Sunday, March 22, 2009

Reminiscin' This 'n That...

I had this on Facebook, but I'm going to put it up here too. Just because I love the subject and wanted to share it again!

I'm a big fan of dwelling on the past. Not to an excessive amount to which I don't pay any attention to the present or the future, but quite often I enjoy thinking back to my childhood/adolescence, remembering the "good old days." You know, those days before bills needed to be paid? Or you had to be at work on time? Or you went to school for free? I miss those days! Anyways, I have this insane memory when it comes to anything completely useless. I can probably remember exactly what I did on every single Christmas morning (excluding, of course, when I was too young to remember). I can probably even remember exactly what I got for every Christmas and who it was from. This being said, I had this one toy that was really stumping me. For the past few years, I couldn't remember the name of this toy. I remember what it looked like and all that, but I couldn't remember the name of it. For some reason it bothered me. I asked my family, but of course, they didn't remember anything either. In fact, I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy. But yesterday I remembered. Pretty much the best day of my life. And in case you're wondering, they were called "Be Mores" (see below).
So, in honour of my recent rediscovery, I thought I would share a few of my favourite childhood toys. Maybe someone else out there completely forgot about these things and wants to remember. Plus it's just fun for me! I actually wonder if anyone else remembers any of these toys? I mean, everyone remembers Barbie and Cabbage Patch dolls, but what about the more obscure toys? Keep in mind I didn't own all of these toys, but I certainly played with them at friends and relatives' houses. So, starting off with the one that sparked all this:

Be Mores
This loveable plush dinosaur was one of my favourite toys. It had velcro flaps which allowed it to turn from dinosaur to magical dragon!

Alphie
A robot that challenged kids to various learning games. I remember loving this toy as a kid

Cupcake Dolls
These were smaller than Barbies and would fold into a cupcake. Plus they smelled like whatever flavour of cupcake they were supposed to be! I remember having the lemon one. She was pretty sweet. Literally.

Moondreamers
I believe this was a short lived cartoon from when I was about five. This particular doll (there were a group of them) had pink hair that glowed in the dark. I'm pretty sure her awesome cape glowed in the dark as well. Her name was Star Gazer.

My Child
This doll was really soft - made of felt - and had posable limbs. And unlike the cabbage patch doll, they had synthetic hair, not yarn (I still love my cabbage patch doll though!)

Jem
Oh, she was hot. The rockin'-est rocker out there. Her and her band "The Holograms" were just off the charts. And I'm pretty sure her hair glowed in the dark.

Keypers
This was another toy that I completely forgot about. They were the sort of piggybanks where their back shell (or equivalent) would open and spin with a special key. You could keep all sorts of stuff in there (so long as it was small enough to fit in)! I'm pretty sure I had a turtle.

Precious Places
One of my favourite toys as a kid. These were little buildings with people that had magnets on the bottom of them. You used the special magnet "key" to move them around. I had the church and my sister had the ballerina dance studio. I remember seeing the awesome mansion at a friends' house and being so jealous too. Of course, we thought it was a good idea to put these little houses into our gerbil's cage. Needless to say those toys no longer existed. Man, those stupid gerbils could chew quickly!

Ninja Turtles
Well these still exist, so I imagine people remember them. Raphael was definitely my favourite.

Pogo Balls
These things were so awesome! Well, once you were able to get them going. I remember being in my cousins' basement playing with these things. We never owned one. Probably for the best. We broke everything we had.

Cherry Merry Muffin
This was a series of dolls that came with a tray of muffins and a little friend. There were different flavours (chocolate, cherry, banana, blueberry and apple). Each doll smelled like their flavour. I'm pretty sure they didn't taste like it, which was a downer.

Fisher Price Little People
There were a ton of these sets. The school, the farm, the pool, the airport, the main street...well you get the idea. They went a little overboard at the old Fisher Price factory. Anyways, I had a few favourites:
Lady Lovely Locks and the Pixietails
These dolls had a tv show. They were awesome.

Smooshies
These were small stuff toys that you would "smoosh" into their tiny cages or houses or whatever they came with. I don't know why I was fascinated with them. I guess I just loved shoving stuff into small places? That may have come out wrong...

Maxie
This was a more realistic barbie. She was slightly thicker waisted and had a much more achievable bust (well, achievable for some...for me, perhaps Barbie's little sister Skipper was more my model, haha). Her feet were flat and she had way cooler clothes. Plus her boyfriend Rob had real hair instead of plastic hair! So much hotter than Ken.

