09 March 2006

The greatest show ever...

...well, besides Lost, is actually on VH1.

I'm a girl. I'm allowed to say that.

I swung by the parents' house to see Kai, who's home for his break this week, and we were all sitting around watching TV when the VH1 I love Toys countdown came on. Let me just say, this was the most awesome thing ever. I only watched 89-ish to 61, and it was like walking down memory lane. Every two seconds I was like, Oh! We had that! Everything from Candyland to Risk to Rainbow Brite to Army Men.. Here were a few of my personal favorites.

  • Slip and Slide
    Nothing screamed, hey, it's summer like that huge long sheet of yellow plastic that made sprinkler time so much more fun. Now they're all high tech with jet sprays and bumpers at the end to catch you.. that, or we just had a ghetto one. A friend of mine had one of these, and going to his house was almost as good as going to the pool. It was the greatest thing in the world -- as long as you had a flat lawn. If you did (we didn't) the slide was pretty much fun until you realized there wasn't enough water on it, or until you threw yourself headfirst down the plastic only to realize some genious had set it up over a patch of rocks. One of the guys on the VH1 show, I forget who, said that the way to go was to squirt dish soap onto the slide, to make sure you never got stuck from lack of water. Why didn't we ever think of that?


  • Monopoly/Risk

    Divorce doesn't break up families. Boardgames like these do. I was torn between which game was my favorite for this. Both take frickin for-ever. Both have cool peices. Both have some element of strategy -- or at least, the chance to screw over other players. And, at least at our house, the game ultimately ended in one of two situations: the board would either be left, untouched, as if we were some day going to pick up right where we left off, or it would be thrown across the room in a flurry of plastic and dice and shouts of "I'm never going to play this game with you again!" Fortunately, there are enough people in my family that, in the unlikely event you completely forgot that promise within five minutes, there was always someone ready to start a new game.


  • Barbie

    An integral part of every little girl's life, particularly in the development of unrealistic standards tha set the framework for years of psychological anguish and social disorder. I swear, I had like forty of them, because there WAS a difference between Malibu Barbie and Rollerskate Barbie. One had crimped hair, and one had straight hair. Those bitches had everything too.. I had a townhouse, a car, a pool, a beauty shop, tons of clothes. The shoes were my favorite -- not only did they escape the warning labels that talked about choking hazards, it was inevitable that I would lose one of the pair within five minutes of opening the box. Somewhere is a void full of things like barbie shoes, and those socks that go into the drier but never come out.


  • Matchbox Cars

    Matchbox cars were the ultimate form of entertainment, kinda like the green army men. We had tons of them. We would build big cities out of blocks and drive them around, we'd throw them off furniture, sink them in the pool, and navigate them through the designs in the oriental carpet. NB: They are not microwavable. No more questions.


  • Legos

    The ultimate fallback gift, but very cool themselves. Who didn't like Legos? It was like five thousand gifts in one, especially if you didn't follow the instructions. Fun for all ages.


  • What was your favorite toy?

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