Holiday Chaos, Gen X Toys

We are back! Schedules - what can we say? Glad you're here to enjoy this little walk down memory lane! We are also happy to report we have made 4 of our six donations for the year! The final two are in process. Thanks to those of you who helped make this possible through your monthly membership and merch sales! 

The holidays bring out our best rituals and our strangest stories, so we leaned all the way in—burned-out schedules, half-dressed trees, and the secret rules of outdoor lights—before heading straight to the toys that defined a generation. We revisit the Cabbage Patch craze with clear eyes: the handmade “Little People” roots, the mall stampedes, the classifieds side hustles, and the often-overlooked contribution of folk artist Martha Nelson Thomas, whose work shaped the look long before it became a juggernaut. It’s a lesson in craft, credit, and how scarcity turns a simple doll into a cultural moment.

Then we geek out on Teddy Ruxpin, the soft-spoken marvel engineered by former Disney Imagineer Ken Forsse. A cassette with two tracks—one for story, one for motor control—let Teddy sync his eyes and mouth like a tiny animatronic at home. We talk marketing smarts (ABC specials, a full animated series, and a safety partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children), plus the infamous sidekick Grubby and why some accessories never quite make it. Along the way, we thread in lightning-struck Cookie Monsters, Tom Selleck mustache nostalgia, and the way small rituals carry us through seasons that are equal parts joy and ache.

If you grew up watching adults chase the “it” toy or felt the thrill of finding one tucked on a back shelf, this conversation will hit home. We celebrate the makers, name the mess, and honor the memories—because the magic wasn’t in the plastic, it was in the people who showed up for us. If this episode sparks a memory, share it with a friend, subscribe for the next drop, and leave a review so more Gen X ears can find their way here.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open And Holiday Catch-Up
• 2:20 End-Of-Year Burnout And Busy Lives
• 7:40 Decorating Wins, Fails, And Aesthetic Rules
• 15:30 Visual Merchandising Brain And ADHD Tangents
• 20:55 Nostalgic Holiday Episode Setup
• 24:20 Who Died, Music Legends, And Memory Gaps
• 30:40 Magnum P.I., Mustaches, And Teen Crushes
• 37:10 Sponsor Break: LYLAS Community
• 39:20 Big-Deal Gifts We Actually Had
• 42:10 Cabbage Patch History, Hype, And Dark Side
• 51:30 Family Stories, Grief, And The Craze’s Impact
• 1:00:10 Pre-Internet Scalping And Resurgence

Transcript

Megan: 0:00

I'm Megan Bennett.

Lesley: 0:01

I'm Lesley Meier.

Megan: 0:02

And this is Gen X Women Are Sick of This Shit. Hi, Lesley.

Lesley: 0:09

Oh, hi. Are we starting right now? Right now.

Lesley: 0:11

I don't know. We could start.

Megan: 0:12

Yeah, we can try it again.

Lesley: 0:13

We're we're here. No, I think this is a great beginning. Let's just keep it this way. I think that's fine.

Megan: 0:18

Happy holidays, Lesley.

Lesley: 0:21

Happy holidays.

Megan: 0:24

How the hell are you?

Lesley: 0:25

I'm pretty good. Yeah. I'm a little weary. The end this end of the year is weary. It's just hard because there's so much going on.

Megan: 0:33

So I feel bad because we missed a podcast date.

Lesley: 0:36

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's our first ever fall miss. And we talked about doing a repost, and I thought about that. Honestly, like I did not even have time to like do it.

Megan: 0:45

It's just life, man.

Lesley: 0:46

And I was like, they'll be okay. Maybe they'll be like, oh,

Megan: 0:53

I can't live without them.

Lesley: 0:54

But I didn't get any emails. So I think you can. They're emails. I didn't get emails, so I think we're gonna be okay. But we are we really are here and coming back. Did we mention that we both have full-time jobs?

Megan: 1:08

Full-time jobs, this is and family siss. Oh my gosh. Zero hobbies.

Lesley: 1:13

Outside obligations, zero hobbies. This is the hobby. This is the hobby. Puppies and kitties. You know, you know, listening audience, you're all fucking busy too. We get it. Yes. You get it. Yes. And here we are. Hi. And in theory, some people spent some time with some family members over the past.

Megan: 1:33

They had some Thanksgiving, if that is something that you celebrate. Yeah. Which is a, you know, it's toss-up these days. It's tricky. Interesting. I mean, if you're listening from Europe, you're kind of like, What? What with a gathering? You had Guy Fawkes Day instead in the UK.

Lesley: 1:52

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Megan: 1:53

Which is pretty, pretty fucking cool holiday, actually. Fair point.

Lesley: 1:57

Kind of wish we had that. We could have just done that for ourselves, really, I guess if we'd wanted to. Let's co-opt some other holidays from other countries. Borrow your Guy Fox holiday and just have a big bonfire and burn some shit. Thanks.

Megan: 2:10

Yes. It's it might just get there all by itself. Remember, remember. Cool. So we've got holiday stuff on the mind. We've got shopping that we're doing. We've got decorating that's happening. Your house is done.

Lesley: 2:25

I it was warm. Early November. Yeah. Mid-ish November. It is not now. And that we had a single weekend Saturday that was available. And I was like, we're fucking doing Christmas lunch right now. Yeah. So we did festive up the fuck of the outside of the house. Nice. And then the inside is mostly done. The tree is up. There are not, there's like 10 ornaments on it. I gotta finish that. It'll probably be this weekend. It's fine. It's just for that big woo Christmas day. And then after the first year, it all comes back down. But I like it cozy. I like it just the lights more than anything. I just drape lights everywhere, really.

Megan: 3:04

And so glitter and I agree. We went, we did, we were gonna do everything the I was actually gonna do it before Thanksgiving, and I didn't. And so then I was like, well, we'll do it after. And I got everything out, had you know, the husband pulled everything out of the garage and I brought everything inside, and we've got a we've got a fake tree. And it was all pre-lit and everything, except this year where the top lit and the bottom lit, but the middle not so much. So that that bad boy went to recycle force, so it will be stripped and all the pieces recycled. Oh, bright. And which is great. And we went immediately and bought a new tree. This one not lit. Yeah. So I can have it be colored lights, or I can have it be white lights, or I can have it be red lights, or I can have it be whatever, purple. I don't care. So this year it is multicolored lights. Ah, that's very, very pretty. Very festive.

Lesley: 4:00

Do you do you put any shit shit out in front of your house? I got very few words right now.

Megan: 4:07

I got no shit in my yard. Uh so we have, I kind of I really want some like, I don't know, over-the-top Christmas decorations in my front yard. I think that'd be really fun. Super fun. I just haven't found the thing that it is yet. Understand. Like, I feel like there's, I don't know.

Lesley: 4:22

Have you seen the giant inflatable Christmas bucky beaver?

Megan: 4:26

I would be okay with that, I think. I saw one of those that's driving somewhere and I was like, that's funny. Yeah. I might do that. That's pretty funny. We have some lanterns that are hanging on our porch very pretty that have little battery candle lit up things, and they they're on little timers, so they turn on when it gets dark. And oh yeah. It's nice. So we don't have to go out and do anything with them. But that's fun. And a lot of times I'll put lights on the bushes and stuff, but it got fucking cold. It did. It got too cold too fast.

