Care Bears And When Your Toys Are Vintage

It’s a little discouraging when your childhood toys start popping up in vendor malls and labeled as vintage. I believe it was Kenner that made these jointed Care Bears figures when I was a kid in the early eighties. I still have a few. Kenner made some of the best toys of my childhood.

There were ten original bears including Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear, Bedtime Bear and Grumpy Bear. They live together in Care-a-lot.

Care Bears we’re actually the creation of a Cleveland born illustrator named Elana Kucharik. She drew them to be used for a line of greeting cards for American Greetings. Within a couple of years they were plush toys and eventually went on to take over the toy market with all manner of merchandise. I still remember drooling over all that stuff in the sale bills and Sears Wish Book.

They also developed a line of Care Bear Cousins who were other little animals including a cat, raccoon and elephant. There was a popular Saturday morning cartoon, records and a series of movies. My poor dad even took me to the old Louvee Theater in Wellston to see the first one. It was the best day. For me at least.

As for Ms. Kucharik, she was under the employ of American Greetings when she created these iconic characters so I imagine she didn’t get rich. She’s 79 and still taking orders for custom paintings and sketches.

The Care Bears have made a resurgence in recent years and I was excited to see a collection of the small plush bears in stores at Christmas. Meanwhile, the originals are still floating around in closets and basements and, for Pete’s sake, antique malls too!

Think Outside The Tent

Scout likes to gather his favorite toys in one place and play with them all at one time. Here he has his Shark tunnel (best $6 ever spent), a Hot Wheels car shaped like a dinosaur, and his tent which was a gift from my coworker’s cat.

You’ve heard of thinking outside the box? He likes to think outside the tent!

He often takes mousies into his tent and stretches out as pictured here.

It’s shocking how fast he can jump out from this position and nab your leg. It’s actually a little scary how good his reflexes are. More than anything, it’s delightful to see how happy he is playing with these things.

We all could learn something from Scout. He doesn’t need fancy new toys to be happy. His old stuff, a patch of sunlight, and the occasional wad of paper liberated from the office trash can are enough to fill his day with joy.

Seeing Red

The color red draws me in like a moth to flame. This is never more apparent than when scrolling through my camera roll after an antiquing trip.

The day I found the lunchboxes, I also found this adorable kiddie tractor.

Nifty wall art, reproduction but cute for a kitchen.

This fabulous red typewriter that I badly wanted. It’s the sort of typewriter that great novels should be written on!

A great Coca Cola cooler.

And an even better Coke machine.

Of course, I bought none of these things but they made for great study during my little field trip.

Is there a color or a type of object that catches your eye?