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Posted in 1970's

Henry Fonda, Jodie Foster and Peter Brady Selling View-Master?

This is one of those commercials that makes you stop and say, “Wait… is that who I think it is?”…

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Posted in 1950's 1960's

When Guns Were Fun

There was a time when a kid could watch a Saturday morning ad and immediately know what he wanted next:…

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Posted in 1960's

Did you have Shark Pack?

I felt that changing the discs to make it do different maneuvers meant you might as well have pushed it…

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Posted in 1960's

Who had a Secret Sam?

With all it could do, there were still many other toys I wanted more. I remember seeing the commercials and…

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Posted in 1960's 1970's

Speedline Race Cars: The Hot Wheels Rival

Many of you asked about these when I posted the Hot Wheels advertisement. So now I have to ask: which…

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Posted in 1960's

Whenever I saw the Barbie Cut ’n Curl commercial as a kid, I always wondered if it really worked as smoothly as it looked on TV.

The idea was great: give Barbie a haircut, style her hair, curl it, and somehow keep the fun going without…

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Posted in Uncategorized

The Swing Wing: The Toy That Looked Like a Neck Injury Waiting to Happen

The Swing Wing was a wonderfully weird 1960s toy introduced by Transogram Games in 1965. It was worn on your…

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Posted in 1960's 1970's 1980's

Probably no toy gave me more joy than Hot Wheels.

It was great the first day you got the track, but the fun didn’t stop there. A new car didn’t…

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Posted in 1970's

Who had a Farrah Doll?

The Farrah doll was part of full-blown Farrah Fawcett mania in the late 1970s, when her feathered hair, red swimsuit…

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Posted in 1980's

When Tippee-Toes Tiptoed Into Trouble

Leave it to the early 1980s to give us a controversy over a baby doll’s bare bottom. Mattel’s Tippee-Toes was…