what your childhood toys look like now

I was strolling through a shop the other day and came across a collection of "ORIGINAL TY Beanie Babies!" I was all pumped... until I looked at them.

It's not original at all! Look at its eyes! It's gotten the 21st century eye treatment! They're HUGE!

I decided to look up how many other toys have changed through the years since I haven't been in a Toys R Us in a while, and it's a little terrifying.

Barbie Styling Heads now come with pets... and even more extensive make-up than ever.

Furby has gotten even creepier... WITH LED EYEBALLS!

The doctor's kit is in a tote bag, but other than that I'm happy to see not much has changed.

If you've seen Toy Story 3, you know about Barbie's Dream House nowadays... elevators and way more pink.

If you thought Bop It was hard way back then, stay away from the new versions. 

Polly Pocket... doesn't even live in a pocket anymore!

The Easy Bake Oven... looks nothing like an oven, unless you're living in Zenon's world.

GIRL TALK still exists?! YUP. With a One Direction version.

So long innocent, simple red car. 

And so long simplicity of the Skip It. Now there's levels and lights and OMG ARE WE AT A RAVE?!

Lite Brite... no longer making you poke lights through a piece of paper because that's wasting... it's an LED screen now.

Pink sports cars are soooo not girly enough for today's Barbie car.

OMG REMEMBER BABY ALL GONE?! Or something like that.... She can still eat her magic peas, but can't have real hair.

Once again, simple is no longer cool. Little People got makeovers too.

Ooh and the Littlest Pet Shop! Again with the big eyes.... They don't look remotely the same anymore.

Oh, look... more humongous eyes on My Little Pony.

And even Etch-A-Sketch has gotten a millennium makeover. 90 degree angles are so last century.

So... maybe kids these days are kinda playing with all the awesome toys we used to play with.... but they're mostly completely different. Plastic surgery at its finest. 

love,

elizabethany

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old school happy meal toys to remember

Once upon a time, Happy Meal toys are what drove people to McDonald's. If they were something good, you were there. A lot. People also got multiples of each one and never took them out of the wrapper, hoping one day they'd be worth something.

I think it's finally become "one day." These are the toys you should remember, and how much they're worth today.

I think my family literally collected at least 20 of these dalmatians, which is only 1/5 of them! There were actually 102 different ones, and totally one of my top 3 ever.

All of them: $187

McDonald's Changeables were the first Transformers in my life. Who knew fast food items could be so COOL?!

On sale for a couple dollars each

Disney Masterpiece collection were little figurines from the biggest movies that came in mini VHS boxes. Sweet Pocahontas came with a brush so her hair didn't get all nappy.
$5 average per toy

When it was Barbie time, I was a happy girl. For some reason, I still won't really let my mom throw any of them out. 

$2 a piece

Let's not forget the other half of Barbie week: HOT WHEELS week! I'm pretty sure it's where my brother got the coolest of his collection.

Trying to be sold for $10, probably another one worth about $2

I totally forgot about these things! The "Fry Kids!" Just little figurines that look like pompoms, but I loved 'em.

Older ones going for $10

Oh yes, Furbies made their way to McDonald's with even creepier eyes and barely moving toes and ears. 

If you want 81 of them, it's $480.

For Halloween, you got a sweet trick-or-treeting bucket! SCORE! And those McNugget buddies were basically a baby made by a dress-up doll and Mr. Potato Head.

BUCKETS: $10

BUDDIES: $6 each

When Muppets: Treasure Island came out, we got the neatest bathtime toys. You betta believe Kermit shot his water cannon at Miss Piggy. 

$2 each

What better way to celebrate the Mighty Ducks than to have your own puck that rolled around on regular hard floors?! Pretty sure we still own a couple of these, too.

$2 each

I'm not sure why anyone would ever buy the regular version when you could just shoot these into the sky. Oh, that's right. The real ones had glitter.

$30 for the entire set

Tamagotchi hit the drive thru with locket keychains filled with figures of the creatures you raised on the real technologically advanced keyrings. 

$3 each

Can't fill a court without a full team! So of course you wanted to get all the pieces of the Space Jam puzzle, who all did fancy tricks!

$10 for all 8

When I saw/remembered these, I geeked out. The Tiny Toons flip-cars raced along and switched drivers whenever yours was sucking.

Again about $2 each

Mulan tops! It wasn't just Mulan, but any top that was of this kind was the ish. All you had to do was swipe it on the floor a couple times; You didn't have to worry about balance.

$4 new/in the wrapper

And of course, the Ty Teenie Beanies! Not only did you have to collect bags of the original ones, but now these, that were pretty crappy and made of felt, to be honest. 

Sorry, but only $2-5 each. 

Considering each one is only worth about $2, and that's if people are buying them from eBay, you should probably just throw them out if you're saving them. It's been at least 15 years since most of these came out and they're worth about the same or a dollar more. 

Yeah, that's pretty disappointing...

But back to happy! That was a blast from the past, right?!

love,

elizabethany

PS FYI: It is currently Barbie/HEXBug [?] time!

