Christmas Toy of the Day

[packerbacker180]

There are those big ticket items that as a kid you could only hope you were good enough that year that Santa might leave it under the tree. Sadly, I apparently rarely was. But this could be a big ticket item or just that one toy you always wanted. Or maybe it's that one toy you got that you cherished. Really, it could be just about anything. But let's go down the chimney to revisit the ghosts of Christmas presents past.



In 1982 he once again started fighting for freedom wherever there was trouble. And I was there for it. Joes were so much more poseable than those space wizards from a galaxy far, far away. I had a ton of the figures, but one item eluded me for several consecutive Christmases no matter how good I was.



Santa was just not that kind.



Look at those happy little bastards with their stupid polo shirts and stupid big toy. You know something else I didn't have in the 80s? Polo shirts! Nope, just t-shirts for this latchkey kid. Cool kids didn't dress like that. Look at those dweebs! Scott Farkus would pick them out really fast! Maybe if I wore a polo Santa would've brought me a Flagg.



He had yellow eyes! So help me God, yellow eyes. he probably had a Flagg, too. I bet Zack Ward could've afforded one back then. My parents, apparently, could not.



Sprawling out at an impressive seven feet six inches and three feet wide, the USS Flagg retailed for $110 in 1985 which is the equivalent today of approximately $322, which really isn't so bad when you consider what toys go for these days.



The U.S.S. Flagg featured a full 3-level bridge with detailed navigational deck, radar and logistics room and flight control stations. The radar and satellite arrays were mounted on top. The Flagg could accommodate multiple GI Joe vehicles including any combination of aircraft and propeller craft on its generously spacious flight deck. Like all real supercarriers the Flagg included an operational deck elevator, equipment hoist, and takeoff and landing strips. The deck also included a hook-and-catch system for landing aircraft and blast shield for takeoffs. Defensive armament included anti-ship guns, anti-aircraft missile array and radar and satellite jamming systems. The Flagg was commanded by Admiral Keel-Haul who was often seen dancing with a Native American and a construction worker in the late 70s. It also included a fueling tractor and fuel trailer. A deck sound system allowed you to simulate real flight deck announcements and commands to simulate the feel of an actual naval carrier's operations and battle alerts.





Seven feet! Man, if I had one I would've put a fitted sheet on it with a pillow and slept on that baby like a king!



A friend down the street from me got one as a kid, but his parents got divorced so they were both busy trying to buy his love. Oh why did I have to come from a stable household? But hey, at least I had Refrigerator Perry and he didn't. Suck on that, Jeremy!



Did anyone here ever capture the Flagg? Do you still have it? Can you send me your address and work schedule

[BrandonDaCollector]

Great Topic PB and great stuff. This topic has loads of potential and I have a lot of ideas for this one Oh yes, "The Fridge" Perry is a wonderful figure. Thank goodness I took care of Mine If anybody is looking for a great Vintage action figure to have for Christmas, Perry is a good choice Here's this special quote from My Vintage Action Figure Topic

The Fridge - William "Refrigerator" Perry! Yes the great former football player was a part of G.I. Joe and yet another personality that was in wrestling but he is really only famous for his short stint in the WWF at the Wrestlemania 2 Battle Royal and many, many years later would be inducted in the "Celebrity Wing" of the WWE Hall of Fame. I wasn't into Football but I just loved this figure back then in 1987 and beyond. Check out his huge football-chain mallet plus look at his copyright as well! He has always been in a special place for Me in My collection

Okay, now, as for the the USS Flagg. Nope, I never had nor seen it in person. That's a good story and all that you told PB However, here's another special quote from My Topic....this will focus on the G.I. Joe DEFIANT LAUNCH COMPLEX Now see & read My quote, this cool Booklet is something else from arguably the best time of Joes in 1987 and was the only thing that I have had of the Defiant Launch Complex

So now here I go with My next G.I. Joe item that I found. This is a fold-out Pamphlet/Booklet that was included with vehicles and what-have-you. It's still in pretty good shape and I have always loved that front Cover



While these aren't like Kenner's Action Toy Guides that I showcased previously & recently, they are still loads of fun. First off two of the most key points on there is Croc Hunter and Law & Order which I'll get to the latter in a moment...



Here's a close-up of Croc Master which is really good artwork which some of the all-time best was in the 80s



Here's the fold-out Booklet in it's entirety front & back



So here's some close-ups of all of the great stuff that's within the Booklet which first we're gonna take a look at the Joes first. Here's the Defiant. Oh man I still recall like it was last week when I saw that on Venture's top shelves, I wanted that huge set so bad but My Grandparents couldn't afford it but dang at least I saw that great piece in person

Now, I have always wanted that huge playset but as I said, I did see it in person over at Venture in South Town. Here's two commercials of it.




