#115 - TMI Toys of Yesteryear

Episode #115:  TMI toys of Yesteryear & Listener Holiday Wish Lists

Today is a significant day; it would have been my sister’s 45th birthday. As I do every year on her birthday, I aim to record or release an episode to honor her memory because she is the reason I created this show. Choosing the topic for today’s episode was challenging, but once the idea came to me, I knew I had to go with it. I can sense that my sister would have found today's episode hilarious, and when I feel that I can elicit a good laugh from her, I know I’m on the right track.

With that said, we will be taking a look back at some of the most TMI, offensive, and inappropriate toys—what I like to call "TMI Toys of Yesteryear." My sister and I, especially her, loved playing with our toy dolls when we were young. However, the dolls we had were quite basic, and I mean that in a good way. Little did we know there was a whole world of unique toy dolls out there. 

I’m not referring to those creepy porcelain dolls whose eyes open and close when you lift them; when their eyes are open, it often feels like you're being visually stabbed—trust me, I speak from experience. I’m also not talking about what happened in Christmas 1983 when everyone went crazy for Cabbage Patch Dolls. I’m talking about a segment of popular baby doll toys that sometimes soiled themselves, stained fake diapers, and were even used by siblings as water guns. I’m not sure if this episode will make me feel proud of my unique approach to certain topics, or if I will regret discussing dolls that simulate bodily functions for young children. Only time will tell.  I also can’t tell if this topic is going to make me laugh really hard so I will have to do a ton of takes or if I will just cry while recording this because it’s my sister’s birthday.  Hard to say.  I guess we will find out soon.  And note that I never have my shows written out by AI nor is it copied and pasted from some other resource.  This bizarre crap that I find hilarious is all my own thoughts.  

Some of the dolls we’ll discuss today include the original Betsy Wetsey, My Bundle Baby, and My Little Pony Drink n’ Wet, along with several others! So sit back, relax, and let’s nerd out on nostalgia together.

This show is dedicated to the memory of my big sister Rebecca, a fan of all things pop-culture, particularly of the people, places, and things that defined the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.  Welcome aboard this pop culture time machine, I'm Amy Lewis. This is episode #115:  “TMI Toys of Yesteryear.”  What follows is a list of different dolls that were available primarily in the 1980s and 1990s, but there will be at least one, that will step a bit outside of this timeframe.  These are in no particular order, and each one varies a bit in what it can and cannot do, let’s just say if you catch my drift.  Also, since so many of these toys were marketed at girls, I may default to saying girls during the description of each toy, but that does not mean that little boys didn’t play with these dolls, nor that I have something against boys playing with quote unquote girls toys.  
I am quite the opposite actually, but I am just going with the majority of who used which toys and who they were marketed to.  Let’s get started, shall we?  

We being with The OG, the real deal, the classic doll that really laid the groundwork for all of these asinine bodily function babies, and I’m talking about the one and only Betsey Mutha F Wetsey.  On Mattel’s website, it currently says this about this doll shes quote:  “Everyone’s favorite doll!  She drinks, sleeps, cries real tears, and wets.”  Betsy Wetsy first debuted in 1935 by a company called Ideal Toy. Ideal Toys was founded by Morris and Rose Michtom in 1903.  BW was named after one of the company’s top executives' daughters.  The doll was incredibly popular and continued to sell through the 30s, 40s, and 50s.  I think the peak was reached in the 1950s. The baby boom era was HUGE for Ideal Toys and their soiled doll line.  Originally, Ideal Toys manufactured all of its products in Hollis, Queens.  Eventually, they also had property in Newark, NJ.  Sadly, Ideal Toys rode off into the sunset in 1997 when the company went bankrupt.  NOISE FOR BANKRUPTCY.  Ideal’s assets were sold off to companies like Hasbro, and Mattel.  Some of Ideal’s original and notable toys that are still in production today include Rubik’s Cube, the Magic 8 Ball, Mouse Trap board game, and the teddy bear.  I’m sure everyone listening to this show is familiar with just those four items.  Ideal was pretty incredible, even if their ending was less than ideal, you know what I’m sayin?

