Encore:Toy Story

This episode originally aired in Season 1. We're bringing it back by popular demand while Jim recovers from hand surgery.

In this episode Jim and Lindsay discuss some of the great '80s toys and the commercials that got everyone hyped to buy them. Hold on to your Popples as Jim roars onto the scene in his Green Machine while Lindsay complains that the boys got all the good toys back in the day. Why did He-Man fight Skeletor in his underwear? Which Care Bear best describes us? And why can't Lindsay stop talking about the Little Professor Calculator? 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Children of the Eighties.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm Lindsay and I'm Jim.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
We are back for another episode.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
So you know what I was thinking. I was listening
to another podcast today and it's one that I listened
to almost weekly, and they reintroduced themselves today, and I thought,
you know what we should do that.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
What we just did. I said, I'm Jim and you
said you're Lindsay.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yes, but we should take it the next step and
explain who we are and what we're doing and why
we're doing.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
It because we are middle aged, we are broke, and
we like to live in the past because because the
present and future is so depressed.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh no, so we are husband and wife.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
We wait, we're married. When did we get married.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
We've been married for what going on thirteen years? Yes,
we are both children of the eighties, you more so
earlier in the decade and me later in the decade.
But we spend a lot of time at home doing

(01:38):
now what we do on our podcast. So one day
you came to me and you were like, hey, you
know we could combine the two my love for podcast
and your love for all things nineteen eighties, and you know,
give it a go and see what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
And that's what we did. And here we are.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yes, we are in the Metro Lanta area. We have
one child, she's ten going on twenty one. And this
is what we do for fun. Yes, and we have
a lot of fun doing it.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
We do have a lot of fun doing it. I
think partially because we like to reminisce about when we
are kids. But two also of you, as you have
mentioned many times on the show, we actually kind of
lived this life, right. We talk about the eighties a lot.

(02:34):
Radio when it's on is on eighties music. We have, well,
right here in front of me, I have the Eighties game,
which we will play in a future episode. Our cat
is named after an eighties icon, Gary Busey.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yes, yes he is.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
So we are like eighties to the max. I am
having What am I having delivered for my big birthday
coming up?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Pac Man?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
A pac Man arcade machine. Not like that cheap pac
Man Atari twenty six hundred piece of.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Crap, No, like the real deal pac Man. Yes, speaking
of birthdays, you do have a really big birthday coming up.
You're gonna be the big I'm gonna be.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be forty.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
What's meet in the middle.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Oh yeah, it's uh. That half century mark is coming
at me like a train through a tunnel. It's painful,
barreling down on me.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's painful, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
It's gonna smack me in the face.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
So I read a tidbit this afternoon on social media,
and you know, the innerwebs always correct.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
It's everything that's posted online on the internet is absolutely one.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
There is no way that I can be wrong on this.
So with that being said, I'm going to launch into it,
put it out on the podcast and see what happens. Okay,
I read that one of our favorite TV shows is
The Middle, Right, the Glossner's House in the Middle. The

(04:15):
Glossners were the like redneck neighbors that lived down the
street that tormented the Hecks.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Right, the Hecks are the main characters.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, that's hard. The Hecks. Uh, that's a weird last name.
They're the main characters. So the Glossers tormented the Hecks.
Their house is the house in what nineteen eighties Christmas movie?

Speaker 1 (04:43):
A Christmas Story? No wah, Ernest Saves Christmas, no Grimlins.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's okay, it's one that we love and we always
watch every year.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
A Christmas story.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, okay, the one that I always mispronounced.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
National Lampoon's Christmas Vase.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yes, yes, did you know that? No?

Speaker 1 (05:11):
I did not.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
The Glossner house is the Griswolds. Yeah, it's also the
Griswold's house. They recently tore him down, tore it down.
It's on a lot in where Hollywood or wherever house.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
It's not in Indiana.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
No, not in Indiana.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
That's why I was guessing Christmas story because I feel
like that took place in Indiana. Although I'm not positive.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
About that, I'm going to take it a step further.
The Griswolds neighbors. Is it Margot and Tom?

Speaker 1 (05:43):
No? I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Okay, well, whatever their names were, I.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Think it is Margot. I don't know about Tom. I
felt like it was something like Corbin or Bryce.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Did he look like a Bryce. Maybe it's the house
from Lethal Weapon?

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Really, yes, speaking of Gary Busey Lethal Weapon.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
There you go. See, we brought it full circle, just
like I had planned.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
You know, Gary, our cat is starting to get on
my nerves. Gary Busey, our cat starting to get on
my nerves a little bit. So I feel like we
should bring in another cat and name a Martin Riggs
so he can just beat the crap out of them.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
But don't you think that's sad that they tore those
houses down?

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yes? I do, But I mean what were they being
used anymore? I don't know, but they they would have
been cool tour us to track.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, right, it was on a sound stage. So well,
I guess they had to make room for other things.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Right, kind of like Universal Studios where they tore down
Jaws and what was the other one, the earthquake one? No,
not anyway, they tore down Jaws and something else for
something new that probably is in school.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Oh goodness. Okay, so can you explain what our episode
is about today?

Speaker 1 (07:19):
You know, people think I'm like, it's not about giant
worms coming out of the ground. I can tell you
that much. Oh boy. Yeah, So our episode today to
kind of kick on.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
No reason to look at your notes. It's not there.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
To kind of kick off Christmas. We've lost control in
the studio, folks. We have help, uh kind of kick
off you know the Christmas season. Our toys are Our
episode is all about toys.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I wanted to do an episode of eight nineteen
eighties toys that brought back memories. So I kind of
put this episode together, you did, and just like anytime
I put an episode together, it's a little bit all
over the place because that's how my brain works.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yes, and I feel like the notes you gave me
here a little bit lean. I may not have all
of the full info that I usually had.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Do you see under one point it just says take
it away, Jim, it's gonna be a great episode.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
I didn't do any research, so we're in trouble.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Oh no, we're just gonna have fun and hopefully bring
back some good memories for people.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Right if they're still listening. If not, we've gone off
the rails.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I mean, listen. I don't think we've got many people
listening to begin with. So that's okay for our old faithfuls.
Thank you for giving us another another try.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
By the way, I had lunch with somebody today who
used to be a listener and doesn't listen anymore. And
I called them out.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
So why don't they? Is it our old neighbor? Yes,
And I don't know why she wouldn't say.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
She would not say we should.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Call her right now?

