Hot Christmas Toys of the 1960s & 70s
by Billy (ho-ho) Ingram

First up, from You Tube, a medley of toy ads from the 1970s:

The toy originated in 1945 as a hot Christmas novelty available only at Gimbel's Department Store - but sales for "The Original Walking Spring Toy" took off in the early-1960s with a TV campaign and one of the most memorable jingles of all time:
"What walks down stairs,
alone or in pairs,
And makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing,
Everyone knows it’s Slinky…"

By the early-seventies, the Slinky line included Slinky Cater-pullers, Slinky Dog and other Slinky variants. Slinky is still produced and will be found under many Christmas Trees this year.

Back in the early-sixties, the Suzy Homemaker doll from Topper Toys was one of those hot holiday items.

The doll didn't incite riots, fist fights or high-priced auctions but it was so popular that, forty years later, you'll hear someone referred to as a "Suzy Homemaker."

She wasn't only a doll there was an entire line of toy stoves, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners - great for the little girl who wants to grow up to be a maid!

For the modern, liberated female Suzy became an object of derision; an anachronistic take on women's roles that was, from their point of view, harmful to impressionable little girls. Why can't G. I. Joe stay home to cook and clean while Suzy Homemaker fights the insurgents in Viet Nam? (Suzy was a few inches taller than Joe so maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.)

The Deluxe Reading company took over the franchise for a while before the Suzy Homemaker doll totally fell out of favor in the early-seventies and the line was discontinued.

But that wasn't the end for Suzy, recast as a Raggedy Ann knockoff with a stroller; morphing from molded plastic to cloth. Made in China by Coleco, the new Suzy was helpless, limp and dependent. She went from capable to cuddly - not exactly what the feminists had in mind, I suspect, but nothing they could criticize either.

Evel Knievel Crash Car
A popular toy for boys in 1973 was the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. The legendary stuntman came with a car that, on impact with a wall or rocks, could break apart to release Knievel to ride away unscathed. Bet you won't find too many of those in mint condition!

Knievel himself was involved in the toy's development but didn't get all the features he hoped for in the final product. "One toy I'd like them to make is my own idea," Knievel explained at the time. "I think it's the most super toy in the world. You wind it up, it goes like a little bugger, goes across the floor, grabs this little Barbie doll, throws her on the floor, gives her a little lovin', jumps back on the motorcycle and goes whizzing out the door screaming, 'G.I. Joe is a faggot!'"

Not as popular as the Transformers would become; but Transformers was a toy line based on a cartoon and all the Micronauts had was a pretty darn good comic book from Marvel.

Meco had a huge line of toys that included both DC and Marvel characters with ill-fitting outfits that looked like they were produced for 29 cents an hour by child laborers in some sad, far-off land.

For more than 80 years, the arrival of The Neiman Marcus Christmas Book marks the official start of the holiday season for a certain segment of the population.