My Bundle Baby was released by Mattell in 1990 and cost about 35 dollars at the time.  (Magic Nursery) My Bundle Baby | Mattel (Commercial 1993)  
This toy allowed little girls to essentially feel sort of, like they were pregnant.  The bundle baby came with a small backpack/pouch that kids could wear on their fronts to represent pregnancy. I want to say that while wearing said bag in the front, kids could feel like they were being kicked by a baby.  And once the baby was born, said in quotation marks, aka pulled out of the top of the backpack, the pregnancy pouch could then be used as a backpack baby carrier.  You know, when a 5-year-old wants to take their baby out for a long hike with their dogs.  I do not remember this doll line at all and I watched a lot of TV so not sure how I missed this one and the commercials.  Fun fact, I watched the commercial for this toy recently and a young Ashley Johnson, who played Chrissy Seever in the later seasons of Growing Pains, appeared.  And sadly, I did not have to look up this trivia question.  I instantly knew the child actor in the commercial was definitely in Growing Pains. I guarantee that neither my sister nor I would have wanted this doll, but we certainly would have made some puzzled faces as the kids who did.  As I’m sure my Mom would have, too.  

The Los Angeles times had this to say about the doll in April of 1992 in a hilarious and sarcastic article entitled:  “Mother of All Surprises Is Birthing in Toyland” by ROBIN ABCARIAN.   I am going to add lib a bit here, but she said Quote:  A mini-fuss is gestating in child development circles over the introduction of some new playthings. You’d think we’d be beyond shock in the toy department. Once you’ve broached canned ooze (thanks to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), what, precisely, is left?

How about a new crop of toys that simulate pregnancy?

This summer, Mattel will introduce My Bundle Baby, which allows little girls to pretend they are pregnant. It looks like a book bag, but is meant to be worn on the front of the body. Inside is a soft baby doll.

When a heart-shaped button on the bundle is pressed, the baby kicks and its heartbeat is audible. An opening on the top allows her to birth the baby bloodlessly. (I rather like this idea, as I suspect most women of childbearing age would.)

She goes on to end the article with this quote:  As soon as consumers become accustomed to them, he says, we’ll accept them as part of the playscape.

Twenty years ago, it was Barbie the Glam Queen that was under attack, says Sutton-Smith.

“People were saying, ‘Why can’t children be satisfied with baby dolls? Now you have this strange historical reversal where the Barbie is regarded as OK, and ‘Why do we have to have this baby stuff?’ ”

That’s easy to answer.

Because it sells.”

Boys also had a segment of toys that were marketed to them and which could qualify as being TMI in some ways.  For boys, I think their random, stereotyped segment would be the gross out toys.  

Here’s I came up with for other TMI Toys for kids, a little something for everyone:

Railroad set where urban workers can pick up their commuter train at Urination Station.
Our next TMI toy is:  Magic Potty Baby which was released by Tyco in 1992.  

The gist of this doll that really pisses me off is that kids could place the doll on a toilet which was, what appeared to be, a plastic cylinder with a seat on top, and said doll would urinate into the potty. See what I did there, this doll that pees in a toilet, pisses me off.  Get it. Anyways.  

Fun fact, my sister pronounced the word toilet as torlet, and despite being siblings for 3 ½ decades, I never asked her if she just couldn’t say the word toilet correctly or if she was trying to be funny.  I imagine it’s the latter, but I will never know the true answer to that question.  Anyhoo,  So after a little kid would place said doll on the torlet, pull down her bloomers since its 1875, (Im not kidding) the cylinder would fill up with a yellow liquid of sorts, and then the potty could be flushed.  By rotating the cylinder 180 degrees, the pee would be gone and the de-bloomering process could begin all over again.  

