LGR - 1993 Toys-R-Us Catalog Nostalgia
video description
i noticed because both girls on the bike page are wearing pink, which came off as a really odd choice in graphic design (usually you want to distinguish all three models of bikes and the riders to highlight they're different bikes overall. then i was like, it's an odd choice _unless. _ is every girl being modelled in pink? yes. yes, they are.
then i remembered that growing up as a girl during that period wasn't so great, and why i insisted adamantly that i hated pink (i like pastel pink and almost-red florescent hot pinks, and like warm colours in general. it went so far that i insisted i hated red/orange compared to blue/green, mostly so that i wouldn't end up receiving a bunch of stereotyped toys which i had zero interest in. hid that secret of aesthetic preference for basically two decades from everyone i knew. the 90s was a decade of backlash against feminism, which had some effect on my experiences, and this catalogue is from the height of that period of really aggressive gender stereotyping. noticeably so.
an aside, i always wanted one of those farm sets with the little cows/sheep/chickens/goats figures. not the tractors or construction equipment, but animals were neat. it was like a dollhouse _for the animals_ and i always preferred animal toys over all others. rip.
Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
dorpth
The prices of video games of that era always floored me. Standard SNES was $60-$70, with Final Fantasy 3 being $80. I remember Phantasy Star IV releasing at $100. To say nothing of the truly insane stuff like Neo Geo or 3DO. It's especially insane when you take inflation into account. Multiply all those prices by 1. 79 to get them in today's cost.
What struck me in this video was seeing the price difference between the SNES system and the games. Games ran $55-$70 but only $90 for the system itself? Imagine today if every game cost 70% of the console's price.
Also amazed that those crappy Tiger games stayed around for so long. They made sense in the mid to late 80s when you had zero other portable game options, but 1993? The dumb things stuck even through the mid 90s.
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The prices of video games of that era always floored me. Standard SNES was $60-$70, with Final Fantasy 3 being $80. I remember Phantasy Star IV releasing at $100. To say nothing of the truly insane stuff like Neo Geo or 3DO. It's especially insane when you take inflation into account. Multiply all those prices by 1. 79 to get them in today's cost.
What struck me in this video was seeing the price difference between the SNES system and the games. Games ran $55-$70 but only $90 for the system itself? Imagine today if every game cost 70% of the console's price.
Also amazed that those crappy Tiger games stayed around for so long. They made sense in the mid to late 80s when you had zero other portable game options, but 1993? The dumb things stuck even through the mid 90s.
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Nostalgia
I always wanted one of those -my size- Barbies. Seeing that price, though, I now completely understand why I never got one.
But man, it's weird seeing all these toys I definitely remember my older brother and I having, moreso my brother since he was 9 at the time: that Jasmine doll, one of those tents, the Criss Cross Crash Set, one of those sets of inline skates, DEFINITELY that Mighty Max playset (I once landed mouth-first on that damn thing, shit sucked. And good lord, the Game Gear. I think we only ever had one game for that thing and we certainly never took it anywhere; you pretty much HAD to stay tethered to the wall to play it.
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I always wanted one of those -my size- Barbies. Seeing that price, though, I now completely understand why I never got one.
But man, it's weird seeing all these toys I definitely remember my older brother and I having, moreso my brother since he was 9 at the time: that Jasmine doll, one of those tents, the Criss Cross Crash Set, one of those sets of inline skates, DEFINITELY that Mighty Max playset (I once landed mouth-first on that damn thing, shit sucked. And good lord, the Game Gear. I think we only ever had one game for that thing and we certainly never took it anywhere; you pretty much HAD to stay tethered to the wall to play it.
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K--r
Dude. I remember all of these! I even had that Babie motorhome. I got a Barbie to play with the neighbor girl I had a crush on. Haha. I was four back then.
And I had one of those kitchen sets, the McDonald-s stuff, the tool set, the tape recorder, some Power Ranger sound books, I feel like I had Donut Disaster cuz I remember those foam rings, Aah! XD I forgot about all those things I owned up till the drama stuff happened.
Also, those plastic tents smelt like poisonous.
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Dude. I remember all of these! I even had that Babie motorhome. I got a Barbie to play with the neighbor girl I had a crush on. Haha. I was four back then.
