When I was a kid I totally wanted one of these. I mean, come on. All you had to do was dip your knife in some water and jam appeared and then spread said water on a plastic cookie and the jam showed up. I wanted one of these sooooo bad. But, I never had the chance to get one.
Tea Party Commercial is at 7:40
YUUUUSSSS!!!!! Ebay has it at $15.00 for about 2 more days. Better hurry! Click on picture and it will take you there!
For Valentines Day my SIL sent me a package that had silly putty. I thought, “Awesome! New post!”. She later told me that she sent it so I would blog about it. She is awesome.
This is one of the best Accidental toys ever.
During WWII, rubber became sparse and thus had to be rationed. So the U.S. government started to ask companies to come up with a synthetic rubber.
In 1943 James Wright, working for G.E., discovered a rubber made of silicone oil and boric acid. After testing, he found that it had a high melting point, wouldn’t mold, could bounce and could stretch. Not knowing what to do with it, he sent it to scientists all over, but they didn’t know either.
Eventually the “nutty putty” began being passed from party to party and had become a novelty item with adults. It ended up in 1949 in Ruth Fallgatter’s toy store. It could be found for $2 and was sold in a plastic tub. Although it was the second top seller for her store, she chose to remove it from her catalogue after a year.
Advertising consultant, Peter Hodgson, saw an opportunity in 1950 to market the putty. Already in debt, he borrowed $147 and got Yale students to separate the putty into 1 ounce balls and put them into red plastic eggs. He then called it “Silly Putty” and sold them for $1. After a writer for the New Yorker found it at a bookstore, he took it home and wrote an article about it. Following this article, orders for the “Silly Putty” began to pour in and the toy became popular among children and adults.
Children loved it as they could bounce it, and stretch it. I know that my favorite thing to do was copy the comics section of the news paper and then stretch the cartoons. You know you did this.
Interesting note from the interwebs: it can be used as a lint remover.
Great Commercial for the uses of Silly Putty
Star Glow from the makers of Silly Putty
We all can admit that as a young little tot we all wanted to play with play-doh. I loved the smell of it. The squishiness that it brought to my fingers. I remember how badly I wanted the accessories so I could make a pizza or an ice cream cone.
Just how old is our dear play-doh friend? 56 years old. The McVickers created the clay back in 1956. Apparently Coca Cola isn’t the only company with a secret recipe. According to Hasbro, who currently owns Play-doh, the secret to the clay is still a trade secret.
But it really started back in the 1930’s when Noah McVickers created a putty like substance as a wallpaper cleaner for a company called Kutol Products. Then in the 1940’s his nephew Joe McVickers realized that the children in the schools were using the putty to make christmas ornaments. So the two teamed up and created Rainbow Crafts, Inc. and started production on play-doh. Here is an add for the exciting new crafting item.
Originally the first play-doh was an off white clay in a can.
In 1957 they added three more colors: red, yellow and blue.
Play doh Pete was introduced in the late 60’s and here is the commercial I found:
Play doh had many accessories to help with the creative fun. Things like a barbershop, a dentist, ice cream parlor, and ways to make food. Here are some examples to see
This is the Fuzzy Pumper from 1978
In the 80’s they came out with the Mop Top Hair Shop. I think the Fuzzy Pumper had to be renamed……
the Fun Factory. I really wanted this as a kid. If I couldn’t have the other fancy shmancy items, I at least wanted this so I could have good uniform spaghetti instead or skinny lumpy snakes.
The Doctor Drill-n-Fill This is great for teaching children about good oral health care
Now the Make-a-Meal is what I wanted soooo bad as a kid.
So I think you all have an idea of just how awesome Play-doh was and still is. You can lose yourself in Play-doh commercials.
Now, if you were like me and it was cheaper for your mom to make you play doh, then you can pop on over to pinterest and find some awesome recipes. I know I for one loved to play with salt dough cause I could sneak little bites of it and no one would know I was eating the dough. Plus, you could bake it and your mom would make you all the dough you wanted. So
This
+ This
=
Play-doh is awesome.
In the late 1960’s, Chevrolet came out with a new muscle car to compete with the Ford Mustang. This new exciting car was called the Camaro. The first model was for the model year 1967. This was a new car to take the place of Chevy’s Corvair.
The Corvair (top) and a restored 67 Camaro (bottom)
Now when I think of a Camaro, I can’t help but think of the movie “Better Off Dead”.That is one of my all time fave movies!
Did this just make you want to go to Dodger’s Stadium and kiss the guy on a great car you just restored? Oh Love.
So how did they advertise for this new awesome car? With a Volcano and cool effects. That’s how.
Shaped for action. Alllllll the way to the rear! New steering column as part of the new safety features. You can even get it with special instrumentation. LeAn and MoLtEn! How do you not save your dimes and pennies for something like that!? I mean…. it rose out of a volcano!
Also, I couldn’t resist putting this commercial on too. Also for the 67 camaro.
Those kids those days…. Their own music, their own way of looking at things, their own car too. They were so cool. It’s apparent that sport car was part of the new generation. Hope that kid made it to the new generation with out being in a car seat! Any old man can feel like one of the young kids when he drives a camaro…. I’m sorry sir…. no. No, it does not make you part of the new generation.
Well, the camaro got to be super popular by the 1970’s and it was the car to to have.
I mean… who wouldn’t want that? Right?
Nothin like a skeezy commercial to make you want to feel young and go out and by the new Camaro!
The camaro has 5 generations/designs, with the 5th being a retro design of the first.
the 67-69 model
The 70-81 model
the 81-92 model
The 93-02 model
The 2009 – present model.