Lesley: 4:55

We weren't gonna do more, and it just was like dumb. By the time Thanksgiving hit, I was like, I think uh we didn't good enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my kids. Oh, nobody cares about this. Let me think about it. Okay, it's fine. We did this project this summer. I was like, how far down this ADHD rabbit hole do we want to go right in? We did project this summer. We tore a chunk of our garage off and like rebuilt the original doors. And they are barn doors. Yeah, they are barn doors. We built it's very cute. So, like before it got cold, I had to like get primer on all of the raw wood and it's white and it's so cute. And so then I was like, Oh, I have to get like real pine garland so that it looks like a barn, right? And I put a real pine wreath out there, it's also in the front, and I put lights around it. And so my daughter comes home for Thanksgiving and I was like, Look, look, look. She's she's like, What in the Joanna Gaines Hellscape is this? And we like put lights in the back because we look at it, it's really pretty to look out in the backyard because we see it all the time. And then she's like, Mom, you only got like the white paint like six inches out around the door. And I was like, Fuck you, god damn it. I was like, Yes, yes. I didn't get the whole garage painted. Thanks for noticing, but it is really cute. And I go in and out there to get to my car, so I do feel like I'm like, I'm going to my barn. You know, it's I live in the city, let's be clear.

Megan: 6:17

That's pretty funny. I I'm always a little bit, I have I've got very little space in my yard. It's a pretty small yard. Three three little bushes. Like it would really not take me very long to put stuff on. Sure. But I'm a Gemini, so you would think it wouldn't bother me.

Lesley: 6:34

Okay.

Megan: 6:35

But I am so anal retentive when it comes to lights. Like everything has to be spaced the same amount. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't mix, like you don't, you just don't mix your colored lights and your white lights. That is just fuck what kind of crazy bullshit is that? Yes. So it's a lot of work. It is. Like I go out there and if I it's not just throwing lights up. No, no, no. That'll make me nuts.

Lesley: 6:57

Do you ever do the blankets, the light blankets, or is that too no, because they're too evenly spaced. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't look natural. No, I totally feel this. So bad. I understand. It's it's a thing. It's a visual thing. And I'd worked in visual displays for like producer Tim is shaking his head at me, like, what is fucking wrong with you? And he's also going, that is exactly how Lizzie is. It's not wrong. I worked in visual display for Lazarus Macy's for a long time. So I have opinions about where shit goes.

Megan: 7:29

Yeah, like you have things have to be even. I did when I worked retail, they would send you the like the display. They just send you the stuff that was supposed to be in the main window.

Lesley: 7:40

Uh-huh.

Megan: 7:40

And then you would have a piece of paper that came with it, and it would tell you exactly how everything was supposed to lay out. Yep. And I was always the one who was chosen to do it because I was just like, now, do I hang up my clothes? No, I do not.

Lesley: 7:56

I have a those live in baskets.

Megan: 7:58

I have a chair in my bedroom. It is piled up to basically my height and clothes. ADHD.

Lesley: 8:05

That's because that's the most boring, fucking repetitive, pointless task in the universe. Yes, it's awful. Maybe four times a year.

Megan: 8:12

But can I do a display in a window? Hell yeah, I can. You're the fucking Macy's. I'm right here. I'm just waiting for the call. Let's go. So funny.

Lesley: 8:22

So here we are. We're gonna do a little like nostalgic holiday episode today. We did kind of like all the Christmas movies last year that we watched. Oh, and the TV shows. And yeah. We talked about decorations on one. It was a pretty, it's actually probably one of our most listened to episodes. I can't remember if we broke that up into two, but it is like almost two hours of just y'all. Do you remember?

Megan: 8:50

Yeah. Do you remember Rudolph? Hell yeah, you do.

Lesley: 8:54

Like it gets, it's probably has the most downloads. So I I don't know if it's gonna be that much of a I don't know that it'll be that well received, but we're super glad you liked that one and we'll try to talk about something different. Yep, it sits at like 2,500 people in that episode. That's so fun.

Megan: 9:13

I'm glad I love well and I hope that you know I hope it brought back some memories for folks. Yeah, that's really good.

Lesley: 9:19

The point I mean, I I hope we're mildly amusing and you remember things.

Megan: 9:25

Yeah.

Lesley: 9:26

No, it's helpful.

Megan: 9:27

That's it. Just you and me talking. I'm like, oh shit, I remember that. Yes, you know, and that's really just to keep our our memories sharp. We are trying to not, yeah, have our brains just go completely dormant.

Lesley: 9:40

I think that's totally true. But we should start these episodes like we often do. Sure. Which is sort of our who what happened recently. What happened recently? Who died this week, and what should are we sick of? Yeah. Oh, what happened on this day, you know, back in 1985, we talked about that too. So we're just gonna do like a run through of a few things. What do you? I don't know. We can uh I started at the beginning. The who died. We were having to do a deep dive because we were like, okay, I A, I haven't been on the internet and I haven't paid much attention.

Megan: 10:14

It was fairly quiet of the last few weeks, right?

Lesley: 10:17

So calm before the storm of Christmas when we will lose in droves many famous people. So we actually turned from TV and movie stars to musicians. And I even had to like deep dive into this a little bit because I was like, why do I know this person? Steve Cropper, guitarist, member of Stax Records, Booker T and the MGs. Oh, Booker T. Yeah. Died. Not a young man, but no, he was 84. I think that was December 3rd. But the reason that he is sticks in my Gen X uh consciousness is that he played in the Blues Brothers band. You were an adolescent and you watched the Blues Brothers, that made a massive impression on you. And I was going to say lots of specifics about him that have all left my brain. But he's great.

Megan: 11:09

Yeah, yeah. Well, I love, I love that he because he also toured, didn't he?

Lesley: 11:14

He continued to toured with the Blues Brothers with Belushi and Aykroyd in the Blues Brothers band and played with them. And in it was just awesome. That's cool.

Megan: 11:28

Well, and Booker T and the MG is what an awesome band, anyway. So that's so cool that he you know did all that for us. Absolutely. We also lost uh Jimmy Cliff, who uh reggae, reggae superstar. With if you didn't have Jimmy Cliff, you probably wouldn't have had Bob Marley, you wouldn't have had, you know, Peter blah blah blah. See?

Lesley: 11:50

It's just me losing my brain, too. It's the worst. I said it'll come back to me and then I'll be like, oh yeah. I said all the like songs earlier. I was just like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it was all fucking gone. Just gone. Oh, created the famous guitar riff for their hit Soul Man. We're going backwards again. I mean, everybody knows that song. Green Onions played that. Yep. You were like, Do you know that? I was like, nope. And then you turned it on, and I was like, oh.

Megan: 12:14

Within within two notes, you were like super fucking that song. So yeah, there we go. Super cool.

Lesley: 12:21

Oh about a half a brain between the two of us.

Megan: 12:24

It's yes. And as the year winds down, it'll be worse. It's the truth.

Lesley: 12:29

It's the busier, like there's just less available space.

