Tag: SEARS

I must be gettin’ old….

Posted on by CV Whitfield

Yes, some might say, that I’ve been a bit obsessed with my preconceived theory on the failure of the current toy industry– or more specifically the action toy (figure) line.

As I continue to research and delve deeper into my theories, I did discover there could be, at least one, main point that I forgot. That being, I’m not getting any younger and that over time inflation rears its ugly little head. I will admit: I’m gettin’ old.

The price I paid for a toy when I was a child isn’t necessarily the price of a toy today nor should it be….or then again, why couldn’t it. This brings me back to the Hot Wheels debate. Below, there’s several examples of the cost of toys then and now. These numbers were obtained through a Inflation Calculator that was found on Google.

I have decided to use the year 1983 as my baseline year. Not only because this was one of the greatest years of my childhood, but that year several popular toy lines were at their pinnacle– including G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, He-Man and Masters of the Universe, and Star Wars. There was still another year before we got Transformers and Go-bots. And lastly, I found a 1983 Sears Catalog that aided in the prices for that time period- take note, this isn’t the absolute price of the day. I understand Kmart, Walmart or Toys R Us prices may have been cheaper and varied.

  • 1983 $1.00 equals $2.70 in 2021 money.
  • GI Joe RHAH. COBRA H.I.S.S. (High Speed Sentry). ….. 1983 Real Price $8.99 ………… 2021 Inflation Price $24.30 (Currently Wal-mart sells the vintage styled H.I.S.S. for $24.99.
  • GI Joe RHAH COBRA F.A.N.G. (Fully-armed Negator Gyrocopter)….. 1983 Real Price $4.99 (did NOT include a figure)….. 2021 Inflation Price $13.49 (Currently Wal-mart sells the vintage re-release for $24.99 but it includes a figure)
  • GI Joe RHAH 3 pack of action figures: Airborne, Doc, and Gung-ho. ….1983 Real Price $7.99 or about $2.66 a figure…. 2021 Inflation Price $21.60 or about $7.19 a figure (if you add that with the inflated FANG price you get $20.68. THUS, I think Walmart should be selling that box set for $19.99 (production materials considered)
  • Star Wars figures are the same price as the GI Joe. 3 pack of Vader and Two Hoth Stormtroopers … 1983 Real Price $7.99…… 2021 Inflation Price $21.60.
  • He-Man and Masters of the Universe 2-Pack He-Man & Trap Jaw 1983 Real Price $9.99 (or about 4.98 a figure)…. 2021 Inflation Price $27.00. Wal-mart currently sells the retro line of figures for $14.99 each. This is slighter more than inflation would calculate as 2 figures now would be $29.98)

So there you go. If you really take into account inflation, maybe today’s prices are so bad. Yet, I will still debate whether these toys should be priced at the inflated price. I understand that materials could go up in price, the wage for those making the toys has increased, and freight costs have gone up with the price of gas. Should action figures be $10? I’m not so sure. I guess I relate it back to the enjoyment factor along side games or video games. $50 bucks gets you a video game that you can play nearly 100+ hours. Or you could buy 5 action figures. Not sure it equals. The average 1983 price of a video game was $39.99 and an action figure was $3. So in 1983 I could get at least 10 action figures for every one video game. Now that number is cut in half. So I would argue that perhaps cost of the toys aren’t just limited to materials and freight anymore. Perhaps R&D (research and development) plays a big role in today’s prices. I don’t exclude licenses for properties like Star Wars etc. But Mattel owns He-man and Hasbro owns GI Joe, so those extra costs are excluded.

And lastly, I will continue to question toy costs when a Hot Wheel in 1983 was roughly 79 cents and is still about 99 cents today. Granted I remember Hot Wheels on sale for as little as 59 cents and as high as a 1.09 at Kmart. What was up with Kmart’s wacky prices? Is Mattel taking a loss on Hot Wheels? Or are they just accepting a smaller profit with the hope of larger quantities sold? If those are both mute points, then would and should toys today really be priced as I’ve demonstrated above?

The discussion will most likely continue….

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Everything is Super!

Posted on by CV Whitfield

Growing up in a small town in southeast New Mexico, I knew only a simple life. There wasn’t much there.

I’m not sure how we heard about anything. As a child, I’m not sure how we knew what was cool or hip. Logically, we weren’t living in a Amish community. We had radio and television. We had a few big stores like SEARS and JCPenney. So perhaps this kept our little community in touch to the outside world. If we saw it on TV, we trusted the SEARS would bring it to us. This is where I showed my mother the Atari 2600 and the VCR.

Roswell was too small to have a Toys R Us. Nearly every toy I every owned was purchased from Kmart. I hold a sentimental hold on Kmart. This is where I saw my first Star Wars figure. This is where I saw Voltron toys for the first time. As I got older, this was where I bought my first phone and Walkman.

Kmart was the Walmart of my childhood. We did eventually get a Walmart when we got a real shopping mall. This was around 1984. Then sometime in 1989 we got a Target. Yet I always thought that I needed to leave the small town and live in a real city. So when given the opportunity I left for the big city of Denver. We got a hotel and right next door was a Super Kmart. I was amazed. I figured this city has the places we have but here they were super! Everything is Super! I knew my life going forward would be better!

I learned later that Super Kmart was the first in Colorado but it didn’t tarnish my new excitement and astonishment of my new home. It’s hard to believe this marks my 25th year living in this Super city. But you wanna know a secret….I now have dreams of returning to a small town — where it’s a bit quieter and where everyone isn’t moving so fast.

