When I was a kid, there was no such thing as a mall. The closest thing we had in Renton where I grew up was Sears. There, you could not only shop at Sears, but several smaller retailers and Newberrys. As a kid, that was pretty cool. Two big stores without even getting back into the car.
But neither of these could hold a candle to Mary Ann’s toy store downtown. Small by today’s Toys R Us standards, Mary Ann’s was the place to go for the coolest toys around.
I remember going there as a kid. In the back of the store, on the right side, were all the latest Matchbox cars. I used to look at them all, picking them up, seeing what wonders the folks at Lesney had come up with in terms of doors that opened, accessories and such, and then beg my mom to buy at least one new one. Eventually, the collection grew into several hundred small cars. My son still has many of them.
Like any other boy of the era, I had my share of GI Joes and accessories, from tents to machine guns and even the space capsule and frogman sled. All courtesy of Mary Ann’s, Searsa Claus and my parents.
Christmas was always a very special time at our house, largely because that’s when the really neat things arrived under the tree. The smaller things my parents gave us Christmas Eve. The really big stuff, well, that was Santa’s department and it only arrived on Christmas morning.
That included Great Garloo. One year I asked Santa for a Great Garloo. Now, you may be wondering why. He’s kind of ugly and not exactly something most parents would really want running around the house.
But my parents were really good at making our dreams come true. As I think back, I can’t recall a single toy that I asked for for Christmas that either didn’t show up under the tree or ended up on Santa’s list. This isn’t to say that we got everything we asked for, far from it. After all, there were four boys in the house, all asking for things.
I wanted a Great Garloo because the commercial said he would do my bidding. I really believed that he would do my chores – like clean my room when my mom finally got fed up with the chaos.
He didn’t. And he wasn’t cheap either. If you run the price in the commercial through a calculator that factors in buying power and inflation, he would cost $126 today. That’s a lot of money, to be sure, for a toy robot that didn’t do much of anything.
Of course, Great Garloo doesn’t cost $126 today. He’s going for about double that on eBay right now and last week, one went for $795.
For all of us Boomers, eBay is the most amazing toy store on earth. If you loved toys by Nylint, Remco, Marx, etc., you can most likely find it on eBay.
Did you always want the VINTAGE REMCO 1960’S MONKEY DIVISION OKINAWA TOY GUN RIFLE WWII WW2 and not get it? Here’s your chance. Or one of my favorites, the Vintage Remco Barracuda Atomic Sub which my brother Jeff got and I always coveted. And what kid didn’t love the Marx playsets. Here’s one of my favorites – Desert Fox Playset by Marx with Rare 51 Tank, and playmat !!! – though I can’t believe that someone still has the playmat to it, let alone the box.
If I had that much money I would pick up the Gi Joe vintage Sea Sled and Frogman with box instead. As noted, I actually got him for Christmas one year, complete with the cave that the sled fit into, which was a Sears exclusive. Santa always thoughtfully set things up for us kids in the living room, so everything was ready to go when Christmas morning arrived. Even the train was running around the track.
I also got the Vintage 1966 G I JOE Space Capsule with Suit and Box one year. It wasn’t vintage back then, of course. It was one of my favorite toys and every time I see it on eBay, I am tempted to get it again. Mine was lost in a tragic accident when the parachute malfunctioned as I was tossing it from the roof of the house. The whole base of it shattered on impact with the ground (it missed the pool for a planned splashdown) and I assume GI Joe was killed – my first loss of a man in space.
As any of my Facebook friends know, I scored the most unlikely item this past week. Here is a photo of me as a little boy, holding a guitar. Well, actually it’s a Mattel Strum Fun Getar.
It has eight songs on plastic disks that you put in the back and then you push the lever on it to make it strum the song.
I had to have it. Not so much because it was my favorite toy, but because I still play a four string guitar as an adult. How can I not have my first four string again in my collection?
I know. I’m just a big freaking kid. I am extremely unapologetic about it, too. Why in the hell does anyone want to really grow up?
I will profess that I do have my limits. My family got an Ideal Odd Ogg one Christmas. It was a half turtle, half frog that would mock you by sticking its tongue out at you. I never liked Odd Ogg. He will continue to live in the eBay store with the hope someone will buy him. It won’t be me.
Out on the Treasure Coast, waiting anxiously for me getar to arrive in the mail today,
– Robb