 04/12/2006 09:55 AM EST

"I remember getting these. I remember getting these from the KB Toys in the Staten Island Mall, back when it was called "Kay-Bee Toys," and back when there was a McDonald's next to it filled with lightweight tin ashtrays with the golden arches etched in."

I miss the old Staten Island Mall. Back when McDonald's was were Disney Store is now. I can remember going with my grandma to Kay-B-Toys and scouring the place knowing full well I'd walk out of there with nothing. But itemizing each and every toy I wanted in my head so that come my birthday or Christmas I could tell my mom and dad and grandmothers exactly which ones I wanted. Of course, come Christmas the Sears Wish Book would hit and whatever lists I had went out the window. I do remember the ABCOW briefcase Matt. Something I wanted but never came to own. I envy you.

Chestnuts roasted by Double G @ 04/12/2006 10:00 AM EST

One word: Snailiens. I bought a few of them when I was a kid because KB was selling them for cheap, but I'd pay a lot for them now (if I had money, that is).

Though they have a following of some sort, (I guess - there's not much evidence of them on the net) if you don't know what they were, they were these 2" tall rubber figures which had snap-on armor, little sidekicks, and large rubber versions of those little domes that you press down on and they launch into the air. This was a safety issue, I think, which may have contributed to their downfall. The heroes were named Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln, and were yellow. The villains were the "Lunar Ticks" and they were purple aliens with the same gimmicks, but more evil-looking.

Chestnuts roasted by Frostor @ 04/12/2006 10:00 AM EST

"...back when there was a McDonald's next to it filled with lightweight tin ashtrays with the golden arches etched in."

LOL I worked at McDonald's in high school and I remember having to put those metal ashtrays on every table and clean them off when they were full of cigarettes. It seems so long ago that now if you saw someone smoking in a McDonald's you would have a heart attack.

Matt, have you thought about making a MySpace page for XE so that all your loyal readers could join?

Chachi

Chestnuts roasted by King Chachi @ 04/12/2006 10:07 AM EST

That green snake in the last picture is staring at me as if to molest me...

Chestnuts roasted by Reid @ 04/12/2006 10:07 AM EST

I don't know if I had any obscure toys per se, but I do remember having obscure toys from not-so-obscure lines. I had those little Ninja Turtles marble shooter things, I had EVERY Ghostbusters toy ever made. Ever. And I also remember having a plushie koala bear that I used to love the ever-loving hell out of, but it either got lost or thrown away somewhere.

I also had a few obscure video games like Kickle Cubicle and the like for the NES. Those were some good times.

Chestnuts roasted by potato_bucket @ 04/12/2006 10:33 AM EST

Thank you Jedoc! That was them I loved mine too, but then they went for one too many testing sessions in the laundry sink and that was the end of that.

MgwR-

I still have my He-Man tank. And my Battle Damage He-Man and Skeletor. I loved that crap. I wish I could go get it right now, but it's packed away.

Chestnuts roasted by mndsm @ 04/12/2006 10:37 AM EST

I could recount the exact details of the day of its purchase, but one of my most favorite toys as a kid was my Star Studio (there are none on eBay, so either it was really obscure or, like mine, none could live into the 21st century.) It was a double deck tape recorder with a little microphone. The gimmick was that you were supposed to put your favorite tape in one side, and record yourself singing with it on a blank tape in the other side. Then you were supposed to impress all your friends that you sang with your favorite star. Most of my vocal collaborations were with Kids Incorporated, but I still have Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth (with my enhancements) around here somewhere. There are tapes everywhere of just me recording my own voice because I could. By the way, mine also came from Kay-Bee.

If we're talking dirt cheap toys that gave you the most enjoyment for the pennies you paid for it, I have to go with those "dress-up" kits that are standard in every grocery/drug store toy section. They're just plastic accessories on a bubble card, but I had the bride and the executive. The executive was the most fun because it came with all these fake office supplies. I remember setting up my office on the window seat in the living room and punching numbers on the fake calculator. My grocery store still sells the exact bride set that I had 20+ years ago.

Chestnuts roasted by Lori @ 04/12/2006 11:00 AM EST

The BCOW worms are freaking adorable!
They certainly weren't obscure at the time, but they seem to have been largely forgotten now so I'll go with Magic Nursery Babies. Never had a Cabbage Patch Kid, but I was obsessed with the whole Magic Nursery gimmick: buy the doll, reveal the birth certificate, see if it's twins! I only had the pleasure of getting one new but I did get one of the "toddlers" secondhand as well (the baby's name was Elizabeth and I named the toddler Chrysanthemum 'cause it sounded fancy). I've looked on ebay a few times to scope them out but I haven't seen any where the "reveal" hadn't already been done...I wonder if it would even last this long without disintegrating. With the toy revival I figured they'd bring them back, but no dice so far.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 04/12/2006 11:13 AM EST

I had a complete collection of those "Food Fighters" mentioned above, although I can't verify that name either. Having gotten rid of them at some point is one of my greatest regrets.

Chestnuts roasted by mtrox @ 04/12/2006 11:24 AM EST

Obscure Toys? Hmm, as a current employee of KB Toys, I've seen my fair share of weird stuff.

Like an eBay board game. I'll leave it at that.

But stuff I had? Eddie mentioned Yak Baks way up there, and I had a later model called Yak Bakwards (or was it kaB kaY?), where it was the same deal as a regular Yak Bak, there was now a button that played your recorded message backwards! 5 hours of Twin Peaks fun right there.

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 04/12/2006 11:31 AM EST

Another obcure toy, perhaps a variant of food fighters-

McDonalds issued a Happy Meal toy that was a cross between a Food Fighter and a go-bot. They were cheeseburgers and egg muffins that transformed into really garbage action figures. I still had them all, and played with them well beyond their real useful ages.

Chestnuts roasted by mndsm @ 04/12/2006 11:38 AM EST

My little collection of Japanese TransFormong Robots would not be complete without an odd obscuro item or two. I have one of those McD's robots, a McNugget box. And, bought at the local weekly swap meet for 50 cents, a robot that turn into a Claratin logo. And quite a few knockleg bootoffs of various combining/transforming robots, including a horrible version of RiD Megatron that can barely manage four modes. Forgive me, Darth Galvatron, my addiction to cheap crap robots knows no bounds.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 04/12/2006 12:12 PM EST

First post here! Yeah me!. One of my favorite obscure toys was the Six Million Dollar Man Bigfoot doll. That scum-bum was awesome! He had spring-loaded arms that could bitch-slap Steve Austin (or my 10" Hulk doll or 12" Boba Fett, whichever he was fighting at the moment). He had a chest plate that would come off when you hit him in the groin! Well, not really his groin but darn close. On second thought, that's all he did. It kinda sucked. But it was freakin' Bigfoot! Where the frak is The Six Million Dollar Man on DVD? sigh.

Chestnuts roasted by freudguy @ 04/12/2006 12:26 PM EST

mndsm - Yay! I LOVED my Construx! I made this kickass crossbow that could fire a metal pole through a piece of wood (if it had a hole in it).

Hmm, obscure toys. I spent a lot of time creating dioramas with my Daleks and Cybermen from Dapol's Doctor Who range (if we could change the meaning of diorama to 'standing things up on a brown towel').

And I had loads of these little model knights from a range called 'Knights of the Round' - clearly named by a narcoleptic copywriter (that or Arthur's lawyers stepped in). Little 5cm high guys, you could get mounted ones and even a friction action dragon that could glide along, apparently without moving a muscle. Anyone remember these? Maybe they were only around in Britain . . .

Chestnuts roasted by Candle Snuff Fungus @ 04/12/2006 12:35 PM EST

luv bud. she was a tiny doll that came with a plastic rose, whose petals opened to reveal this tiny doll inside.
a macgyver, plastic swiss army knife.