Megan: 12:33

At some point, there'll just be text between the two of us, and it'll just be dot dot dot dot. That's it.

Lesley: 12:38

And it'll just be loading on no nothing. Do you know what I'm thinking about? It would be like, I do you remember what I was texting you about? And you'll be like, No, I don't know, but okay.

Megan: 12:50

But happy holidays, Leslie. Excited to hear from you.

Lesley: 12:53

You did a little deep dive and like what happened, like oh, this day, this day in 1980.

Megan: 13:01

Yes. Because I was curious what it was. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. It launched. It was the the premiere of Magnum PI. Oh, that's right. When nine-year-old me went, well, he's kind of hot. He said, old guys are hot. Old guys are hot. And I was like, how old was he? 54-year-old me is like mustache, ride. Don't mind if I do. Nine-year-old me, not so much.

Lesley: 13:34

No, but now I'm like, look, he's drinking.

Megan: 13:36

Old guys hot.

Lesley: 13:38

And it turns out he was like 35. He was 34. Okay.

Megan: 13:42

Yes. But he was old to nine-year-old me. Hell yeah. Like now I look back and I'm like, okay, he was a he was a baby.

Lesley: 13:48

And even looking at him, you're still hot.

Megan: 13:50

Okay, he's a baby.

Lesley: 13:52

He's got an older look. I mean, it yes, you pointed that out. He simply looks different. I mean, I was I was sort of sitting with like the 20 somethings, 25, 28, 29, 30-year-olds now who are sporting like super mustaches, and we're getting close to like kind of 70s hair. And they have baby faces. Like it just is not the same. He was a very hairy man.

Megan: 14:14

Oh my gosh. I mean, he had some hairy chest. He had some hairy legs. He had a nice butt. And I I speak I'm speaking like he's dead. He's not dead. He's not. He's just over now. I mean, as of this recording, Tom Salek is still alive. Yes. But yeah, I I think nine-year-old me just was introduced to a very hot moustached man. Moustache.

Lesley: 14:42

I'm so proud of you. I just part of my brain's like, what? And your nine-year-old psyche was like.

Megan: 14:49

I I think my well, I know my mom. I know my mom thought Tom Salek was sure mega hot. Okay. So there was like So there's probably that I probably rubbed off a little bit, but also he was mega hot. I mean, it just is what it is. I love it. And I loved him in Friends later, later. He was just very clever and cute. Yes. He actually got his start. He was doing commercials and then he he was he did two, I think it was two episode guest appearance in the Rockford Files in the 70s. Like the late 70s. Okay. And then got his own show because of how well he did in the Rockford Files. Based on two episodes? Well, he was well, he knew. He was pretty hot. I don't know if I mentioned that. I don't dear listen.

Lesley: 15:34

Not sure if you if you caught that, but please rate Tom Sellick on a scale of one to ten from the perspective of your pubescent adolescence, pre-ad pre-pubescent self. But on the cusp, like on the cusp of puberty, like you are you're just right there. I knew what I knew.

Megan: 15:53

I didn't know much, but something was stirring inside of me. All that hair. You were like sexy. And I would say, like, I did not think as a teenager or a young adult that a mustached guy was particularly attractive. It was not like that was something that your, you know, your dad had lost right. Like you clearly can't get past my and I just can't.

Lesley: 16:19

Right. Well, okay. Yeah, fair. I'm just like, he was also very nerdy. I mean, it was just not, they would not have been in the toms.

Megan: 16:27

Didn't have like dimples and the whole bit that goes with. But I think, you know, you mentioned like the kid, kids these days with their with their facial hair. It's just, I don't, they just can't grow that mustache, though. That's like it was oh full, right?

Lesley: 16:43

Like it's there's no, but take it in the context in which it is meant. You need to see my 22-year-old's mustache. Oh my god. Seriously, if he was walking down the sidewalk, like towards the bar, and one of our friends said, Is that Tom Selleck? I'm not because his facial hair, like they said that he looked like I don't remember what it went, but it massive. He does have a gigantic upper lip. They thought he had like a cleft palate when he was born. He had this like really intense. So he's accentuating it with this mustache. Oh my gosh, he's just a facial hair heathen. It is, and it doesn't fit because he still has aspects of a baby face. My child will never listen to this, but maybe if one of his buddies listens, they'll clue him in because supposedly every once in a while they listen and just be like, dude, your mom is talking about you. She's talking about facial hair by young. Super fucking funny though. It's wild.

Megan: 17:41

Does he maintain it? Like he okay, yeah.

Lesley: 17:45

I mean, yeah, like a 21-year-old is want to do. Okay. If it if it lingers until 35, we'll see if it, you know, I'll be much older. Yeah. It'll be some amount of years.

Megan: 18:01

Some years older. And we'll see how that goes. You'll maybe you'll feel comfortable being like, you know, it's time to shave that. We'll report back in the future. That's awesome. Anyway, enough of that story. We have, we have, yes. This day in 1980, we were introduced to Magnum PI.

Lesley: 18:18

Go watch some reruns, friends.

Megan: 18:20

Listen to that theme song, have some fun. Yeah. There you go. Uh, should we take a little break and then we'll come back and hit it? Let's do that. Gen X Women Are Sick of the Shit is supported by Lilas. Love you like a sis, a Gen X women's social club. What's Lilass, Megan? Lilas is our uh off platform, off uh the Books of Faces, off all of the other traditional social media. Uh, it is our space and place for Gen X women to come together, have conversations, meet each other. It's a social club. It is a social club.

Lesley: 18:56

It's a membership-based club. Memberships are $10 a month. Um, that does help support us in growing the platform. We purchased a platform that would host a network of women so that you could come together and meet each other in real time.

Megan: 19:14

In a safer space than a traditional social media platform and a much more personal space.

Lesley: 19:22

So what do we do there, Leslie? We host movie nights where we live stream some of our favorites as they are available to us for group watches of films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. We host a space for a monthly book club. We host trivia nights. Trivia nights once a month. We have a live text chat. Four prizes, even. Four prizes. That's true. Um, we the space is able to host like weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people. I would say the critical. Difference between kind of what this space is and any other social media space that I've experienced is that it is active. You will have to engage in it or be engaged in it by other people. So it's not like a passive consumption thing.

Megan: 20:17

It's like making connections. Yep. And if that's what you're looking for, the opportunity to meet other people, to find people who are maybe in the same similar spaces as you are.

Lesley: 20:28

Like-minded, same time phase of life, navigating all of those transitions, then this might be the right place for you.

Megan: 20:36

So check out Latty Last. You can learn more about it at GenXwomenpod.com. And we're back. Bang, bang, bang, bang to the future, future, future. We are back. I don't know.

Lesley: 20:48

We took a little pause. Had a little chest. Had to look at some facial hair. We did have to look at some facial hair. And then we had to look at the things that we were talking about next. Yes.

Megan: 21:02

So we're gonna talk today about a couple of like the big gifts when we were kids. Yes. So the things that everybody was clamoring for, wanted to have, must have.

Lesley: 21:17

And we picked gifts that we each had like personal experience with because there were lots of popular, popular toys. Absolutely. Like so we just picked one each, basically. Like I was watching a little video of just all the things that were hot in the 80s.

