Word: plasticizers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...figures like Mattel's Masters of the Universe. Since 1982, when the line was introduced, California-based Mattel has sold some 125 million creatures, or an average of eleven of them to each boy in the U.S. between the ages of five and ten. Children collect the 6-in. plastic figures ($5 to $7), whose personalities reflect a blend of medieval and outer-space themes, in order to enact imaginary battles between good and evil. The virtuous leader is He-Man, who fights a never-ending crusade against wicked Skeletor. So far, Mattel has produced 34 other characters, six companion...
...profited from a somewhat contrary attitude. The company avoided getting into video games in 1979, which at the time prompted wags to call it "Has-been." Instead, the company plunged / deeper into conventional toys, which eventually produced such smash hits as Transformers and My Little Pony, a line of plastic, pastel-colored toys...
...lieu of board games, today's child is barraged with a whole assortment of dolls and plastic toy figures. Usually these synthetic creatures come in a group, as in the case of the "Snugglebumms," a close-knit and multi-colored familial unit comprised of: "Momma Brightly," "Papa Gently," "Princess Snugglelina," "Snugglebumm's Kids" and "Tuggles" with omnipresent flower cart...
...that portray war and those that suggest the psychedelic peace symbols of the '60s. In the former catagory we have black and gray Voltrons, Zybots, Immortals of Change, Gobots, Grapplors, and the TV stars Masters of the Universe. The latter group includes the Glo Worm Musical World (remember the Plastic Exploding Inevitable?), Care Bear Cousins, Hugga Bunch Dolls, Pianosaurus, My Little Pony with Pony Wear Clothes and Jewelry, Baby Hugs or Tugs (take your pick, I guess), Rainbow Brite and Co., and finally the Cabbage Patch Dimensional Gift Set. It's war of the masses all over again...
From there on the company's history reads like a compilation of the shaving industry's greatest hits: 1946, Gillette brings the world a plastic blade holder, eliminating the messy, dangerous, individually-wrapped blades that had been the national standard; 1959, the company perfects the extra-smooth silicone-coated razor blade; and 1965, the first razor with a fully-contained multiple shaving cartridge is introduced to American shavers by Gillette...