You Are What You Were. Celebrate Retro Pop Culture At Retroland.
Children are not afraid of the dark. They are afraid of what is hiding in the dark, waiting to devour them whole once the last electric light has been shut off by a parent's treasonous hand. Possibly there is the faintest glimmer of a streetlamp's light slipping through the child's Strawberry Shortcake curtains, but the light is too diffused to overcome the inky darkness with all its hidden horrors.
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In the world of die-cast toy cars, attention to detail is appreciated, but what kids really crave is speed. And for over forty years, Mattel's Hot Wheels have delivered the goods, proclaiming themselves not only fast, but the fastest. As such, they have remained enormously popular (and collectable) ever since they were first introduced in 1968.
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Scientists claim that hippos (Hippopotamus amphibious) are herbivores, but millions of kids can attest otherwise. Their experience suggests that these gentle beasts have an insatiable appetite for little white marbles. Many a feeding frenzy has been observed during the course of a rousing round of Hungry Hungry Hippo.
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The video game console wars of the early 80s were reminiscent of the video format wars a few years earlier, where VHS won the popularity contest hands-down, yet Betamax still boasted a better quality. In this arena, the Atari 2600 played the role of the VHS tape and underdog challenger was Mattel’s Intellivision, a fine little video game system that never quite captured the same spotlight, but will forever be remembered by many from that era as the superior system.
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Jenga is a game that required steady hands and nerves of steel. Forget Operation, forget The Game of Jaws - these were child’s play by comparison. You were going to need some serious intestinal fortitude to make it through a game of Jenga, where one wrong move, one unintended twitch of the wrist would bring the game crashing down around you much to the delight of your nerve-rattled opponents.
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You’ve amassed a bounty of small childhood treasures - a few pieces of candy, that coveted plastic piece of jewelry from a gumball machine, a few coins you found under the couch. In a kinder world, you could trust the security of your bedroom door. But mere doors are no match for that roving group of pirates known as “siblings”, eager to rob you of your hard-earned trinkets the minute your back is turned. It’s going to take some crafty ingenuity to keep your valuables safe from the thievery of these prepubescent pillagers. You must find a place where they would never think of looking – say, perhaps, the belly of a cute plastic animal.
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Anyone who has ever been a child – yes, that includes you – is no stranger to the terror of playing catch. Some hard substance stitched up in animal skin blazing toward your face. Never mind that in most cases the fear was easy to eventually overcome, it was no fun to face it the first time, especially with pre-adolescent motor skills. Enter the Koosh Ball...
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Every once in a while, a toy is released with all of the good intentions of the world, and yet, no matter how popular it may become, an unforeseen safety issue arises which requires that it be removed from store shelves. Few, however, have the dubious distinction of being outlawed completely, which brings us to Lawn Darts - those popular ground-piercing projectiles that sent more than a few tykes to the emergency room back in the day. Let’s take a look.
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Lazer Tag was all the rage when it was introduced in 1986. It was the cops and robbers of the future, the ability to shoot light beams at each other and score points for direct hits. With a Starlyte gun, StarBelt, StarVest, and even a StarHelmet, players were well equipped to battle each other in 23rd century fashion - in playgrounds, backyards, or even better - in giant futuristic arenas, complete with space-age obstacles and concert light shows. If you were a kid in the late 80s, you certainly remember Lazer Tag and the extensive marketing campaign on television and in comic books that accompanied it.
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Perhaps the most foremost and beloved building blocks of all times, Lego is known the world over for their constructive and colorful bricks that can build most anything - from an airplane to an x-wing fighter, from an airport to a pirate ship to just about anything you can dream of. Today, we take a look at the history of the Lego company and their legacy of toys, video games and theme parks.
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