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Put her.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
All right, Okay, So let me just said a little
bit of ground rules before we get started. We're not
going to talk about the Cabbage Batch kids, because we've
been there, done that a couple of times. I think, yeah,
and I just don't feel like I have anything else
to say about that. We're not going to get into Barbie.
And we're also not going to touch on any video games.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Okay, even though Atari twenty six hundred and yep, Nintendo we're.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Huge, Yes, and they were huge, And.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Maybe we've got a future episode on conenda. We've talked
about Atari a little bit, but yeah, we probably have
a future episode just on the nes.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, I'm not denying that it was the video game
was probably the biggest game of the decade. But I
just not get but we're not talking about that. Yeah, Okay,
my game, my rules, There you go, my podcast, There
you go. So I thought we would get started with

(10:15):
what I labeled as old faithfuls. Okay, so I want
to talk about for each of us, a couple of
toys that like everybody loved. So you want to go first,
and you want me.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
To go first, I guess, let me see what you're for. Oh,
I'm going first. Because my toy's cooler than yours. Well yeah,
so this was mentioned on a previous episode, but we
didn't really get a whole lot into it. And my
first toys are he Man action figures.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Did you watch the cartoon?

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
So remember when they came out, it was just, you know,
they just bombarded us. I feel like with commercials they
did of he Man, and so me and my brother
Mike definitely wanted he Man for Christmas, Birthday, whatever what
in like nineteen eighty two, eighty three. And then my

(11:14):
brother Matt was probably a little young. He may have
wanted He may have been into other things because he
was four years younger than me, but yeah, we wanted
he Man so bad. They were, you know, obviously action figures.
They were taller than previous action figures like Gi Joe
and Star Wars and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
And they were muscular.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
They were very muscular. They were on the juice for sure,
no doubt about that. Jose Canseco was their dealer. But yeah,
they were fun. They were movable, so you could move
their arms, you know, up and down, their legs back
and forth with just these Arnold Schwarzenegger type bodies.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
So, speaking of Arnie and he Man, why did he
Man like basically go around fighting the bad guys in
his briefs?

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Brief? No, that was his costume like Superman with the
tights and the cape. He Man had, oh, basically wrestling
shorts and some kind of armor breastplate type thing.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Did he ever have clothes on?

Speaker 1 (12:28):
No? I mean if I had that body, I wouldn't
never have clothes on either.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
I never thought about that as a kid. I was
just like, why was he always in his underwear?

Speaker 1 (12:38):
You know why we didn't think about that as kids
because we watched wrestling as much as we Yes, yes,
and so they were dressed like wrestlers.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, and he was. I mean that's basically what he
looked like. Here's the Ultimate Warrior.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Before the Ultimate War. Yes, I love it. So he
Man the cartoon, right, originally ran for.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Two years, right, didn't it feel like a long longer?

Speaker 1 (13:05):
I kind of felt like He Man the Cartoon was
on for all fourteen years of the nineteen eighties.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yes, I felt like that.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
So it ran just original episodes from eighty three to
eighty five, but I'm sure they re ran episodes probably
through eighty seven.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Well, and I think episodes back in the eighties were longer.
I mean, I'm sorry, seasons were longer back in the eighties.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yes, that is true. So I think they probably had
forty five episodes a season.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
I think I read it with sixty five sixty season.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh wow, okay, okay, yeah, that was good stuff. You know,
you had he man and man at arms. On the
other side, you had Skeletor who was the bad guy.
So you had a group of good guys, you had
a group of bad guys. And I'm sure this won't
surprise you at all. I eventually got tired of the

(14:00):
good guys winning all the time, and I wanted to
see the bad guys win sometimes.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Like when you were playing or when you were watching them.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I was watching the cartoon. When I was watching the cartoon,
you know, I'm just that type of person, right Like,
I don't it's not realistic for the good guy to
win all the time. I wanted Tom to catch Jerry.
I wanted Tom to slap around Jerry. I definitely wanted
Tweetybird to get his come up, and I wanted Sylvester
to slap him around. But Sylvester was a dope, So yeah,

(14:29):
I wanted to see Skeletor win every now and then,
not all the time, but every now and then. Just
give me an element of surprise, that's all.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
It got a little predictable, it did.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
It was very predictable. You knew in the end, no
matter how dire the situation, he Man was gonna win,
did he Man? And skeletorre was gonna get mad and
say something like drafts.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Did he Man have any cohorts?

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yes? He did.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
I remember his tiger.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yes, he had his tiger, battle cat.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
And battle cat. Also when he did his little chant,
battle cat changed, didn't he?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yes, so battle cat when he put on his armor,
he actually became battle cat. But he wasn't always battle Cat.
He was actually cringer as just a as just a
regular pet tiger as opposed to the battle cat tiger.
But he would put on his armor and he'd carry
he Man into battle. Now, if you're a big giant

(15:28):
muscular guy and you've got a bunch of big giant
muscular friends, do you really need a pet tiger to
carry you into battle? You telling me you can't walk?
He didn't get that body by having somebody carry him around.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
That's basically the time that what Putin was riding the
bear around in Russia.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yes, yes, so he Man characters. He Man had his buddies.
Of course, he had clamp Champ. He wields a large,
large hand held grabbing device as his primary weapon. He
was the only black character to have an action figure
in the vintage toy line. Really yeah, so that was

(16:11):
kind of cool. Several black characters have been released since,
but in the classic toy lines he was the only one.
Fisto was an extra strong warrior with a metal right hand.
I had him for sure, in a big, giant metal
right hand. And in the original series he was actually

(16:31):
a caretaker of a forest and was hesitant to join
into the conflict against skeletor probably Caskeleator was scary.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
He was scary. So I watched he Man every afternoon.
This was before I started school, right, so every afternoon,
I know it came on and I watched it, or
at least in my mind, I think it was every afternoon.
Not allowed to have any of the action figures.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Why because they were boy action vision.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
I don't know, rare girl. I mean, I was a
tomboy and I can see that maybe that kind of
bothered my dad to some extent, but also how funny
would it have been to have seen the little girl
walking around with basically, you know, an action figure in
his little briefs playing with him.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's funny. Yeah, I get that. So do you know
he man was considered the most powerful man in the universe.
I believe they.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think I said that. I think the selling point.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
But do you know what his real name was or
his alter ego? No, Prince Adam, Prince Adam. He was
a prince Wow. He's a strong upholder of moral justice
and is regarded by the people of Eternia as their
greatest hero. His closest ally, of course, was a man
at arms. You remember him. Yes, he had you know,

(17:59):
green leg apparently, red underwear or tights or shorts or
what are you want to call it, and he had
like this kind of plastic body armor over his chest
in his arms, and this funky looking helmet.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
I remember that.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
He was packaged in the Mattel toy line as the
heroic master of Weapons, which is why it's called man
at Arms. So they were that was like his That
was like his guy, right, like that was his number one.
That was his Ride or Die along with Cringer.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
So I have a couple of questions. He Man eventually
led to a spin off. Yes, Sheira, which I think
was his sister.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Was she now?

