Lady & A Tramp

This one was almost erased from my memory (Recall! Recall! Recall!) until my brother mentioned them. These Ms. Pac-Man baseball cards came with scratch off games in which, just like the real game, you had to eat dots and avoid the ghosts. And thank goodness it came with the most delicious stick of gum to help you pass the time. A stick of gum that made Fruit Stripe seem like a 16oz filet mignon. The only thing I can't figure out is why they made Ms. Pac-Man look like a cheap whore.

Nintendo Game & Watch

It began with a game called "Fire". So simple...save people jumping from a burning building by bouncing them into the ambulance using your trampoline. But it quickly became an exciting series of games, including titles like "Octopus", "Popeye", "Parachute" and "Manhole". All simple single screen LCD games. These games would hit it's peak with the release of "Donkey Kong"...a dual screen flip top game. My friend owned this game and I played it so much at school that I wanted my own. So on my next birthday I was excited to unwrap my present and find..."Oil Panic". Don't feel too bad, I ended up loving that too.

It's no wonder why I'm such a good driver (ie road rage maniac) since a lot of my favorite toys were driving ones. This one had a little screen that you had to guide the car through without crashing. This was no good to practice parallel parking though since it had every gear but reverse. Unless you parked head first. Costanza be damned.

Git 'Um!! Git 'Um!!

This was my absolute favorite TV show as a kid until "Hart to Hart" hit the airwaves in 1979. Kikaida was a Japanese import about Jiro, a human-like robot built to protect his creator and his family. The villain was Professor Gill who used his flute to render Kikaida helpless as his soldiers in Converse shoes attacked him. Monsters and poorly staged action abound. But to a 6 year old, it was the greatest thing put on film. It was very popular in Hawaii, but if I were to ask my Asian counterparts on the mainland, they've never heard of it. I watched every episode and the only thing I ever learned was that "tsu tsu gu" is Japanese for "to be continued". Oh, that and "Kikaida" is Japanese for "kick ass TV show"!

And the best part? The very catchy opening theme song. Go go go!

The ankh!! Where's the MFing ankh?!!

From the archives of my beloved Atari 2600 comes this game based on 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. This game was a mystery adventure like Aztec (remember that Apple IIe fans?) or Tomb Raider (Atari could not have pulled off a buxom heroine back then with square block graphics). You moved through different rooms and repetitive music, picking up weapons, tools and clues along the way. It was so challenging that I even had to cross-connect my 'neighborhood best friend' with my 'school best friend' in order to exchange hints and solutions. It felt like I was cheating on someone.

Best part of this game...I didn't even own it! But it remains one of the most memorable video games of my time. If that's not a testament to it's greatness then I don't know what is.

"Gentleman, we can rebuild him."

Back in my day, er 1974, the original Robocop was Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, which was one of my favorite action figures growing up. Though this one was more like a doll. It had a magnifying glass in his eye that you look through from a hole in the back of his head. It had robotic parts in his limbs. And the best part, it came with an earpiece and a wire clip that you attach to the metal part on your rotary phone. When connected, you had a real working transistor radio! Wow! Little known fact, Richard Donner is credited as one of the directors in the series and he went on to direct such faves as The Goonies and Lethal Weapon. And Lee Majors? Well, he went on to his next series...the FALLLLL guyyyyy.

Kerboomm?!

We all remember Battleship as a game near and dear to our hearts. All of us at one time or another has mimicked that whiny kid crying out "you sunk my bat-tle-ship!" How great was it then when Milton Bradley released this electronic version complete with sound effects! Of course, it was a pain in the ass to setup the game since you had to pre-program into the "computer" where your ships were. But after that 45 minutes you were lost in a world of seek and destroy. Until the next time when you bypassed the setup and used it just like the classic version.

Was I actually born before mechanical pencils?!

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday, I present to you one of the best things about being a kid...pencils. Ok, not just any #2 pencil (anyone ever find a #3 pencil?!) or that gigantor 1/2" thick pencil (for 8 year olds with carpal tunnel?!), but NFL team pencils. These came in an assortment of colors to match your favorite teams and had the name embossed on it. My favorite? The Miami Dolphins pencil. I didn't even watch football and yet I loved these things. How else would I ever know the Cardinals used to be in St. Louis?

Starbuck...before Starbucks

Sorry for the neglect, but I finally had a chance to get back to this blog.

I will begin 2009 with this item from my childhood that continued to nourish my love of villains in film and TV. The Cylon Raider from TV's Battlestar Galactica had retractable sides to ready it for battle. Due to a child's death as a result of swallowing one of the ship's red torpedoes, later versions of the toy had torpedoes that did not fire. I was lucky enough to have one that spring fired and smart enough to know it wasn't a Tic-Tac.

Look! Up in the air!

When I found a picture of this toy I was so excited since I had such vivid memories of playing it as a kid. It was a helicopter on the end of a wire and you could control it's altitude and speed at which it circled the base. Kind of like a cool version of the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. Except this one you couldn't ride in. Believe me, I tried. It also came with objects that you could grab with the hook beneath the chopper. I loved this toy.

Then I slowly began to realize that perhaps I didn't actually own it at all. In fact it belonged to my friend down the street from us. So instead, I played with my friend's VertiBird. That's what she said. Is it possible that some of our fondest memories are actually those of other people's stuff? When you're a kid I guess it all kind of melds into one shared treasure chest of toys that every friend contributes to. Until you get one of them mad and they take their Nerf football home with them. I sure was an asshole sometimes.