Pop Culture Retrospective Episode #58 - The Top Holiday Toys of the 1980s

Episode # 58 - The top holiday toys of the 1980s

If it wasn’t obvious by now, the 80s (and yes, the 90s) were a great time to grow up.  Technology had not yet taken over the world occupying every second of every day like it does now.  Toy companies were creating new toy lines left and right. And whether you were into action figures, dolls, video games or puzzles, odds are your parents could go to a toy store like Toys R Us or KB Toys and could purchase you one of those hot ticket items.  Or perhaps Santa surprised you with a popular toy that everyone just had to have on one particular Christmas.  

So with that being said, on today’s show we will be taking a look back at the top holiday toys for each year spanning the 1980s.  From the years 1980 to 1989, you will hear all about what toys were flying off the shelves, some of which led to fist fights among customers who just had to get their hands on a particular toy so that Christmas wouldn’t be ruined. The popularity and demand for what follows was no joke. So grab your shopping cart, your holiday list and some comfortable walking shoes, here we go!  Oh and don’t bother with a reusable bag, we’re going back to the 80s so grab your non-biodegradable plastic bag! 

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop-culture time machine. You are tuning in to episode #58 - The top holiday toys of the 1980s.

Before we get into the show I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to one of my twitter followers and listener named Double A - when I posted my previous episode #57 about some of the WTF kid shows of the 1980s they said quote “I so look forward to your podcasts.  Excited to listen to this one tomorrow.”  I always appreciate comments like that because as I’ve mentioned before, this show is really a labor of love.  I work hard to put together quality shows as often I am realistically able to so kind comments always mean a lot to me.  We so often hear about how social media gets used for such awful and horrible things, however I like to try and do the exact opposite.  I like and comment on tweets and instagram posts that I like.  I compliment other podcasters and artists who I admire. I follow businesses and artists that I admire on instagram, clients I have worked with in photography, etc. It’s not all that hard to be kind.  Thank you to those who continue to be kind.  Now, let’s get back to the show.

Let’s start with the most popular holiday toy of 1980, the Rubik’s cube.  PLAY COMMERCIAL HERE.  The Rubik’s cube was created by a Hungarian man named Erno Rubik in the 1970s.  He was a design teacher who was, understandably, really into puzzles.  He wanted to design a puzzle based on geometry (aka my least favorite subject in high school).  

Little did he know that once the Rubik’s cube hit the shelves of stores, it would go on to be the best selling toy of ALL time, selling over 350 million units since it was first released.  People were absolutely addicted to the puzzle, so much so that there were support groups for Rubik’s cube addicts in the 1980s.  Rubik’s cubes are still incredibly popular today.  Since 2003 there have been speed races to solve the puzzle.  The current record holder’s name is Yusheng Du and he was able to solve the 3 x 3 x 3 puzzle in 3.47 seconds.

Now on to 1981.  The top seller during this year was He-Man, Master of the Universe.  COMMERCIAL HERE.  He-Man was created by Mattel, the action figures released in 1981 coincided with the comic book and television series of the same name.  In addition to the action figures, there were also vehicles and playsets like castle gray skull.  This original line was so popular that it ran until 1987.  Part of the reason why He-man could have been so popular in the early and mid 1980s is because the toy company intentionally made the character more buff than pretty much any other action figure at this time.  He-man was really just exploding with muscles and he somehow squeezed into his small banana hammock underwear he was wearing.  He also wore a chest strap and wrestling boots.  He looked a bit more like a dancer at a gay night club, but kids didn’t know the difference.  When you twisted He-man at the waist, he would twist and snap back into a front standing position super quick and could thus punch an enemy action figure in a split second.  I’m sure this also led to his popularity.      