I think that would be Super….

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Fender Bender for IBS

Posted on by CV Whitfield

The best part of television watching are those 2 minute shorts that happen in between the shows. Some are really funny. Some are really good. Some are really bad. And then there’s some that are really funny and clever.

When I was a kid, I recalled that most of the commercials told me there was a soda war — I guess Coke had a thing against Pepsi — and Lucky Charms were more magically delicious than Honey Nut Cheerios. If I was watching Saturday Morning Cartoons or After-School Cartoons, there were the commercials that told us why a toy was cooler than another. For me G.I. Joe was better than Star Wars figures because G.I. Joe could actually bend his elbows — that was a big deal when I was 12! I wasn’t so much concerned about the doll that could wet or the Bears that made us Care. Not for me.

Those little stories were very diverse and helped us find what we needed to make life great: we could find It’s All Inside at JC Penny and there was More For Your Life at SEARS, Ronald McDonald had Fry Guys, Mayor McCheese and the Hamburglar, Wendy’s wanted to know Where’s the Beef!, Kool Aid Man would punch through walls to make sure we knew there needed to be 2 cups of sugar mixed with that tiny packet, Super-Models told me not to Hate Them Because They Were Beautiful!, Indians (sorry Native Americans) cried over litter, a Bear told us We Can Prevent Forest Fires!, Ivory soap was 99.9% pure (not sure why they could never get that .1% to say 100?), and Colonel Sander’s Kentucky Fried Chicken (the sign really did say Kentucky Fried Chicken not sure why they went to KFC unless they knew Millennials were coming and needed an abbreviation for texting?) was Finger Licking Good! ( but that just isn’t PC anymore.)

Today, we are told that we don’t have enough insurance: State Farm (Fender Bender), AllState (Mayhem Happens), Geico (Little Pig Go Wee Wee All The Way Home and Humpday!), Progressive (Yo Flo!), Liberty (Statue in frame always) Farmers (We know a Thing or Two Because We’ve Seen a Thing or Two!), and Nationwide (Is on Your Side!)! Maybe my rates are so dang high is because all the money spent on advertising instead of paying claims (just wondering?). And if I don’t have enough insurance then I’m surely not medicated enough from everything from my eczema to my irritable bowel disorder — please disregard the 3 minutes of the side-effects. Lastly, if you can’t afford these medications than you need something like GoodRx, which I’m curious if a $87 drug can be reduced to $9 bucks because of a stupid coupon, why can’t that drug just be $9 for everyone?

I find more enjoyment over those commercials I can ridicule and yell at. But there’s some that just truly make me truly laugh– like the new State Farm Fender Bender commercial or the old Kmart ad I shipped my pants!. If you haven’t seen it, please search for it on youtube. Oh, I think I’ll go find some of those old 80s commercials….

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The President’s On…Oh no!

Posted on by CV Whitfield

I’m old but not that …old. But I do remember a time when the President addressed the nation that your whole night of TV watching was ruined!

I don’t recall what kind of refrigerator or stove we had as I was growing up. But I do recall the television. I know that both the refrigerator and stove were vital for keeping me alive — with being key to food storage and preparation. That was kind of important. Yet, the television raised me. I’m surprised I didn’t call it Papa Television. It watched over me after school and on Saturdays. It was responsible for teaching me important life lessons — and informing me what cool new toys to want. Oh, and breakfast cereal. So, it was partly responsible for keeping me alive as how would I’ve known about Cookie Crisp and Honey Nut Bunch?

The television was a 1977 19 inch color Zenith with a dual dial. It wasn’t one of those TVs stuck into a furniture cabinet. We had a TV stand. Yet, like most TVs of the time, it was molded in a wood-grain plastic to appear more furniture like. It didn’t even have coaxial connectors. I remember we had to have UHF to VHF (transformer) adapter to use cable. The top dial had 13 VHF cable channels and the bottom dial had the 14 -83 UHF channels using it with an antenna. I find it odd that in the 70s and 80s TVs were referred to in advertisements as “color” (or “B&W”). This sounds absurd today because who’d want a 65 inch LED “Black and White” television? Yet back then, color in your TV was a premium and added a $100. I’m pretty sure my mother bought the TV from SEARS. Yet, I do remember we had the tuner replaced twice (yes kids, spinning the dial was indeed bad for the tuner). And I know we had a tube replaced too. It’s no lie. There were shops and people that actually repaired televisions. I think to fix a TV today is just buy a new one!

Papa Television was a key member of my family. He was responsible for entertaining me with Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard and Sunday Night Movies! These were all broadcast on the big THREE networks — ABC, CBS and NBC. Those were the only channels that aired new shows. We had a few other affiliates to enjoy but they only played old movies or reruns of I Love Lucy or F Troop. The worst thing that could happen to a kid — or me — was the night the President decided to address the nation.

Click. Click. Click. All the channels had the President! “Noooo! He’s on all channels!” For a kid, it just sucked. I remember sitting watching him, whispering, “hurry up.” Sitting there, I asked my mother, “is he done yet?” She was very patient and say “not yet.” Tapping fingers. Twitching feet. Hoping any second, he’d say, “Good night and God Bless America!” Wait! Did he just say it! He did. “God Bless America!” Now back to Six Million Dollar Man….


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