The Great Toy Mystery Solved!

Ok, so maybe not a great mystery to anyone but myself, but it's been bugging the tiddly winks out of me for a spell now.

See, there were these two toys I had as a kid that are pretty nostalgic to me, one of them a Christmas present and one a cereal premium from Kellogg's, both from circa 1967 or '68. I knew in my mind what they looked like, what they were, but could not recall their names. Hours of googling--apparently I am a Googletard--brought up nothing. I tried every permutation. Nada.

So last night I Tweeted both of their descriptions and within seconds, literally, Google Queens extraordinaire Amy Smith and Lisa Hendrix had the answer for me. I owe them my sanity. Oh, wait, I already misplaced that. I owe them a big thanks. Yes, little things like that plague me.

Anyway, the first one was an incubator type toy with a red metal base to which is attached a plastic cone with sliding door. Also part of it is a vise. You would take these colorful flat plastic squares, which looked like large Starburst candies, maybe 2x2 or 1x1, can't recall, and place them in the incubator. I remember a kind of nasty electrical, burning odor to the thing. I'm sure there had to be some really bad chemical in them that was harmful to me, but toys just weren't fun without a bit of danger. The plastic squares would, under heat, unfurl into dinosaurs. When you reheated the dinos and stuffed them into the vise, you could compress them back into squares. I loved that toy, and didn't burn down the house with it (what were my parents thinking giving that to a seven-year-old, anyway?)

It was from Mattel and called The Strange Change machine. One mystery solved. But now I want one again. And they go for big bucks on eBay.

The next item or items, were little two inch high figures with round heads and felt clothing based on many of the stories we knew growing up--namely, Red Riding Hood, Robin Hood, Friar Tuck and, I think, Pocahontas. You clipped the tops off Raisin Bran boxes, sent them in and a few centuries--actually six weeks--later got one in the mail. I had them all, I think, or at least most of them. I was also constantly constipated. They were called Little People. Mystery two solved. I want some of them, too. Also a fairly pricey item on eBay. I really wish I had held onto some of these things--it would have been a lot cheaper than trying to get them back as an adult. I am really annoyed my Green Hornet twisty got ground up in the dehumidifier, but most of them I just gave away or they got tossed out. One poor Little People got chewed up by the dog. A terrible way to go, I'm sure. And is it my imagination, or does Robin Hood look like Herbie the Elf from Rudolph?

While I am on the subject, remember when you actually got cool toys right in the cereal boxes? I mean good stuff you could play with that was made well enough to hold up for quite a while, not cardboard things you cut off the back of the box or have to pay an arm and a leg for on today's boxes.

One thing I liked in the late '60s was the little rubber figures that came in Lucky Charms and a few other cereals. Lucky Charms also didn't constipate me and is magically delicious. I didn't mind eating that. The rubber figures I recall were Underdog, Rocky and Bullwinkle and the Lucky Charms dude. I thought originally as a kid they were erasers, but they didn't erase anything. They were just rubbery. They would stand up, even. Not on their own, of course. I mean you could make them stand up. I remember distinctly needing that Lucky Charms Leprechaun still after twenty boxes of cereal and trading for it with some kid at school. Third grade. Big deals went down there.

Oh...I just recalled Tuffy Tooth...but that's a story for another blog.

What about you? What were your favorite premiums for cereal boxes or that special toy?