Oh Tyco, why though?  I certainly remember having a few Tyco toys, but I don’t think any of them were dolls.  The one I remember the most distinctly was the remote controlled pickup truck released by Tyco called the Turbo Bandit. 1992 Tyco 9.6V Turbo Bandit Commercial Those were released in 1992 and I wanted one so bad.  And I got one and despite recovering from a very serious case of the flu that christmas, I was so intensely happy and grateful that I got that car.  I haven’t thought about this toy in decades and watching the old commercial just started by waves of nostalgia.  

Tyco toys dates back to the 1920s, to 1926 to be exact, when it was founded by John N Tyler. Originally, the company was named Mantua Metal Products.  It was named after the town of the same name, where Tyler’s small business was located, in his garage, to be exact.  Initially, his focus was on building model railroad sets and accessories.  Eventually the company’s name changed to the one we have come to know, in the 1960s.  At that time they also expanded their offerings including toys like race cars.  At one point, Tyco held the top spot and had the largest market share for RC cars.  Perhaps that was in 1992.  In 1996, Tyco merged with Mattel, and many popular toy lines have lived on within Mattel. 

Next on the list, we have Hasbro’s juggernaut My Little Pony by way of the Drink N’Wet series. 

As you may have guessed, Drink N’ Wet were just like the traditional MLP horses, but they could wet their diaper.  You heard me right.  Drink N’ Wet were toy ponies who went themselves, after they drank.  Each horse had a hose running from its mouth to its rear end. After drinking water from a mini horse-sized baby bottle, the horses would essentially urinate, which was visible through their attached mini horse-sized diapers. And like the packaging said “When hearts appear, it’s time to change her nappy.”  Which, maybe that was the British version of the doll, but you know what I mean.  A Drink N’ Wet pony set came with 2 diapers, thank god, a ribbon, a changing table, a bottle to fill with water for the animal to piss like a race horse and a duck comb, complete with a duck on top and a the bristles in the nether regions of said duck.  The box also said:  “She really drinks and wets.”  
These piddle ponies had names such as Cuddles, Flicker, Baby Rainfeather, and finally shookums.  Ya know, from Jersey.  

A bit of history about Hasbro.  The company dates back to 1923 and was created by Polish Immigrant brothers who named it Hassenfeld Brothers.  Hillel, Henry, and Herman first sold textile scraps, but transitioned to selling school supplies.  In the 1930s, they started to focus on toys, eventually producing major hits like GI Joe and Mr. Potatohead.  Eventually they adopted Hasbro as the company’s name.  Soon Hasbro was a titan in the Toy industry with acquisitions like Milton Bradley and Park Brothers.  The former CEO of Hasbro actually passed away recently, I think it was this summer of 2025.  His name was Allen Hassenfeld and his grandfather was Henry, whom I mentioned earlier.  I know the company has hit some hard times financially recently, but as far as I know, Hasbro is still going relatively strong.  

The final toy on our list is the one I think I am most familiar with because I must have seen the commercial thousands of times.  And I’m pretty sure I had repressed their commercial jingle for 30 years, but the second I heard it for the first time in ages, it was stuck in my head like it was 1992 all over again.  And surprise, surprise, next on our list is Puppy Surprise.  Puppy Surprise from Hasbro (1991)  Puppy Surprise was produced by Hasbro from 1991-1993.  The toy included a stuffy mommy dog who was about a foot long and there were also a few babies included, they were about 4 inches long.  Each package varied and much like the jingle alludes to, with this craptastic toy, you could get 3, 4, or 5 puppies.  The mommy puppy could be in a lying down or sitting up position and could be colored pink, beige, or white.  So, essentially, little girls would take the out the mommy pup, maybe comb her hair for a few minutes and sing her and song, and then the kid could shove their hand up the lower regions of the mommy dog and pull out any number of newborn puppies.  The puppies couldn’t just come with the mommy dog and be on the side, you know, ziptied to the box for safe travels.  No, no, little Sarah you need to shove your tiny toddler arm up there to see just how many puppies you will now be the proud owner of.  Are you kidding me?

