The Twenty-Third Day of Christmas...

Today's gift is not the one in the picture I'm including. I couldn't find today's gift. I hope you enjoy this substitute. Anyway, in Christmas 89 I got two sports toys : basketball and soccer.

These toys had clear bubble domes like this one, but they were much smaller. Instead of sticks, you moved the ball by pushing 6 or 8 buttons. The basketball or soccer would roll around on the board until it landed in a hole. Each player looks for the number next to the hole and try to push it first. The first person to push their button advances the ball further.

The soccer had a couple extra features. It had only six buttons, and the holes in the middle were for one player instead of both. You also had access to a goalie with a lever. You could slide it back and forth to block shots. The goalie made the soccer game more interesting than basketball.

Our version of soccer had it's dome crushed inward. I've always meant to poke a hole in it so I could pull it outward but I never did.

If I ever find either of these two toys I'll post a better pic.

The Nineteenth Day of Christmas...

Today's gift is not a video game. Hurrah! It's Milton Bradley's Hot Shot, which is a pocket version of arcade basketball. I got this in the mid-nineties when I was starting to out grow toys.

As you might be able to see I never added the stickers to the hoop and top part. I probably just didn't want to. This game has a score counter that goes up to thirty after you score. I do think I beat that score a few times. The back of the game has a lever you pull for a timer, and the basketball board goes back and forth before it runs out. All the pieces can be stored into the back if you remember which goes where, which I had to do the first couple times I pulled it back out.

Sometimes I would grab a lego character and have it dunk a few times. Fun toy.

The Fifth Day of Christmas...

Today's gift comes from that magical year of 1988. This is an alphabet robot, and it was the closest thing I had to Transformers.

I only got a couple, if less. I found the letter M in my stocking and quickly figured out how it worked. I should add a picture of me showing it off to my dad sometime in the future.

These robot toys were one of two toys that were letters that could turn into other things. While these toys turn into robots, there was a similar line of toys that turned into an object that started with that letter. For S, there was a swan who's beak and feet you could pull out. There was a xylophone that required you to fold the X outward. I think I liked those better at first, but the robots eventually won me over.

We got most of these toys at Delaware. These letters and robot letters would come in a pack of three and you would just have to hope the pack had what you needed. Sadly we never could complete either collection. I wish we could have had this pack back in the late 80s.

The First Day of Christmas...

Today's present comes from Christmas 1988. We'll probably revisit that year several times thanks to the magic of home video and the non-magic of my memory. This Lego set is known as the Forestman Hideout.

The earliest lego toys I had were mostly castles and some more modern stuff. Around this time, Lego added some new sets. It's a contest whether the Robin Hood stuff was as cool as the pirate stuff, but I think the pirates were cooler if only because they had a shark AND a pirate with a peg-leg, hook, and patch on it's eye.

Still, the Forestmen series had some cool stuff. This came with a couple archers and who presumably take their stolen gold here. They obviously practice on that target. I know it doesn't seem like much, but I thought that target was pretty neat. The small site has branches that disguises the place and vines that still look silly to me after all these years.

I later got a Forestmen set that had a secret entrance. That was awesome and if I could remember getting it on a Christmas I would have showed that one off instead of this one, but this is still cool. It's definitely a good start to this month's reminiscing.

The Fisher Price Tape Recorder!

My family usually see relatives on Christmas Eve. We were even allowed to open presents that night, which made it really exciting. During a really early Christmas Eve, I got a Fisher Price Tape Recorder, which my sister and I had a lot of fun with.

This tape recorder comes as you see and has a microphone in the front next to the eject button. It came with a yellow cassette tape. On one side was a fun instructional recording that tells kids how they could use the recorder. It had people singing songs, explaining radio plays, and so forth. The other side was blank so you can get started. I wish I could find an audio file containing that first side just so I could hear it once more. (We lost this tape because my sister and I at one poin started making so many fart jokes that when my dad listened to it he cut the tape.)

With this tape and a couple more tapes we either got or stole from our parents, my sister and I had a lot of fun with this. We at one poin invented a show called "Totally Hidden Recorder", based on the FOX show of the similar name. Don't blame us. We never heard of Candid Camera. We invented fake pranks that weren't all that clever. One prank was just turning on the sink and pretending to get splashed in the face, and the joke was that the victim - I forget who - turned the tables and also turned on the sink. I also remember asking my cousin to say something, ANYTHING, and when she said, "what?", I told her she was on Totally Hidden Recorder. It was the only thing I could get her to say.

More memories include the time we were at our trailer in Delaware playing Bowling for the Atari 2600. Uncle Buddy and I were playing, and there was a memorable frame where we both messed up. The tape recorder caught the scratchy bowling noise, and my uncle Buddy yelling, "Aww, man!!" Then it caught more bowling noises, and me saying "Awwww, maaan." This was very funny, but part of it later got erased. I actually tried to record my part of that exchange by making up all the sound effects, and saying "Awww, maaan" again.

Another time at Delaware, my parents were watching some R rated firemen movie in the living room so my sister, our favorite cousin and I were in the backroom playing the NES game, "Bart Vs the Space Mutants." (Side note: I remember that at one poin our parents yelled, "That's it!", referring to why the movie was rated R.) I was playing vs the Baby Sitter Bandit at the end of level two. It was at this poin I learned just how big a ham our cousin was, as he stopped cheering for me and became this character announcing what a big deal everything I just did was. I also wish I had a clip of that.

One time I was really sick on a Sunday, so my sister and dad went to Uncle Buddy's while mom and I stayed home. My sister brought the tape recorder, and I'm glad she did, because my dad, ever the aggitator, bugged the heck out of Uncle Buddy as he was playing Tetris for the NES. This was at the time where Tetris and "Your MAMA!" were both huge in the mainstream media. Dad was apparently told to not talk at one poin, because he started making high pitched noises that eventually distracted Uncle Buddy. My sister was laughing the entire time. After Uncle Buddy whined, "Everytime I (unintellgible)", my dad came up with the comeback that my sister and I laughed at for a long time. It's funny how much mileage you can get with two words.