Megan: 21:35

80s was a consumerism nightmare. Well, I mean, depending on how you look at it, either a nightmare or a I don't know, a boon. Right. One of the two.

Lesley: 21:47

Lots of fun things that we've talked about before. You know, the speaking spells and Rubik's Cube. Yes, and all the action figures, Star Wars toys, He-Man, Transformers, Go Bots.

Megan: 21:58

My mom reminded me of the Orby, the 1980s ball toy, the eight, the Orby, where you like it had a little ball on the end and like a little kind of bendy, I don't know, arms that were attached to it, and then streamers. Yes. And you could grab it by the little streamers and you could whip that sucker around and throw it, and it would go for like forever. That's all. So you could play catch with it and stuff like that. So she reminded me of that, and that it was a toy that I had to have. You were really excited. So yeah. And I completely forgotten about it, but I'm glad she remembered it. That was cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Orby.

Lesley: 22:35

Orby. I remember I was a little bit old for the Care Bears, but I remember the Care Bears. Yeah. Rainbow Bright. I had some My Little Ponies, Smurfs.

Megan: 22:45

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Lots of Smurfs. Definitely. I have a suitcase, I think, still of some Smurfs. Do you really? Yeah. Like some origin. I'm sure they're in various states of shitty condition, but yeah.

Lesley: 22:57

That's still kind of cool. I really liked the Smurfs.

Megan: 23:01

Kind of Smurfs. I mean, kind of liked them. They were now looking back, I'm like, how did I not be just completely annoyed by that?

Lesley: 23:09

But you know, we were just raised in the water of misogyny. Like, why would we have just been sure? Of course, there's 50 little blue men, one old man blonde girl.

Megan: 23:23

Except for the dark haired girl, because there was one that was like the evil one. Yes, always. And she, of course, had the dark hair.

Lesley: 23:32

Fuck that. Yeah, anyway. Yeah. The stereotypes. You'll wonder.

Megan: 23:36

She was created, I do believe, by Gargamel to like by another old white guy. Well, I think I I think Smurfette was actually created by him too.

Lesley: 23:46

Oh, interesting.

Megan: 23:47

I think.

Lesley: 23:47

Anyway, you get a deep dive on some Smurf.

Megan: 23:52

That's me.

Lesley: 23:53

I'm just a vat of stupid knowledge of Smurfs. I was looking too at like some gifts from the 70s that I would have had, like, you know, in my pre-eight-year-old life. Uh-huh. And one that was on the list was the stretch armstrong. Yes. Do you remember that? Yes. I definitely have a stretch armstrom. 100%. It was the best. Yeah.

Megan: 24:13

Like, why was that so cool? Because it was like, I'm sure, full of toxic goo. It was super fun.

Lesley: 24:21

Stretch him forever.

Megan: 24:22

It was so good. And you couldn't help but wonder what was really inside that. Heck, if you had scissors in your hand, you'd know you had a moment of like, I really want to cut this thing open.

Lesley: 24:34

Yeah. All of that is sitting in a landfill somewhere. I'm sorry, R.I.P. Earth. Right. Just just leaching into our soil. Okay. Here's what I want to know. If somebody has a stretch Armstrong from the 70s, I can't imagine they survived.

Megan: 24:50

I can't imagine. Like that rubber's going to break down.

Lesley: 24:52

That's what I want to know. Is it still soft and pliable? Did it degrade and all the goo fall out? What happened? Or dry up. What is its condition? Could we send that off to the lab where you're you should tell that story? Oh, the speak and spell the speak and spell story.

Megan: 25:07

Yeah. If I haven't told it before, we had a speak and spell that I was truly just lost its mind. And it started speaking and making up fake words. And so it would be like spell gerba churka black. And you'd be like, what the fuck? What? And it totally was. I thought that maybe it was like a Russian sure. You know, like red dawn. The reds were coming and they were using my speaking spell to brainwash me. But this thing, it would, it would do a regular word and it would be fine. And then like the next word would be something completely made up. Okay. And so my mom actually had a friend who worked for Texas Instruments. Yeah, for Texas. Thank you for Texas. See, a full brain between the two of us, but for Texas Instruments. And he sent it basically to Texas Instruments and they took it apart and they went through all this work to try to figure out what was wrong with it. And they could not figure it out. They just sent it back to us and they were like, Well, good luck. That's amazing.

Lesley: 26:08

I think that's amazing. Your mom, I was listening while she was telling you that story, and evidently they had like a great time with your speaking spell.

Megan: 26:17

Like they thought it was hilarious. Yeah, I mean, it was a complete mess. And then they were like, we don't know what's wrong. We it probably was supposed to be sent to Mars or something. It's it's speaking a completely foreign language.

Lesley: 26:29

I think that's amazing. Yep. Well, I have a toy I'm gonna talk about and ironically enough, I didn't actually get it for Christmas right away. Eventually I got one for Christmas. It's it's a long story. I'll try to make it not so long. But I I we were talking about stuff. I want to talk about the cabbage patch craze. Oh my god, yes. Do you remember this experience of the cabbage patch kids dolls?

Megan: 26:58

Yes, yes, I do. I just remember there being a frenzy for them, there were riots, there were fights, there was all kinds of there was price gouging and all the things for a doll. Yeah. And I probably was right in there wanting one real bad. Of course. I had one, I remember having one, yeah.

Lesley: 27:19

Yes. So the the cabbage patch doll came into my consciousness as a like probably seven or eight-year-old. That seems about right. And no, yeah, that's probably true. It was pre-10, I know that for sure, because someone that I went to school with, her family drove her all the way to I had to go and like dig through this to Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia to get an original soft sculpted pre-mass market cabbage patch doll. That's something. And that's when I learned about rich people. And I was like, oh, people drive to other states to get a toy toys that are evidently very expensive. And it was like when they were, they were all handmade, they were hand painted. Xavier Roberts was like a pop star amongst the like fourth graders, third, fourth, you know, probably even younger. I would imagine, you know, its contemporary equivalent is like the American Girl Doll store. Yeah. Even though they're very different items, it was kind of like the beginning of that. Yeah.

Megan: 28:42

Well, because they had full, you could buy outfits, so many different outfits. You could buy, you know, cabbage patch shoes and and people make custom clothes.

Lesley: 28:52

Oh, yes. Like many a seamstress, very happy, like making you know, adorable outfits and that kind of thing. So I do remember cabbage patch kids in the 80s, and they went to like mass market. They kind of started in the 70s. There's a little bit of history. It's actually every history's got some darkness in it. Supposedly, as a 21-year-old art student, Xavier Roberts rediscovered needle molding, a German technique for fabric sculpture from the early 1800s. He combined his interest in sculpture with quilting skills, passed down from his mother, and created this soft sculpture. So that was in 1976. It went on and like won an award at this Ossiola art show. He started making he started making these things called little people originals and exhibiting them at arts and crafts shows. And people were paying in the 70s $40 to adopt these things. So he won first place with one of them, and then it went on. Supposedly, there's there's of course a dark side to all this, which is the only reason I'm saying this part. Organized five school friends and incorporates original Appalachian Artworks, Incorporated. Xavier and his friends renovate the LG Neal Clinic, a turn-of-the-century medical facility in Cleveland, Georgia, and open Babyland General Hospital to the public for these things. So, of course, the dark side is what we think is he actually appropriated a product that was already being made by this woman who was an artist in Appalachia who did make something called Little People. Uh-huh. And there was a, of course, I've lost it. There was a court case and there was an undisclosed sum of money given to this woman who had actually.