Here's this in Marvel Comics



Now, here's this guy's review of it



And here's this as a companion



Now back in My day this was was huge and cost plenty and would have been an "Ultimate" Christmas Present back in them great days

Have a very Happy & Safe Thanksgiving whether you celebrate it or not

[packerbacker180]

Now that's one I never saw in person except in a box in the store. Cool seeing Battle Armor Cobra Commander in animation. That originally cost $99.99 in 1987 and it's the only GI Joe vehicle to come with two figures. The space shuttle always makes me think of the Pyramid of Darkness episode which aired 11 years before this furry red little terror arrived in stores.



"Tickles The Chimp", the precursor to Tickle Me Elmo, was invented by Greg Hyman and Ron Dubren, who were known in the toy industry for having invented Alphie the Robot several years prior.



But we almost didn't get Elmo. In 1995 it was presented to Tyco Preschool as "Tickles The Chimp," which was a toy monkey with a computer chip which laughed when tickled. At the time, Tyco didn't have rights to make the Sesame Street plush, but did have the Looney Tunes plush rights. The toy was worked on for several months as Tickle Me Tasmanian Devil, successfully selling it at the WB Studio Store in California. A short time later, Tyco lost the rights to use the Looney Tunes property in their products, but gained the rights to Sesame Street, thus leading to the creation of Tickle Me Elmo. Weirdly enough, Sesame Street's first prototype Tickle Me Mr. Noodle did not get approved.



Tickle Me Elmo was released in July 1996, with a supply of 400,000 units. The dolls sold well and remained widely available in stores until the day after Thanksgiving, when they suddenly sold out. With the Christmas shopping season approaching, Tyco Preschool ordered 600,000 more dolls from their suppliers. The scarcity of the new toy provoked a "shopping frenzy". Adults everywhere decided to reenact their favorite scenes from Jingle All the Way. Two women were arrested in Chicago for fighting over the doll, while in New York City some people ran after delivery trucks hoping to get their hands on Elmo before it reached stores.



Someone allegedly purchased a Tickle Me Elmo for $7,100 in Denver. KBIG in Los Angeles had a radio auction for charity December 20, 1996; Bob's Pharmacy won and purchased a Tickle-Me-Elmo for $18,500. A clerk working at a Wal-Mart store in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada was among those injured by "Elmo-mania". During a Midnight Madness sale on December 14, a crowd of 300 stampeded down the aisle after spotting him being handed a box of the toys by another employee. Trampled, he suffered "a pulled hamstring, injuries to his back, jaw and knee, a broken rib and a concussion"



Fortunately, I was in high school in 1996 and working part-time in a grocery store, so I mostly saw this insanity from the sidelines like most sane people. Ten years later, I wasn't quite so lucky...



Unlike it's predecessor, Tickle Me Elmo TMX could do more than giggle. He could pimp slap kids silly with his three-fingered fur fist of fury, and hump the ground or some ****, I don't know. But I was working overnights in the toy department at Walmart and back pre-'Rona they were still opened 24 hours so for several weeks leading up to Christmas 2007 I not only had to deal with the night Hot Wheels guys digging through the toy pallets, but also parents who were kids in 1996 and now wanted Elmo for their little carpet monsters.



So a lot of my nights were spent constantly answering the phone in the department.

ringringring

"Walmart..."

"Hi, did you get any Tickle Me Elmos in tonight?"

Sorry, not tonight."

"Do you know when you might get some in."

"Nope. They don't tell us that kind of stuff, you'll have to call back tomorrow or, I don't know, drive your ass to the store and look yourself."

(note: my memory might be slightly off on the dialogue)



ringringring

"Toy department."

"Hi, can you tell me if you got any TMX Elmos in tonight."

"I sure can."

"You did?"

"No, but I can tell you if we did. We didn't. Maybe tomorrow."

ringringring

"Is this the Krusty Krab?"

"No, this is Patrick."



So for one bothersome year, Tickle Me Ground Humping Elmo was the very bane of my existence. And then Christmas came and went and I just had to deal with Hot Wheels guy nightly and that one weirdo who always came in trying to get the McFarlane Sports Figure variant that was one per case (I made sure to wait until he left to put those out!)



It also took away from finding ways to amuse ourselves with toddler toys like these...

[OneNineSix]

Wow! I remember Aphie the Robot! That's awesome. Thanks for the hit of nostalgia.

