Crazy eBay Auction Unloads Lost Treasures From Old Toy Store
eBay auctioneer mainecloseout has somehow obtained a massive stock of unsold toys from the 1980s. Over a hundred items are now for sale at prices which start at ten bucks, and browsing the page is quite the throwback trip. We’re talking unopened games for the Atari and Commodore 64, action figures in their packaging, books, tapes and all sorts of lost relics.
None of the auctions explain exactly WHERE the inventory comes from, or exactly HOW it wound up in their hands, only that it “was from a toy store that went out of business.” Based on the price tags attached to every product, they all appear to have come from Child World, an East Coast toy store that closed up shop in the early 90s.
Every Child World that ever existed was converted into another business long ago. It is more likely these were part of an abandoned lot somewhere in a dusty warehouse. They also appear to be rejected items, as the vast majority look rather weathered and beat up (and yet still unopened).
An unopened copy of Kangaroo for the Atari 2600 that looks like it went a few rounds WITH a kangaroo. There are quite a few 2600, 5200 and even 7800 games in the lot, several Commodore 64 games and even a few programmer manuals. No NES, but Mario does make a few appearances…
Do they still make Magic Slates? Cheapest “creative tools” ever. You’d press hard on the plastic to make lines stick, though they often wouldn’t, and when you messed up too much you would lift the plastic and erase all your work.
This is a “windup” variant of Horn Head, a Madball with an exposed brain who I believe originally entered the market as “Crack Head.” It could actually be a different Madball, but they look similar. Don’t see why any 1980s parent would have a problem with THAT name…
Every popular children’s property once had its own magazine, but they were usually quarterly deals. GI Joe was apparently huge enough at the time to get a monthly deal. Go Joe!
My small eyes about popped out of my 5-year-old skull when I first saw the Animator, an Etch A Sketch with a dot matrix display that could store multiple frames of drawings and display them in sequence. It was one of the few advanced toys I begged for and DID get…..and discovered it was a bit too advanced for my age; I couldn’t animate anything coherent with it.
Today I learned they made an advanced version that took cartridges to add “games” with basic controls. “Putt Nuts” is an unfortunate name, but perhaps not so bad as “Crack Head.”
There are quite a few Flipsiders in this auction. They were sold everywhere at one point, and if you passed a drugstore checkout line in 1989 you probably walked away with one. It’s a magnetic board game designed to look like a cassette tape, because cassette tapes were hip.
Not only do I now have proof Pocket Rockers were a thing, I have proof the Fat Boys were a thing. I remember these guys being on everything, yet when the subject of 1980s pop culture comes around again, the Fat Boys are NEVER mentioned. Ever. Radio stations with an 80s playlist skip them. I’m beginning to wonder if this was all a big marketing scheme and no one actually listened to them.
I have never heard of the property on this mug before. Have you? The full logo says “Golden Girl.” It looks like some kind of She-Ra knockoff with women in skimpy attire FAR more exotic than what you usually saw on a kiddie product. If Golden Girl is still out there, Johnny Caps likely has her lined up for an interview next month.
Finally, if the tags aren’t proof enough, Peter Panda was the Child World mascot, and these products would only be available within the store.
There is a LOT more where these came from. You gotta check this link out before they all sell.