Chestnuts roasted by m @ 04/12/2006 12:43 PM EST

YEA MATT! You got it! Man, I know that feeling. I had the hardest time finding this game for like 15 years, Satan's Hollow. I remember describing it to people.. no one ever knew what I was talking about. In retrospect it wasn't the best game but memories count for much.

I remember Air Raiders being a toy that I still have a vehicle for and some of the soldiers. If you haven't seen the toys before, eBay them up. Some of the larger models came with 10 or so figures.

Chestnuts roasted by Coltyhuxx @ 04/12/2006 01:54 PM EST

i'm gonna rebel and not answer your question, at least not yet, but i come to your site to take a break from school and a lot of times (like this entry) schoolwork comes right back in my face....for example when you said "Maybe young enough to still have some lingering traits from that whole animism period all children go through. To me, these sticky and impossibly cute rubber worm figures weren't rubber worm figures at all -- they were pets, alive, ready to party and needing me."
I'm taking adolesent psychology as part of my minor and i literally just read about this(the animism thing).....i guess it's a sign that i need to go back to work.....

Chestnuts roasted by mike the great @ 04/12/2006 02:05 PM EST

I remember a toy line from the early to mid 80's called "stinkeys" or "smellys" or something like that.

Anyway, they were these rubber monster shaped guys, and each one had a different "odor" (Outhouse, Rotten Eggs, Dirty Feet) and when you squeezed them, they let out that odor...I had a couple of them, and I can't quite remember why....but it was probably done to gross out my sisters and their friends.

Chestnuts roasted by EvilMidnightPosterWhatPostsAtMidnight @ 04/12/2006 02:05 PM EST

mike the great, if you look for the bootleg Beast Wars toys, some of them are labeled "Animism Defender."

Air Raiders were air powered toys, sort of a SilverHawks/ThunderCats relation to Visionairies. The back story had the vehicles powered by "charged air" or somesuch. I think it was a "fallback line" in case some of Hasbro's bigger products failed. Think I'll Wiki it.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 04/12/2006 02:25 PM EST

i'll keep my hands off your worms...but my eyeball prints are all over 'em.

Chestnuts roasted by NervousXians @ 04/12/2006 02:43 PM EST

The toys that I played with aren't (weren't) very obscure. My favorite was Jem & the Holograms. I had Jem/Jerrica and Rio and I eventually got Rock n Curl Jem. One of my friends had Kimber and Aja, so we practically had the whole band. My mom bought me everything Care Bear, and I did play with My Little Ponies occasionally, but my other favorite toys were those read along books that came with a 45"--I put on Return of the Jedi the other day for old time's sake. I also had one of those cheesy Get In Shape Girl ribbons on a stick that came with a cassette tape you were supposed to jazzercize to. I just annoyed my cats with it.

Chestnuts roasted by violetdied @ 04/12/2006 02:45 PM EST

One word: N.I.N.J.A.

Just like M.U.S.C.L.E. except they were black, yellow or red little ninja's with glow in the dark painted on weapons.

Chestnuts roasted by Glitter Godzilla @ 04/12/2006 03:10 PM EST

I had and still have most of the Mighty Max toys. They rocked in 93' and they still rock now.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Poop @ 04/12/2006 03:16 PM EST

Kinglash: You are forgiven.
I've had my fair share of cheap robot indiscretions, so I know how it feels.

Funny thing is, there was this store I use to go to in Jackson Heights that was down the block from my aunts apartment building that sold the old Microman Ravage, Buzzaw/Lazorbeak, Frenzy\Rumble cassettes from Japan and Korea. I remember at the time I use to look at the packaging and think, "that sucks, they're not the REAL Transformers. Little did I know, little did I know...

They also had them at this Convenience store we use to go to after church every Sunday, and since I was always loosing somebody's gun, or Rumble/Frenzies springy head would always pop out at some point, my parents would buy me replacements. Man, If I only knew at wasn't 9 at the time, I could have sold them on E-bay.

ARmy Ants - whoever mentioned that rules! My little brother loved those things, and the name brought back memories.

Construx - I had so many of those things. The gray bars and blue connectors.

Those connectors always reminded me of the one eyed enemies from Mega Man I that slid back and forth, or up and down.

My brother had the car set, and I had the T-Rex one. Then my parents went insane one Christmas and bought us this HUGE box of those things. I don't remember if it was just extra pieces or some sort or city building set with a motorized crane.

That and the GI Joe Aircraft Carrier and Space Shuttle.

Jesus, me and my brothers were spoiled.

2 most obscure toys I can remember are:

A race car set, but it wasn't race cars. It was this tube sytem with the tubes made of a clear top portion and black bottom portion that snapped together, hexagon on the ends. The reason it was clear was because the "cars" themselves were amber in color, clear,and shaped like a crystal. You would place this glow in the dark alien thing in the "car" and he would glow in the dark. The tracks could be decorated on the outside of the tubes with glow-in-the-dark stickers. It was poweed by this huge motorized blow dryer thing that blew air, and I believe it would also work horizontally since the car was powered by air. Anyone else remember this thing?

2: This little computer looking toy that my parents probably got from some store on 82nd Street in Jackson Heights (we had alot of family and friends there). It had a bunch of different colored buttons in a 3x6 configuration that made a different sound, and had different games you could play. I remember there was a Simon type game, a music game, a counting game. That thing still comes up in dreams I have, no idea why.

Shit, this is a long post....

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/12/2006 04:10 PM EST

I have no idea if it's obscure, but it just came to mind... Those stuffed cats they used to sell that came with kittens - only the kittens were in the mom's tummy, and you have no idea how many or what kinds of kittens you'd get. I wanted one SO badly for a year or so.

Never got one

Chestnuts roasted by Vicki @ 04/12/2006 04:13 PM EST

1. I need to not suck at typing or get a spell checker...

2. I need to learn how to bold....

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/12/2006 04:16 PM EST

Two words: Castle Zendo

Being a member of a family made up of a teacher (my dad), a stay-at-home mom, and three kids, we didn't have a lot of money. Therefore, Castle Grayskull was out of the question. To their credit, my parents made sure I had the next best thing. Castle Zendo was a Masters of the Universe knockoff that didn't skimp on fun. Hours were spent crafting the epic battles between Raidy and the Terrans, and Zendo and the Mogs.

Every once in a while I'd find one of the littler guys while cleaning at my old house. And their glow-in-the-dark weapons were the shit!

Check the whole collection out here:
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/otherworld/otherworld.html

Couldn't believe it, but this was on eBay today too.

Not willing to pay the 16.35 pound shipping from the UK though. Alas.

Chestnuts roasted by Thorzul @ 04/12/2006 04:32 PM EST

I am male but as a kid I bought "She-Ra" to use in He-Man games. Is that gay?

Chestnuts roasted by KevStewart @ 04/12/2006 04:35 PM EST

I spent the morning researching Magic Nursery dolls thanks to this thread I can't count the number of times X-E has kept me from working on more pressing tasks (originally released in the 70's, but the ones I knew came out around 89, for the curious).
(off topic: Was this a great Sopranos ep, or what? I wish I knew more people who watched...I know they're out there but it's definitely not a watercooler show at my office.)

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 04/12/2006 04:45 PM EST

yes

Chestnuts roasted by Lou @ 04/12/2006 04:46 PM EST

The cat with the kittens inside were called kitty surprise, or puppy surprise, or pony surprise, or bear surprise, or bunny surprise.

Chestnuts roasted by Beth! @ 04/12/2006 05:11 PM EST

Who says you can't remember things from that long ago? The earliest memory that I can date is January 10, 1984: the day my brother was born. I was 2 at the time.