Putting together this episode left me with just one question:  Why did so many toy companies assume that little kids wanted to watch their dolls actually perform a urination, or have an early exposure to what it sort of feels like to be pregnant?  And likewise, why did so many toy companies assume little boys want to play with monsters, hideous creatures, and disgusting bodily fluids like mucous?  I’m thinking about toys like Mad Balls, Boglins and the Gross Out Gang.  I didn’t quite remember the gross out gang but I found a great website called https://weirdotoys.com/gross-out-gang-skilcraft-1987/

During my research, something very important that I needed to do was find synonyms for pee because I knew I would be using it about 5000 times in this episode.  Here are a few random synonyms that didn’t make it into the show.  These are from wordhippo.com

I also couldn’t help but think to myself- Was there a meeting for a toy company and they were all who has a good idea for a girls toy this year and someone stood up and said  “get this, it’s a baby doll, who pees in a toilet. This doll will be very classy circa 1900 and will wear bloomers underneath her handsewn victorian styled dress.  Little girls can pull down the bloomers and place their beloved dolly on the can.  Then, kids will see the pee level rising in the plastic, cylindrical toilet.  And they can then flip the cylinder over and say bye bye to the pee pee. And then the boss said:  “Nancy, I think you’ve got one helluva an idea there.  CHEERING.  


I hope you enjoyed this look back at some of the most TMI Toys of the 80s and 90s, with an honorable mention from the 1950s.  While I never wanted any of these TMI toys for various reasons, I find this whole niche of toys hysterical and fascinating.  I hope you were able to get through some of the potty humor and maybe you learned something new.  Here’s hoping because if not, I am going to be horrified with both myself and this episode.

Since the holidays are just about here, I asked listeners and followers on Twitter and IG to share something they really wanted for the holidays when they were a kid and I got back a small handful of answers.

Preston said he really wanted a Talk Boy.  Karen said she wanted the Barbie Bubbling Spa.  Jason wanted an Ewok Village.  Suzanne said she wanted a Super Nintendo.  For me, I know two things that I always wanted as a kid but were not realistic in hindsight were a power wheels or a treehouse.  We didn’t have any usable trees at all in our backyard so not sure what I wanted one so bad and I think by the time I realized what power wheels were I was way too big for one so I totally get it.  Still wanted both of those things!   Thank you all for sharing those memories. 

If you want to learn more about this podcast, check out merch, visit my blog, send me a message, and so much more, visit popcultureretrospective.com. Also, don’t forget to check out Q106.5 app, available for both iPhone and Android users.  You can listen to 80s and 90s music all day long as well as check out other fellow retro-inspired podcasts.  Here is a bit more info on this super cool app that yours truly is apart of. CLIP here.

In closing, I want to share a few quotes I found about sibling loss that really resonated with me.  Maybe you too can relate to it, even if you haven’t lost a sibling.  These are all by the same person, Alan D. Wolfelt  

“Yet no matter what your present-day relationship with your sibling was, his or her death is a blow because a part of your story has died.” – Alan D. Wolfelt
“Never let anyone take your memories away in a misguided attempt to save you from pain. It’s good for you to continue to display photos of your brother or sister. It’s good for you to talk about your sibling’s life and death. It’s good for you to hold onto objects that belonged to your sibling.”

“When a sibling dies, it is like a deep hole implodes inside of you. It’s as if the hole penetrates you and leaves you gasping for air.” – Alan D. Wolfelt
Finally, “To heal, you need to actively remember the sibling who died and commemorate the life that was lived.” and that is why I started this show.

I hope you will join me on the next episode of the PCR where will take yet another look at fascinating facet of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s in memory of my sister.  UTBKBSAHOTYM.