Megan: 30:37

So she won, right? This this court case. It sounds like it did.

Lesley: 30:41

And I please forgive me for not remembering your name right now. If you're still living, it is very important that you are known, but it is not in my brain right now. Yeah. But I was just like, of course. And you know, who knows? Who knows what went down, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone had already created something beautiful. And he was like, I can do that too.

Megan: 31:02

Well, and he had the marketing mind behind him too. Like and already figured that part out. So it kind of tracks that she would, you know, take the take the settlement. A you know what? I can't do what you're going to do. So, you know, have at, I guess.

Lesley: 31:19

Or, I mean, it was just like that was never her intention, and he kind of like bought her out, basically, like that kind of thing. She did sue him. I'll Google it later, or we'll add it into a note or whatever. But they were like a big deal because they were cute babies and you could go adopt them and they're all unique. Yes, each one was different. You could get one that kind of looked like you, you know, it's all of those things. So they went to Mass Market. They were developed between 1982 and 1983. Roberts leased his concept to Coleco, which was a toy company that redesigned the dolls for large-scale production. And that's when they were named Cabbage Patch Kids. Before that, they had just been little people. And he liked signed each one. And you could go and meet him. I can't remember if the person that I knew that had one got to meet him. It's, I suppose, possible they got birth certificates. I mean, you remember all that.

Megan: 32:15

Yeah, you get the birth certificate. You could, I think you could send your birth certificate back in and rename the doll too if you wanted to. So I think mine was their name. Yeah. So mine was Pearl something or other, you know. And I could have sent that birth certificate in and said, no, no, no, I want you to name her, you know, something better. V-I don't know.

Lesley: 32:35

That's whatever. I don't know. You wanted to do that. So it's it was just insane when they hit the market. Coleco, Coleco, am I saying that right? Because I'm thinking of ColecoVision every time I think that's right. Had them from like 82 to like 83 or 84. Oh, nope, lies making up shit. They went bankrupt in 88, then it went to Hasbro, and then it went to Mattel.

Megan: 33:00

Okay.

Lesley: 33:01

So the ones that we knew were definitely produced by them. And for Christmas time, I mean, you just couldn't get them anywhere. Anywhere. And it was the first time I remember kind of like seeing on TV like people climbing over each other, like clips from like Sears or outside of Kmart.

Megan: 33:25

You'd have news crews that would be out in front of toy stores just watching people like tear the shit out of each other, just trying to get to a doll. Yes.

Lesley: 33:32

And it ooh, like, what was going on?

Megan: 33:36

Yeah. My mom, when I was talking to her, she said that some I had one, my sister had one, and we would have gotten it on, you know, the that Christmas where it was impossible to find one.

Lesley: 33:47

Yes.

Megan: 33:47

Apparently, she had gone to a lot of stores. She was looking, she was on the hunt like everybody else. And just happened to be at Toys R Us when a guy came out of the out of the back room, because she said she was in the back corner, like where they would be had any. Looking despondently. Yep. And he had six boxes. And she was like, Can I get two of those? And he's like, Yeah, pick out which two you want. And so she got very lucky. The fact that she was able to get back to the car without being mugged is pretty amazing.

Lesley: 34:20

So that's awesome. Yeah. So that's when you got yours. That's when we got, yeah, my sister and I got ours. So the first Christmas of Cabbage Patch Kids, there was not a Cabbage Patch Kid under my tree at all. Yeah. And so this is where the story kind of like takes a Gen X turn. Because of course it's a dead mom story. So in the summer of 1984, my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. And we did all of the things that families do when you have someone a dying parent. We went on an extended vacation, if you're lucky enough to have them with you. And we had this insane Christmas. So on our extended vacation, we were in Florida and we'd been there so long. At some point, we had to run to the mall for something. I don't know, clothes, shorts, a toy. I don't know why. But my grandmother and I were like have this vague sensory memory. We were passing through like a department store toy department. So it's like up on an upper floor. Okay. And there were empty shelves and just kind of like on a back one that was more like at my height. So this is 1984. So I was 11. Okay. So they would have gotten mass market production in 1983. So it's 10. So 11. And I kind of like saw it there. And like, wait, I was like, you know, grandmother. Oh my gosh, there's a cabbage patch kit. And there's that box, and maybe like a box that had like had been punched in, you know, but it was like not the best doll. But this one was kind of tucked in and it was had kind of dark blonde pigtails and a blue and white kind of gingham checked dress. Yep. And I was like, they have a cabbage patch kit. And she was like, oh, is that important? You know, she wasn't whatever. And I was like, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, you can't get them. I can't believe this is here. Nobody could get them at Christmas last year. Everybody was crazy. And she was just like, well, we're gonna buy that. And I think it was probably 25 bucks. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So we bought that. And and I, that was how I got my cabbage patch kid. And you said you can't remember her name, right? No, I don't. Like it maybe Annabelle or Annabella or something like that.

Megan: 36:32

You know, Annabella, Annabelle is not a great name for a doll. Not, I mean it's always haunted and it doesn't go well.

Lesley: 36:39

But I do feel like it was something like that, but I don't remember. And I had it for the longest time. It might be in a tote, but I for sure know that it doesn't have all of its clothes if it's in the basement. Sure. There's just no freaking way. So I got that one. Just the Gen X tragedy just keeps going. Super naked doll. So that in September I had that one. We came home, October, November. Then we had this obscenely large Christmas. I don't even know how much money my parents spent, all my whole family came. I mean, as a kid, it was the best fucking thing. Sure, of course. We woke up and there was Star Wars and Neon and like everything everywhere. My uncle's there, my aunts are down, but I'm not like everybody's staring at my mom because she's dying. Like, I don't know that, right? Right. So we have this amazing Christmas, and then my mom passed away in March. So what I believe happened next, and I don't know because I'm not a reliable narrator. In the best recollection that you can possibly have, pulled together from my child mind is that my my grandma, my dad's either that Christmas or it was the Christmas after my mom died. I don't know. It's one of the two. Sure. We all this Christmas experience. I hope someone else had Christmas like this. This was the the not as fun kind of grandparents. Okay. And there were just a lot of expectations. We walked in and there were like there were seven of us girls, and one of the girls was a lot older. So I don't know if she got one. So there were at least six of us, and there were wrapped boxes that were absolutely cabbage patch kids. Sure. And this was weird and unbelievable because we generally didn't get like good gifts from this grandma. It was like practical, like clothes that we didn't love. Yeah. I I honestly don't even remember like a itchy, itchy PJs and stuff like that. So the reason that we had those is because my grandma worked for Sears. Oh. And she had like really early and gotten them off the track and gotten them with her discount, but they were the babies, like the baldies. So it wasn't, you know, even then it wasn't like quite right. Like it wasn't quite the thing that you wanted. It wasn't itchy PJs, but it still wasn't the dolls. And there were so many itchy PJs. So that is my personal narrative. I think it's great. And associated memories. Yeah.