I mentioned the Simpsons earlier. Probably one of the biggest uses we had for the tape recorder was taping a couple Simpsons episodes. We did have a Beta machine, but my sister and I couldn't convince our parents to tape too many shows. We ended up taping an episode called The War of the Simpsons, and it became a favorite of mine. I listened to that tape many, many times. I still laugh at the belt joke which introduced the famous "Haw haw!" We taped a couple more episodes: Brother from the Same Planet, Duffless, and Bart Vs. Austrailia. These are all great episodes and probably had our laughted mixed in with the recordings. We even did brief one minute comments after episodes, and if I could find these it'll be the only place where you'll hear me do a terrible attempt at a Arsenio Hall audience impersonation. (My sister thought I was making monkey noises.) Also, you'll hear my sister say "Shwack!", which was a catchphrase of a local sports radio host named Rich "The Coach" Gilgallon. (The Redskins used to do that to their opponents.)

Of course, the biggest recordings we did was Who Shot Mr. Burns Part 1 (and eventually 2). We must have worned that tape out, but you can't solve that mystery by listening to it. I still have that complete tape somewhere.

Later on when we were teams we started making a couple recordings. One memorable instance was when my sister asked me to say something funny. However, I pretended to be annoyed that she said my name wrong, and currected her. She pretended that I didn't follow instructions.

"That is not a joke, stupid. Rewind. Go back and make another joke."

What made this memorable was that the tape recorder, for some reason, recorded this at a slow speed. So we laughed at this and the above quote became a running joke. I bet if I repeated it to her today she would start laughing. Another time she started singing, introducing herself and prompting me. I, for some stupid reason, sang what she said verbatim, instead of using my name. As we were laughing, I threw in a, "That is not a joke, stupid!" reference.

That was the last hurrah for the tape recorder. Soon my sister had a karaoke player, but we never got into recording after that. I guess we were just too old. The Fisher Price Tape Recorder ended up in the basement where it got dirty. The door for the batteries broke off and the inside started to rust a little. We probably still have it somewhere but I'm not sure where to look.

The 3D View Master!

I'd hate to use a cliche like the "you kids today with your blah blah blah" gag, but I can't think of a better way to start a blog about the View Master. The View Master is a fun toy that seems to be really outdated. You don't see 3D iPods or HD plasma screens. And we're still using the same reels from the fourties. Still, I had one or two as a kid, and I want to share a few memories.

I had a red, plastic 3d View Master, most likely like the one in the picture I posted here. My sister and I had several packs of reels, and we mostly had ones based on whatever cartoons we watched as kids.

I can't remember too many, but the one that stick out in my mind was one from a Pink Panther cartoon. It had the inspector, and his partner was drinking a potion that turned him into a Mr. Hyde monster. The cartoon was a couple minutes long, but the reel compressed the story down to, "Inspector's sidekick drinks potion. Sidekick becomes monster. Inspector gets punched. Inspector runs away." It's really interesting watching someone tell a story with seven pictures.

Sadly, my memory isn't being too helpful, but I'm sure I also had reels starring He-Man, Loony Tunes, and Winnie the Pooh. I wouldn't be surprised if I also had a ton of Disney related ones. Like kids books, I stuck with more fun, comedic reels instead of reels that were more serious. (In fact, I remember a Black Hole pack, which I never cared for. I don't think I've even seen the movie, and my parents seem to like it.)

The reason why I may not remember too many is because I think that after a while, you kind of get bored of the same reels. We had several packs, but I think we got them all at once, so without fresh packs I probably burnt out before too long. Still, even if you get bored of the content, I do remember spending a lot of time just playing with the stereo effect. I would often close one eye, and then the switch eyes just to see what would happen, and to see what the heck was the poin of using both eyes. I would also play with the handle just to mess with the stereo effect. Sometimes I would view an image, and then view an image really close to a lightbulb just to see what the difference would be.

Eventually, the reels started to fall apart. You basically stored your reels in paper wrappings, and the reels were also flimsy, so it was easy to bend them. Several of the pictures would get scratched, too. I remember one time I was looking at a stereo image and I had to different scratches competing with each other. Another thing about View Masters is that they're more fun too look at if you don't wear glasses. You really need to be able to almost poke your eyes out to enjoy those things. I think at least one of our View Masters broke, and we probably lost or threw away several reels.

Later on, after the View Master was kind of forgotten, one of our aunt's died in 1990. We had to spend several years going through her house. One of the things we found just happened to be a View Master, and this was a much sturdier model. We also found several old reels from the fifties, when the View Master was meant to show people sites from around the world. As primitive as it seems now, and probably as primitive as it was in the eighties, I learned how big it was back then. I didn't look at too many of the reels because there weren't too many sites that interested me, but it was nice that I could experience the fun of a View Master again. I'm sure I still have at least the View Master somewhere.

Later on I found a projector when we were moving. I always thought those things were neat when I was a kid. This projector was probably also rescued from my aunt's house, because it was really old. It was a dumb thing to do, but I plugged and used one of the old reels. Instead of seeing some far off place of old on the wall, I saw a blurry picture. Worst yet, the projector started to smoke, and I immediately unplugged the projector and threw it into a sink. I probably would have started a fire if I had left it on a tiny bit longer.

Of course, one of the most famous contributions of the View Master was that it allowed people to make fun of Nintendo when it released the ill-received Virtual Boy. But I really enjoyed it as a kid and I they'll continue selling it for a long time.