Wind-up dinosaurs, fake cats and 'no more socks for Christmas'
If you were seeking an idiosyncratic choice of Christmas gift in 1986, you could find it
It's an annual go-to for the media — stories about the hot buys for a given Christmas.
Ahead of the holiday in 1986, Marketplace's Rae Hull had a different angle on that annual story.
"What do you suppose would happen if you banished socks, shirts and ties, ladies' slippers, scarves and gloves from your Christmas list and decided instead to shop a little dangerously?" Hull asked viewers, in a segment that CBC's Midday aired about three weeks before Christmas.
"This year, that's what I've decided to do. 'No more socks for Christmas' is going to be my motto."
Inspiration from childhood
Hull went on to explain her logic for going in a different direction when it came to choosing Christmas gifts and specifically for the grown-ups who were supposedly too old for toys.
"When you think about it, as children, the gifts we loved the most were toys," she said.
"So why should that change when we're adults?"
That's what spurred her to a Toronto store called Science City — where the focus was on items that people who were no longer in school would enjoy.
'Difficult to put together?'
At Science City, Hull was shown an assortment of toys that all seemed to involve building something or puzzling something out.
Like the Omni Star puzzle, which a salesperson demonstrated for Hull, showing her how its spatial arrangement changed when played with.
"Is it difficult to put together?" Hull asked.
"Quite," the salesperson told her.
'The heights of self-indulgence'
Hull also visited The Leading Image, a boutique she said was "dedicated to the heights of self-indulgence."
As she was taking a tour of the store, an unusual object caught her eye.
"That pith helmet has a fan on it," she said, to the president of the business, who was showing her around.
Hull soon learned it was something gardeners — or vacationers, apparently — could use, as she was told its solar-powered fan would also work on cloudy days due to the battery pack appended to its underside.
You better have batteries
And given the decade, there were '80s-style robot toys.
Such as PetSter — a toy robot cat that Hull was seen interacting with at the end of her report.
And again, being the 1980s, batteries were not included — at least according to surviving PetSter commercials that can be found on YouTube.
