Gimme That Toy!

Weekend Assignment #143: Imagine you are a kid today, age 10 or under. What would you want for Christmas/Hanukkah/Seasonal Holiday of Your Preference? Don't look back on the toys of your youth, now -- think about what kids have now that you would want if you were their age. Also if you're a parent, don't ask your kids what they want -- this is supposed to be about what you would want, if you were their age. I love my daughter, but I guarantee you, there are things she wants that if I were a kid her age I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

Extra Credit: Do you kinda want the same toy now that you're an adult? Come on, you can admit it if you do.

I don't recall ever saying anything like the title to this entry, but let's assume that, like other little kids, I was both greedy and tactless. In fact, I know that's true. I remember getting a Chatty Baby (like the dolls shown below) when I was about five or six years old. I may have asked for a Chatty Cathy, but either way I was thrilled with it. Problem was, my grandmother gave me a drink-and-wet doll that same Christmas. When my mom asked me if I liked that doll, hoping to elicit some gratitude toward Grandmother, I churlishly said, "No! I like Chatty Baby!"

But I digress. The point is that back in 1962 I was greedy for a doll with cutting edge technology: it talked! Yes, it was just a little record operated by pull string, barely intelligible and quickly broken. But it was still a big deal at the time Two years later or thereabouts, I got Baby First Step, a motorized walking doll, and in 1968 I got Talking Stacey, Barbie's friend who not only talked, but did so with an English accent.

So while I haven't actually made a survey of current toys yet this year (John and I will do that during our annual Toys for Tots shopping spree on Saturday), it's likely that my wantlist as a child of the new millennium would be heavily weighted toward dolls and tech. I want a robot dog, a robot dinosaur, a "working" Phaser and communicator, a home planetarium, a spy kit with infrared goggles, and any number of other toys that weren't possible in 1964. And I saw a line of dolls the other day that intrigued me - not Mattel, not Bratz, but some new, fairly realistic line. As for Mattel, they seem to be moving on from the "pink box" style Barbies into dolls that are a little more appealing, at least to me. To be honest, I still want the current version of Midge, her husband Allen and family, including kids and grandparents. It's not exactly high tech, but it's progress of a sort. When I was a kid, there would never have been any suggestion that one of Barbie's friends would get pregnant, let alone give birth. Why, that would mean she'd had sex! It's also nice to finally see dolls in the Barbie line who are obviously more than 20 years old.

Would I really want these toys at age 49 and counting? You betcha!

More photos after our toy run on Saturday.

Karen

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