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I believe?

Speaker 4 (18:44):
So?

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Why was it she Ra? So it was he Man?
Shouldn't it have been she she woman? She wah or
she woman?

Speaker 1 (18:57):
I think he Man is two syllables, she ra. You
start getting the she woman, Now that's that's a mouthful.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Not what about she fi female?

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Uh? You know, I think you're putting a lot more
thought into it than making the creator.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Okay, I have one more, I have one more thing. Okay,
they did I want to say, a movie at some
point they did? I believe they did. But they did
a prime time Christmas special he Man and she Raw
a Christmas special? What kind of Christmas special was that?

(19:37):
Was Santa there?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
I have no idea. I never saw that. I don't
even know.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
I mean it, did Skeletor try to steal Christmas?

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Like the Grinches? Skeletor was the blue Grinch instead of
being green, he was the brench or the Blinch.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Oh my goodness, I think I know why stopped listening.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Fantastic, Yeah, we love we loved he man, and you
know what I did too? And you know what, you
know what I did when I got the characters, so
I probably had eight, ten, twelve characters. I turned them
into wrestlers, like they were suplexing each other. They were bodies,
so they were perfect. Absolutely they were you know, i'd

(20:27):
get a skeletor a pile drive he man since it
never happened in the cartoon. So yeah, I turned my
hemen into wrestlers. You know what I wish I had
done with my he man?

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Wait? Wait, I'm sorry, wait, what what are you calling
them he man?

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Because he man and there was a bunch of the
human Yeah, what was it?

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Was it he man's I don't know.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
So you know what I did with my he man?
Or I wish what I wish I would have done
with my man. I wish I would have cut them
in their packages.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh right, not played with them, not played with them,
just kept them in general.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, which would have been a very boring childhood, but
a very rich adulthood.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
So did you get the cave.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
The castle Gray School?

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, wasn't that a cave?

Speaker 1 (21:15):
No, it was a castle.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
It was made out of rock. It looked like a
cave to.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Me, what as a castle made out of stroll? Pretty
sure I see stones in a castle castle? Yes you did,
I think so.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I can't believe that your parents.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
No, probably, Yeah I didn't, only in my dreams. As
Debbie Gibson said.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Right, So my cousins had the castle. I remember the
castle and a few of the characters, just a couple.
But yeah, I love playing with it when I was
over at their house.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, so much fun. What did always more fun to
play with other people's toys too? Oh yeah, what they
had was infinitely better than you.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
And I'm going to talk a little bit more about
that as we get into this, but yeah, it was
almost like going into their bedroom was like going into
like Santa's workshop to me, like it just felt like.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
So we've probably talked enough about it. I mean, you
may want to move on.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
What else is there to say?

Speaker 1 (22:20):
This isn't the episode. It's toys episode.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Let me do one? Can I do one?

Speaker 1 (22:24):
I would love it? Okay, you would go ahead and
take the rings.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Care Bears?

Speaker 1 (22:31):
I remember care Bears.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
You probably hated them, didn't certainly? So this is interesting
every not every, but a lot of the toys that
you're going to talk about that, are you know, conventionally
considered boy toys?

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Would you like to rephrase the question now.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
I'm just leaving at your honor as a kid and
I played with as a kid, the toys that I'm
going to talk about that are conventionally like considered to
be girl toys. You're gonna roll your eyes at. Yes,
you need to get in touch with your feminine side.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
No, I do not so.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Care Bears they originally started out as a line of
greeting cards. They were characters on a line of greeting cards.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Now that was interesting, I did not know.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
And it went from there and it ended up of
course you could find care Bears on everything. I had
plush care bears bigger size, then they had the smaller size,
and then they had the little hard plastic little sent
around little care bear figures.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
I remember all of those.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
There were originally ten.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Ten.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Go for it. I want you to name them.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
M Was there a rainbow bear?

Speaker 2 (23:55):
No?

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Was there a cloud bear?

Speaker 2 (23:58):
So you're talking about the little emblem on their bellies.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Did they all have rainbows or did they all have so?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
But just because there was a clown or a rainbow,
that wasn't necessarily their name.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
I didn't say clown. I said cloud.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
That's what I said. I just with my stuffy nows.
It doesn't sound like that, Okay, okay, Bedtime Bear, Birthday Bear,
cheer Bear, friend Bear, funshine Bear, good Luck Bear, grumpy Bear,
Love a Lot Bear, tender heart Bear, and wish Bear.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
So I am going to say that Emmy would be
tender heart bear, you would be love a Lot Bear,
and I'm grumpy Bear.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh that's easy. Yes, yes, it stands down.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
But at times I'd like to be bedtime Bear because
I'm getting older.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Right, Yes, So I loved care Bears. I'm gonna talk
a little bit more. There's a theme here to the
toys that I talk about, and I'll talk about that later.
They also did a cartoon.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
I remember the cartoon.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
That I also enjoyed watching. I loved my care Bears,
and I collected all that I could.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Did you really?

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yes, the plastic kind or the plush kind, or yes,
all of them?

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yes, Okay, I was an only child.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
I specifically remember the plastic kind, right.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
I wish I still had them. Man, we had some
good yard sales in the nineties, selling off all my
eighties toys, right, gee, I wish I could have those back.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Oh tell me about it.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
So all that crap in the garage, I wish it
was some eighties toys.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Okay, So is that all you have for care Bears?

Speaker 2 (25:55):
That's it?