Megan: 39:19

Yeah. My my sister had one. I feel like hers had dark hair. I think mine had blondish, reddish, blondish hair, maybe. Okay. Yeah. Like they were fun. I thought they were, you know, I don't think in hindsight, you know, I don't know that there's a toy that has come out since then, before then or since then, with that kind of fervor.

Lesley: 39:46

Yes.

Megan: 39:47

And you and I were talking too before we started recording about, you know, this is all pre internet. So when you think about like how people would have price gouged or, you know, hoarded and then Tried to resell, you know, they had to do things like put articles in or put you know classified in the newspaper. Yes. Right, right. Like I have four cabbage patch dolls. I'll let them go for a hundred dollars each. You know, that kind of thing. And you're just like calling people on their phones. Right. Right. Like on their wall phone. Right.

Lesley: 40:20

The stretchy cord.

Megan: 40:21

Hi, Fred Smith. Person I do not know. I would like to give you $100 for a cabbage patch kit. No shit. I don't even care what they look like. Yeah. Or what? Yeah. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. So all that, you know, pre-ebay, pre all of that.

Lesley: 40:36

Absolutely. Like the resale. So they fell out of my consciousness after the 80s, but evidently there was a bit of a resurgence of them. In the 90s, there was like a US Olympic mascot. Oh my gosh. And they were including like boys. You know, it's like it wasn't just, I think boys were always a part of it. Whatever.

Megan: 40:56

2000, there was like a oh yeah, you could get a little, it was a little boy or a little girl, right? Like from the beginning. I can't remember. I'm pretty sure.

Lesley: 41:03

Okay. I'm pretty sure. And now they're evidently in a new place. I didn't know this. They moved in 2009. 70,000 square feet of fucking plantation. Look at that picture. I mean, that says a lot. Magic Crystal Tree, where guests can watch the live delivery of a cabbage patch kid. Oh no. Yep. Okay. I didn't really look ahead this far, y'all. So I'm gonna have to do some extended research. Evidently, it's still hanging in.

Megan: 41:32

Can we please road trip to that?

Lesley: 41:35

We'll take some photos. I want to go see. Let's do it. There's no admission fee because open daily to the public.

Megan: 41:41

Just be the most horrific and giant waste of our time possible.

Lesley: 41:46

Oh, but it would be a really fun road trip. That would be fun. I'm on board. Okay. We'll figure it out. I'm gonna do some more. I'm gonna do some more research research.

Megan: 41:56

Those are quotation fingers happening.

Lesley: 41:58

Oh my quotation fingers. Okay, so good.

Megan: 42:00

So that's my toy. That's good. Whatcha got? Whatcha got me? What was yours? My toy, and probably still to this day one of my favorites of all time was Teddy Ruxpin. Oh. I never had a Teddy Rexpin. I freaking love Teddy Ruxpin. So Teddy Ruxpin, talking plush like bear, right? Technically not a bear. So I learned this in my little research. It was an illop, which I believe is spelled L L L I O P Ilop. What is that? I I don't know. It's just that's what they said. It's a bear-like creature or an illop. Where are they from?

Lesley: 42:41

Like, are they are they not based on a actual animal?

Megan: 42:44

Asking a lot of questions that I do not have an answer for. The the Teddy is described in lore as an Ilop from the land of Grundo. Oh, okay. Okay. And he is not not a bear.

Lesley: 42:57

It's not like based on an animal from Australia. That was my guess. Oh no, no. They must be from Australia. I don't know why. Crikey. Yeah, no, he's he's apparently a so she's a fantasy. Fantasyland of bear, bear.

Megan: 43:12

Which tracks because the creator, the inventor of Teddy Ruxpin is a gentleman named Earl Kenneth Forcy, which you made think of if you if you think of the name Ken Forcy, it may make you go, okay, I kind of think I know that name. Yes, maybe a little bit. So he was an American inventor. He was a former Disney Imagineer.

Lesley: 43:37

Oh.

Megan: 43:37

So he was actually created Teddy Rexpin. Um Teddy was first released in 1985. He was manufactured by a company called Worlds of Wonder. Okay. Yeah. So he was and he was advertised as the world's first animated talking toy. So Teddy, when he launched, was about $70 for retail, which if you did that now, it would be about $190 in today's money. So he was not a cheap toy, not like a not a you know spur of the moment kind of thing. You had to really think about buying that. And when he when you purchased him, you got a one cassette that came with him and a book. Okay. So those are the two things that came with probably the biggest popularity was 85, 86. So like Christmas of 85 was a real big, it was his big, I guess, debut, right? Okay. Sold roughly 8 million units. So 8 million Teddy Rexpins out there in the world. And that's across, you know, internationally and across different versions of Teddy Rexpin over the years. So but Ken Forcey. So what's cool about him, he worked in Walt Disney Productions and he worked on attractions like It's a Small World and Jungle Cruise. He also worked for Sid and Marty Croft. So like he he understood puppeteering, he understood like animatronics and all of that. That's cool. He actually brought, bought, I think, I think bought a the head of a bear animatronic from Disney. So it like something that he had worked on. Okay. And he bought it and brought it home. And he started like creating, like messing with the animatronics to create like basically this talking uh bear.

Lesley: 45:35

Okay.

Megan: 45:35

Which is, I think, incredibly cool. Um, he wanted to be able to make this soft toy be able to not just, you know, have a moving mouth, but have moving eyes and be able to actually speak the words that were on the cassette. So that was that was pretty cool. So he partnered with a company called Worlds of Wonder to manufacture and distribute the toy for 1985 holiday season, which is pretty cool. Teddy had a cassette player in his back, basically. So you'd pop that open. What's cool is the the the tapes are not regular tapes, they were actually um they had two different streams of data on the tape, which I think is just really fucking cool for like 1985. Yeah, for sure. So two tracks, the left track was all the audio story, okay so you'd hear the audio story, but the right track had all of the control data that was going through it as well. So it was basically telling these little motors that were in the eyes and the mouth when to fire to go alongside the other track. So like everything I know, it's just the coolest thing. So and I don't know that like freak, I don't know that we have technology now that's like like that, right?

Lesley: 46:54

I don't know what that toy equivalent would be. I in think of anything. Like I know there are things that like words come out and the mouth, like it's not synchronized, it just sort of has movement. Yeah. And there are like, you know, robo tracks and all kinds of things, but not it's not like here's a little Disney animatronic in your house. Right.

Megan: 47:18

Like here's your very own little, it's a small world critter. So the what was kind of cool is they had earlier versions and those had fewer motors, or they or I should say they had three motors. So they had the mouth and they had each eye.

Lesley: 47:32

Okay.

Megan: 47:33

And then later they designed they redesigned it so that it just had two motors so that you didn't you basically had less opportunity for it to break. Right. And it was cheaper and cheaper to make. Sure, sure. To be honest. Okay. So that was pretty cool. They had replaceable batteries in them, you know, and then of course, when those would go bad, then Teddy would look a little look a little sad when I would start doing some things and start to slur his words a little bit. Teddy needs a nap now. So that was pretty cool. And then I don't know if you remember, he had a sidekick too.