That brings us to 1982, the year of the Glo-Worm.  COMMERCIAL HERE.  Created by the Playskool division of Hasbro, the glow worm was essentially a flashlight inside of a soft, worm like-creature who had a vinyl head.  It was maybe about a foot and a half long?  The first version had a soft, green body and wore a matching night cap.  When the worm’s body was squeezed it’s head would then light up.  The light was a huge hit, I know I had one and I’m pretty sure my sister did, too.  I also had a wart removed off of my foot and I was terrified to have this procedure done so my mom said I could pick out a toy after having it removed.  I chose a glo worm, one of the newer versions, who was blue.  The popularity of glo worms grew quite quickly and before you knew it, they had their own line of picture books and animated specials.  There was also a glo worm Christmas Special featured during an episode of My Little Pony.  Glo worms or an off-shoot of glo worms were featured in various happy meals in fast food restaurants and were made into small, plastic figurines that were sold in stores.  Glo worms, although not nearly as popular as they were in the 1980s, are still made to this day! 

In 1983, parents got to experience the chaos and drama that was, the Cabbage Patch Dolls. COMMERCIAL HERE. The baby dolls were created by a man named Xavier Roberts.  In the mid 1970s, Roberts started creating fabric dolls with an old German fabric sculpting technique.  He first started selling them in Georgia at craft fairs and the like and eventually they got licensed by a toy company and the demand for the dolls just exploded. 

In 1983 alone, 3 million dolls were sold or excuse me, “adopted.”  1983 is also the year when the design of the dolls with the vinyl heads and yarn-like hair that we know and love, started being implemented.  Me and my sister absolutely LOVED having cabbage patch dolls.  We played with them all of the time.  I remember I often had my cabbage patch doll with me whenever I went to bed and I remember waking up feeling very startled and scared in the middle of the night one time when my cabbage patch doll fell out of my bed and hit the hardwood floor.  We had a cabbage patch record that we played so much I am pretty sure it started to skip.  I’ll never forget this song which I periodically get stuck in my head! CLIP HERE.   In 1985 a cabbage patch doll by the name of Christopher Xavier went to space.  Cabbage Patch dolls are another retro toy that is still popular today.  You can actually visit the Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA.  You can witness the birth of a Cabbage Patch doll at a, well, cabbage patch, as well as purchase all different kinds of merchandise with the likeness of these infamous dolls on it.  I think you know where my next vacation will be.  

In 1984, we got to meet Transformers, Robots in Disguise for the first time.  COMMERCIAL HERE.  The unique toys were created by Hasbro and Marvel and came from a planet named Cybertron.   They required some patience to play with, but provided kids who had longer attention spans at this time, hours of fun!  The robots transformed into various items such as cars, trucks, jets, cassette tapes and even guns.  That’s right, guns.  These are no longer legal of course but certainly crazy to think about. During the Christmas of 1984, Transformers, much like Cabbage Patch Dolls, were in such high demand that people often fought over them when seeking them out in stores.  

1985 brought us a topic we covered recently on the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, Teddy Ruxpin.  That’s episode #53 by the way. COMMERCIAL HERE.  Teddy Ruxpin was created by a former Disney Imagineer named Ken Forsee.  Ruxpin was essentially an audio-animatronic teddy bear who read stories and sang songs to young children, with the help of a built-in tape deck on his back.  He was voiced by Phil Baron who, as we learned in the previous episode of this show, lent his voice talents to both Welcome to Pooh Corner and Dumbo’s Circus.  All of the music composed for Teddy Ruxpin was created by George Wilkins, the genius behind many of the original songs for Epcot Center at Walt Disney World.  

1986 was certainly a milestone for millions of children all over the world because Nintendo was released!  Nintendo was created by the company bearing the same name which has been around since the late 1800s. It was a home video game system that featured a console, two remotes and eventually hundreds of games. Just a year before it was showcased at the Consumer Electronics show.  When it was first released it cost about $140 dollars which is about $370 dollars in today’s money. The Nintendo company decided to market it as a toy, not a video game which certainly helped its record breaking sales, blowing its predecessor, Atari out of the water!  1987 was another strong year for Nintendo or NES for holiday toys.  

By 1988, Nintendo had 65% market share of the home video game market. You can learn more about Nintendo on an early episode of the PCRP, episode #5 I believe.  

