The Greed Of Christmases Past: Wishbookweb.com

If you don't already take enough trips down memory lane, here's a site that's archived a bunch of the old Wish Books. If you're under thirty years old, your parents may not have ordered all (or any of) your presents from JC Penny or Sears!

I loved the ritual of the Christmas Wish Book arriving each year - poring through the toy section for weeks, carefully circling and meticulously listing the stuff I wanted.

At one point, I had everything on this page but the plush (before Star Wars, Peanuts was the thing for me)! It's wild to look through these catalogs now - just like today, some of the toys are great, and others are really awful. Check 'em out!

By Popular Demand

A couple more pictures of the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer mall display. Enjoy!

Photos by Ken Mitchroney, at the Eastridge Mall.

Happy Holidays!

Best wishes to you and yours for a happy holiday season!
From Jeff, Anita, Figaro & Piccolo

Toy OTD: Memory Lane Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Figure: Boss Elf

Memory Lane has been making our holidays happier for the last few years by making lots of Christmas characters! The Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer line is one of their best, featuring plenty of the Rankin-Bass players.

The boss elf is one of my favorite figures, mainly because he's a secondary character that might not make the cut in other toy lines. I've never figured out why he sports a sixties-jazz goatee, but I think it's amusing.

The sculpt and paint job aren't dazzling, but they're on-model, and quite good for the price point. The hat is removable (I think it's magnetic), and he comes with a misfit toy (the train with the square-wheeled caboose), a baton to conduct the Christmas chorus, and toy-making blueprints. The biggest minuses are that his eyes look a bit glazed over, and the loose hip joints can make standing the figure tricky.

Being the holidays, you can get this figure pretty easily - it's $9.50 + shipping at cosmicclutter.com. If they're out of stock, a Google search should provide you with a ton of other options!

New Holiday Cards From Swazzle!

I'm cringing a little at the thought of another holiday season being close enough to think about, but the industrial folks at Swazzle have made two cool new cards to help sweeten your autumn! Check out the new Swazzle card designs at their Zazzle page!

Merry Christmas!

... to all of you from Jeff, Anita, Figaro & Piccolo!
And for all of you who aren't celebrating today, have a happy holiday season!

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Check out this info on America's canonical Santa artist, Haddon Sundblom. Even if they were for Coca-Cola, his paintings are awesome!

A New Swazzle Podcast!

Frosty's 12 Days Of Christmas, where he'll be counting down the days (each with its own episode) to his favorite holiday! First up, an interview with Dasher, the second most popular reindeer. Be sure to click on the ad link when the video's over!

UPDATE: Episodes 2, 3, and 4 are now up and running. Check 'em out!