Friday, December 6, 2019

Classic Toys from a Madman's Youth: Advent 2019 Day 6

For today's Adventures, we're back in the 70s. Or we could be in the 80s. Heck, we could be in the 90s. That's because the toy I want to focus on today was something that not only did I own, so have my cousins and my kid sister did too!



The toy I'm talking about today is the Sesame Street 123 Neighborhood playset from Playskool or Fisher Price. (Yes, both companies made their own version of this toy. ) This present was darn near perfect as not only was it a complete playset but it came with figures too! 




My version was from Playskool because I didn’t have the Little People set up. I also know that my set had all the greats- Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and my favorite- Grover! Though you had to buy some figures like Grover separately. I think my cousins' sets had the same characters. But I think they had the Fisher Price version.  But I know for sure that my sister's set had a big difference. She had Elmo!


All of the key habitats were represented here from the lamp post and brownstone stoop on the outside to Big Bird's nest and Bert and Ernie's apartment on the inside. Of course, you had to have the corner store owned by the late, great Mr. Hooper!



A neat hidden feature of this set was that it doubled as a carrying case. Though I seem to recall that there was at least one open window in which some of the thinner figures ended up falling out. You never could get the figures back in the way in which they escaped. Plus, trying to open the playset was never an option without a parent present as the locking mechanism for the carrying case was not kid friendly!


Sadly, due to this design flaw, you ended up losing figures and some of the other items pretty quick. (I hear that the lamp post was the easiest piece to end up missing.) Sure, both sets have their flaws. But man, do I remember having fun with this set! Plus, as the figures were the same size of the Smurfs; so you could do crossovers!


So in keeping with the Sesame Street theme, my Advent gift for you today is a classic. It's the complete Christmas Eve on Sesame Street from 1978! At just under an hour, it's a long video. But man does it bring back some great Christmas memories as a kid.

ENJOY!


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