All parents want to make their little tikes’ holiday dreams come true.
For many, that means dutifully participating in a distinctly non-whimsical winter tradition: mass consumption.
Mr. Potato Head
Tickle Me Elmo
Beanie Babies
Transformers Action Figures
Ten million Transformers were sold in 1984. The franchise’s cartoon and unforgettably catchy commercials propelled the shape-shifting alien robots to the top of Santa’s to-do list. The Autobots and Decepticons were in short supply around the holidays, but ultimately Hasbrotook homearound $80 million from the product line in ’84. Transformers are still bringing home the bacon: In 2010, Toys “R” Usdeclaredthem to be some of their best-selling toys of the past 25 years.
FrozenElsa Doll
Zhu Zhu Pets
These electronic toy hamsters, which cost around $8 at superstores,were selling formore than $60 on sites like Amazon and eBay around Christmas 2009. “Zhu Zhu Pets have crossed that tipping point, where scarcity is part of the appeal of the product,” Sean McGowan, a toy-industry analyst, toldTIME. “Getting it gives you some extra social standing. ‘Yeah, I got my hamsters. I worked the system. I know a guy.’ ” The small cooing and zooming pets are still popular today.
Teddy Ruxpin
Nintendo Wii
Cabbage Patch Kids
The hype surrounding Cabbage Patch Kids in 1983 was a veritable craze. TIMEreportednear-riots breaking out over the simple – some might even say ugly – cloth-and-vinyl dolls. One Pennsylvania woman suffered a broken leg when a 1,000-person crowd turned into a violent department store mob, while a store manager claimed “he armed himself with a baseball bat to defend his position behind the counter” amid the chaos. “They knocked over the display table. People were grabbing at each other, pushing and shoving. It got ugly,” one store manager, who we assume is still recovering from the trauma, shared with TIME. It’s still anyone’s guess as to why everyone so desperately wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid, although many speculate that the adoption certificates they came with fueled feelings of personal connectedness attached to the doll.
source: people.com
