Kids’ Toys: Do They Really Need Brand Name?
Childhood April 8th, 2010
My employer has an electronic sale board where people can post items for sale or giveaway.
Here is part of a recent entry:
Laptop: SONY VAIO CS36H
I bought it this summer. It’s a pink laptop in good condition, very suitable for girls. I also bought the screen and keyboard protective film, which are free for you!
I forwarded it to my blog buddy JD at I Do Things and said “Very suitable for girls? Ya think?”
To which she replied: “Uh, yeah. Don’t see too many men walking around with a pink laptop.”
And then I confessed: “I would totally want a pink laptop! It’d make up for the Barbie Dream House I never had as a kid.”
JD should have left it at that, because I got intensely jealous when she reported “Tell me about it. Though I did have the Barbie Carousel Kitchen, which was the BOMB!”
Why was I so jealous?
I didn’t have a single Barbie or anything to put her in. I got my Barbie fix over at my best friend’s house. She had everyone and everything. The Barbie yacht, the hotel, the dream house, the cars, Ken, accessories, clothing, shoes, the works.
What did I have? A bean bag doll who slept on a fake bed I made out of cereal boxes. Her blankets were tissues. I built her furniture out of …. more cereal boxes.
But you know what? When I think back, I didn’t really need all that Barbie stuff. I was pretty happy with the homestead I crafted for my no-name brand dolls. I used my imagination, mad creative skillz and safety scissors.
So let’s hear it. Did you tend to have the latest, greatest name brand toys? Create your own stuff? Some mixture of both?
I’d love to hear about the toys you might have made yourself out of stuff lying around your house.
Sometimes the things that make the best toys were never toys to begin with!
Stumble it!
April 9th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Tarheel Rambler — Thanks for the bust-a-gut laugh, Lee!
Buggys — Agreed. Although I’m bummed I don’t know some of these toys. But I guess it makes sense with me being deprived and all. Let’s all have a pity party for me, mmmm-K?
Jaffer — LMAO is right. You’re like the Henny Youngman of Tribal Blogs and Junk Drawer. Now go look up Henny Youngman.
Katherine — I love, love, love that your Dad finally got you an Easy Bake Oven. Brought a tear to my eye. That’s just too awesome for words.
Innovatively Simple — Well said, buddy. Hell, we were probably doing the whole recycling movement before it became popular to find new uses for empty paper towel rolls and boxes and whatever else our little hands could see new uses for.
Sniffie and the Florida Furkids — Toni and Bob?! Not only a reality show, but like the movie Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.
Anna — Are not shoe boxes always the start of something creative? And how many diaramas did we make out of them? I like how your Dad’s mind worked. You probably benefited from having to make a few things yourself. You could sit back and relish in a job well done.
Jessica — I’m sitting her grinning myself over you having gotten a real Cabbage Patch doll all those years later. I can just picture your joy. Thanks so much for sharing that story. How fun!
Marg — My sister Ann was a “horse crazy child” too. She had many plastic horses to play with. One of them lost its tail in some kind of accident. No problem. Stick a tissue in its butt and look! New tail!
Janiss — I love that you put so much loving care into building your houses. And, boy, you sound like you weren’t afraid of science toys either. And time machines are the best, aren’t they? You never know where you’ll end up.
Jenny — Nope, totally blanking on the JEM dolls. You were a child of the 80s, weren’t you? I was long before that. I always hated that stupid Cabbage Patch craze that made people insane momentarily. And for what? Kids thinking their parents didn’t care enough? How was that helpful? I’m glad you didn’t notice your fake CPK. Didn’t matter, did it?
Lin — Yes, the clothes made the doll, sadly. See? You DID appreciate more when you got something special. That’s what’s wrong with kids today. They have no idea of special because they want everything.
Babs Beetle — I broke down and emailed her today. She can still be my friend, but she can never speak of her rotisserie to me again.
Pricilla — That’s OK. It happens to all of us. Go nudge her and give her that sympathetic look. She’ll appreciate it.
absepa — Neat that you got handmade clothes and someone to make them. Sweaty shoe cars? Awesome. Nothin’ wrong with that!
meleah rebeccah — Lots of tom boys here! I’m glad to see it. Boys and girls should just play with whatever makes them happy campers, eh?
Nutrition Degree — I like how you think. I’m totally with you on giving kids the things they either have to earn or decide that they really, REALLY want. Otherwise, nothing is special and memorable. Symptom of affluenza, me thinks.
Snow Miser — Wow, I had no idea the Charlie’s Angels had a treehouse. It actually looks pretty cool, and even better that it clearly doesn’t puke pink.
April 9th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
I loved hot wheels and it was nice that they were cheap..I drew a whole town of roads and buildings on the floor of my closet, the floors were hard wood and I used markers..I wonder if it is still there? I named my city eagle rock, it had everything even a drive in movie place…I drove the hot wheels everywhere on those roads, man that was fun!
April 10th, 2010 at 11:33 am
I had very few toys– had to make my own toys. Seriously! I did have an Easy Bake oven (gift from a merciful relative), it worked for about an hour… then my stupid brother decided to bake his Pokey and Gumby toy in it. Bye bye Easy Bake. :-p
I never had dolls as a girl. I know, BIG SURPRISE, huh? We had Matchbox cars. I had no girlfriends, no girl neighbors, nothing. Families bred boys in my suburb like flies breed larvae. A girl finally moved in when I was 13.. and she had Barbies. I was like: WTH? What is that pink stick with yellow strands of plastic hanging off the top?