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Okay. We talked a lot less about care Bears than
we did about he Man, my next toy. You know what,
I'll just play something for you to introduce my next toys.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
Something called COMMUNICATESE get more hold wies.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Transformers from Hasbros. There you go. What do you think
about that? Transformers from Hasbro?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
I love the Transformers? I had some did the kid
growing up? Yes?

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Okay, so here's the deal. And I may be one
of those weird kids, but I wasn't really that into
the Transformers. And I know a lot of my a
lot of boys my age, A lot of your boys were. Yeah,
a lot of a lot of my homeboys at nine
years old. Uh they were. My brother Mike was for sure.

(27:13):
I think my brother Matt might have been too. I
wasn't really that into them. Why that, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Was it too complicated for you?

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yes? Yes, trust me, everything was too complicated for me
as a kid. No, it just really didn't interest me
that much. I can say that the that song on
the commercial has lived rent free in my head for
the last forty two years. No one, we just listened
to Transformers Robots in disguise.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
So it's one of those songs.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yes, So I loved the commercial in the song better
than the actual toys. And I know that's probably shocking
to a lot of people. There's probably a lot of
guys my age right now that are listening. They're going,
what's wrong with you? But yeah, it just wasn't really
my thing. Remember the cheap knockoff gobots, Yes, weren't as
cool as transform No, No, Transformers. The concept is actually really cool, right,

(28:11):
they are vehicles that can transform into robots and fight, right,
really cool, but not really wasn't my thing. But I
do remember that they could, you know, change, Like I said,
they changed into vehicles like cars, planes, miniature guns, animals,

(28:33):
and even dinosaurs, you know, just by moving their parts around.
And you know, I'm sure I played with some that
my brother, my cad, but I don't remember ever asking
for Transformers for Christmas or my birthday. But I also
recognize the popularity of them, and I don't. I feel

(28:54):
like they had a much much longer shelf life than
he Manned did.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
They've had some lasting power, right.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Well, obviously they're still making movies about them, right, which whatever.
I don't care about that. But they they lasted a
long time, and they seemed to be you know, from
eighty three, was it eighty two eighty three when they
came out on through the rest of the decade, right,

(29:23):
whereas he Man kind of died out, it did, but
Transformers kept going.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
He Man came and went. Transformers yeah, lasted. And there's
a ride at Universal. Yes, it's actually a really cool right, Transformers, Right,
even though I'm not into Transformers, it was actually a
really cool ride. I feel like as a kid when
Transformers first came out, I was like really into it,

(29:47):
and you know, yeah, get me one maybe two. But
then when they started growing the franchise, I was like, yeah,
I'm out. Yeah, yeah, it became too too complicated, too
much for me.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Be too much of a good thing. There can be
too much of a good thing. So yeah, I would say
that he Man was No, I can't even think of
a good comparison, but I was gonna say he Man
was like the Beatles and Transformers is like the Rolling Stones, right,

(30:22):
just lasted.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Oh listen a lot longer. Backtrack on that one. It
lasted a lot longer. Yes, well yeah, because you know
she raw was the Yoko ono he man.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
She came along, she came in and broke up the head. Yes,
now that's funny. Well, then then it was a good comparison.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, I mean, I guess I guess it was. But yeah,
I would say arguably, Transformers is probably one of the
most popular toys of all time. Do you think that's
safe to say?

Speaker 1 (30:57):
I think it probably is. I mean, at least for
the eighties for sure. You know, I think you could
probably go like extra Sketch.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Or well, yes, Hula hoop. I guess you're right, Rubik's Cube.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Something really old?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Okay, well what really cube?

Speaker 1 (31:13):
That was an eighties thing.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Okay, you're ready. It's my turn again, and again you're
going to see a theme developing here. My next one
Pound Puppies.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Another commercial that lives rent free in my head.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
For the last one, Oh, I don't know the Pound
Puppies commercial.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Well, let me play it for you. Oh, slowly, Pound Puppies.
You really need to be rescue, surprised to find you
and me, I'll.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
Call you circled.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
Lots of pound puppies need your love to meat pity,
and when they're this lonely and dislovable, one more is
always welcome sharing all the puppies.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Pound puppies eat so separately from Tanka great Now it's
gonna live rent free in my head. Yes, their tagline
was lovable huggable.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
That sounds like the tagline that sounds like it should
have been tagline for the care Bears.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
I mean it sounds like your tagline on e Harmony
when I met you again, something like tangible soft that
I loved on and you know, maybe I slept under
my arm, you know, But like, do you see the

(32:41):
theme here that I've got going?

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Like, well, you have bears and you have puppies, so.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
I love pound puppies. When you got a pound puppy,
it came in a little like great cardboard doghouse with
adoption papers, okay, and you were you were adopting the
pound puppy. I'm assuming you never had one.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
I didn't have a pound puppy, but I'm one of
my sisters. Did I know we had pound puppy in
the house for sure, at least one pound puppy. He
was like almost like a chocolate lab. But he had
like the long furry ears. And I remember like feeling
on and I felt like were they plastic? Where there
was no no, I felt like this dog was plastic?

(33:25):
Long for years? Did we get a cheap nine? Did
you got the did my parents bev goldberget and buy
it from the trunk of a stranger?

Speaker 2 (33:34):
We had a pound puppy in our garage. Did we
sell it at the yard sale?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Well I had to go out there and look at
some point. Okay, so listen to this. Sales in the eighties,
over a five year time span, generated three hundred million
dollars in thirty five different countries.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Three hundred million dollars.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
It was a lot. That's a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
It's a lot now, but it was a lot. Yep, yeah, yeah,
I remember. I remember palund puppies pretty sure. They were plastic.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
No, they were stuffed animals, all of them. They had
little leather collar. There was no plastics. I mean clearly
your mom went, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
It wouldn't surprise me, all right, So my next toy
is again action figures that you can play with.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
So you kind of have a theme going here too, I.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Guess a little bit. Yeah, I'm going with the Star
Wars action figure. Wow, this is where you put on
your list. Take it away, get.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Away, Jim. I'm just gonna sit back and listen.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
So Star Wars action figures were made by Kenner, and
Kenner released more than one hundred action figures between nineteen
seventy seven and nineteen eighty.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Five, so they were go to for action finkings.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Absolutely. So obviously it started with the original Star Wars movie,
and those are the first toys that I can remember having.
Were the little you know. I had a little Luke
Skywalker and a Princess Leah and a C three po
and I think I might have had a Chewy. I
know for sure. I had a Darth Vader and a