Of course, I've always had a knack for recalling events and conversations. However, when it comse to practical things like directions on how to get somewhere or how to do some specific thing properly, I'm a total moron.

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 04/12/2006 05:15 PM EST

….and one of the greatest shows in the history of media is finally available on DVD.

The Super Mario Brothers Super Show!

For those not initiated, it’s an amazing hybrid of live action and cartoons featuring the Super Mario Brothers, including Captain Lou Albano as Mario. Seriously, you must get this. It’s 4 DVDs of 24 eps and has special content, including an interview with said Captain. Check It Out.

Chestnuts roasted by danglad @ 04/12/2006 05:16 PM EST

Hmm, obscure toys huh? Would my Skeletor bubble bath count (it's officially my most prized possession)?

If not, then do you remember the Chuck Norris cartoon? Neither do I. But when I was younger my great aunt and my great uncle used to always buy me toys at yard sales. One of these was a red ninja. Didn't know what it was at the time, but about a year ago I learned that it was one of the villains on the Chuck Norris cartoon.

Also, Darth Galvatron, bold words

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff @ 04/12/2006 05:27 PM EST

Say, I remember those water gun keychains. A lot of them were miniature versions of the various types of Super Soakers. Kids were collecting those things left and right and schools were even banning them. After all, Mrs. Dinglebottom doesn't want little Joey to squirt her in the face without her knowing that he did it so that she can give lashes. I never had them (dunno why), but I still though that they were cool.

Back on the subject of Super Soakers, I remember those too. In fact, I think they're still made, but just biggere and better. In fact, in the summer just after my senior year of high school (Summer '00), my friends and I were constantly playing with them. We made up our own games and had our own rules. Imagine a bunch of 17 to 19-year-olds playing with Super Soakers in the backyard. Good times.

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 04/12/2006 05:28 PM EST

EvilMidnightPosterWhatPostsAtMidnight: I totally remember those... I had one that smelled of fecal matter... and boy did it!

1: Some kind of weird vampire bat pen that had a see through container of blood red ink;

2: This crazy plastic erector set that I would build life sized robots out of; and finally

3: Plastic McDonalds Happy Meal boxes shaped like Boss Hogg's car and the General Lee. These had stickers that you could apply when finished with your meal, or after you put out that last cigarette in the McAshtray.

I wish to God I could find one of these on Ebay... but... alas...

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 04/12/2006 05:29 PM EST

Hey squee4242... What is a watercooler worthy show to discuss in your office? If it is anything like mine, either American Idol or The Apprentice... both of which I'm tired of hearing about.

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 04/12/2006 05:33 PM EST

My obscure toy was the Remco Haunted House. It went with their line of classic monsters. It had a coffin for Dracula, a lab table for Frankenstein, and a sewer drain for the Creature of the Black Lagoon. The Phantom of the Opera and Wolfman got screwed out of their own digs.

Chestnuts roasted by Scottyflamingo @ 04/12/2006 05:44 PM EST

Here is that General Lee Happy Meal.

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 04/12/2006 06:00 PM EST

Rocklords were the most able combatants for Optimus Prime and his transforming posse to battle day in and out. Their bodies were swirly marbley "boulders" that stayed in rock form well enough to be able to just throw at anyone who didnt think a robot encased in stone wasn't enough to wet their pants over.

Also a rectangular tent I had that was an all plastic homoage to Optimus Prime in truck mode. There was a steering wheel inside that spun forever and I think a dismembered blow-up Optimus head that perched on the roof of the whole arrangement.

One more and I'm out, ZAKS. The majority of the pieces were triangles but there were some squares as well. Tabs stuck off the side like a zipper to connect pieces together, and in the center of each piece was a nub to connect two pieces back to back, or various attachments. The best thing about them was that the joints were flexible, I built a dragon many times that could actually chew up his victims by squeezing his face, or clumsily move a limb a few centimeters before it just broke and fell off.... god i miss those things

Chestnuts roasted by Freewire @ 04/12/2006 06:18 PM EST

Lou- the trash bag guys that you were talking about were called the trash bag bunch. The good guys wanted to save nature from pollution and for some reason looked way cooler than the polluting bad guys, who were mostly weird monsters, though if I remember correctly there were some monsters on the good side as well. I still have most of mine and I kept all of the card backs. A considerable feat seeing as I was two or three when I got them, though that wasn’t to long ago. There was a dollar store at one of the many malls that my mom would drag me to. That dollar store was the only place that I ever saw them sold, though according to Pop- Arena.com they were sold in toy stores. Sadly the article about them on the site is a dead link now and I can’t even get on the site right now because my computer can’t find a server. I hope that Mr. Mr. Mr. isn’t dead.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Poop @ 04/12/2006 06:42 PM EST

Darth Galvatron, just noticed that it didn't show the markup on the bold words. It did on the preview.
(b)bold(/b)

replace the ( and ) with greater than and less than signs (shift+, and shift+.)

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff @ 04/12/2006 07:01 PM EST

Keep on Truckin', Matt. What you do has changed my life for the better.

As for obscure toys, a puzzle toy from '96 called Cortex stands out. Never owned it, but I wanted it bad. It was November, and of course the kiddy television programmes were clogged with ads singing the praises of that Christmas season's newest toys. In the Cortex ad, you had a troop of middle school kids in silvery jumpsuits in some space station-type setting, playing with Cortex's, while you heard some soft, operatic voice sing "Cooooorrrrtex...." And it looked awesome. Of course, my parents weren't the type to sate my every toy urge, so it fell by the wayside. I still remember the ad, though, as well as trying to replicate to the best of my ability the opera voice's song.

Chestnuts roasted by Der Super @ 04/12/2006 07:15 PM EST

I dont know how obscure they are, but I used to love the shit out of M.U.S.C.L.E. Men. I also remember another series of toys, they were little animal/warrior figures, about the size of the muscles, and they had holograms on their chest that told you were side they were on. Anyone remember there name, I must buy some on ebay immediately.

Chestnuts roasted by jesse @ 04/12/2006 07:27 PM EST

jesse- Matt did an article on those toys a while ago, sadly I don't know the url of the article.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Poop @ 04/12/2006 07:41 PM EST

Michael, you hit it with the American Idol chatter There's also a fair chunk of talk about various procedural dramas (CSI, SVU, NCIS, ETC)...A buddy and I do our part to inject Lost into the conversations as well but it's a losing battle, especially now that it's baseball season

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 04/12/2006 07:41 PM EST

I'm not a obscure toy-guy either. Most of my favorite toys were of the popular stuff like:

Those Galoob Star Trek: NextGen figures mentioned above ruled.

WWF Hasbro figures

DC Superpowers figures

Total Justice/JLA/Legends of the Dark Knight (as you can see, I'm a comic guy).
Ghostbusters
TMNT

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 04/12/2006 07:54 PM EST

Jesse, are you refering to Battle Beasts?

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff @ 04/12/2006 08:14 PM EST

Jedoc - Alas, I can only smell the faintest, tiniest hint of peanutty goodness from him. But maybe it's my imagination, too.

Ummm, ok I figured out a toy. The... Magical Musical Thing! I freakin' LOVED that instrument. I still have it, up on the attic. I'll have to see if it still works if I can brave going up there...

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 04/12/2006 08:54 PM EST

I don't know how obscure this is, but I'm thinkin it was called Monster Face. It was like a skull on a platform. you could move the mouth and stick nails and screws and pussing throbbing slime things in his head, and there were all these facial features you could change. It was awesome.

