Sunday, December 19, 2010

Toys I Wanted and Got for Christmas

Yes, there were lots of toy that I lusted after for Christmas when I was a kid and there are far too many to write about in just one entry so here is one story for now, with more stories to come later.   I will be writing about those I mostly vividly and/or fondly remember. 

The last year I ever asked for toys for Christmas was in 1982, when I was 11.  Mattel put out a line of 4.5 inch fashion dolls called Dazzle and her Friends, seen in the commercial below:





This line originally consisted of eight girl dolls that came in a fashion made with sparkly fabric. A city playset, the horse (seen in the commercial) and four boxed fashion sets were also available. Just before the line was cancelled, two more fashion sets and four more dolls were added, including two male dolls. I never got any of these, but by then I was already tired of toys. Pictures can be seen here, though one doll is not pictured in her original outfit. The one with the long ponytails is one of the later-produced ones. She came in a striped leotard and matching  leg warmers, a typical outfit of the 1980s. here she is wearing one of the boxed fashion sets.  The other later-produced dolls are not pictured. 

There were similar to line of small fashion dolls put out by Kenner a year or so earlier called the Glamour Gals. This line consisted of about eight girls. Each girl was produced several times in different outfits. The outfits were not removable, and some were painted on, such as bathing suits and pants.  Some outfits were designed the same way in different colors. Two dolls for instance had the painted-on bathing suit, one in orange and the other in a purplish-red color. Two others wore similarly designed cowgirls suits with painted-on shirts and pants and fabric vests and hats.  I only had two of these dolls, one I believe was the Shara doll in the sparkly blue dress and one of the Danni dolls, though I don't think it was one of those seen in any of the commercials.








Here is commercial with one of the Danni dolls (the user won't allow embedding).

More info on this series here.   

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