Toys on your shopping list
Go to Farm & Fleet’s website, and the store has a countdown clock to the opening of its Christmas season Toyland, now just 25 days away, on Oct. 20.
That soon-to-open toy section occurred to me as I read the story in Sunday’s Gazette Marketplace section about the hot new toys that Toys R Us will allow early shoppers to “reserve.” The list includes computer tablets for kids, fashion dolls that aren’t Barbie or G.I. Joe but those resembling the boy-band One Direction, and retro hits such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Furby.
That story also brought to mind a discussion Tim Beggs was leading one recent morning on WCLO. Tim was detailing a list, compiled in an online poll by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, of the top 100 toys, or “iconic objects,” that have defined American childhood the past century.
The top five? The aforementioned G.I. Joe, Transformers, LEGOs, Barbie and View-Master. The second five were the bicycle, Cabbage Patch Kids, Crayons, Play-Doh and Monopoly.
The second 10 included Raggedy Ann doll, Spirograph, Etch A Sketch, Little Golden Books, Hot Wheels, Lincoln Logs, the Candy Land game, roller skates, Silly Putty and Mr. Potato Head.
I admit, most of those items were part of my childhood. I could think of a few that got left off the top 20, however: the Hula Hoop, Yo-Yo, Slinky, Tinker Toys, the Erector Set, Frisbee, the skateboard, and, if you’re including books, why not the Dr. Seuss series? (You'll find some of these in the top 100).
Have you started assembling your toy list for the coming Christmas shopping season? Are you going to buy some of the new offerings or some of the old standbys above?
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook
Sep 26, 2012 at 9:35 a.m.
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no toys on the list this year..all the kids are either grown ups or babies too young for toys...
Sep 25, 2012 at 8:06 a.m.
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Just Sayin: Mine was the bare bones model. It was purchased Aug 24, 1947 in Janesville MN on a return trip from The Black Hills. I think my parents suddenly remembered it was my 9th birthday and stopped at a hardware store and bought the wagon. It was strapped to the top of our Chevy. In the early sixties it was given to a neighbor kid and it still might be around.
Sep 24, 2012 at 9:36 p.m.
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mgcarguy - Did yours have the wooden sides? Mine was a fire engine, race car, motorhome, garbage truck, and what my mom used to get the turkey to school at Thanksgiving one year.
Sep 24, 2012 at 2:47 p.m.
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When I was a kid I had a Radio Flyer wagon. That wagon could be anything I wanted it to be from an army tank to a race car. I recall pushing myself along seated in the wagon with a broom stick. We had a sidewalk in front of our house!
Sep 24, 2012 at 2:11 p.m.
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The only toys kids get these days are the ones Grandma and Grandpa buy for them. That's why you recognize so many of them. They're marketed to appeal to old people :-p
I'm just sayin'...
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