So after Ford came out with the Mustang, the Chevy people new that they would need a car to compete. So a secret project code named “Panther” began to create a new model. Lots of conspiracy, lots of competition. They chose the name Camaro to keep up with the Chevy “C” names. It also shows a “Commaraderie with friends”. The Automotive press asked Chevrolet product managers during a news conference, “What is a Camaro?” To which Chevy replied, “…a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.”
I Think they should have kept up with the conspiracy thing and called it Panther. It’s sassy and classy.
Oh, remember the days when you could have a pet of your own to put in your pocket and then forget about? How you forgot them in your desk at school over the weekend and you hoped that they would survive not being fed and loved for a couple of days. Or, maybe you were a great owner and your electronic pet was so happy, till one day you decided you were to old for the little guy.
The Tamagotchi is a small little alien type species that deposited an egg on Earth to see what life was like, and it is up to the player to hatch and raise said egg to adulthood. The tiny alien child goes through several growth spurts, and will grow up in different ways depending on how well they are provided for (or how well you are able to push all the buttons and give them what they need).
This was every child’s dream to raise a little alien of their own. It really teaches some great skills on raising an alien child. Feed it, love it, and clean up it’s poop. Simple things for a simple pet.
Next we have it’s close cousin the Giga pet. While the Tamagotchi was first released in 1996 in Japan, the Giga pet was the first electronic pet released in the States in 1997. Gotta love the nineties and their electronic wonders. You could choose out of these animals what you would like to love and raise as your own:
Unfortunately I could not find a commercial, sooooo you can skip a bit. It is just a walk through of the Dino Pet, Just an example of another digital pet….
So now that we are all remembering how much we loved our little e-pals, we can all zoom over to e-bay and buy our own posterity a bit our past. If you still have yours, you should check on it. If the battery isn’t dead yet, your pet probably is.
Think back to your Junior High days and try to remember what jewelry you just had to have. I remember distinctly that all the cool kids were wearing these thin, jelly bracelets. We all know that they are easily found at the local dollar store or party palace. For the great price of 100 tickets, you can “win” them at the Nicklecade. Don’t pretend you didn’t want an armful of your own.
As I am sure you all know, there are rumors that these were “sex bracelets” and that teenagers were brazenly snapping off the bracelets of their peers and expecting favors. While I am sure that may have happened, I was completely oblivious to this. I just thought they were cool. Plus, if kids were making games up to colors of bracelets others were wearing, I am sure that the simple act of wearing them was not what started their “activities”. They were doing it before the bracelets were a fad.
I also remember trying my darndest to figure out how they were able to make two bracelets into one. Well my friends…look no further! I have found a convenient video to help teach you how to twist your bracelets. Now you can be in the cool crowd too.
Now you can show off your snazzy bracelet skills to all your coworkers. You can stack them to your hearts content and show everyone what a cool kid you are. All you have to do is head down the little kid aisle at your local shopping mart and grab a pack. But make sure that in order to be the trend setter you are, that you wear them all at once. Everyone knows that the more cheap jelly bracelets that you have on the more popular you are going to be out on the playground.
Remember… keep it cool guys.
Since I am a child of the eighties, I decided I would start there. And being a female child of the big-haired decade, I will start with My Little Pony. Every girls dream was to have a pony of their own, and thanks to the major toy company, Hasbro, every little girl was now able to style a mane in the comfort of their own homes.
I vaguely remember the little ponies. But I do have vivid memories of wanting them for my own. My grandma randomly had one at her house, and I always used the ponies as horses for my Barbies to go on dates with G.I. Joe. (I know they had a good time. Who wouldn’t when they are galloping across the melodic, ivory keys of an upright to have a picnic and swim in the cool waters of the Styrofoam Bowl Lake. Every little girl’s dream right there)
My Little Pony was a hot trend at the beginning of the 1980’s. It made it’s debut in 1983 with 6 little ponies named, COTTON CANDY, BLUE BELLE, BUTTERSCOTCH, MINTY, SNUZZLE, and BLOSSOM.
These ponies set the stage for a hot trend of braiding pony hair and galloping across the world. As the popularity rose with these now infamous toys, they went from little plastic ponies, to little plastic ponies with a T.V. show and an internet site. Of course, it naturally follows that if we color our hair and and pledge deep friendships with one another, we can all grow up and be happy and ride across rainbows. Thank you Hasbro for introducing a cute little toy into our lives to make us want to grow up and be better people.
For further reading on the history of My Little Pony, please see their website HERE.
In case the pictures do not do it justice, here is a commercial for the happy little ponies.
And for the road, let us not forget the cute little cartoon show.
Now as you go about your business for the day, try not to forget this little gem of the past. Go ahead and open up that old dusty box of toys and see if you still have that little pony hanging around. Maybe give it’s mane a much needed brush. Or, if you gave her a trim, then go ahead and tell her you are sorry, that you were only a kid and didn’t realize that it wouldn’t grow back til it was too late. Come on, we all did that at some point.
We all can remember the wonderful years of our past. But while we are living our present and looking to our futures, let us not forget the trends that shaped us to where we are today.
This blog has the sole purpose of pointing out the things we have come to forget. It also is for the things that we have conveniently filed away to the back, dusty corners of our memories in the hopes that they will never be remembered again. Thanks to the internet, there is a wealth of poking and prodding for the memories to be had, and I for one am smirking to myself as I begin the maiden voyage to yesteryear and drag you all along with me.
Trends of Yesteryear 