Keep Barbie faaaaaar away from the Clinton, Trump and Kennedy dolls.
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Did anyone really want President dolls as a kid?
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The authors especially would be up my alley (maybe not so much the Stephanie Meyer one), or (public domain) literary figures that were well done. I get that kids were never crazy for Presidential figures (outside some military/patriotic ones), but I see the appeal for adult collectors.Hugh H. Davis
Wanted: Legends of the West (Empire & Excel) and other western historically-based figures. Send me an offer.
Also interested in figures based on literary characters.Comment
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Presidents as a line might be better in a sort of Greatest Hits version...Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Kennedy...not so sure about Carter, Ford, etc. The fanbase may be limited.
I'd rather have a line of Famous Inventors with such stalwarts as Eli Whitney, Alexander Graham Bell, and Robert Fulton.
Or Authors with Dickens, Shakespeare, and that lady what wrote all them Twilight books.
I wouldn't mind a Hemingway figure. I'd have him hang out with Action Jackson.Comment
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Ahh. I should have known that. It makes sense. Cool.
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Speaking of authors, I probably would get an H.G. Wells figure, a few others and maybe Time Machine movie toys. Tolkien would be a good one. Robert E. Howard could become an interesting action figure. Then you could sit Bob down at his desk and have a Conan figure standing behind him, demanding that Howard finish the tale.Comment
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With the exception of Poe, Stephen King, and Hunter S. Thompson, I have no idea what any authors look like. Paint a mustache on a Shazam head and put it on a Robert Heinlein card and I wouldn't know the difference.Expectation is the death of discovery.Comment
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The news letter got me thinking about this again and I didn't want to take that thread off topic.
I understand historic figures like Daniel Boone at least that has some play value. But Presidents? Let's be totally honest on this. Put yourself back in time, you're a kid with limited toy money and you have Big Jim in one hand and George Washington in the other. Do you really choose the guy in the powdered wig over Big Jim? Were there really kids begging for a Ben Franklin doll for Christmas? I probably would have cried if I had gotten one.
Also, don't adults tend to collect out of nostalgia? So, I don't really get a big adult market for them either. If you didn't want one as a child why would you want one now?
And it wasn't just in 1976. This thing was coming and we ramped up for it for 2 years....at least. CBS started airing a segment in Prime Time on July 4, 1974 called "Bicentennial Minute" and it ran nightly....for two and half years! Schoolhouse Rock had "Shot Heard Round the World" and "The Preamble" and "No More Kings". My birthday cake, in 1975, was white with blue and red pipping and topped by little figures of the three guys from "The Spirit of '76". It was pervasive and had a looooooong lead up to the actual event and a short little period while it all calmed down and became 1977.
So there is my only argument for why I might have wanted one as a kid and can understand why adults of a certain age might be interested.Comment
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Certainly not interested as an adult and largely was not as a kid. However, I have been thinking about your question for a while and one thing I keep coming back to is just how big the buzz surrounding the Bicentennial was and how caught up in all of that people were. I was 7 in 1976 and I can remember being fascinated with Red, White, and Blue this and USA that. It was in comics. It was a theme in advertising. Uncle Sam was everywhere and on everything. And oh, my gawd the endless merchandizing. In school, we were memorizing Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride". We were doing Colonial and Revolutionary War lessons. There were these special Quarters that kids were hoarding for years to follow.
And it wasn't just in 1976. This thing was coming and we ramped up for it for 2 years....at least. CBS started airing a segment in Prime Time on July 4, 1974 called "Bicentennial Minute" and it ran nightly....for two and half years! Schoolhouse Rock had "Shot Heard Round the World" and "The Preamble" and "No More Kings". My birthday cake, in 1975, was white with blue and red pipping and topped by little figures of the three guys from "The Spirit of '76". It was pervasive and had a looooooong lead up to the actual event and a short little period while it all calmed down and became 1977.
So there is my only argument for why I might have wanted one as a kid and can understand why adults of a certain age might be interested.Comment
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AS a kid, with the Bicentennial going on, the Revolution-era personalities were definitely of interest. And I'd have loved an Abe Lincoln to hang out with my Kirk and Spock.Comment
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one thing I keep coming back to is just how big the buzz surrounding the Bicentennial was and how caught up in all of that people were. I was 7 in 1976 and I can remember being fascinated with Red, White, and Blue this and USA that. It was in comics. It was a theme in advertising. Uncle Sam was everywhere and on everything. And oh, my gawd the endless merchandizing. In school, we were memorizing Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride". We were doing Colonial and Revolutionary War lessons. There were these special Quarters that kids were hoarding for years to follow.
My room was painted RWB. I had RWB blankets, and sheets. My dad even painted my dresser and bookshelf with reds, whites, and blues.
The hype was everywhere.
Isn't that when they issued the $2 bills also?Comment
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I remember the bicentennial quarter. A schoolmate had one and I wanted one. I started collecting coins at that time and my first quest was for mercury dimes. I went to the local store and asked the clerk who was an older neighbor if I could have any for my change, and she said she hadn't seen any for years. Now you can find them at any pawn shop for about $1.50 @. And the $2 bill was reissued in 1976 with the famous Trumbull Declaration of Independence signing on the reverse. In the 1950s it existed with Monticello on back. And I recommend visiting there to anyone reading this. The place leaves me in bicentennial awe. It's awesome as is a visit to colonial Williamsburg for anyone who lived through the bicentennial or is remotely interested in US history, just thinking that when that area was established everything west of there was untamed woodlands. Just imagine.Last edited by hobub; May 10, '18, 8:20 AM.Comment
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All I know is my daughter's Barbies are scared #$%*less worrying that Bill Clinton and Donald Trump dolls might be in the house.
And I remember the Bicentennial Minute, too. I loved those segments. Now that I live in South Jersey and work in Philadelphia, I can appreciate the history even more.Comment
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