Sylvanian Families
These forest creatures were fuzzy and sweet. And they came with furniture and houses! I think my favourite was the windmill. It was pretty cool.

Play Mobil
Um, these guys were just awesome. I mean, they were bigger than lego men and had sweet hooks for hands. Plus they only bent at the waist, so there was none of that knee or arm bending hassle.

Polly Pocket
They couldn't actually fit in your pocket (unless you had a huge pocket...I guess the front pocket of overalls would have worked...or an apron...), but they were still fun nonetheless! And eventually they morphed into more details houses and eventually a huge mansion. Now they've just gone crazy and a lot bigger. That's just foolish.

Pogs
Remember Alf? Now he's back - in pog form! I'm sure most people remember the introduction and subsequent banning of these stupid cardboardish circles with lame pictures of Power Rangers or what have you on them. Oh, so many fights breaking out over these. Especially the metallic slammers.

Sweet Secrets
Now these I vaguely remember. Which either means that I never actually owned one myself and only played with it at a friend or relatives house, or I owned it for about 3 hours and broke it or lost it. Still, I remember them. They were these small locket-type things that opened up and had a doll that folded out from it. I assume you were to wear it as a necklace?

Skip It!
These things counted how many times you could jump over the skip it ball thinger. Pretty sweet. I probably broke mine.

Popples
These things were classics! I had a yellow one named "Buttercup" and Julie had a purple one. Greg actually had a football popple that he ended up giving away to our dog. Our dog loves it! Surprisingly she hasn't torn in apart.

So, I'm going to stop here. I have so many more 80s and 90s toys to share, but I'll leave that for a "part deux." I'm pretty sure this one went on a little too long anyways.

11 comments:

  1. what a fabulous blog entry!! thanks for sharing! :)

    I was totally there for almost all the toys, and share in your reminscing frequently.
    (I just popped a little Perkins Keyper finder on my desk at work that arrived in the post today.Ha)

    great pics. Thanks!

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  2. Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!

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  3. Ah... (^_^)
    The pics here just took me back to my childhood! :D I used to have a lot of these toys as a little girl.
    I wich I would have saved my toys until today... Especially the different scented dolls.

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  4. Hey I was at Toys R us last night and they have a brand new version of ALPHIE out! I couldn't believe it, I bought one for my little guy for Christmas! You should check it out! I soo missed my Alphie !

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  5. I saw an advertisement for Alphie a couple weeks ago! I was so excited too! I think I will get one for my niece :)

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  6. I can't thank you enough for this post. It FINALLY allowed me to find a childhood toy I played with constantly but could never remember the name.

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  7. I had the swan keyper. I would play with it for hours.

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  8. OMG!!! LOVeeeeee'N it!
    Do you remember SWEET SEA mermaids & ROSE PETAL PLACE?
    BTW thanks for JOggIng my MEMORY on "SMooSHiEs"{...I had a DOG w/ROCKET & a BUNNy w/COMPACT of those} & Keypers {I had a "RODENT" of SOMEKiND LOL & a SWAN 2}
    But when I was REAL little I had ALWAYS wanted a COLLECTABLE ViNYL DOLL of the "BRITTANY" CHiPmUnK....it HAD real synthetic hair too :'(
    e-mail:CsThRuH2O@yahoo.com

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  9. Ah! I do remember sweet sea mermaids!!! I'm not as familiar with Rose Petal place...I googled it and it looks vaguely familiar though!

    And the chipmunks were awesome! Did you ever see "A Chipmunk Adventure"?

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  10. Yeah! I actually "USED" to watch re-runs of it on the DiSNEY channel in the early~late 90's. When I was in HiGH SCHOOL I used to be obsessed with recording TV shows... I WAS SMART enough to record it & enjoy it with my kids NOW....BUT they WATCHED it so many times that NOW it is WARPED...LOL.
    BTW after reading your BLOG I've "obsessed" with 80's RESEARCH NOSTALGIA....I couldn't remember this ONE lil guy's NAME, but I vividly remember what he looked like....I finelly was REMINDED by my hubby...Do you remember the DOMINO's PIZZA mascot from the 80's THE NOID? Google him...I did...it's a BLAST from da PAST!^_~

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