Catalog or commercial?

[HardyGirl]

I'm not sure if I asked this before, but since the board is so slow today, I thought I'd ask this question:

When you were a kid, and it was time to start making your Xmas list for Santa, (and your parents), would you look in the catalog and circle stuff, (or just copy them down), or look at all the toy ads on after school and make your list by what you saw?


We never did the catalog thing at our house. My mom wouldn't even allow me to keep the newspaper circulars. She knew I got the gimmies BAD during holiday time, and listening to me beg when a commercial came on was bad enough, but I think I would have driven her out of her mind if I bugged her w/ catalogs and circulars all the time.

What about you?

[palitoy]

This should come as no shock but catalogs all the way.

[Captain]

Come mid to late September I used to LIVE for the great day the Christmas Wishbook and Consumers Distributing catalogs would arrive in the mail.
Loved them then....miss em' now!

[kingdom warrior]

Catalog! Newspaper ad...I'd have little cutouts of what i wanted at the dinner table to the side of my drink... heck i'd cut out what i wanted and place them in my mom's handbag before she went to work. I left no stone unturned Christmas was serious work for my sister and I especially after Santa went out of business.

[The Toyroom]

The Sears Wishbook was our Bible when it came to Christmas lists...most of our action figures were ordered that way...Mego, Johnny West, Lone Ranger, G.I. Joe....

[toysrus]

Catalog for sure

Ha Ha! I agree, the sears Wishbook was awesome! I went catalog not commercials. No VHS back in my day to record any commercials, so the catalogs came in handy.

The Sears Wishbook was our Bible when it came to Christmas lists...most of our action figures were ordered that way...Mego, Johnny West, Lone Ranger, G.I. Joe....

[johnnystorm]

Sears Wishbook, but we had to write out the list (to give to Santa, natch!). Too bad those great big thick catalogs are no more...that puny little booklet full of video games and kareoke machines they pass off now is pathetic and not even worth the glorious name "CATALOG"

My daughter just did the same with the TRU advertisement and the one from Target too. It looks like she just circled everything that was over $50.00 regardless of gender use. Also anything related to I-Carly.
I can say also that the amount of toys that interested me in either "catalog"was almost none. Total lack of interesting stuff.

I'm old, so old....

[HardyGirl]

No VHS back in my day to record any commercials, so the catalogs came in handy.


Well, since catalogs were out of the question in my house, (though my friends sometimes had them), I used to sit on the floor behind the coffee table in our living room when the after school cartoons were on Ch.5 (WNEW), paper and pencil ready. During the holiday season, just about all the commercials were about toys between 3pm-6pm. Yes, I got a little greedy and wrote like 40 things, but I usuallly got the top 7 and a few surprises, so I guess it worked alright.

[kryptosmaster]

I think almost every page was circled in the Sears catalog when I was a kid. Well, except the 'baby' toys and the section of 'boring' toys like 'educational' toys and things like that. LOL

Rich

[Drain]

Ha Ha! I agree, the sears Wishbook was awesome! I went catalog not commercials. No VHS back in my day to record any commercials, so the catalogs came in handy.

I agree, I use to love looking through the Sears Wishbook at Christmas. We didn't have a Sears store here in Drain, but we had a Sears Catalog Outlet. For people who don't a Sears Catalog Outlet store was a place that handle Sears Catalog sales mainly. You go in place a Sears Catalog order and in 2 week come back and put it up. Our catalog outlet did carry a few Sear appliances ie. washer, dryer, refreg, stove; not to many. I really like the fact that the toy section of the Christman Wishbook was also the next years Sears Toy Catalog, right down to the page numbers.
Happy Days they were.

[jwyblejr]

Catalog like most. My grandparents got the Sears one,my folks got Montgomery Wards.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

My family hated shopping, so it was mostly catalogs. The Wishbook was a good one, but Consumers Distributing used to get all sorts of neat stuff too. We'd get tv ads for stuff that wasn't available in canada, and get stuff in the catalogs that wasn't shown on tv too; which confused things.

Don C.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

Mostly catalogs but occasionally commercials were what informed me of my wants. I seem to recall asking for Stretch Armstrong because of commercials I saw. Same with Six Million Dollar Man commercials (though I was so into the show itself I clearly wanted anything and everything related to it anyhow). But otherwise it was pretty much all catalogs. I remember being VERY excited when the new Sears, Service Merchandise, McDades, etc. catalogs would arrive. I was always anxious to see what kind of "exclusive" action figure toys would be available this holiday season from Sears (i.e. SW Cantina playset, Cloud City Playset, Hulk Hide-away, etc.)

But I'll tell you another major factor in what informed my Xmas wish list was the toy ads inside comic books, most of which I would guess were Heroes World ads. That's usually what I went by to gauge things like Megos I wanted.

[vulcan2074]

I was all about the Catalog. One reason was Since It was a picture, it made it easier for my Mom to Find. Another Reason was if i didn't get it, at least I could look at it cause I had the Catalog
Sammy

[ScottA]

Catalogs. Or what I saw in the toy isles.