A Walk Down Memory Lane

Lately, for whatever reason it may be, I've been obsessing about toys from my childhood. Some I've looked for for over TEN years, trying to remember what they were called. Within the past 24 hours I've managed to find mostly everything I remember from my childhood. And I'm going to share those things with you, in no particular order.


1.

Love2Love Bears by Vivid (re-launched in 2007 in the U.K.)
Originally launched in 1998 as Lovable Bears

Loveable Bears. I got one when they first came out. The only difference I see between these and the one I had as a kid is that the bottle was white, and the colors were lighter. Loveable Bears were little electronic bears that could fit in the palm of your hand. The bottles were scented depending on the color of the bear you had. I had a blueberry and a lemon one (which was later turned to banana when they were re-released in 2007). Your bear would coo and make all kinds of cute baby noises, and when it cried you would give it it's bottle, and it would be happy again. It's nose had a light in it, which glowed red when it was on. I cannot tell you how hard it was to find these bears, even just a picture of them. "scented keychain bear with bottle" is apparently not very descriptive. 10 years of wondering what these little bears were, and I finally found them. If only I could actually FIND one, and not just a picture!

2.

Pony Surprise, Puppy Surprise, and Kitty Surprise by Hasbro 1990

Aww... Puppy Surprise! I had all three. Pony Surprise, Puppy Surprise, and Kitty Surprise. The only difference between these and the ones I had is that I had a purple cat. Each toy came with a random number of babies, from 1 to 6. Besides these three, there was also a Bear Surprise and a Bunny Surprise. Each animal came in different colors and they had more than one pose. The mommies were all plush with velcro on their bellies, where the babies were. The babies had a hard plastic head and their bodies were filled with beads. I had my Pony Surprise in kindergarten. I got 6 babies with her, which is the most you can get! My favorite was the baby sleepy pony, whose eyes would open when you put ice on them. The other two I had I probably got at Christmas time, over the next few years. My collection was complete by 2nd grade.

3.

Magic Hair Barbie by Mattel 1991

I still have the outfit to the gold barbie. These guys were awesome! The tails were kind of thick, I guess to keep their shape, and crinkly. When you put water on their hair (can't remember cold or hot) it would change colors, like purple and pink. And the Skipper mermaid came with two babies whose fins actually changed colors in water! Why Skipper had the babies, I do not know. Maybe she was babysitting. All I know is these Barbies made bath time super fun, and I wish I could find those color changing fins for the babies! Too cool!

4.

Sky Dancers by Galoob 1994

 Ah... Sky Dancers. These things were dangerous. You would put them into their launchers, pull the string as fast as you could, and they would launch into the sky and slowly come back down. I used to hold them in the launcher and just spin them and use them as fan, or I'd stick my tongue out and hit it with the wings. I never said I was a normal kid. I can't tell you how many lightbulbs and lamps and other things I destroyed from playing with these indoors. Sweet, sweet memories. I always promised I'd be careful next time, and I never was. Maybe that's why they slowly started disappearing over the years...


5.

Zoo Borns by Ed Kaplan Associates 1994

I love elephants. And baby animals. So that automatically made this one of the coolest toys ever. Actually, it still is. It is currently sitting next to me, since I just took a picture of it because I couldn't find any on the interwebs, and because I still actually OWN this! He used to make some kind of noise when you pushed his arms towards his chest, but the batteries have probably been dead for ten years now. I think it was a kind of elephant giggle noise? Don't ask me to explain what that sounds like. I don't even know!

6.

Bambi Masterpiece Collections by Disney 1996 (came in a Happy Meal)

Yes, one of the most significant toys in my childhood came from a kid's meal. But it's Bambi! And this was back in the day when kid's meal toys were actually worth collecting, and could actually be played with. I still have this around somewhere too... I was doing good keeping it away from Krystal, but I'm pretty sure she has it hidden somewhere, and I can almost guarantee his legs are all chewed up now. I remember in 2nd or 3rd grade when a 5th grader stole my Bambi on the bus, and my mom had to come up to school and get it back. Yay Mom!

7.

Littlest Pet Shop by Kenner 1992-1996

"But those aren't Littlest Pet Shops..." 

You shut your whore mouth and you shut it now. These were the original Littlest Pet Shop toys. These were made by Kenner, before Hasbro bought them and somehow turned these cute, adorable, cuddly animals into big headed mutant lazy eye freak pets. I'm not sure what Hasbro was thinking when they bought these toys in 2005. How did they go from these to the Littlest Pet Shop toys you see today with the giant freak heads? I don't get it. All I know is I can remember spending hours upon hours in my room with all my Littlest Pet Shop toys. I had more than I could count. And I could count pretty damn high.

8.

Virtual Pets by various companies 1996-1997

I have an obsession. And that obsession is virtual pets. It all started back in '96, walking through Meijer, when I passed the toy section. Hanging there was this "Tamagotchi". It was a little orange egg shaped thing with buttons. It was a virtual pet. I begged and begged and for $11, I got it. I was the proud owner of whatever a Tamagotchi was. I got it home (or at least, to the car) and started playing. Ok, there's an egg. Just sitting there. Waiting, waiting, waiting, and it hatches! Into a blob! But not just any blob, MY blob. I fed it, played with it, cleaned its poop, and put it down for naps. I'm hooked. I started collecting them like crazy. I had Tamagotchi's, Giga Pets, Nano Pets, and more. If it was shaped like an egg and had a pixel-y picture of some kind of creature on the outside, it was mine. I miss the days when I had nothing better to do than clean virtual dookie.

I'll add more later (like, tomorrow) but right now it's time for bed and I want to post this!