SPRINKLES AND PUFFBALLS

If you were still a girl in 1986, you may have had a Popple. I, myself, did not- but I am going to include them on this site because I like the colors and plushiness of Popples and I do have an appreciation of most 80s girls toys, so let's take a look at these.

Popples are from a branch off company from American Greetings, who I think are the same people who did Strawberry Shortcake. They are plush balls that unfold into bright colored teddy bears or kangaroo type animals with a long tail. There are different series of Popples: Rock Star Popples (with microphones and funky clothes), Sports Popples- probably geared toward boys- they are in primary colors, no pinks, and fold up into basketballs and baseballs.
There are also Flower Popples that fold up into Flowers, my personal favorites, as well as Pillow Popples (in PJs), fruit Popples and a random Ballerina and Cheerleader (because both of those are always welcome to girls). There are also little Pufflings- pets that are basically just a puffball (see below). Let's check them out and see if you had any of these!

Pink Puffling

Purple Puffling

Red Puffling

Blue Puffling

Puffball

Baby Bibsy

Cribsy Bibsy

Kissy Pop

Party Pink

Party Pink in a ball

Pink Flower Popple Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle in a ball- cute!

Pretty Bit

Pretty Bit in a ball

annnnnd the trusty lunchbox!

Here is the popples logo

Puffball Cheerleader

This ad cracks me up- it was geared toward parents and the ad copy is terrible, although I like the picture!

Until next time...

Vintage Rainbow Brite

2011-11-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

Did you guys ever have Rainbow Brite dolls? These were completely bypassed in my house, but we are still going to take a look at them here today!

Ok, please note: Above are the cute cartoons of what the dolls should look like...and then below, we will take a look at what the dolls actually did look like. In all fairness, these dolls are over 25 years old and shouldn't be judged so harshly I suppose.

All right, here's the deal on Rainbow Brite (I am trying to type this while watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta, and it is hard to pay attention). Her name used to be Wisp. Yes, Wisp. Boring old Wisp. She was taken to a colorless world and was supposed to find the sphere of light

She meets her sprite (that little fluffy guy with her in the box) Twink, who used to be red, but he was drained of all his colors when he was thrown into some pit by a villain named Murky Dismal (we will look at him in a minute.)

At some point, she rescues a bunch of colorful kids and locates the color belt, which is the grandaddy of all superpowers because it brings COLOR to the colorless world, people! She is then queened ruler of Rainbow Land and she and all her colorful friends remain in charge of the colors, including the colors on earth. Ya with me?

Here is Starlite, her talking horse

Here's the packaging- you know how I love packaging...

Puppy Brite: Because everybody needs a dog

Because all eighties characters need an Irish sidekick, here is Patty O'Green and her sidekick sprite, Lucky. Like her braids- cute.

representin the sistas is Indigo, in charge of the color purple. She is theatrical and loves acting. Her sprite is named Hammy. I like her little lavender streaks in her hair.

Close up in box...cute

Here is Lala Orange, representing the French. She is supposed to be a girly girl, but I don't see how in the color orange. Her sprite is named OJ. borrriinnng.

oooh- now were talkin'- a PINK doll with long ponytails. Girls like this stuff here. This is Tickled Pink, who wasn't in the original crew, but who came in later. She is in charge of something in Rainbow Land- I think it is pastels. Anyway, she is the only other doll who has a multi-colored dress besides Rainbow Brite...watch out bitches!

Cute little close up- pinks, lavenders and gold? Yes please.

Here is Red Butler without Sprite Romeo- he is brave and all that, the typical alpha-male.

Buddy Blue, another dude, with his Sprite Champ. If you are guessing he is the sporty one, you would be correct!

Canary Yellow is a dancer...I think this is supposed to be a dude. His sprite is named Sashay Shante (kidding).

Here are a few Sprites- they are little guys who mine color crystals in the caves of Rainbow Land: Cheap labor! They are the working class.

ahhhh sukey sukey now...Here is Murky Dismal! He has major Issues! He hates color because when he was little, he drew on the walls with a bunch of crayons and his mother went ballistic. She made him clean for hours and hours to remove alllll of those colors- and he has hated color in general, ever since! Get over it dude! He creates clouds of doom in Rainbow Land and is all around depressing and evil. Well, someone has to do it.

This is Murkey Dismal's sprite, or henchman, Lurky. He is clumsy and good-hearted and drives the grunge buggy for Murky!

Until next time!

Vintage My Little Pony

2011-10-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

Posey

Feel like talking Ponies with me? My thoughts on My Little Pony is that they are far too saturated- there are too many of them, making it hard to appreciate any of them. I am showing just the early 80s ponies here (none of these are mine, FYI). The first line of ponies were "Earth Ponies", then came all sorts of different things like unicorns and pegasuses; twinkly jewled eyes, friggin sea horses, babies, and anything else you could think of.

Let's take a look at the first few lines of ponies- these are from 1983 through 1985 (the best years ever):

Windy

Sunbeam

Snuzzle

Sky Flyer

Rainbow Parasol

Peachy

Lilly of the Valley

Moonstone

Melody

Dancing Butterflies

Applejack

Majesty

Blue Belle

Lemon Drop

Blossom

Bowtie

Butterscotch

Cotton Candy

Sunlight

Minty

Vintage Strawberry Shortcake

2011-10-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

You knew it was a matter of time before I put some vintage Strawberry Shortcake up- I thought it would be a huge undertaking where I would need to list all of the characters (I still might do that at some point). So let's talk about good old Strawberry: She was on greeting cards before becoming a toy.