Chestnuts roasted by Mattman @ 04/12/2006 08:56 PM EST

Ooh! violetdied! They actually remade Get In Shape Girl toys, but they're not under Hasbro anymore. I have the new ones in my closet. There's a Yoga set now. Gotta do a review at some point. So much to do, so little time. ^_^

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 04/12/2006 09:14 PM EST

Greg - I totally got Mexican jumping beans for my birthday a couple weeks ago! They're awesome.

I had some random obscure toys as a kid because of my Austrian mother, but they were mostly of the old fashioned wood persuasion. Some of those are really, really awesome.

I had those dolls whose skirts you flipped up and they became rubber cupcakes. And they supposedly smelled like the kind of cupcake that they were, but they all pretty much smelled like a more potent Cabbage Patch Kid. I don't think they were terribly obscure though.

Chestnuts roasted by Mara @ 04/12/2006 09:19 PM EST

Thanks to the magic of photography, I think I can remember back to when I was about two, and likely before. There's one photo of me sitting on my great-grandma's lap playing with a toy clock from when I was about 1.5 years old. Maybe this was a different time I'm thinking of, but I definitely remember that toy. Then there's another time when I stole a toy from my little brother and my mom scolded me. I must have been about 2; he looks really little in that picture, like a couple months old. And even without photos, I can remember a time when I was hiking in this cave, and my brother was crying; I was about 3 and he would have been about 1. Ah, old memories...

Chestnuts roasted by Andrew @ 04/12/2006 10:00 PM EST

I TOTALLY HAD A BAD CASE OF WORMS!!!! I got these the same year I got my Popeye acrylic bubble set in my stocking. I always thought the coolest thing about the worms was the little suitcase. I think I dropped one of my sticky worms down the bathroom sink, and the other one became irreversibly unsticky because I used to play with them on the carpet all the time.

Chestnuts roasted by Domicinator @ 04/12/2006 10:02 PM EST

I remember the "Go-Bot" Happy Meal toys. I think we had two Big Macs and a Chicken McNugget, though we may have had others, too. They were among the Happy Meal toys to linger into the 90s, though I know I haven't seen them since then.

How many girls here remember "Lady Lovely Locks?" They were a 10-inch fantasy-based doll collection from about 1988. Each doll wore an elaborate lace gown and had several clips of some cute animal with a long tail attatched to her very long hair. (Or his - there was also a boy doll with pants, a cape, a shirt, and shorter hair.)

We had Lady Curly Crown (red curly hair), Maiden Fair Hair (wavy-haired brunette), villaness Dutchess Raven Waves (just what her name says), the mermaid Lady Lovely Locks from a later line (straight blond hair), Prince Strongheart (short brown hair), another mermaid with blond hair with blue streaks, and two pink treehouse playsets (one for my sister and one for me) that came with more animal clips. There was also a short-lived TV show and at least one video of cartoons we used to rent every other weekend.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 04/12/2006 10:07 PM EST

My parents got my brother and I a bunch of car toys, including...Micro Machines! Do they still make those? Anyway, we also had a Hot Wheels (or Matchbox?) car wash center with drying rollers made of foam rubber. We sure had a ton of toy cars; wonder if there are still some lying around. Heh, I remember I tried to color one (a white '57 T-Bird) with a magic marker.

We didn't have a Ghostbusters Ghost Trap, but we did have a Ghost Zapper. It projected images of the ghosts on walls, and you would zap them and something (I forget what) would happen. Except I was more intrigued by the ghosts. Heh, I must have been about 6 or 7 when we had that, but I don't think I ever saw Ghostbusters till I was 13. We used to not be very much into many movies or TV shows made after 1980.

Chestnuts roasted by Andrew @ 04/12/2006 10:20 PM EST

Hahaha, I was just watching the Lady Lovely Locks cartoon the other day. Oh man, there was an ad at the end for those terrible "Your kid stars in their own cartoon!" things for it. It was hilarious. I totally have to hunt down a video of the Lady Lovely Locks tape with some kid's random picture pasted into it.

Don't remember the Go-Bots Happy Meal, but I still have my milkshake from the Food Changables Happy Meal! And the commercial!

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 04/12/2006 10:24 PM EST

Thanks, XE- this is exactly what I needed tonight- a blog about old treasured things.

I am sure I mentioned before the fact that I don't have a large intestine...well, this is due to my Crohn's disease. On Monday night I suffered a horrible attack and have been in the hospital ever since. I just got home, and was hoping for a little XE to cheer me up- and it did.

Thanks XE bloggers, and MATT of course, for making this place be the bright spot of my day more times than I can count.

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 04/12/2006 10:36 PM EST

i can't think of any real obscure toys, cuz as a kid i mostly sold my soul to the man, and bought into the commercial hype of gi joe, transformers, he man.. who could resist?

but i do remember having fondness for the casket of bones, these would normally pop up around halloween time and were like sweetarts in the shape of bones.. i'd buy a little plastic casket full of them and try to put together the complete skeleton, good times.. halloween always was and still is my fav holiday

Chestnuts roasted by doc bong @ 04/12/2006 10:46 PM EST

Around 1992, I had one of those special moments where I picked out a completely unfamiliar toy, basing its potential merits on the packaging features alone. I was nicely rewarded.

The toy, a member of the "Trash Bag Bunch," was an unseen action figure, contained within a shiny green opaque little bag. I followed the directions on the outside package, dipping the bag in hot water to watch a weird bubbling green chemical reaction, in which the bag dissolved and revealed the figure inside! The figure itself was not that great--it was a robot member of the mean polluting bad guy team, with unposable limbs. But the chemical reaction alone was worth it.

Trash Bag Bunch!!

Chestnuts roasted by Venison @ 04/12/2006 10:52 PM EST

I admit that I haven't read most of the thread (yet) but I searched through and didn't find any mention of... Spinjas. Spinjas were little metal tops that came with little plastic spinny launchers. Not unlike Beyblades. Each top had a little figure torso sticking out of it. I still have mine, though one of them is missing a horn from his head because I tried to spin him upside down once. Oops.

Chestnuts roasted by Stormdragon @ 04/12/2006 11:04 PM EST

Yes, I remember that blog post back in January 2005. Probably my longest post.
How is everybody? Everybody good? (I've been out of the X-E world awhile, could you tell?)

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 04/12/2006 11:53 PM EST

i dunno if these are obscure but i came home from kindergarten one day and found these giant plastic robot figures on my porch. they were about as tall as i was at the time and had to be japanese. they had on armor and had wheels on their feet and one of them could shoot his fist when you pushed a button on his back; the other one had three plastic missiles that shot out of his hand. my parents claimed not to know were they came from and i still have no idea who left them there. anybody know what on earth these things are/were?

Chestnuts roasted by consulatsunset @ 04/13/2006 12:05 AM EST

hey Muppet Baby, glad to hear you're out and about! Hospital stays were always scary, but routine, for too long. I'll keep you in my thoughts, and hope you stay well!

One time when I was in, they found an old NES for me to play with, and that was the friggin bomb! I would be up til like 3 in the morning playing that thing for like 4 days straight! It ruled!

I didn't like staying in the hospital, but there are certain ways to make it better like getting your meals off the childrens menu!

Anyway, Muppet Baby, glad you're home.

Chestnuts roasted by kidneyboy @ 04/13/2006 12:08 AM EST

What great responses! Just finished reading 'em all -- most of mine have been mentioned earlier...

Army Ants were a huge passion, particularly the blue ones. (The figures came in either orange or blue, blue being a thousand times cooler, because hey, BLUE ANTS.) If you'd consider Sectaurs or Super Naturals obscure, throw them in the hat because they're two of my all-time favorite toy lines.

The Nintendo "Trophy" figures were also a big interest, mainly because they were put on clearance and left out on a display in TRU's video game section for years, and every time I'd go there, I'd admire video games I couldn't possibly afford and instead walk away with a new shiny plastic Mario or Link action scene.