Lesley: 48:07

So Teddy had so I didn't until I saw like pictures and I was like, what the hell is this? What is that?

Megan: 48:16

So they sold a producer Tim is laughing. They sold an orange caterpillar, sure. That was his octoped companion, and its name was Grubby. Why not? Grubby the Caterpillar. Grubby the Caterpillar. Okay. Grubby, Grubby was cool. Grubby, Grubby didn't do shit on his own. Oh, okay. But you could have a little cable that you connect the two.

Lesley: 48:43

Oh.

Megan: 48:43

And then Grubby would actually talk as well. And so like they could read a story together. Forever tethered. Forever tethered to your il yom. To life without Teddy. Nope. Grubby was once to exist. Grubby was just useless without him.

Lesley: 49:01

I don't know why that makes me think of the movie Mannequin. I don't know why.

Megan: 49:08

I don't know why either, but I like it.

Lesley: 49:11

Like she just in the department store. That's exactly right. Like, oh God. That's so good. And so I just imagine like millions of grubbies like alone on toys, like on like Goodwill shelves. No corn. No, no teddy rags. Because everybody kept their fucking teddy rags. Yeah, everybody wanted teddy, but Grubby. But they were like, somebody's gotta go. You know, and like Grubby. He's just out the door.

Megan: 49:37

Grubby goes in the donation box and he's in the land girl with stretch armstrong. RAP Grubby. R.A.P. stretch. Oh my God. So good. So the is what the other piece to this that I think is pretty interesting. And from as a marketing person, I find all of this super fascinating, but they actually created an ABC weekend special in 1985. Oh no shit. And that happened, of course, right before the holidays. So you want to stir up some people getting really excited and getting some kids really jammed, you know, juiced up about a talking teddy bear. You have an ABC weekend special to like really fire them up. Brilliant. Yep. I know, right? Like manipulation.

Lesley: 50:26

No, not okay. But there was like it was like a Teddy Rexbin cartoon kind of vibe. Okay.

Megan: 50:31

Yep. Yep. So so they had that. And then afterwards, after the holiday, they had a 65-episode animated series. That I do kind of remember. Do you kind of remember that? So it was called The Adventures of Teddy Rexbin, and it ran from 1986 to 1987. So short-lived, but that's a lot of episodes. I know. Well in those two.

Lesley: 50:53

I mean, I guess they're probably like 15, 21 minutes max, like with ads and stuff. Sure. Pretty brief. Yeah, I'm sure. We've always been watching short form content.

Megan: 51:03

I just know that there's like animators that are just like, you know, just working their little asses off to draw those pictures. Yes. Which was great. Yeah. Right. That's amazing. Anyway, so they also in 1985, this is kind of a cool little trivia nugget. Teddy Ruxpin was enlisted as the spokes bear, even though he wasn't a bear. No, he should have been the spokes. For the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. So using his popularity, he was able to deliver child safety messages to keep kids, you know, this whole stranger danger message and street, street smarts, you know. Yes.

Lesley: 51:45

Stay away from strangers and that kind of thing. Stay away from your Uncle Grubby Uncle Grubby. Uncle Grubbi. Stay away from Uncle Grubbby, also. That's so bad. That may not be a caterpillar. So you had a Teddy Rexbin. I did. I absolutely had a Teddy Rexman. Do you remember receiving Teddy Rexpin? How didn't that go down?

Megan: 52:07

Okay. I do not. I know. So we were always really spoiled at Christmas. Oh. Like not spoiled to the fact that we would go to Georgia to pick out, hand pick out a you know custom painted hand signed handsaver Roberts. Cabbage Patch Kid. Not that stuffed doll. But we had a lot of toys. There were a lot of things underneath the the tree. And I suspect that Teddy Ruxpin was one of those that you know showed up. And honestly, like I would 100% have one today. Like I think it is just the cool.

Lesley: 52:48

Yeah.

Megan: 52:49

It's the coolest technology. It is neat. That's it. Just to be able to have that. I yeah, I love him. I love him. I love him. We had like, and I can't think of anything even remotely close to that that my daughter even had, like that was that tickle mielmo and crap like that, right?

Lesley: 53:05

It was I remember. And like from a price point, as you were talking, I'm like, oh, okay. So it's kind of like the droid shop and Disneyland. Like you can buy droid. Yes. But it's not the same kind of this isn't it. That's you have to go there and it's very exclusive and it's a droid. So you expect it to be mechanical. It's not an adorable teddy bear that's talking to you. Right, right.

Megan: 53:25

And reading you stories and things like that. Yes. Yeah, but like the only thing I was trying to, I was just trying to brainstorm anything that Gillian had when she was little that, you know, would have, but nothing. And the only the only thing that came to mind was we had when she was really little, I was at home with her, and our house was actually struck by lightning. We lived, you know, a block away from here, by the way.

Lesley: 53:49

So you got struck by lightning over there? Yes, yes.

Megan: 53:52

So we got struck by lightning, and the lightning actually bounced off of the flashing on our on our fireplace. Okay. And or on the roof, and like bounced to neighbors' houses and bounced all the way down the block and like blew out like yeah, washers and dryers and stuff a block away. Oh my gosh. Super wild. But it hit the way that it hit, it actually like burned up a bunch of our internal wiring. Okay. So we it was loud as fuck. We got out of there, we called, we called the 911, and then I called Jeff, called my husband, and I'm like, our house was just struck by lightning. You need to come home right now. And he's like, no, it wasn't. And I'm like, don't, are you fucking gaslighting me right now? I'm pretty sure I was in the house. Yep. And it was struck by lightning. And so he says that, and then he hears fire engines coming down the street. So he's like, I'll be right there. And and so I'm sitting out on the front porch and everything with my daughter and our dog who is traumatized. And we're just sitting on the front porch and the firefighters come in and they take care of everything. They make sure that nothing's on fire.

Lesley: 55:03

Yeah.

Megan: 55:04

And they they track soot everywhere. And it's just, it was a nightmare. But they went into Gillian's room and they brought downstairs this cookie monster toy that she had. And this cookie monster toy was a firefighter spot attack. Yeah, because they were like, you gotta see this.

Lesley: 55:22

I just want to be clear.

Megan: 55:24

So it was this battery, it was this battery operated thing that it would it would open its mouth and you could throw cookies like from a distance, right? Like a little game thing. Well, Cookie Monster was apparently like uh supercharged. And so they put they put this thing down. It's it is turned off. It is 100%. In fact, I don't think it had batteries in it. No, like it was just it was what you possessed. It's sitting there and it's sitting on the ground, and it opens its mouth and it's like, she is for cookie, and it's making this like horrific noise. And we're just like, what the hell? Gillian's just laughing her ass off. That's the closest thing to Teddy Rexman she ever had.

Lesley: 56:14

That's very impressive, though.

Megan: 56:17

That's very impressive. Oh my god. I'm pretty sure that thing talked for a good two, three days before it finally lightning turned and charged itself.

