Monday, August 14, 2006

Mom has a knack for picking nightmare inducing toys


I over heard my parents talking today about toys that used to scare the hell out of us kids and the laugh they’d get out of it. Yeah my parents are twisted like that.
Teddy Ruxpin:Number one on the all time terror list for me has got to be “Teddy Ruxpin”. This damn bear had the starring role in some of my worst nightmares. He is the reason I slept with a light on for so many years. To this day whenever I think of him I get a little chill. For those of you fortunate enough NOT to have one of these teddy bears here’s the deal. Teddy Ruxpin used to talk. He had a casette player built into his back. The whole premise of it was that he would read stories to you and you’d follow along with the books that went along with the cassette.

The memory of my first encounter with Teddy Ruxpin has been forever burned in my mind. I had just turned 4 Teddy was a gift from my parents. They put him in front of me and turned him on…as soon as that teddy bear moved his mouth and spoke I freaked the heck out. I jumped up and tried to climb my way onto my mom. They had to put Teddy away. That night my mom got the genius idea of making a customized tape for teddy using her voice. She recorded herself telling me one of her “There once was a little princess named Mia stories” She thought that if I heard her voice and recognized the story coming out of Teddy Ruxpin’s mouth I’d be cool. Oh hell no.

The next day Teddy Ruxpin was placed in front of me and my pops turned him on. “ Hiya Mia! My name is Teddy Ruxpin. Would you like to hear a story about a little princess named Mia?!” Teddy cheerfuly said to me and then he blinked… I looked at Teddy with awe….he blinked again…I looked at my mom….Teddy sounded just like my mom! I ran crying and screaming from the room. When my parents found me I was hiding in a closet. I refused to come out until they put Teddy away. I didn’t even want him on my toy chest. My mom placed him inside of my closet. For the next few months I was afraid to open my closet. I’d run by the closet. Eventually my parents had to take the bear out of my room when they realized I’d fall asleep crying with one eye on the closet.


My Buddy I’m pretty sure this damn doll was the inspiration for Chucky…the demonic doll from all those “Child’s Play” horror flicks. My little bro Matthew was 2 years old when my folks got him the My Buddy Doll. My mom got it for him because the doll was the spitting image of Matthew. Let me tell you something Matt loved that doll. He took it every where with him. Matt and the doll even had matching baseball caps.

Matt was around 4 ½ and at the sitters when he accidently saw the first of the Chucky movies. Needless to say after seeing the movie Matt became terrified of his doll. When he came home from the sitter my mom put My Buddy away for a few weeks thinking Matt would get over it but it never happened. The minute he’d lay eyes on the doll he’d cover his face. Adding to his misery was the fact that Chucky became a big seller and you couldn’t go no where without seeing the doll …and it looked too much like My Buddy.

Harry and The Hendersons: was a movie released in 1987 here’s the plot “Returning from a hunting trip in the forest, the Henderson family's car hits an animal in the road. At first they fear it was a man, but when they examine the "body" they find it's a "bigfoot". They think it's dead so they decide to take it home (there could be some money in this..). As you guessed, "it" isn't dead. Far from being the ferocious monster they fear "Harry" to be, he's a friendly giant. In their attempts to keep Harry a secret, the Henderson's have to hide him from the authorities and a man, who has made it his goal in life, to catch a "bigfoot".

My uncles who were 11, 10, and 6 LOVED that movie. Especially my six year old uncle Gil. So much so my mom brought him the Harry doll. The doll live in relative peace alongside all of the other dolls and toys in our play room for several years . Eventually Gil outgrew Harry but he didn’t want to give him up so Harry took up residence in the top shelf of our walkin closet right next to my Rainbow Brite doll. Then one day in 1991 a few weeks before Christmas mom decided to clean out the closet and Harry was taken off of the shelf. Gil thought that my then 2 year old brother Stevie would love Harry so he called him over to give to show him the doll. Steven lost his marbles. The doll terrified him but my dad came up with an idea. That year in order to keep Steven from touching my dad’s 1965 Lionel Train set that running under our tree Harry was placed under the tree. Harry’s job was to keep Stevie away from the tree and it worked too! Once Christmas was over mom put Harry back in the closet and for the next few years Harry was the official tree watcher in our house. Maybe the wuss factor runs high in my family or my mother just has a knack for picking out nightmare inducing toys.

Labels: childhood memories

Posted by @ 3:37 AM
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