Less obscure and more oddball was my obsession with Dick Tracy movie figures from 1990. I fell in love with the lore because I loved the wide assortment of wacky villains, and made collecting every figure in the line my life's mission. Sadly, the one I wanted most -- The Blank -- was impossible to find in this country and almost as impossible to find in every other country. The figures were made by the folks at Playmates, who were also doing the original TMNT line at the time. Dick Tracy figures shared a lot of traits with the Toitles, including size, general articulation points and progressively shinier paint jobs.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 04/13/2006 12:19 AM EST

oh the toy.

prob. one of those little tiny musical keyboards, like 5 inches long, with little tiny rubber keys, and it came with a little paper insert to show you how to play songs.

I always liked those balsa planes with the big ass rubber band that you would twist up to make it fly!! I would twist that thing so damn tight and then it would usually fly into the wall and splinter all to shit.

Chestnuts roasted by kidneyboy @ 04/13/2006 12:29 AM EST

Man, I had a ton of toys that were obscure that I loved. The best of the best were:

1. An electric race set that had construction vehicles instead of race cars. There were all these little stations where you could do things like back a dump truck up and have it empty out a load of plastic "dirt."

2. Construx. For some reason, I always made boats with these things. I wasn't obsessed with boats with Legos or my Erector set.

3. Erector set. It came with a setup to make two tanks that shot lasers at each other, for a weird version of laser tag. It was freakin' awesome.

4. Robot building toys. I'm not sure what the right name is for these, but they were like Legos made out of little articulated robots. They were NOT Zaks. I usually made these crazy vehicles or bigger robots.

5. Stomper track. I had a track for the battery powered Stompers with all sorts of bumps, "boulders" and other obstacles. You'd set it up and try and get the Stomper to make it all the way down the track.

6. Suction cup robots. I'm not sure what these were called. Matt did an article a while back about the extra large metal version of their leader, Max Steele. I had the smaller plastic ones, and this weird vehicle with a big turret gun on the top.

7. Robotix. This was, hands down, the best obscure toy I had. My parents bought me several sets of these things. They were a building toy, and the connectors were all these hex shaped pegs. They came with battery powered motors, and all sorts of attachments. You could make walking robots, grippers that opened and closed, robotic dinosaurs with opening and closing mouths, cranes, robot arms, and all sorts of other cool stuff. They're still sold as an "educational" toy, but mostly I made big war machines.

I never noticed until just now how many of my toys were building toys. Maybe that's why I'm an engineer now.

Chestnuts roasted by spaz307 @ 04/13/2006 12:43 AM EST

I just remembered a game we had when I was a kid that might not have been obscure, but probably was before my generation because it was ancient.

You had a plastic u shaped track, and each person had these metal balls with plastic rings around them. The object was to flick them to the finish line around the u, something like that. Perhaps to make them knock each other in? I can't recall exactly. Anyone know what i'm talking about?

Chestnuts roasted by Mara @ 04/13/2006 01:28 AM EST

spaz, I had that erector set too. It's actually down in the basement still. I never had enough C batteries to play with both tanks at once though, and usually just built garages and shit for the one.

Chestnuts roasted by kidneyboy @ 04/13/2006 01:43 AM EST

I don't know how obscure it is, but I had a plush Teddy Ruxpin. By "plush," I mean it was half the size of the ones that had the tape decks built in, and was solely a teddy bear. If I remember right, it came from an outlet toy store near my house and was one of the only ones on the shelf - nay, in the store.

God, I loved that bear. It should still be in my closet. Poor Teddy - college isn't very friendly to toy habits, so you'll stay there for now. ;_;

I honestly haven't seen it pop up again in my life, though I haven't bene looking for it.

Chestnuts roasted by The ORIGINAL Paul @ 04/13/2006 02:05 AM EST

Holy hell - I found a picture!

http://www.mindspring.com/~mathue/images/stuffed_teddy.jpg

Can't find the little guy on eBay, though. All that comes up are the ones that work with the tapes or cartridges. Maybe he's more obscure than I thought?

Chestnuts roasted by The ORIGINAL Paul @ 04/13/2006 02:15 AM EST

Yes! Frostor, you are awesome. I was trying to think of the name of Snailiens the other day, but all I could remember was the fact that they were snails who wore armor and fought each other for some reason. I'd forgotten all about the little dome things until now. I remember, you could launch those things hella far. Definitely a safety issue.

Chestnuts roasted by TedBelmont @ 04/13/2006 02:21 AM EST

Oh god, how could I have forgotten to mention Z-bots? I freaking loved those things. I still have them.
The series did a lot of things I didn't agree with though.
-The rereleasing of figures in ugly camo-print colors? Lame.
-Mini Z-bots. They were small and fragile, and didn't go well with my huge collection of regular figures when I staged my Z-bot wars.
-The packs of 3 bots that combined into one big bot weren't too great. The robots looked like crap when not combined, they always fell apart, and their names were just the name of their combined form divided in thirds (which wouldn't be bad if they weren't so uncreative as to let a figure be named something like "Yz", "Ger", or "Hea".

Chestnuts roasted by RewolfJ @ 04/13/2006 03:58 AM EST

Dude Matt, u gotta check this place out and do a review this fall: http://www.adventureacres.com/hhe_default.html

I'd go but it's in Pennsylvania & I'm all the way in Texas.

Chestnuts roasted by doc bong @ 04/13/2006 06:31 AM EST

Oh man, it has R.I.P. admission...Really Important Person? That place is only an hour south of Pittsburgh, perhaps I should look it up sometime...

Chestnuts roasted by Jessica Marie @ 04/13/2006 07:37 AM EST

Matt:

I had those Dick Tracy figures! (Not the Blank, though). They had the weirdest little, stubby bodies with heads that were just plain too big, if I remember correctly. It may have worked for other Playmates lines, but it always seemed weird to me when they were based on characters that weren't animated turtles.

I also had a complete collection of Pee-Wee's Playhouse figures, except for the playset (the absense which caused my most massive Christmas-related hissy fit of all time).

Chestnuts roasted by mtrox @ 04/13/2006 08:27 AM EST

Ah, the Nintendo trophies. I only had one, a Zelda one, but it sat proudly on top of my TV well into the 16-Bit years.

Another vaguely obscure thing I had was the Official Legend of Zelda board game, except that wasn't something I loved, but something I couldn't understand why had ever been built in the first place. I think I actually played the game exactly once, maybe twice, then reverted to just dorking around with the dice and the little monster cards. Loved the monster cards, hated the game.

Chestnuts roasted by lugnut @ 04/13/2006 09:24 AM EST

Darth Poop and Venision- check out the link on The Trash Bag Bunch

http://www.toyarchive.com/TrashBagBunch.html

I was obsessed with Dick Tracy figures... i scoured every damn toy store in the area looking for The Blank.

Chestnuts roasted by Lou @ 04/13/2006 09:38 AM EST

First of all for squee4242:

You think gettting Lost into a work conversation is difficult? I am an avid theater goer... try that one on for size sometime! Its a great way to clear the room.

Secondly for spaz307:

I totally had one of those construction race track sets. I distinctly remember a green dump truck and some kind of a logging truck? Anyway, nice list of cool toys!

I know I have probably over posted this thread, but I must add one more awesome rarish toy to the list. I had a life size (life size if you are 7) Remote Control Voltron. It was so freakin' cool. Not exactly quality craftsmanship, but it would roll around on the wheels in its feet and ... roll around to .... Okay... it didn't do much, but it was 4 feet tall!

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 04/13/2006 10:13 AM EST

The most obscure toy I owned that hasn't already been mentioned: VideoArt.