Love that packaging! All of the Strawberry Shortcake line of dolls had good smelling hair that matched their dessert names. They also each had a little pet with some sort of a desserty name. Most of the dolls had tights and cute little shoes and hats- Lets take a look at all of the Strawberryland products too (by Kenner)- all of us 80s girls were mad for these toys. They were rounded and were in Valentine's day colors. We were so sold!

I had this bake shoppe- you could push the table down into the ground in order to close up the case. There were little pies and crusts and plastic ice cream scoops- it was a great toy.

Here is the carrying case..

This is some sort of a Merry Bug- I cant see the name...

You could also collect little plastic figurines and keep them in this cute case...

There was a big house called the Berry Happy Home and you could buy separate furniture...

Berry Happy Home

Here is the home from the front, along with the Big Berry Trolley, the Garden House Gazebo and the Merry Berry Worm.

Heres the garden house...

and a 1980 halloween costume...

Here is the evil Purple Pieman! He smelled like cinnamon apple pie!

I always loved the shoes! Lets look at a few pair!

My favorites...

Box for the Merry Berry Worm

A sh*tload of cute dolls in candy colors!

I am going to start gathering pictures and names of each character...it'll bug me if I dont!

Ok..I'm back. Here they are:

Almond Tea and Marza Panda

Angel Cake and Souffle

Apple Dumplin' and Tea Time Turtle

Baby Apricot and Hopsalot

Banana Twirl and Banana Berrykin

Blueberry Muffin

Cafe Ole and Burrito...Nice Sombrero there folks...

Butter Cookie and Jelly Bear

Cherry Cuddler and Gooseberry

Crepe Suzzette and Eclair representing France

And starring Huckleberry Pie as the token boy

Lem n' Ada with Sugarwoofer

Lemon Meringue

Lime Chiffon and Parfait Parrot

Mint Tulep and Marsh Mallard representin' the Netherlands

Orange Blossom and marmalade, representing the Sistas- yeah, I said it

Peach Blush

Plumb Pudding and some animal, representing us nerds

Raspberry Tart (missing Rhubarb)

Sour Grapes Bitches!

And this one is for Ronni, who lead me to a picture of ESCARGOT and the snail cart! I cant believe I forgot this, because I actually still HAVE mine in the garage!

Thanks girl!

You Better Swatch Yourself

2011-10-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

Swatches! They were the big thing in 1985. Swatch is supposed to be a contraction of "second watch"- did you guys know that? They were marketed as being something that was practically disposable- a fashion accessory that you could wear two or three of at the same time, like bracelets. The Swatch Group is no cheesy eighties company, they literally own Calvin Klein and Tiffany & Co (can that be right? Apparently it is!)

The things I learn.

Check out these pics of cool swatches below! There is even a pic of some Swatch Guards, the little plastic rubberband-like things over the face of the watch.

1980s makeup

2011-10-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

I loved makeup in the 80s. I got a big box of makeup for my sixth birthday (yes, you read right) and I loved it ever sense. These Kissing Koolers were out around 1988, when I was 14 and first started piling it on.

The peppermint one was the best! I will never forget that candy cane smell.

Now before those kissing koolers, were Kissing Potion lipglosses- See the ad below with the original Valley Girl Deborah Foreman (sp?)- They straight up say in the ad that you should wear a different flavor for each guy you kiss! Don't hate the player, had the game people!

Here's some vintage makeup packaging and below are lots of ads that I would see in my mother's magazines

This ad campaign was my favorite of the 80s- They started in 87 and went through to 89: The most unforgettable women in the world wear Revlon. Lots of future supermodels featured in these ads, including the one above.

And here is the contraption all of us put our makeup into: CABOODLES make up case- it was basically a pink tackle box!

Ads featuring colorful 80s eyeshadows!

Maxi was discontinued at some point when I wasn't looking, but I wore their foundation in the 8th grade...

OOOH, do you guys remember these little sample eye shadows that were included in magazine inserts? Pretty genius. They should do that again.

Now go and make your eyes look like a peacock, ladies!

Bobby and Kate, Triple Yan-Yan

2011-10-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

Bobby (I almost wrote Booby) and Kate were these little characters that weren't Hello Kitty. That is how I saw them. But looking back, I have a new found respect for the cuteness that is Bobby and Kate- they were actually pretty adorable and I like the pastels. Let's look at these:

Nice and rounded, thick lines, lots of gingham? I'm sold.

I think this is soap...

Ok, now, this little product is different: This is TRIPLE YAN YAN! I frickin LOVED Triple Yan Yan although I didn't know and still don't know what in the world a yan yan is. They appeared to be cute little sisters with bows, overalls and little purses. They were on erasers and miniature notepads and teensy pencils.

A cute eraser inside a plastic house? Yes please! Although mixing red with pastels is a don't in my book, I will let it slide here.

Another cute eraser missing a roof/lid. Wonder if these smelled like bubblegum like the Sanrio ones did?

This was a jumbo pencil- I had a pink one. Hanging off it was a little memo pad with a tiny pencil! So cute! If I find more stuff I will post it. Thanks to flickr for most of these pictures- someone has a really cute collection out there and I wish it was me!

Here is more stuff I just found on Etsy, which means you can BUY it:

A blue one with no frills...

A pink on with teeny crayons!

Colored Pencils! Cute!

A whole set of cuteness...

Annnnd a little desk calender.

Until next time!