(35:30):
Han Solo and an Obi Wan Kenobia, a Stormtrooper. I
even had like a so they were only like four
inches right maybe maybe even listen to that, but I
wouldn't say four inches three and a half to four inches,
But so I had all of those, and Darth Vader
had a red lightsaber. But I also had like a

(35:50):
tall Darth Vader, like oh, super tall Darth Vader.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
He stood alone on his own.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Yes, I wish I still had him.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
I wish you had any of those that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Well, I'm pretty sure that there was, you know, between
a move and between losing stuff and between dogs chewing
up stuff. I know I still played with with you know,
I think I think poor Han Solo may have got
chewed up a little bit, and I played with him.
I had a jaw while I had sand people, I

(36:22):
had a Hammerhead. I remember Hammerhead because he was just
so funny looking. And then in nineteen eighty the Empire
Strikes Back came out, and so they released updated versions
of like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leah, Han Solo because they
had different outfits and you had start over again. Yeah,
and they had different storm Troopers. Darth Vader remained the same,

(36:45):
so there was no reason to get him again. But
I remember getting another Luke Skywalker, another Princess Leah, another
Han Solo of course, the new Stormtrooper, you know, and
as Yoda of course. And so as a kid, you know,
I didn't do with Star Wars like I did with
he Man, where I didn't turn them into wrestlers. Like

(37:09):
the first time I saw Star Wars. Of course, I
was like three and a half or four years old,
but I was just blown away. I thought that it
was the greatest thing in the world. And if my
parents could send me to live with Luke and Han
and Leah, I would. I would have packed my bag,
I'd have thrown my little knapsack over my shoulder on

(37:30):
a stick and took off because I just thought Star
Wars as a four year old was the coolest, greatest thing.
So of course when I got the figures, you know,
even at seven, eight nine years old, I was playing
Star Wars with them. You know, I was using my
imagination the only time I've used my imagination in my life.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
And they were you respected the force too much to
have them wrestle each other.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yes, I guess you could say that. Yeah, I guess
you could say that. So I think I'm letting people
in a little bit. I'm becoming a little bit vulnerable here,
you know, admitting that I'm a Star Wars nerd. But hey,
y' are what y are? So you know, Kenner made

(38:17):
them right. But before that, and before the movie actually
came out in nineteen seventy six, George Lucas offered to
have the Star Wars action figures licensed by the Mago Corporation,
and because they were the leading company and action figures

(38:39):
in the nineteen seventies, they refused the offer, and so
then he and that was it, right, like Mago. I
don't think I've even heard of Mago as.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Mego or Migo, I don't know. But like I said,
Kenner made one hundred unique toys and a total of
more than three hundred million units were sold during their
original run. Oh wow, So they started producing new action

(39:14):
figures in nineteen ninety five, but prior to that, three
hundred million units, not dollars units were sold. Do you
think Migo is kicking themselves right now?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Oh yeah, it'd be.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Like being offered one hundred thousand Apple stock, Yeah, you know,
right back in nineteen eighty and turning it down and
turning it down. You know, who's going to use? People
in homes don't use computers.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
So my last one in my old faithful category or
my little ponies, I.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Think I see your theme here bears puppies ponies?

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Oh my, what is it? Bears beats, Battlestar Galactica. Yes,
my Little Pony. That's where I learned to braid hair
was on my Little Pony. That's really all you could
do with My Little Pony. So they were hard plastic
and they had the fake little you know, blue, pink,

(40:24):
whatever color hair and you'd and it came each my
little Pony came with a little hair brush and you'd
brush their little mane and you could braid their little
mane and then that's it.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
You girls had so much fun in the air.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
I mean, that was about it. That was about it.
So but I had a couple they only initially. Of course,
now when Emmy comes along, she was born in twenty thirteen,
my Little Pony had made a comeback. And there are
lots of characters in the eighties. When they originally came out,

(41:00):
there were just a couple. But I had those and
I played with them and I brushed their little hair.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Was rain Was Rainbow Sparkle one of those characters in
the eighties.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
I don't know, but that's one of the ones that
Emmy used to always talk about. You remember that, I do.
She was all about Rainbow Sparkle. So one one hundred,
it's such a large number. I can't even say it.
One hundred and fifty million ponies were sold in the nineteen.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Eighties, so less than half of Star Wars.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Well yeah, I mean, yeah, there's a big difference between
My Little Pony and Star Wars. But that's still that's
a lot of ponies.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
That is a lot of ponies.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
I mean they don't do anything JOm. They stand around.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
They stand around with hair, yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
With their little mane and you brush it.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Did they move like, did their legs or anything move? No,
So they were just like stiff, like those.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Old hard plastic rubber.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Wrestlers, yes, that I also had in the eighties.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, and you braid it there me you're like I'm
doing People can't see this when I'm getting like I'm braiding.
But anyways, so yeah, my three hare Bears, pound Puppies,
my Little Pony.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Okay, those were three big girl toys.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
So you've noticed the theme here that I had going on, animals,
set and play and just be quiet. That's in that
what everybody always wanted the little girls to do in
the eighties. Well, I got news for you. That's what
I did until I got my first big wheel. Big
wheel and when I got my big wheel, that was

(42:42):
my first taste of freedom. Baby, and I hit that
open road and I never looked back.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
No, you were like Dennis Hopper and easy race.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yes, yes, but seriously, the big wheel is what It
was a big factor obviously in getting me outside, which
I already played outside, but it got me outside, and
then it get When you get outside, then you start
using your imagination, and then you start getting creative, and

(43:15):
then you start having the real fun, just something kids
don't do these days. After my big wheels, do you
know what, I graduated to little wheels? Hot wheels?

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Oh, I was gonna say there was a big wheel
that had little wheels.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
I collected hot wheels. Did you collect those?

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Absolutely? Hot wheels were awesome.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Did you carry them around in a little briefcase like
I did?