Made by LGN around 1988. It was a videogame console that was all about using the TV to color larger than life pictures of cartoon characters.

The toy itself kind of sucked but it had one rockin' commercial with a song that went something like this: "video art, video, art, 16 colors set me free, video art, video art"

Chestnuts roasted by Carri @ 04/13/2006 10:39 AM EST

I had a vectrex video game console which was discontinued before I was born. I also had a bunch of "food fighters" which were action figures of food items dressed as soldiers, mine would do battle with my ninja turtles and in the end the turtles would rush and devour sgt. pizza. good times

Chestnuts roasted by Serpentor @ 04/13/2006 10:46 AM EST

Muppet Baby Hope you're feeliing better!

Jeff Thanks! it works

Jesse Battle Beasts they were. They were shown to have a connection with the Transformers in the Japanese series, the one after the headmasters saga here in the US which the Japanese disregard.

Also, in the Dreamwave series, the original Predacons seems to have either ended up or originally from the Battle Beasts homeworld, as Megatron is shown finding them.

MY middle brother loved those things and had a ton of them. I had no idea at the time that the TF's (my personal favorites) were connected.

Matt My little brother would always bug my dad about buying him Army Ants when we would go to the toy store.

Spaz307 I totally confused Contrux with Robotix. I had had the T-rex one withthe pincer claws that had the gray foam pads. My middle brother had the car one.

The Construx we received was the crane one, but I remember it having about a billion pieces and came in a huge box where we would put all the robotix and Constux peices in.

"Who puts the future in your hands....?"

Whoever mentioned the Legend of Zelda game, I had the Donkey Kong board game. I still saved some of the barrels all these years. For some reason, I keep them in a safe.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/13/2006 10:58 AM EST

I guess no one had the GI Joe Space shuttle? I think it might have been called the Freedom or something like that...

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/13/2006 10:59 AM EST

Correction, it was called the Defiant.

http://crimsonguard.tripod.com/defiant.html

Sweet Jesus that thing was awesome.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/13/2006 11:01 AM EST

OMG Carri I totally remember Video Art. I know I had the commercial on a tape somewhere and I've scanned through every tape I own and never found it. It's still stuck in my head, but I wish I had the fucking commercial! GRRR!!

I also had Lil Miss Make-up and Lil Miss Dress-Up which were the same doll except with different outfits. I think they had a few more incarnations of her, too. One was a mermaid and one had jewels or something.

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 04/13/2006 11:36 AM EST

Nice work! The only toy I've had life long quests over you've found and named for me already Modulok! And I've since bought about 5 modulok and multibots off ebay.

Chestnuts roasted by Vanbilderass @ 04/13/2006 11:36 AM EST

"Snoopy Playmate." It was like Simon, it played songs and you had to match them.

Chestnuts roasted by mm @ 04/13/2006 11:59 AM EST

BATMAN COLORFORMS! The weird yellow-box set from 1989 (because I have looked this up on the internet). I'm not sure why but this thing was my all time fav. toy as a child.

If anyone still has a (complete) set... e-mail me at westman00@hotmail.com because I'm willing to buy

~Kyle

Chestnuts roasted by Kyle @ 04/13/2006 12:21 PM EST

Haha, I had a Bad Case of Worms too! I also got them Kay-Bee toy stores in my local mall. I have never forgot about them even though mine were blue, but I too loved them as if they were my pets. Good job on finding them. The toy I loved the most was my Burgertime handheld video game in the same vien as the He-man handheld game, only more awesome in my opinion.

Chestnuts roasted by That Guy @ 04/13/2006 12:32 PM EST

I just remembered a few others I used to love.
Tacky Stretchoid Warriors: Aweseom for no apparent reason, they just were cool as shit to me.
Starriors: Man this these were cool to me, I used to love the hell out of them, and they would chop up my G.I. Joe guys without mercy.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors: Oh man, come on, the bad guys looks like brains! That was cool!

Power Lords: I only had two figures and a ship of some sort, but man I loved them even if they were freaky!

Chestnuts roasted by That Guy @ 04/13/2006 12:53 PM EST

consulatsunset, those were the SHOGUN WARRIORS JUMBO MACHINDERS. The one with the missle-firing hand sounds like Great Mazinga. I need more info to identify the other, but you can try this site:
http://www.wildtoys.com/shogun/index.asp

and here's the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogun_Warriors

Best wishes and good vibes to Muppet Baby!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash, with Kung Pow Grip! @ 04/13/2006 12:57 PM EST

One memory I had when I was 4 was seeing Masters of the Universe on my birthday. Talk about a kick-ass birthday. I still have the image of the first time I saw the poster as well.

Chestnuts roasted by Rixliss @ 04/13/2006 01:04 PM EST

The most obscure thing I could think of was a board game that you used a Videotape with. It was Halloween-themed, and had all the classic monsters in it- dracula, witch, mummy, etc... No, it wasn't "Nightmare", and I've spent forever trying to think of the name of this game and find one on ebay. I loved this game so much, but it scared me at the same time.

I also had the entire PeeWee's Playhouse figures, and unlike mtrox above, I actually had the playset.

Most of all, however, it's not a toy I miss, but a toy store. I grew up in the Memphis, Tennessee area, and there was this toy store called "Children's Palace". That place was heaven to me, not to mention a humungous toy store, you were walking into a freakin castle as well! I can remember the awe inspired in me as I walked inside, toys lining the castle walls. I don't live near Memphis anymore, but I wish this place was still open just so I could visit once again, just to see if it was really as awesome as I remember.

Chestnuts roasted by Soulbrotha @ 04/13/2006 01:06 PM EST

My obscure toy of my childhood was a game called The Dark Tower. I remember not understanding how to work it, but it looked very awesome. You pressed a button and it lit up with a face or something like that. It was really kick ass. Sometimes I used it as Skeletors base. I'd like to find it again, everyone I talk to never even heard of it.

Chestnuts roasted by Rixliss @ 04/13/2006 01:10 PM EST

Does anyone remember the Rose Petal Place dolls? I worshipped my little Rose Petal doll, no matter what I was playing, she was involved. Even though she was only like 6 inches tall at most,she became kind of Barbie's cool pink haired flower hat wearing sidekick. When my dad stepped on her and cracked off her legs I just wedged her torso into one of those little cars from a Mcdonalds toy and she became my first ever handicapped doll. But then I lost her forever and I was sad. Until about 3 years ago I found her and all four of her other flowery friends on Ebay (where would we be without it?) There was a cartoon of it with marie osmond,and a talking caterpillar.
I also had this pink snail thing whose shell opened up and you could store small treasures in there. I remember the commercial where this little girl was hiding things from her brother in one and he was unable to get them because he didn't have a key. I tried that, but my brother was too smart and just stole the pink snail and held it until I gave him the key. Does anybody know what that was?

Chestnuts roasted by earthwormgoddess @ 04/13/2006 01:46 PM EST

The first obscure toy I had that really kicked ass was POPOIDZ from McDonalds Happy Meals. I cannot find anyone around here that remembers them, not even my Wife(I am 25, she is 23). Next would be those Pigs and I believe sheep figures that were dressed up in army attire, and armed with weapons. I can't remember the name, but I think they came out around the time of the food fighters. Last would be G.U.T.S. which were just like M.U.S.C.L.E and N.I.N.J.A only these were all different types of army men.
Also, someone up there mentioned a wierd bat pen that had blood in it. They were Bloodsuckers I believe. I saw one on the Grand Prize game on the Bozo show and had to have it.

Chestnuts roasted by theniXer @ 04/13/2006 01:48 PM EST

Yay Mystie, I didn't think anyone else would remember Video Art. Even google doesn't seem to recognize it.