And I had one of those kitchen sets, the McDonald-s stuff, the tool set, the tape recorder, some Power Ranger sound books, I feel like I had Donut Disaster cuz I remember those foam rings, Aah! XD I forgot about all those things I owned up till the drama stuff happened.
Also, those plastic tents smelt like poisonous.
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ichigokarasu
Honestly, thank you so much for these videos, your pleasant voice and positive demeanor. I suffer from horrible Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and I'm having a bout right now that is basically destabilizing me, and your videos queued in my watch later calmed my mind and made me laugh and forget about counting every goddamned thing I do. Also, holy crap, that Lego train is so teeny weenie (at least compared with today's Lego trains) and is still like a hundred bucks!
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Honestly, thank you so much for these videos, your pleasant voice and positive demeanor. I suffer from horrible Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and I'm having a bout right now that is basically destabilizing me, and your videos queued in my watch later calmed my mind and made me laugh and forget about counting every goddamned thing I do. Also, holy crap, that Lego train is so teeny weenie (at least compared with today's Lego trains) and is still like a hundred bucks!
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dorpth
When I was a 5 year old kid looking through these toy catalogs, I thought coupons were the same as money. I would see an expensive toy, then go cut out a bunch of coupons until I had a pile of coupons with a savings -value- equal to the cost of the toy in the catalog. I would dump the pile of coupons in front of my parents and announce, -I got enough money. Can we buy it now? -
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When I was a 5 year old kid looking through these toy catalogs, I thought coupons were the same as money. I would see an expensive toy, then go cut out a bunch of coupons until I had a pile of coupons with a savings -value- equal to the cost of the toy in the catalog. I would dump the pile of coupons in front of my parents and announce, -I got enough money. Can we buy it now? -
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nosmartyr
Naw the car wash was awesome. There were cars that changed color with water. My brother and i played with that and criss cross crash crisscrosscrash for about 7 years. Not using water wed make whatever car crashed have to go get restored at the car wash. Take the tracks off ccc & you can launch your hotwheels at mr bucket. We abused our mr bucket more than any other toy.
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Naw the car wash was awesome. There were cars that changed color with water. My brother and i played with that and criss cross crash crisscrosscrash for about 7 years. Not using water wed make whatever car crashed have to go get restored at the car wash. Take the tracks off ccc & you can launch your hotwheels at mr bucket. We abused our mr bucket more than any other toy.
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Will
Was waiting for the moment he got to the Mighty Max stuff. They only had the Skull Mountain set in the catalogue, so this was clearly early in the Mighty Max life cycle. But Mighty Max was my jam back in the day. And they had Crash Dummies on the same page. That 22 minute VHS that came with a figure/television pilot that never got picked up was the bomb.
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Was waiting for the moment he got to the Mighty Max stuff. They only had the Skull Mountain set in the catalogue, so this was clearly early in the Mighty Max life cycle. But Mighty Max was my jam back in the day. And they had Crash Dummies on the same page. That 22 minute VHS that came with a figure/television pilot that never got picked up was the bomb.
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Arcade_Allure
Tower of the Wizard King was a super fun game. Unfortunately, the castle was made of fairly cheap plastic and part of the mechanism that rotated to reveal a new hero would break rather quickly. My folks exchanged 3 copes of the game before giving up and just getting a refund. Really bummed 5 year old me out.
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Tower of the Wizard King was a super fun game. Unfortunately, the castle was made of fairly cheap plastic and part of the mechanism that rotated to reveal a new hero would break rather quickly. My folks exchanged 3 copes of the game before giving up and just getting a refund. Really bummed 5 year old me out.
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beezle1976
I loved windows shopping using catalogues as a kid.
I was obsessed with figuring out prices of the latest and greatest toys. Back then catalogues wouldn't show the prices of discounted items, they'd show the rrp, and the % discount for that week.
I never claimed to be normal: )
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I loved windows shopping using catalogues as a kid.
I was obsessed with figuring out prices of the latest and greatest toys. Back then catalogues wouldn't show the prices of discounted items, they'd show the rrp, and the % discount for that week.
I never claimed to be normal: )
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