Speaker 1 (43:43):
I probably didn't have the funds for a briefcase. I
don't remember how I carried my hot wheels around, but
I do have a hot wheel story.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Well pause, because I got something else to add on
the lines of how you transport your hot wheels. Okay,
so I wasn't all that because of my hard plastic briefcase. True, true,
hot wheel aficionados had a plastic wheel with the viators

(44:17):
and you put each car in its own little bay.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
I was a true you had that aficionado then, because
I did.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Have that, Mom and Dad wouldn't buy me one.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I would not have remembered that if you hadn't brought
that up. Yep, But yes, I had that. I would
carry that up to my friend Jeff's house. Remember the
afore mentioned Jeff who pulled me on the Alice Cooper
song that he wrote. So, my friend Jeff had a
driveway that was kind of steep. It was. It was
a hill. It was a lot steeper as a kid

(44:49):
than it is now. I've gone back and seen it
and I'm like, really, we thought that thing was steep.
But what we used to do is we used to
take our hot wheels, and we probably had thirty of them, right,
thirty of them that really worked, and we would sit
up at the top of that hill and we wouldn't
push them. We'd just let them go on the top
of the hill in whichever hot wheel made it the

(45:10):
furthest that was like the winner of the race.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Did they ask?

Speaker 1 (45:13):
So we would do that over and over and over.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Again, tumble or the hill, wasn't that steep?

Speaker 1 (45:19):
I don't. I don't remember them tumbling, but they probably
did at times, you know. But the but the ones
with the smoother wheels and everything, you know, those were
the ones that were gonna make it the furthest But yeah,
I just remember having so much fun doing that. Between
that and the little tiny miniature football helmets that you

(45:40):
would pay you know, a quarter at the at the
local grocery store to get out and hope that you
didn't get, you know, duplicates over and over and over again.
Those two things were probably the two things that I
had the most fun with as a kid.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Did you have the dukes of hazard cars in hot wheels?
Did you?

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (46:00):
I had Generally, and I had Daisy's Geep. And then
they had Roscoe's car. What was that a Cadillac or something.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
That was Boss Hogs Cadillac, Yes, Cadillac, Rosco's patrol car.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
But the Cadillac had the horns on the front, you
remember that. Yes, I had those.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yes, I don't remember if we had Daisy's Cheap, but
I remember the General Lee in Boss Hogs Cadillac. In
Roscoe's patrol car.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
I broke the horns off the Cadillac on purpose.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, because you hated bosscar.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I don't know. Why do kids do things?

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Well, I don't know. You know what we did. My
next door neighbor, his dad was always working in his
garage and he had a vice grip, and so we'd
stick our hot wheels between that crush them like like
the Griswold's car that they traded in for the truckster.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Oh my goodness, that was fun, though, wasn't it?

Speaker 1 (47:03):
As like a six year old that's like the coolest
thing you've ever seen in your life.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
But once it's crushed, it's gone.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Yeah, we didn't really think about that.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Okay, So now I want to talk about maybe some
games or toys that we have forgotten about or we
haven't thought about in a long time.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Before you go there, well, I guess this could be
in that category. But when you mentioned big wheels, that
got me thinking about something too, and so let me
play this.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Okay, this is the Green Machine machine nine ten years
old old enough for Green Machine, a racer for guys
who like a ride that's really fast, stick shift controls.
We have all action rear wheels. Twist turn has been

(47:58):
like wild what a ride and green machine with six
shift steering some assembly required. Green Machine by Marx.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
So what in the world was this that I just
listened to. I've never heard of a green machine.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
The Green Machine was like the Harley Davidson compared to
the big Wheel, which was like a Dotson.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
What it was it like a souped up big wheel.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
It was. It was a souped up big wheel. And
you would, you know, you would pedal, you know, just
like you would with a big wheel, but instead of
steering with handle bars, you had these almost like gear
shifts on the side.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Well that sounds like a guy in the commercial makes
it sound like it's a gear shift.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Yeah, that you but it wasn't really a gear, right,
You're not really shifting gears, but you're moving these things
back and forth like a gear shift to be able
to turn the Green Machine. But was really cool was
you could pull one back real hard, push one up
real hard, and like spin out almost like do like
a donut. Oh and so I saw the Green Machine
and I'm like, that is the most awesome thing I've

(49:14):
ever seen in my life, and I want one, And
of course I never got one, but my next door
neighbor who was, you know, the baby of the family,
a few years older than me. Like, he basically had
all the coolest stuff. He had a drum kit in
his basement, He had a green machine. He had all

(49:35):
the football helmets, so much fun to play with men.
He had that green machine. He was like, you know,
I saw the commercial and I was like, man, I
wish I could had me a green machine. And he
pulled it out of his garage and he'd be riding
that thing around. It looked so much fun, and I
wanted the green machine was like having a Ferrari and

(49:57):
the regular red and yellow big wheel was like the
nineteen eighty one Ford Fairmount that I drove the high school.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Did he ever let you drive the green machine?

Speaker 1 (50:09):
He probably did. He probably did, but probably not for long.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Well, I have a question, why was the commercial it
talks about it's like geared towards guys. It says, eight
nine ten year old guys.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Because Christy Lee Brinkley's the only one I've ever seen
drive a Lamborghini.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Oh, I could drive the green machine. I could drive one.
Then I could drive one right now?

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Didn't you total a big wheel as a kid. I'm
not sure that you could hand me.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
I was not driving the big wheel when we had
the accident. Oh okay, okay, I was a passenger, all.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Right, all right, Well then I take back by you
couldn't handle the green machine. But listen, I've been in
the car with you. You're a fine driver, but you
have a leadfoot, a leadfoot. Whether it's the gas, a leadfoot, weather,
it's the break, it doesn't matter. You are hammering that
thing down like that guy that we talked about with,

(51:06):
he man that had the big metal hand, you know,
that could punch things through. That's how your foot is
while driving. So I'm not sure you could handle the
green machine.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Oh I could have handled it. But so we could
argue about this all day, whether I could handle the
Green machine or not. But I just had a thought about.
You know, that accident, the great big wheel accident of
eighty three was horrendous and I got like seriously hurt.
But the reason why I got hurt is I was

(51:40):
standing up on the back of the big wheel. My
cousin was driving it. So he's sitting, he's pedaling, he's steering.
I'm standing up behind him, holding onto his shoulders. So
when we wrecked. That's why I got hurt.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
That's what you went flying?

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Yeah, did you guys ever do that? Did you try
to like pile on a big wheel?