Lesley: 56:30

I mean, isn't that the plot of Frankenstein?

Megan: 56:32

Oh kind of. It's alive. It was definitely alive. Yeah. Were your appliances fried or were you okay? Everything was well, we lost a TV, at least a TV, and I think our dryer got fried. But everything else was pretty much okay. Just we did have to have Pokemon. Yeah. It blew, you know, of course, old house. Yeah. So it had, we had used to have like coal burning furnace. Yeah, yeah. And it's still, we had like this plate that was on the wall where they would have delivered coal and all that stuff. Well, that blew off, and it apparently had, you know, a hundred years worth of coal dust in there. So that went flying everywhere. So the basement was kind of fucked up for a while, but that's crazy. Yeah. And you could see all of the electrical wires in our walls because they had all burned. So that was pretty freaking weird. Yeah, we got lucky. We really got lucky. Yeah.

Lesley: 57:24

I mean, I was just imagining what you're saying about your neighbors. So it's like, oh yeah. But you could there's a good reason to get all your wiring replaced. Uh-huh. Knob and tube, no mo. So if anybody has a teddy rux spin, keep it. Keep it. Or let Megan know, and maybe she'll buy it for me. Maybe I will because I love that little booger. That's great. I did do just a quick search for something because I thought it was important to go back and get this name. The folk artist was Martha Nelson Thomas. Okay. And that was the woman who sued him for copying her doll babies design, leading to a major legal legal battle that resulted in an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount, though Roberts continued to profit from the dolls. Yeah, he did. Yeah. So dealt a plantation. Roberts and the toy company Coleco for copyright infringement and unfair competition. So I I just, you know, a female folk artist in Appalachia felt it was important to like name her. No, I think that's great. And they uh so Teddy Rexpin beat the cabbage patch dolls in their it was the eight million their initial launch. I think that's right. Yeah. Okay. They uh the first in 1983, when everything was super crazy, three million dolls by the end of that year, but 65 million within the first decade. Oh wow by 1984 and 20 million. So I was just kind of curious, like what if that was like a growing insanity toy craze thing, like because Teddy was the next, like he would have hit in 85 and they hit like in 83, but you know, and it continued. So I was just kind of curious about like the stats on that. Like if all the sudden, yeah, well, like people were like, Oh, what's the n I think there was always that what's the next hot toy, but not on this kind of right.

Megan: 59:10

The moment you start having actual real life like, you know, fights in in toy stores for toys, then it's like, okay, now the gloves are no pun intended, off. And every, you know, every year you're gonna have another hot, hot toy. So I don't know. I don't know. I'm so out of touch now with what it might be now.

Lesley: 59:33

I have no idea. I did know American Girl Dolls just because we went to the store, I think at some point when my child was young. I don't know if we actually bought her one. I think we just went to look at it.

Megan: 59:43

I remember buying my daughter one and wanting her to be really into it. And she was like, did not care. Because they were like, well, and they were smart, you know, they were like in historical history that went.

Lesley: 59:57

Absolutely.

Megan: 59:57

Yeah. No, didn't really care.

Lesley: 59:59

I don't know. I Haven't done toys in a long time. Other than grown-up toys.

Megan: 1:00:04

Yeah. Well, they had for Teddy Ruxpin, they the talking about the marketing with it and to kind of continue to build that hype up. What was the the actress's name who was in Family Ties? The mom. Judith. Meredith Baxter. Was that no?

Lesley: 1:00:23

Family Ties? Family Ties? I think that's either. Is that Meredith Baxter? Oh no, you can't even.

Megan: 1:00:27

I thought it was Judith something or other. Anywho. Okay, we're Google it.

Lesley: 1:00:34

Meredith Baxter was the mom. Okay. Justine Bateman was the sister.

Megan: 1:00:40

I feel like, I can't remember. There was somebody who was like the spokesperson for Teddy Ruxpin. It was like, if you want to be a good mom, you know, you buy your kids this Teddy Ruxpin. Really? Yeah.

Lesley: 1:00:54

So I know you're Googling that shit. We'll we'll look and then and then we'll let you all go on with your afternoon. The spokesperson for Joanne Growing Pains.

Megan: 1:01:06

So yeah, Joanna Kearns from Growing Pains.

Lesley: 1:01:09

Uh a little creepy. There she is. Oh, it's so manipulative. Oh, I remember this commercial. Okay, people, go look for the commercial, Teddy Rexman commercial. Okay, oh, this was posted in 2006, but it's an OG from like 1985. We'll probably get soon. But you could kind of hear that. Doubt it. It'll be doubted.

Megan: 1:01:34

They're probably thrilled if we're advertising their Teddy Rexpin dolls.

Lesley: 1:01:38

So send us your stories if you have memories. Maybe you were lucky enough to go get your own soft sculptured. I mean, if you lived in Georgia, yeah. It wasn't a good vacation. Drive down the street and get one. You could have gone straight from the patch. If you've gone to the patch recently or the Crystal Palace or whatever. Please tell us what we should expect by going to the patch. If there's a Teddy Rexman museum, let us know.

Megan: 1:02:03

Oh, I would love that.

Lesley: 1:02:04

That would be so fun.

Megan: 1:02:06

If they get struck by lightning, though, that'd be really fun. It would be terrifying.

Lesley: 1:02:09

She fur cooked and curses. I'm Teddy Wrexman. We will, we should have one more episode before the end of the year. We're gonna try to get one more recorded and then we'll take a little pause in January, like we did last year, and figure out what the fuck we're gonna do moving forward. I like it.

Megan: 1:02:27

See how it goes. Alright, well, get your shopping done, lady. Done.

Lesley: 1:02:32

You have been listening to Gen X Women Are Sick of This Shit. Hey Megan. Hey Leslie. What do people do if they want to find us?

Megan: 1:02:41

Well, we have a website that people can find us on, and that is GenXwomenpod.com. We also have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram account as well. We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there. We have a TikTok account.

Lesley: 1:03:02

I don't talk the tick or tick the tick.

Megan: 1:03:04

I you know, tick the talk. I I barely talk the tick, but I did put a TikTok out.

Lesley: 1:03:10

We're explaining the internet to people. That's okay though. It's great. We need to know how the internet works.

Megan: 1:03:16

Can people buy merch? They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself, and we also have an Etsy store too. So it's just pretty easy to find. You it's just Gen X Women on Etsy.

Lesley: 1:03:29

And if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you found it somewhere. And while you're there, give us a review. Yeah. Let us know what you think. Throw some stars at us. That'd be great. We'll pick one, two, three, four, or five. Ooh, five. Maybe.

Megan: 1:03:45

And and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops. Most important. We also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about too.

Lesley: 1:03:57

Hell yes! We want to know your stories, your five minutes of fame stories. You can send those stories in on the website, or you can call 1-888-GenX Pod and leave your story for us, and we will play it live in our next episode.

Megan: 1:04:14

Yeah, two or three. We'll listen to it on a little red phone, just like Batman. That'd be cool.

Lesley: 1:04:21

Let's get a Batbone. A Batbone. I think that's it.

Megan: 1:04:25

I think great.