Of course, I still have mine. I probably should upload some photos and give it a proper web-home.

Another weird 80s electronic toy I had was Questron. Those were a series of quiz books and a electric wand accessory. The wand would blink and beep whenever you passed it over a correct answer.

And bordering on the less obscure, I was a proud owner of an Etch-a-sketch Animator. I totally rocked 4th grade with that.

Chestnuts roasted by Carri @ 04/13/2006 01:51 PM EST

theniXer - Barnyard Commandos.

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 04/13/2006 01:52 PM EST

Hey Soulbrotha:

I remember Children's Palace... There used to be one about a 1/2 mile from where I grew up. I was there every Saturday. The building is still there, but it is no longer a Children's Palace. It was definitely the best.... better than TRU or KB in my opinion.

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 04/13/2006 01:56 PM EST

Sorry to hear it, Muppet Baby. Hope things are looking up.
Hmm, I had a "makeup" doll, don't remember if it was "Little Miss" but I bet it was because I remember she had a dress-up pal.
On the "oddball" angle, I used to flip my bicycle over and turn the pedals and pretend I was Laura Ingalls Wilding it with a loom XD I did a lot more reading and imaginative play than action figure play. I didn't even get into Barbie until I was old enough to have her get down with Ken.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 04/13/2006 02:29 PM EST

Food Fighters---NUFF SAID

Chestnuts roasted by Rixliss @ 04/13/2006 02:33 PM EST

I remember popoids! We had a big bucket of them and I remember my brothers making me a little suit out of them by wrapping them around me when I was five or so...I thought it was awesome.

Some obscure ones we had:
Bolt N' Play: Big kit full of plastic stuff you could use to build all sorts of things. Came with a plastic wrench and plastic bolts, wheels, etc. My brother Jim loved this and he would make me lots of cool stuff out of his, like a little chair or a stroller for my dolls, etc.
Zaks: They used to advertise these on TV, but my mom was a teacher, and got them for me out of an educational catalog. The big push on the commercial was that Zaks were flexible. They came in a blue cloth bag. I remember spending about 5 hours one afternoon building the Zaks dragon that was in the instruction booklet.
Sliders: Lameass toy that I thought was going to be really cool. Commercial for it had these kids in a school cafeteria sliding a hockey puck like thing (rolled by ball bearings) across the table and having lots of contests: "Sliders! Sliders! How close can you get to the edge?" I brought mine to school and no one really wanted to play with it.
Guard Dog: I did not get this as a child, and I really wanted it. It was a plush dog that had a hollowed out inside, and you could open it and put "Secret" stuff in it, and one someone picked it up, it would bark. In the commercial, Guard Dog would say "I'll keep your secrets safe." I saw this at a Children's Palace shortly before it went out of business and hinted that I wanted it for my birthday, but my dad (usually a sucker for these sorts of things) was in too much of a rush that day to buy it for me.
Quints: Also got a bunch of stuff for these at Children's Palace closeouts. Tiny quintuplet dolls that had a bunch of accessories. Quints high chairs, Quint bath time, Quint ski time, etc. I still have them and most of the ridiculous number of accessories I had because they really "take off" and were so cheap--came with a little book of names to choose for your quints.
OK, last one:
Turtle Babies: This is the one and only thing I wanted when I had to have eye surgery at age seven. (Eye surgery at age five: baby pound puppy!) I had a turtle baby and a few turtle baby outfits. I've looked for turtle baby online many times and haven't found anything about them. The name is pretty self-evident. It was a plush baby turtle that came with a little carriage and bottle, and you could buy separate outfits.

Chestnuts roasted by Kate @ 04/13/2006 02:56 PM EST

I'm the Boogey Man...and I'm coming to getcha!

Chestnuts roasted by The Boogeyman @ 04/13/2006 03:28 PM EST

theniXer! I had a huge bin of Popoids!! I freaking loved those things! None of my friends ever remembered them either (I'm 26). They were so great to chew on too.

Man, I am so glad someone else remembers them!

Chestnuts roasted by B-Dawg @ 04/13/2006 03:49 PM EST

I was hoping to get some popoid love on here. I knew I couldn't be the only person to remember them. Its amazing how many a kid could accumulate. I am not sure how long they ran as a mcdonalds toy, but it had to take more that a few trips to MCD's to get the amount that I had.

Chestnuts roasted by theniXer @ 04/13/2006 03:59 PM EST

Carri

Holy crap! We had one of the Etch-A-Sketch Animator. That thing was fantastic. It had the same type of nobs an Etch-A-Sketch did, but it white with blue nobs. It even made this weird "eh-er-errrrr" sound everytime the picture changed. Mt middle got that the same year I got my Sega Master System I believe.

Oh man, the memories.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/13/2006 04:15 PM EST

Jesus, I suck at typing.

My little brother had the Talking Micky Mouse. It was jsut like Teddy Ruxpin (made by WOW), but told Disney based stories instead.

We ended up getting Lazer Tag that year. That's right. No Photon for us. Actually, I never liked photon. the helmets looksd silly, and all those wires connected to the sensors and helmet jsut made you like like a tool.

Not that running around in a silver vest with a matching silver helmet made you look like any less of a tool, but hey, we had those sleek black lightguns. I even had the very rare white one. Then again, only my brother and one other kid on the block had Lazer Tag. Everyone else had Photon.

=(

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/13/2006 04:22 PM EST

I had heart-2-heart bear, a teddy bear with a battery-operated heart inside its chest. That, in itself, is pretty boring, so I used it as a torture device. When my little brother went to sleep, I would put H2H bear up against the wall that separated our rooms, allowing its rhythmic pounding to slowly drive him insane. Mom eventually caught on to my evil game and removed the innards of the toy, rendering it useless. So much for my Tell-Tale Heart 2 Heart Bear.

AJ Bear was another stupid toy that had a battery-operated voicebox. If you told it to "Fuck off," for instance, it would mumble two syllables in its unintelligible robotic voice. Unfortunately, you couldn't turn the damn thing off unless you ripped the voicebox out of its back. I brought it to my 2nd grade class one day for show-n-tell and my teacher made me put it out in the hallway because it was disrupting class by mocking everything she said. Stupid bear!

Chestnuts roasted by undeadhead @ 04/13/2006 04:56 PM EST

Photon and Lazer Tag are for pussies. We just whipped dirt clods at each other. No disputes on direct hits. POW! "You get a welt?" *whimper* "Well?" "Y-yeah." "You're out!" You know, with the rise of paintball tounaments, and pro dodgeball, why not start a Dirt Clod League?

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 04/13/2006 05:38 PM EST

One of the earliest toys I remember having was an old bag of doctor's equipment with two kids pictured on the front. It came with a stethascope, syringe, thermometer, and some other things all of which eventually met their untimely death after being far-overplayed. Not a single bit of it was lost, thrown away, or sold, it was all just played the shit out of until death, including the bag.
God I miss that thing.

Chestnuts roasted by yooki42 @ 04/13/2006 05:43 PM EST

kindlash - We use to throw rocks at each other during lunch in elementary school. ROCKS. Not below the neck only either. Whereever they hit, you knew you were out. It was just a few of us either. At one point it seemed like all the boys in my grade were doing it. Imagine a field full of kids whipping rocks at each other. And the lunchladies trying to get us to stop...

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/13/2006 05:50 PM EST

Obviously, I meant Kinglash and I meant it WASN'T just a few of us either.

God, not a good typing day for me....

