Sunday, July 18, 2010

Girl's Toys of the 80's

Did you guys have Fashion Plates? Oh man...It was the best! You put these little raised templates underneath paper and rolled a black crayon sort of thing over them and it made an imprint of the outfit you created. The plates were divided up unto tops, bottoms and heads with hairstyles and hats. After you created a design you got to color in the outfit you created! I didn't use those hateful colored pencils it came with. I used my neon crayons, which were the very best. I was not into understated beiges and sands and creams- no sir-ee! I was straight up Versace and shit! I remember I liked the hoochie outfits best. Yikes!

Okay, I showed you all a picture of the box of the lovely BARBIE PERFUME MAKER, but here is a picture of the actual toy, which I would consider one of my very favorite toys I have ever owned. You put the little "scent sticks" in water, cranked the wheel and the scent/color infiltrated the water in the little cup. Then you could pour the scent into the bottle of your choice and even BOX the thing up! My favorite scent was Strawberry Fields.

The Snoopy Snow Cone Machine was awesome. I would sit there cranking the little cheese grater, trying to shave down a rock hard ice cube for 20 minutes. I would be dripping sweat afterwards. But I didn't give up- I still tried to sell my weak sno-cones to the mailman for 25 cents!
Here is the actual ad for Cabbage Patch Kids in the Sears Catalog, where my mother got all of our toys.
Remember how AWESOME sleeping bags were? They had such colorful ones back then. Sleeping on the floor with my friends was always so fun. My friend Erin had a Garfield one and mine was the Shirt Tales.

Was there anything more incredible than Strawberry Shortcake dolls back then? The white and red and pink- it was always looking like Valentine's day and I didn't even mind the red. Her strawberry scent was so yummy! And she had all these cute little friends with fat heads and freckles! I wanted Angel Cake (was that her name?) so desperately!

Did any of you have this house? I didn't even know this existed. The little girl in the ad is totally eyeballing her mother and trying to tell her with her eyes " I WANT THIS FOR CHRISTMAS."

I played with this one a LOT. My sister and our friend Erin would always play dentist. The playdoh molds had little cavity faces on them. You made a bunch of teeth, most of which were like, supposed to be rotted, and you put them in this old guys mouth. Then you went to work on extracting those bad boys! We would be so detailed in playing dentist, that I would draw up an invoice and bill your ass for my work.
THIS. IS. THE. GREATEST. TOY. EVER. (deep breath) You guys...I am serious...I think it was my uncle who bought me this and thank heavens he did- I got to make my own MAKE UP!!!!! I also had the hair extension one and dyed all of the hair pink. Did I already tell you about that? Anyway, it was a GREAT toy for those of us who loved make up. I love make up to this day thanks to Fresh n' Fancy.

Cabbage Patch Kid commercial
another
Strawberry Shortcake commercial: