When John P. Reilly told me to think retro, visions of Davy Crockett and coonskin caps danced in my head. I began to imagine a sleigh full of hula hoops and plenty of Silly Putty in this year's bundle of toys.
Reilly, director of public relations for KB Toys, had told me that retro was one of the big themes of the holiday toy season. In a twinkling I figured it out: He meant retro as in the 1980s and '90s, not historic as in the 1950s.
I decided not to dwell on my mistake. It would only remind me that history, which used to be memorable, now seems so disposable -- as in, "You're history!" And retro, which used to be part of retrograde (going from bad to worse), is out on its own -- with a positive spin.
That brings us to the Cabbage Patch Kids, the sensation that began in 1982 and '83, when parents stood in line for hours to snap them up before the urge to buy them all but disappeared by the end of the decade. This year, Reilly says, they are back. Wal-Mart agrees, putting the dolls on its 12 Toys of Christmas list. Toys R Us is advertising them, with the ultimate endorsement: as seen on TV.
Reilly was reminded of the retro trend because of a joystick that kids can plug into the television and use to play Pac-Man. It's called Plug It In and Play, it's by Jakks Pacific and it made it to the KB Hot Five list at the end of November.
"Those blew out of our stores," Reilly says. "It's further proof of the retro trend of the last few years. The toy industry is taking a page from the movie industry and updating past favorites. So you're seeing Cabbage Patch Kids, My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers."
The Turtles evolved from a comic book produced in 1984, the same era in which My Little Pony was trotting straight into the hearts of little girls, with long hair, combs and rainbow colors. And "Sesame Street's" Elmo, who drove desperate parents into bidding wars in 1996 as Tickle Me Elmo, is back as E-L-M-O (squeeze his hand and he sings a takeoff on "YMCA" and dances, for only about $25).
Last week, Reilly says, toy buyers at KB were looking for Ninja Turtle figures and Cabbage Patch Kids, along with another retro item: the Tamagotchi virtual pets, which can now communicate with one another.
Visit toy departments in the big-box stores, and you'll find yourself confronted by acres and acres of plastic, which will bring on a retro (no, wait, historic) moment. You'll be swept back to 1967, the year of "The Graduate," when Mr. McGuire told Dustin Hoffman, playing Benjamin, "I want to say one word to you, just one word . . . 'plastics.' "
Once you stop chiding yourself for not getting into plastics, you'll discover we are buying toys (mostly made of plastic) designed to bring up our children in most interesting ways.