[packerbacker180]

Ha, yeah, I remember that bot, too. Be sure to check back regularly. Dozens of toys to come.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Good, I'm glad you seen it too. Oh yes, Tickle Me Elmo, what a toy phenomenon that was Yes ONS, what Packer said. Me & him do so much here, you don't want to miss a second of all of the Topics that we do so keep up with us regularly

Speaking of a Toy Phenom, here's this Christmas Furby from 1999, 25 years ago...imagine if they had a Black Friday sale on this Christmas Toy of the Day



As a bonus, here's this Furby Christmas from 2000 in Japan...oh they went crazy for it too

[packerbacker180]

Speaking of annoying little fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-rry things, I got my wife one of these back then for the first Christmas we started dating. It was fun for a couple days then got tiresome (the Furby, not the dating!) They made a comeback in recent years but I never got them for my kids. I just didn't think they would be that interested and it really was kind of a one trick pony that didn't hold an interest long.

Today's Black Friday, but the stores today didn't seem bad. Not like the pre-Covid years when everyone and their mother went out shopping. But I'm not sure kids can even fathom what Christmas shopping was like before the internet where you can just stay home and shop for what you want, and get it as long as it's in stock. That's not how things went 30-40 years ago where you had to search and fight for that one gift the little ones wanted more than anything in the world. And few toys could represent the Gordon Gecko excessive greed of the 80s than these lettuce-headed monsters.



Our story begins when according to court records, Xavier Roberts, a 21-year-old art student at a missionary school in North Georgia, discovered craft artist Martha Nelson's Doll Babies. They came with a birth certificate and adoption papers. With the help of artist Debbie Moorehead, he hand-stitched dolls called "The Little People". Roberts modified the look of Nelson's dolls, birth certificate and adoption papers sufficiently to get a copyright, and told potential customers his Little People were not for sale; however, they could be "adopted" for prices ranging from $60 to $1,000. The Little People were first sold at arts and crafts shows, then later at Babyland General Hospital, an old medical clinic that Roberts and his friends-turned-employees converted into a toy store, in Cleveland, Georgia.



In 1981, at the height of Roberts's success, he was approached by Atlanta designer and licensing agent, Roger L. Schlaifer about licensing The Little People. As Fisher-Price owned the name "Little People", the name was changed to "Cabbage Patch Kids." In 1982, Coleco's design team, headed by famed doll designer Judy Albert, devised an industry first: one-of-a-kind, plastic-headed Cabbage Patch Kids dolls with cuter features, softer bodies and a normal toddler's proportions instead of the morbidly obese bodies on Roberts' originals. It was those cheaper dolls that cost between $18-$30, that led to the Cabbage Patch craze of the 80s which a Cabbage Patch crescendo at Christmas in 1983. In 1984 Coleco sold 3.2 million dolls.



Back then, my sister who was a year older than me, wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid to have a little sister to care for. I wanted a Pound Puppy to have a dog to take care of. Neither of us were ready to clean up after the real thing, but we were lucky enough to get what we wanted that Christmas. But 6 years later we had two real dogs scurrying about the house while I remain the youngest child in our nuclear family to this day.



But like all vegetables, eventually they go bad. Though Xavier Roberts originated the look of Little People, many of Little People's defining characteristics – such as the dolls' overly round faces and that they came with an adoption certificate – were taken from Martha Nelson Thomas. Before Roberts became involved in the toy industry, she sold them at local arts and craft shows. Roberts began purchasing Thomas' dolls in 1976 to sell at a profit at his own store in Georgia. Thomas later stopped selling additional dolls to Roberts, prompting him to turn to a manufacturing company in Hong Kong to mass produce dolls similar in appearance to Thomas' at a cheaper cost. Thomas brought suit against Roberts and eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in 1985 that was said to allow her to retire very comfortably until the day she passed away in 2013, at the age of 62, with her favorite dolls attending her funeral alongside her family members and friends.



Roberts' company, Original Appalachian Artworks, later brought a $30 million lawsuit against Topps, the company that produced the Garbage Pail Kids, for copyright infringement. Having sold over $70 million worth of the cards, Topps settled with OAA for $7 million—tantamount to a license—and retained the right to continue producing the Garbage Pail Kids cards.



In a bitter legal battle with SN&C over whether OAA had violated their licensing Agreement with SN&C and Coleco's exclusivity by producing a Cabbage Patch bear as a line of "Furskins Bears", and failing to pay SN&C its share of the Topps settlement and refusing to allow ABC TV from doing a Saturday morning animated TV show, Roberts worked out a side deal with Coleco for tens of millions of dollars for a renewal of Schlaifer's Cabbage Patch agreement, and jointly litigated against SN&C. The suit was settled in 1988 by OAA and Coleco paying SN&C an undisclosed amount of money. In addition, Paula Osborne, OAA president until Roberts worked out the deal with Coleco, sued over the share she was entitled to as a stockholder of OAA and received a seven-figure settlement. Six months after settling with SN&C, Coleco was out of business. So the Cabbage Patch Kids kind of killed Coleco.