I really need to make use of the Preview button.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 04/13/2006 05:53 PM EST

One of the more obscure toys I remember from when I was really young was this creepy from-the-waist-up doll called Hugo. His torso was hard plastic, he had cloth arms with hard plastic hands, and his head was bald and semi-soft plastic. His head was this way because (drum roll please) he came with all sorts of rubbery scars/blemishes/oddities/wigs that you could glue all over his head and face! Some of these were particularly gruesome, providing hours of fascination for a four year old boy. It was actually my sister's, but years later, after she moved out, I dug him back out for a different game called "How many blows from a baseball bat could he sustain before utter and total obliteration?" Answer...two. Ah, destructive youth.

Chestnuts roasted by Bludge @ 04/13/2006 06:19 PM EST

Sorry about the double post but, Holy Crap! I just typed "Hugo" into the X-E home page search bar and there was an article written in 2000 with him in it! Incidentally, I also had the Suckerman toy featured in the article. Good times...

Chestnuts roasted by Bludge @ 04/13/2006 06:24 PM EST

How long has it been since I haunted this blog? I have no idea. Doesn't matter that much, anyway. What does matter are the Ninja Turtles and aren't we blessed when we live in a world where one can buy the complete seasons of 12 episodes for freakin' 15 bucks a dvd.
I love this country. Yes. 15 dollars for four and a half hours of ninja turtles holiness. I haven't seen the show since 199- but damn if it isn't as much fun as I remember. When Rocksteady calls Shredder a banana as the mutants try to retrieve a crystal set atop a pinacle in a perfectly preserved prime-eval world at the center of the earth--oy, it just gets me giggling to think on it.
Am I the only one who has seen this incredible deal in the stores? I hate it when I sound like a commercial advertisement. I just wanted to spread the word to the ORIGINAL ninja turtle fans.

Chestnuts roasted by inkmage @ 04/13/2006 07:01 PM EST

Wow, inkmage, I'd say the answer is "a long dang time". Welcome back, thanks for the turtle tip!

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 04/13/2006 07:22 PM EST

Hey while we're on the subject of odd toys, maybe ya'll can help me remember the name of a board game I can't think of. All I really remember was I think you were some sort of adventurer and there was this annoying brown plastic bridge you had to cross. If anyone can think of the name I'll be way grateful.

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 04/13/2006 07:22 PM EST

We had Children's Palace in Kansas as well. I distinctly remember getting the greatest GI Joe toy I ever had there. I can't remember what it was called, but it was this HUGE wheeled vehicle with gun turrets all over it. You could open it up to reveal a smaller scout vehicle, and two nuclear missiles. I'm not kidding, these things were definitely supposed to be multi-warhead ICBMs. Whenever my buddies Joes would start to win, I would simply NUKE HIS DAMN TERROR-DROME. EAT THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH!

I also remembered an awesome obscure game. It was a HUGE map (many feet on a side) of an ocean, and you set up ships on either side. You'd use a submarine piece to shoot little plastic discs at your opponents ships. If you hit a slot in the bottom of his boat, pieces would pop off. The last person with pieces left on a ship won. Does anyone else remember this game?

Chestnuts roasted by spaz307 @ 04/13/2006 08:10 PM EST

Squarbles - they were marbles only um... square.

Electric Squirt Guns - pre-Super Soakers, shaped like the traditional pistol squirt gun and used the power of a AA battery to make a longer stream that shot so hard it actually stung.

High Fives to all the Popoids and Construx owners. I still have my big-ass collection of both. Oh yeah, I so have the Construx motor and light packs. As for Zaks, my neighbor had them and I was really jealous.

Chestnuts roasted by Carri @ 04/13/2006 09:01 PM EST

DG, I also had the GI Joe Space Shuttle. It still sits in my parents' basement in pretty good condition. My future children will love it. (I also had the Aircraft Carrier. Sadly, I don't know what became of that monster.)

Spaz, I really think I had that nuke-platform vehicle of which you speak. Didn't remember it at all until you mentioned it.

Mystie, I could be mistaken, but it sounds to me as if you refer to the (sacred) board game "Fireball Island." Matt reviewed it last year I believe.

I had another toy that was a kind of computer that worked with video tapes. If I remember, I'll post again.

Chestnuts roasted by Rhino @ 04/13/2006 09:17 PM EST

We interrupt this warm-and-fuzzy nostalgia thread to report the following: I am being attacked by ants and do not know why. Apparently, I am delicious to them. Or perhaps they have constructed an elaborate colony in the comfort gel in my mouse pad wrist rest. Sadly, I am too lazy to turn on the light and discover the truth.

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 04/13/2006 09:21 PM EST

OH! I can't beieve I forgot to mention this, but I just heard that the original Voltron series is coming out on DVD in September. Just add that to the reasons why this is the BEST DVD YEAR EVER!

Chestnuts roasted by Rhino @ 04/13/2006 09:24 PM EST

Nah, it wasn't Fireball Island. Like half of the board was a bridge that kept falling apart.

Now Pizza Party, THAT was a board game!

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 04/13/2006 09:27 PM EST

Love this thread! I am remembering so many things.
Jedoc
Turn on the light and let us know...

Chestnuts roasted by kb @ 04/13/2006 10:04 PM EST

So sorry to double, but Girl Talk the board game was amazing. Remember the "call the boy you like" card?

Chestnuts roasted by kb @ 04/13/2006 10:06 PM EST

my sisters had the New Kids on the Block stage, but not any of the dolls...they had to use Barbie I-Barbie V or VI, and maybe Ken I and Ken II. same shitty effect though. We had some Jem books with tapes, and I had some Transformer Choose Your Own Adventure Books. And I had a Cykill GoBot, not the little one, but a big one, it was cool. We also had a Cabbage Patch book/tape thing, and the girls had a few dolls that were always bald like monks and had marker/pen writing on the bald spots like tatoos. I had a lot of Hot Wheels, and my dad would drive bus and usually bring me back a He-Man guy when he went on long trips. I had a Lion-O Thundercat, but none of the other ones. My sisters each had a Pound Puppy, and one year for Christmas, we all got Popples. Mine was orange, and the girls had a white one and a purple one. Then there was a Skip-It and a Pogo-Ball for outside, and a mini-basketball. We would play three-square...since there were three of us, instead of playing four-square. We had Operation, Sorry!, Trouble, Scrabble, Monopoly, and Candy-Land. We would play cards, all the normal kid games, our Auntie taught us how to play Kings Corners, and she would also play checkers with me. My mom says that she let me win, but I know I really beat her...
whew, that's more like it! sorry I couldn't do that before! hehehe...

Chestnuts roasted by kidneyboy @ 04/13/2006 10:07 PM EST

Someone please help Mystie name that silly bridge game! I know what she's talking about and I can't think of the name either. Also, PLEASE tell me someone out there remembers a board game sort of like Operation in which you placed plastic bugs of differing heights on an aluminum coated spider web. With a pair of tongs you had to get under the bugs and pick them up. If you touched the "web" a motor would launch a foam rubber spider off of a platform at you and scare the crap out of you. I am BEGGING for help. Please help me sleep tonight.

Chestnuts roasted by Bludge @ 04/13/2006 10:36 PM EST

Ahhh! Those are so damn cool. I love that phase of growing up. My first pets were two worms I rolled out of play-doh when I was five. I hung out with those guys all the time. We lived in a small apartment so I couldn't have a pet. But dammit, my worms kicked ass. Love the site, btw. I've been a fan since I first stumbled upon it about a month ago. Great stuff!

Chestnuts roasted by Nicole @ 04/13/2006 10:40 PM EST

I don't recall any bridge game. Sorry. BUT that reminded me of a sweet game called Don't Wake the Dragon. There's like a dragon in the middle and you get to be penguins trying to retrieve their eggs. I think its a lot like Don't wake Daddy, but way cooler because you're fucking penguins. And the Dragon.

Ch