Word: toyed
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...toys are warriors. The success of Kenner's cuddly Care Bears has prompted a toymaking rush to stuffed animals. The friskiest new critters in sales are Pound Puppies, a breed of soft, sad-eyed and bewrinkled hounds packaged in kennel-shaped carrying cases. They come in 80 different patterns of brown, tan, gray and white, and are meant to be "adopted," like Cabbage Patch Kids. The youngster who gets one can send to the manufacturer, Tonka, for a dog tag and ownership papers. Minnesota-based Tonka, which is diversifying from its traditional line of sturdy toy trucks, expects to sell...
After picking up the conservative political winds, the company in 1982 brought back G.I. Joe, which had been discontinued four years earlier. The new Joe, downsized from 11 1/2 in. to 3 3/4 in., rang up revenues of $132 million last year. While still a conventional toy, the fighting man has a battalion of colleagues and a battery of weapons. The biggest accessory is his aircraft carrier, a 7 1/2-ft.-long behemoth that carries 100 Joes and sells...
...children are shaping up to be some of this season's hottest stocking stuffers. Among the stars are such old friends as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Pinocchio (the classic Walt Disney movie is currently the top- selling children's cassette). But more recent favorites--from movies, TV and toy stores--include Rainbow Brite, the Care Bears, My Little Pony and the Transformers. Kidvid now accounts for 15% of the total home-video business, according to some industry estimates. Moreover, with their relatively low prices (typically between $10 and $40), children's tapes are usually bought rather than rented. Unlike...
...shows, a small but growing array of original fare is being produced. Much of it is aimed at preschool-age children, who are largely ignored by mass-audience TV. The publishers of Golden Books have begun releasing video versions of their children's stories on 30-minute cassettes. Toys-R-Us, the nationwide toy chain, is now selling the Geoffrey Alphabet Video, which features National Geographic animal footage and original songs by Elizabeth Swados. Preschoolers can exercise and play along with Gymboree, an interactive cassette from Scholastic-Lorimar Home Video. Harried mothers can enliven a youngster's birthday celebration with...
...however, most kidvid fare seems less an alternative to dreary network programming than a reinforcement of it. "The good news," says Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children's Television, "is that children's video is the most likely place to find alternatives to toy-commercial video, which is what network children's TV has turned into. The bad news is that all this stuff on network TV is also in home-video stores, and the promotion budgets are enormous...