Since the 80s the Cabbage Patch Kids have been passed around almost as much as migrant children at the border. Hasbro, Mattel, Toys R Us, Play Along Toys, and even Jakks Pacific have tried to recapture the money-making magic of the decade of decadence. Today, Wicked Cool Toys has the master license to the brand. But with technology today, a roly-poly dolly may have a shelf life just slightly longer than an actual cabbage in the lifespan of a small child. But for one year in 1983, they made the battle for a Turbo Man look like a walk in the park, or patch.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Oh yes, I recall you sharing your special story about your wife Packer Wow, all of the was great PB. Yes, kids today really have no idea how it was to be a kid during Christmas time 40 - 30 years ago before the web.

Okay, you know My story of MOTU's Spydor. Well, I was only about 4 or 5 and I remember how bad I wanted him. My Grandma was so pleased she found him over at Venture. I recall her saying they one and they never had him again and he was like sold out everywhere else, he was d popular ay the least. Her's the vintage commercial of him



Here's this nice review of him



This is the original art of MOUT's Spydor...look how fantastic this is



For year had this on the Matty Collector Board and for close to a decade had this as My banner



So, I posting MOTU's Spydor because for a kid like Me, he was the biggest thing that I wanted then for Christmas and still, that feeling is with Me

[packerbacker180]

I feel like I had him. I had a lot of MOTU stuff as a kid and he feels vaguely familiar.

It's not very often kids are happy to get an empty box under the tree, but that's just what happened long ago, in a Christmas far, far away when Kenner introduced the world to the idea of a toy pre-order.



Although Star Wars debuted in theaters in May of 1977, Kenner was not ready and caught off guard by demand for action figures based on characters from the film. Such things were usually thought to be unpopular because once the film's original theater run came to an end, demand for items related to the film usually dropped significantly. Several larger toy companies even passed on the license. But Star Wars was a phenomenon rarely seen in the film and toy industry. Toys usually take up until a year to produce with sculpting, and molding, and everything it is a slow process. Kenner hadn't even acquired the license until the middle of the year. So by Christmas of 1977 Kenner was not ready to meet demand for the figures, and once the Christmas season of '77 passed Kenner worried that they were going to lose a bundle by not having products on the shelf.



Their solution was rather ingenious for the time. If they could not provide toys to sell at Christmas, instead they would sell the promise that the toys would be available soon after, by February 1978. So Christmas 1977 children found a box under the tree.



Inside the box kids found an Early Bird Certificate. The Early Bird Certificate Package began with a “promise” of new Star Wars action figures. The certificate was basically the toy world’s first “pre-order”. It essentially said the consumer who purchased the Early Bird package would receive the first four Star Wars action figures ever, delivered right at their doorstep before ever being released to the general public. Included was a foldable cardboard stand, featuring portraits of each of the original 12 Star Wars figures, and small white pegs that would allow the figures to stand up on the display. Also included were a cardboard photo of Han and Chewie, another cardboard photo of a Stormtrooper, a Space Club Card that could be filled out with your name on it, and a nifty Star Wars mini catalog featuring all of the upcoming Star Wars toys inside of it, including photos of all 12 of the upcoming action figures.



If the buyer filled out the certificate and mailed it away, they would receive the first four Star Wars figures in the upcoming line. Then in early 1978, just weeks after I was born, the buyer would receive a box in the mail that contained Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and R2-D2.



Of course, by then Kenner was able to get the other 8 original figures to market to complete was has since been dubbed as the original 12 Backs because all 12 figures were pictured on the back of the package.



The Earluy Bird Certificate sold for around $7.99 in 1977, the equivalent of about $31 today. I don't know if I ever had these. I wasn't even around yet in Christmas 1977 not arriving on this Earth until another 25 days later. I do recall having many of these even a few years later, but it's most likely they were purchased well after 1977 (I can't imagine my parents buying small toys like that for an infant, lol).



And the rest, as they say, is history.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Huh, maybe you did Packer. I only knew whim for a very brief time, still i try to disregard it.

Wow, the Vintage Star Wars Early Bird Set,. Now that there is truly one of the most important presents you could have. I know Hasbro is doing a Vintage Kenner line but let's face it, that has no where near the historical accolade this has. Thank goodness I still have what i have of my Vintage Kenner Star Wars Great stuff PB. It's so amazing seeing all of that Vintage SW goodness

No, Toy of the Day from Me today...I found this video, think of it as a followup or continuation of what we've posted before plus a little bonus stuff