Speaker 1 (52:01):
No?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
No, I didn't go flying. He dragged me. Oh okay,
because I didn't let go.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Probably your first mistake.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, right, So your.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
First mistake was standing up on the back.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
If you have a crash, let go.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Your second mistake was not letting.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
I was committed. I was committed to that ride. But yeah,
I just wondered, was that something that only we did
or did you guys ever do that? No, we did
not do Did you ever do that with the bicycle?

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yes? We had the pegs on the bicycle.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
I've got a horror story about my brother Matt on those,
but that's for another episode.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I don't remember I know about the pegs that you're
you're talking about, but I just remember I would sit
and my cousin would stand in pedal.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
I think we would probably do that too. Well, it's hard.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
It's hard to do.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
Okay, all right, So that was you know, I not
necessarily forgotten, but definitely junk my memory. When you mentioned
big wheel, I.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Had never heard of the green machine. I thought it
was how we were going to talk about, like.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
The mystery machine.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Yeah, I I really honestly didn't know, But okay, I
got I got something for you. Mom.

Speaker 5 (53:13):
You come to Popples for your child, umbles out of Puget,
bumbles out of puget, somebody fun.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Funky building an eleven.

Speaker 5 (53:30):
And that's what.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
You child. So I can tell by the look on
your face you have no idea what a poppole is.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
I don't, but I do love the fact that that
you can tell that that commercial is an eighties commercial.
It sounds like, yeah, it had, but I don't remember popples.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
No, So a popple was I don't know. It was
some form of an animal. It was a marsupial of some.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Sort a marsupial. Was it from Australia?

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Well, let me tell you why. I think it was
a marsupial. So it had a long tail with a
like a pomp pom on the end of its tail.
But you could fold it into itself and it would
fold into like a ball.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
I don't remember this at all.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
So that's why I called it a marsupial. Like a
cheerleader would use, just a little furry pomp its tail.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Was was the pompole in the Tony Basil video. Mickey, Oh, Mickey,
you're so fine.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
No, don't get hung up on the pompo.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
It was a little furry. I'm hung up on the pompo.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Supposedly, the idea for a popple came from somebody rolling
up their socks. Well, they were doing their laundry.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Were pompo's successful, did they?

Speaker 2 (55:04):
I mean I think, I mean, obviously not too successful
because you've never heard all of them, But I think
in the girl realm in the eighties, yeah, I think
popple's were kind of successful.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
So let's back up a second, because it's not that
I've never heard of them. I may have heard of them.
I've just they're not in my memory at all.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
It's not in your memory bank.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
No, not at all. So it's possible that I've heard
of them and that my memory has just wiped it
clean because I don't want to see a marsupial cheering
with Tony Basil, Basil or Basil. So the idea came
from rolling I wish I could come up with a
genius idea for something so mundane like rolling up socks.

(55:45):
Can I think of a multi million dollar deal for
watching you fold my T shirts.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Oh yeah, I wish, because then I could hire somebody
to fold your T shirts.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Yes, all right, so uh not necessarily a forgotten toy again,
but not something that I think about daily. But again,
you jugged my memory when you went from the big
wheels to the little wheels. So the Hot Wheels you
remember criss cross crash? No, well, let's play the commercial.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
This year's Hot Wheels Criss Cross Grash race set. Driving
skill is once you need to avoid a crash at
this nice bee on a finger Ei drive with a
criss cross crash, you can crack a lot faster and
watch a flash out of the curve. It's nearly a baster.
That's a chance you take high speed quick flash on

(56:41):
criss Cross Crash. Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash Race set
not for use with all Hot Wheels cars. You put
it together, you from a tail?

Speaker 1 (56:50):
What did that song make you think of.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
The wheel of cheese?

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Really?

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Yeah? What was it supposed to make me?

Speaker 1 (57:00):
I was thinking like dukes of Hazzard, I'm hankering for
a hunk of cheese.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Maybe it's because it's past dinner. Time, I haven't had
anything to eat.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
So Criss Cross Crash was this thing where you could
put your hot wheels in and like they said, it
wasn't made for every hot wheels, right, they probably had
special but you would turn like this little wheel and
you would continue to turn it and it would It
was almost like a little tunnel where the cars would
fly through and it was this track that crossed each other.
So the goal was to get them racing around and

(57:34):
then eventually they'd hit the cross at the same time
and they'd crash into each other. Well, you know, little boys,
they love crashes. Yeah, I just said, we liked to
put hot wheels in a vice grip and destroy it.
So that was I saw that commercial on I so
wanted a crisscross Crash. I wanted any of those tracks
where you could put hot wheels or cars, remote drive

(57:55):
cars on or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Well, so for Christmas one year, I got the track
that you could build and make it, you know, within
a certain parameters, you know, any shape or size, and
then you could it had two lanes and you could
put specialty cars that came with the track on it,
and then you had like a little gun and you

(58:17):
would you would hit the gun, Yes, and the cars
would go and they could race each other. But inevitably
they always flew.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
They flew off the Yeah, they flew off the track
every single time.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
So that that was a great toy and I loved it,
a great worthless toy until two, three, four or five
days in somebody came in my room and tripped over
in the track and broke it and broke it and
I never, you know, never got it replaced.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Yeah, that that was life as an eighties kid, right,
You'd have something, somebody break it, and it just that
was it. That was it, Like it was gone forever.
It was. It was like it may as well have
spontaneously and busted and been consumed in a fire.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
Did you have one of those that I was just
talking about. You know they had a smell? Yes, what
was that smell?

Speaker 1 (59:08):
The fire that was about to burn it down when
somebody proba never got to use it again.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Probably did that happen to you?

Speaker 1 (59:16):
I mean, with so many toys, not not necessarily that toy,
but just so many toys.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
You know, I'm feeling a little like I'm resentful right
now of my race car, my race track, getting to
I know worked up.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
You know why because you're a child of the eighties
in your back being a child right now talking about
these toys, and when your toys got broke, you got mad. Yeah,
because you knew you weren't getting it again.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
No, like it was done.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
You may as well not even ask. You're gonna ask,
but you're gonna be told no. Yeah, I already got
you that. Well, but I'm not. But it broke well,
tough titty.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
I don't think we can say that on here. Whoa, folks,
we said the t word. Whoa?