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carrie underwood was barbie perfection on ellen

Carrie Underwood was on Ellen last week and I know I say this all the time, but it's about time we got some proof that she looks like a Barbie.

As soon as she came out, she had a blue, shiny dress that screamed Barbie. It fit her perfectly, and her body looked flawless.

In case you were wondering, it didn't take me long to find her Barbie lookalike.

She. Is. Gorgeous! I can't wait to see what fame does for Pia Toscano because I don't think she's PERFECT now, but I didn't think Carrie was back then, either.

Anyway, she talked about married life, her dogs, and Soul Surfer, her first movie! But most importantly, she admitted that her hubby is a hoarder.



Can I just be her now? Please? Hott husband, awesome life, awesome look... Hmph.

love,
elizabethany

PS: For those of you who say I'm jealous of all the people I hate on, I think this is proof that the people I'm jealous of are the people I want to be... and I'll tell you straight up.

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watch: i played barbie in toy story

I'm getting really excited about this YouTube channel I started with some of my coworkers. It's teaching me different editing techniques and giving me plenty of opportunities to use my green screen!

Today is Barbie Day, and we inserted ourselves right into a quick clip from Toy Story 3.



I look nothing like Barbie, but it's still fun to play around with it all. I'm still no perfect editor, but I just have to share my excitement in my daily improvement.

Subscribe to our channel, watch the vids, share with your friends! I really think these videos should be getting more credit than they do, but maybe I'm a little biased.

love,
elizabethany

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lady gaga's craziest outfits of 2010... modeled by barbie

Tweet Well this is just downright creative.

We've all seen Lady Gaga's crazy [and rather ridiculous] outfits this year, and as a way to celebrate, Entertainment Weekly dressed up Barbie dolls as Lady Gaga for part of their Entertainer of the Year section.

Each of her outrageous outfits, miniaturized and put on the classiest of all dolls... to create something epic.

Pretty freakin' amazing, if ya ask me!

And if you can't tell what outfits are being done in each of the pictures, you can check out the real-life ones here.

Can they please do this for lots of celebs?! BritBrit?! KE$HA! I enjoy.

love,
elizabethany

poll: what do you think about the new barbie?

As I've probably mentioned a million times, I used to be quite the Barbie fanatic. So much of a super-fan that I played them until I was in 8th grade. [No! I wasn't alone! I totally played them with my neighbor BFF.]

Even though I don't play them anymore, I'm still a bit geeky for them. I love looking at all the new ones in the aisle, and it makes me cry that the Barbie aisle is slowly getting smaller and smaller.

Anyway, there's a new group of Barbies and they're apparently going Back to Basic... with little black dresses.

They hardly look basic to me, but I'll go with it. What I and the rest of the world is now questioning is the Barbie all the way to the right... and her cleavage.

Part of me is like DAMN GIRL COVER YOUR STUFF!!!!

...Then I realize half of my Barbies never really had clothes on, so what's it matter?!

What do you think?! Is it inappropriate for little girls to be playing with Barbies who are showin' their goodies, or does it not matter?!



I really think I'm leaning towards it's not so good... But I want to hear your opinions before I make that official. [Yes, I am going to go with the popular opinion for once... Even if it's conservative. Crazy... I know.]

love,
elizabethany

watch: cribs with ken

You should already know how uber-pumped I am for Toy Story 3 to come out. It's my birthday week and I absolutely plan on spending one of those nights going to the theaters to catch this sure-to-be-amazing movie.

Why am I positive it's going to be amazing?! Well, it's Toy Story. It has to be amazing. They've done this whole movie-series right. Not too much, and perfect, real-life timing for all of them.

Also: Promos like this one make me giggle out loud. Normally that's hard to do with videos... but this one got me.

Maybe it's because I was a loser and played Barbies until I was in high school, or maybe I just like to pretend I'm still a kid.. Either way, that's hilarious.

They picked on all the funny things about Barbies and Ken seems to have a totally funny personality! I CAN'T WAIT to meet him and Barbie in the movie. YES!

Alright... I'll calm down now. Sorry. Kinda.

love,
elizabethany

she's a tramp

I always wondered if Barbie was a slut. I mean, she has the perfect body, big boobs, beautiful face... She has to be, right?!

Well, if she wasn't before, she is now. A tramp. She's "Totally Stylin'" with all of her new tattoos nowadays.

She even comes with more tattoo stickers so kids can stick them wherever they want on her, AND she comes with a tattoo gun, that helps kiddies put temporary tattoos anywhere on THEIR body.

Oh my goodness!! What a GREAT idea!!! Let's teach kids to get as many tattoos as they can to look like BARBIE!!!

Did I mention this is part of the celebration of Barbie's 50th birthday? What a hooker.

No really, though.. Everyone is freaking out about it. And yes, I think this is a little outta control when it comes to the back-tat, but the temp tattoos have always been cool with kids, so whatever!

Just please.. Let's not have little 12 year olds having tramp stamps on their lower backs. Those are not okay.

love,
elizabethany