There is some mixed information when it comes to what was the top selling holiday toy in 1987, some sources say Nintendo and other sources say Popples.  Since me and my sister absolutely loved Popples, I figured we’d go with the furry creatures as top dog.  COMMERCIAL HERE.  Popples were produced by toy maker Mattel from 1986-1988.  They were plush, multi-colored characters which sort of resembled a dog/teddy bear/bunny.  They had a pocket on their back which they could be folded into, creating sort of a soft, fuzzy ball.  I can pretty much guarantee that I used them in their folded up state to plate indoor soccer.  I don’t have any proof, but I’m quite certain I did.  Anyways, the plush characters were created by a woman named Susan Trental who was inspired by rolling up a pair of socks.  She worked for a company called “Those Characters from Cleveland” which was owned by American Greetings.  The first round of popples had 9 different ones including characters named Potato Chip Popple which was yellow with pink and blue accents, Puffball Popple which was white with blue and pink accents, pretty sure my sister had this one or Puzzle Popple who was orange with yellow, blue, green and red accents, this is the one that I had.  Popples were so popular that they eventually had their own TV series (which I rented constantly on VHS).  And just like any other cartoon television series from the 1980s, it was rebooted on Netflix in 2015 but like the first incarnation, it only lasted for about a year.  

In 1988 we were introduced to the comic book and later the action figure juggernaut that was and is, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The characters were created for a comic book series in 1983 by two artists named Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.  The comic book experienced some decent success but when a licensing agent began working with the two artists, things really started to take off! The toy company Playmates agreed to create and distribute the toys and the rest is history.  The toys would go on to be one of the most popular toy lines of all time.  In the first 4 years of being in production, over 1 billion dollars of figures were sold and over 400 different figures have been designed since its inception.  If you want to learn more about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tune in to episode #50 of the PCRP. 

And finally, that brings us to our last year - 1989.  The Nintendo Company was yet again on top as their game boy, a handheld video game console was the top holiday gift.  It was created by a Nintendo employee named Gunpei Yokoi who had previously created the game and watch.  Kids (and likely adults) could now take their video games with them on the go to play on the train, on the school bus and possibly discreetly underneath a desk in class. It was first released in Japan in April, and then the United States in July which was complete with tetris, a game that pretty much everyone wanted to play.  Nintendo has shipped over 100 million units over the years and in 1993, a gameboy went to outer space!  With the popularity of gameboy came many imitators including handheld gaming devices created by Aatari and Sega.  There was nothing quite like the original though.  It was the top selling handheld gaming device for about 2 decades but the Nintendo company has now shifted their focus to devices like the DS and Switch.  

So there you go, those were the top selling toys for each holiday season spanning the years 1980 to 1989.  Did you have any of these toys? Did you receive one or a few of them during the 80s?  Send me an email with any memories that you have to popcultureretrospective@gmail.com I always love sharing listener’s stories and comments on the podcast.  

I hope you enjoyed this look back on popular holiday toys from the 1980s.  It was definitely a lot of fun to take this trip down memory lane.  Me and my sister absolutely loved Christmas as kids as we got to see most of our extended family between Christmas eve and Christmas day.  We were always the recipient of many wonderful gifts.  

I decided to purposefully release this show on December 22nd as my sister’s birthday falls on this date.  She would have been 42 this year.  The month of December is a wonderful time of year of course but there is also a part of it that feels overwhelming, heavy and exhausting.  Every year it sneaks up on me.  Something feels off and then I remember who is missing.  Christmas with my sister was such a magical time.  I was always the first one up on Christmas and was immediately wide awake.  She would follow me coming downstairs, exhausted and half awake.  She could have been a professional gift wrapper.   She even made her own gift tags which were a work of art within themselves.  She always gave me very sweet and thoughtful Christmas gifts and same with my kids.  I miss my sister every second of every moment of my life.  December 22 through the 25 always hit me hard though.  I imagine that a lot of people can relate to me.  Queen Elizabeth the II once said:  “ "Grief is the price we pay for love."

So I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and that you are finding some happy moments even though many of us are experiencing grief that can be especially hard at this time of year.   

I hope you will join me for my next show where we will be discussing…..until then, BKBSAHOTYM.