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Okay, my last one that I don't always think about.
I didn't have a lot of it. It was a cartoon.
I had it. But my brother Mike would be mad
if I didn't mention it. So I'm just gonna mention mask.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Well, I have no idea what that is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
So they were action figures, just.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Like but mask and like masks or mask mask M
A S K was it an acronym.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
It was an acronym, so M period A period s
period K period and it stands for mobiled Armored Strike Command,
but command spelled with a K instead of a C.
So it was a unique toy line pioneered by Kenner
again Hinner in nineteen eighty five, probably because they had
the money from the Star Wars commercial.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Oh so.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
They you know, obviously there was a rising theme of
action figures and transformation started by the Transformers, continued by
the Gobots, and so the Mask was kind of like
that too. The series pits the heroic Mask, led by
wealthy philanthropist Matt Tracker, against the renegade Venom, also an
acronym Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, led by turncoat tyrant

(01:01:36):
Miles Mayhem. So it was a two season.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Cartoon, so it was a cartoon.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
It was a cartoon, and then they had you know,
action figures. You know, I liked the cartoon. I got
some of the action figures, but I wasn't nearly as
into it as my brother was. He just absolutely loved it.
I kind of wish we had him on here right
now because he would just he'd probably geek out on

(01:02:04):
it and tell you about everything about it. You know
who else would probably do that too. You know, our
friend Sean on Generation rewind their original you know you
heard this when we interviewed with him. His original podcast
was called Toys Were Us?

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
So you think he remembers Mask.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
Oh, I guarantee you he remembers Mask. So you know,
I bet if we could get Mike and Sean together,
like they could probably hold a three hour podcast just.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
On Mask, and you and I could just step back
and yeah, I'd probably take a nap enjoy the show.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
I'd probably take a nap.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Well, I got a couple of more things I want
to talk about before we wrap it up. Okay, I'll
try to move a little quicker. Speak and spell.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
See so you mentioned speaking spell, and that is definitely
something that I forgot about and I wouldn't remember. But
as soon as you said it, I'm like, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Well that was speaking spell. That was my first glimpse
of a computer.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Yes, right, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Made by Texas instrument who also made a calculator. Do
you remember the calculators called the Little Professor.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
It's that's like a vague memory in the back resources
of my mind that's trying to come out, but it
just won't.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Well, I always want I had a speaking spell. I
always wanted the calculator and I never got one. I
always thought there's a little face on the front of
the calculator. Up until today, I thought it was an owl.
It's an old man. I don't know why I thought
it was an.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Owl, A little professor, I guess are we talking about
the speaking spell?

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
No, little professor, I thought it the face was an owl.
It's a man. Why did I think it was an owl?

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
I don't know little old men look like owls.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Basically, it was a math fact, okay, because it would
pop up four plus one?

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
You remember it in there?

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Five?

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
Yeah, because I dominated that game.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. We needed
one for emmy. I think you could do. You addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
All of those.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
One more thing that I wanted as a kid that
I never got that my cousins had a Fisher Price garage.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
A Fisher Price garage, Yeah, I don't think. I don't
remember having that either. We may have, but I don't
remember having that. I think I would remember.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
I don't know why that was such a big deal
to me as a kid, but it was like, I
don't know, a two level garage. And it had a
little circular ramp.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
I had it, and I say that I had it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
And at the base at the exit was a little
gas tank and you could fill your little car up
with gas before you took off to wherever you were going.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
With pretend guests. They didn't allow us real gas in
the eighties, although it wouldn't have been surprising had they,
because not all the toys were the safest.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Right had that? Yes, you had all the good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
I didn't have all the good stuff, but yeah, that
we we had that. You know, listen, five kids, you
don't get a whole lot. But the good news is
is that, like everybody kind of gets something different, and
so you're bound to run into a bunch of different
types of toys.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Yeah, that's true. That's true. So one more thing, Oh,
did you have something you wanted to decide?

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Well, something that I could never forget about because again
the commercial, like, how could you forget the song to
this commercial? Now?

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Why are you bringing that up? Did you notice I,
on purpose did not mention Teddy Roxban.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
Creepy because Teddy Rexman creeped you out.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
My body creepy, Teddy Rock's been creepy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
My buddy wasn't creepy. Chucky came out.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Well either way, it's creepy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
But do you remember because of my buddy kid's sister,
it was the same tune.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
Oh yeah, I do remember, so to my.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
Buddy it was kid's sister.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
Yeah sister, Yeah, I do remember.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
Okay, So just wanted to mention that because again, the
my Buddy song or the kid's sister song, they're the
same tune. They've they've been stuck in my head since
nineteen eighty five.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
So did you enjoy this episode? Did I pull it off?

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
You did? This was a fun episode. I enjoyed this
episode so much that maybe later on, I don't know,
for Christmas season or maybe afterwards, maybe we'll do a
an episode on games, because I thought, okay, I thought
that you might have thrown in some games there.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
And I didn't have time, right, So, but.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Yeah, no, this this was a fun episode, always reminiscing
about toys. You know, again, what's the name of our podcast,
Children of the eighties, right, and so what a children
love more than anything except for maybe their parents, and
sometimes more than their parents, cereal and their toys, cerial

(01:07:22):
toys and cartoons.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
So I think this is a good segue into the
holiday season, and so in the next couple of episodes
we'll focus on something Christmas Eve.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
Oh, definitely, we have we have multiple Christmas episodes coming out. Yep,
we have some some good ideas for this one. Yeah,
you know, it's also the fortieth anniversary forty years ago
a Christmas story which we mentioned earlier forty years ago
came out.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
So oh, I hadn't heard that it's the fortieth.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
Anniversary nineteen eighty three.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
Okay, well that might be something fun. We'll see, huh.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Absolutely, So, if.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
You like our podcast, it would mean so much to
us if you leave us a review. I was reading
something a couple of days ago about how if you
like subscribe, leave us a review, it helps the algorithm
helps us show up more, and so we would be
eternally grateful if you would do that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
Yeah, more people will discover us if you leave us
a good rating please and a review. So we would
appreciate if you enjoy this podcast at all, if you
enjoy listening to us at all, help other people find
it and hopefully they'll enjoy it as well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
I think that's it all right, Well, until next time.
I'm Jim, I'm Lindsey, and we are children of the eighties.