Since it was Mother’s Day, over the weekend I went home and had this sudden urge to dig out some of my old toys from the 80s.

Blast from the Past

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The Cookie Monster and Humphrey B. Bear are really old, I can’t even remember when I got them (early 80s-ish). My mother washed Mr Cookie and his mouth collapsed and became permanently opened (!!) and somewhere along the line his eyes actually fell out. Poor thing. Humphrey lost his plastic hat and half a tie too.

As I got older I babied my toys, though. My Barbies are in immaculate condition. I can’t clearly remember but I don’t think my parents ever bought me any Barbies. One of my schoolfriends gave me one or two of hers, and the new ones were bought by my grandparents. I only ever saw them once every 3-4 years so my sister and I were pretty spoilt when we saw them. They also bought me a She-Ra doll (not in pic). Over the years, I seemed to have built up a collection of toys with an astronaut theme. This wasn’t intentional though but I loved that Astronaut Barbie! The weirder and wackier the better and hey, girls can do anything, right? Maybe it was that metallic fuchsia outfit that did it for me. Dream Glow Barbie has stars all over her dress which glow in the dark, and her shawl can be placed over the parasol as well – talk about versatility!

My Cabbage Patch Kid (CPK) doll was named Agatha something, and is a preemie like I was. She’s wearing a dress my mother made. Her original outfit (which I still have, somewhere) is pale yellow with tiny white polka dots, and lace, and I think she came with a bonnet too.

Then we have Fickle Pickle. Some random toy I picked out at the 1986 Sydney Royal Easter Show. I didn’t even know she had a name till around 10 years later when I was looking for a book in a library and happened to find an encyclopedia of animation characters, and found this character called “Super Pickle“. I never even knew this toy was some sort of character! Then, with the wonders of the internet, I found out that I actually have his girlfriend.

Lastly, we have the ALF doll. The biggest, most expensive, and favorite of all my toys. He talks via a battery-operated cassette tape deck and his eyebrows, ears, and mouth move.

This is his TV commercial but he looks much cuter in real life!

Other TVCs

• Astronaut Barbie
• Dream Glow Barbie
• CPK commercials collection

Ahhh… the wonders of childhood (and YouTube)!