We didn’t miss much, Kathy. Barbies are SHALLOW.
😀
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April 10th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Beanie Babies. It will always be beanie babies. I’ve always had at least over 100, maybe over 200. And only cats and dogs. And I still have most of them in a chest in our spare room.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I and my sisters always had unbranded dolls and lots of creativity! Who needs a branded dollhouse when you can build one from a basket and turn a large comb into a ladder to climb on to the terrace? We made clothes for them, wove large stories around them, and even made a portrait with all of them sitting together. You could get them wet, or paint their faces – no damage.This made them great for experiments :). The one who built the basket dollhouse is an architect now, and I’m an MPhil in theoretical physics…. So, no brand names please!
April 11th, 2010 at 12:28 am
LMAO my sister was 8 years older. I WAS not wearing bell bottoms. My mom made me all the party dresses, and I still get called Nellie Olsen to this day because of it. Not name brand clothes, but they were new.
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April 11th, 2010 at 4:21 am
I had the Barbie Camper Van, which was pretty cool, and a fair bit of other Barbie stuff.
I always wanted to play an instrument as a child, though, so I would draw lines on empty coke bottles and use the indents at the end to stick under my chin and pretend they were violins. I was a lonely child.
But yeah, had a good amount of nifty toys that I loved, like teddies and My Little Ponies.
.-= Elisha´s last blog ..Need a new job =-.
April 11th, 2010 at 4:38 am
Jackie D – How awesome would that be to go back to that house and see if your highway system was still there?
Crabby Blogging Lady — Brothers. Always ruining things! Funny how you got a view of Barbie world when a girl moved in. Yes, Barbies are shallow. And I loved reading about how weird it would look if a real woman had Barbie’s measurements. Freak of nature.
Regan — Oh, yes. I remember your Beanies. Great that you still have them. So do you think when you go off to college, you’ll just look at them and go “Meh.” and throw them out?
Fifthmarch — So cool! I can imagine your makeshift house with your comb ladder. All with imaginary stories to round out the fun! Good on both of you!
Sew Ducky — Well, at least you weren’t called a Nellie Olson because you were one of the mean girls. And how nice you had one-of-a-kind things to wear. That’s love.
Elisha — Aw!!! I love your musical instruments made out of Coke bottles. So creative! And you’re the first person to mention a teddy. I had one too that I loved. He was pink and wore a clown outfit. I named him Pookie.
April 11th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
I had a toy dog teddy, he wore patchwork looking overalls. I called him Poochie. ^-^
I also had a teddy called Edward who has a nice scarf, he’s cute. I still have them both, along with a small bear that glows in the dark. He’s called Glow Bear… I must have been feeling very creating the day he was named!
I had heaps of teddies, but I didn’t keep them all as I got older. Just the really special ones. ^-^ Do you still have Pookie?
.-= Elisha´s last blog ..Need a new job =-.
April 14th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
This made me feel badly for my mom. She provided me with every single Barbie doll that came out. And what did I do? Stripped ’em naked, shaved their heads and put their clothes on Ken. I wonder what was wrong with me. LOL Drove her nuts.
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April 17th, 2010 at 4:04 am
Elisha — I love a teddy in overalls! And a glow bear? What a fun idea. I don’t have Pookie anymore, but I do have a dozen teddies in our walk-in closet, bears that my husband bought me from time to time when we were dating. It looks like that scene in ET where he was hiding in the kids’ bedroom. All eyes forward!
Corrina — It started young, didn’t it? I love your alternate universe!
April 19th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Ahh, well that’s nice too. I keep mine in the top of our closet. All eyes forward too, and Glow Bear is good to look at at night – I always leave the closet door open for some reason – when I’ve got the heebie jeebies from remember a scary movie I watched a while back. Why do I watch scary movies? *shakes head*
.-= Elisha´s last blog ..Need a new job =-.
May 1st, 2010 at 1:13 am
I never had a Barbie doll. But I had a Sindy 🙂
Never really liked Barbie dolls anyhow. (That small waist was too intimidating for me, it still is! lol) I also had a Sindy bedroom. Of course, I wanted to have the complete doll house but those things were so expensive back then and we couldn’t afford it.
I don’t think I ever made my own toys though – I just had the cheap unbranded version of everything lol
And I loved every one of my toys. Still have many of them to this day 🙂
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June 7th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Like the Toy Story movies, awesome animation.
August 22nd, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I can’t say I was particularly upset by the absense of barbie in my life, as a child. Being a boy, Barbie was just something I trod on from time to time. I’ve often been curious though, why do barbies come with clothes on, because my little sister had barbies and they would just all end up naked in a pile somewhere. The only time they’d end up dressed, was when my sister’s friend Craig came around… go figure… One thing I can confess to was having too much fun helping my sister play with her Oh Penny stuff. I could get distracted for hours setting up all the little furniture things. A terrible state of affairs I know. I would love a Pink VAIO too. Soon paint it camoflage color, heh. Thanks for a great post.
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November 2nd, 2010 at 4:12 pm
I bought my daughter a generic American Girl Doll and she was none the wiser! We’ve built doll furniture out of cardboard and had a blast. Although we do buy some brand name stuff, I don’t think it’s always necessary. Sometimes you have more fun with the stuff you make yourself. (Go cereal boxes!) 🙂
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