Here is another Christmas catalog mashup, aided by, Wishbookweb.com. This time, I’m exploring the wonders of my own childhood. The Sears Wishbook arrived in September every year, and I can distinctly recall spending hours flipping through the toy section, craving. These images are some of the things I wanted most in the mid 1980s. Speaking of… see that robot on the top of the page? That’s the Omnibot 2000. I don’t think you have any comprehension of how much I wanted him. Instead, what I got was an inflatable plastic robot that had a motorized remote control base. Lame.
See more photos after the break. And click the photos for the full catalog pages.
Sears Catalog, 1985. “More Than Meets the Eye”? I don’t think so, Sears. You put the Transformers slug-line on the damn GOBOTS!
More from Sears 1985. I gotta admit… I did like the Gobots. My Gobots and my Transformers existed within the same continuity, which made for some great, epic battles.
Sears Catalog, 1985. Here we go. This is the high quality stuff here. Soundwave was one of my favorite Transformers. He always struck me as more substantial than many of the other Transformer toys. Solid. Built tough. Even as a kid, though, I had a problem with the size discrepancy for both Soundwave and Megatron. Small, hand held devices that are supposed to transform into giant robots. There was never an explanation given in the canon. It’s bugging me to even think about it now.
Sears Catalog, 1985. Number 17… Jetfire. Damn I wanted him. I wanted him bad. I remember visiting my cousin Dave, and seeing his Robotech collection, and there was Jetfire with different paint. The concept of mold sharing completely blew my mind.
Sears Catalog, 1983. Ah, Star Wars. Is it me or does it really look like 8D8 is running to R2D2’s rescue? I just strikes me as funny as in Return of the Jedi, 8D8 was not depicted as a ‘running, skipping’ type droid, as he just stood there handing his control stick. Which sounds bad.
Sears, 1983. Oh, the infamous bell-bottom disco Obi-Wan. Perhaps the worst Gen 1 Star Wars action figure.
J.C. Penney Catalog, 1976. I would have lusted for these Star Trek toys if I had been a bit older. As it was, I was just a year old when these were on the market. It would have been nice if some attempt had been made by these toys designers to mimic the Jolly Rancher buttons on the original Enterprise bridge.
Wards Catalog, 1975. I did inherit the Spock and Kirk action figures from Cousin Dave when I was older, so I didn’t completely miss out on the Star Trek goodness.
That’s the end of this journey. Be sure to visit Wishbookweb.com. They’ve done an awesome job archiving these catalogs.
