Talking Garbage Trucks and Bad Robots

It’s hard to believe that Christmas was nearly a month ago.  All the decor has been put away and is resting until the same time next year when it comes out of its storage bins and festoons the home with color and sparkle.  The Christmas gifts that were received have also been stowed away in closets, drawers, bookshelves, and sometimes hastily forgotten on purpose.  “That shirt my mom gave me looks like something a jockey would wear during the Kentucky Derby!  Egh!”  In this family, toys are not part of the Christmas season anymore.  My children are grown adults and are happier receiving items that don’t have to be put together by the Army Corps of Engineers as in the past.  This got me to thinking; what kind of toys do kids, boys in particular, play with today?  With the help of Google, I decided to find out.

Outside of the obvious like the Xbox, Wii, Playstation, et al., I was surprised that they still play with things that I played with as a boy.  Only some of these are mutants.  Matchbox offers “Stinky the Garbage Truck” for example. And for the mere $60 (!) it costs, it does a lot.

Stinky is the name, gobbling garbage is his game!
Newest addition to the Big Rig Buddies assortment is every boy’s best friend!
A real working garbage truck brought to life!
Best features and interactive qualities of his buddy Rocky the Robot Truck!
This interactive buddy talks, tells jokes, eats, exercises and sings!

That’s right; a talking, eating, exercising, singing garbage truck.  A thing that nightmares are made of, well maybe for me.  As a young boy, I played with (and still own) a huge Matchbox car collection dating back to the 50s.  Never made stuff like “Stinky” back when.  The Matchbox brand was known for its die-cast 1:75 metal models of cars and trucks; lorries, to be precise since they were manufactured in Britain.  My friends and I spent hours driving these vehicles around on the bedroom floor.  We never wished for or even dreamt of a talking, eating, exercising, singing garbage truck.  I don’t get the whole concept of it.  Sing with your garbage truck?  OK!

Robotic toys have been around for a long time.  Seems like they’ve been around a bit too long and have also metamorphosed into “Bigfoot the Monster”. Ugly ‘spud’ ain’t he?  He works by remote control and he’s “A Big Monster with a Big Personality, a Monster that Burps, Laughs, and Talks.” I’m happy to see that “Stinky the Garbage Truck” is not the only toy with rude manners.  He has a, “bank with over 30 phrases, words and funny noises.”  And I’m certain the “funny noises” are not just belches.  Oh, God, that doesn’t paint a good picture!  But he does look fun to play with!

Rude toys are the new norm, I guess.  When I was a kid, we had a robotoid named “The Great Garloo”.  I think that “The Great Garloo” was quite a bit uglier than “Bigfoot”.  Who designed the looks of this thing?  And this was from the early 60s a bit before heavy LSD usage.  Poor Garloo couldn’t do much.  He could move forward and backward, turn left and right, and it was claimed that he could pick things up.  I wouldn’t know, I never had or wanted one.  He was even too ugly for me as an 8 year old.

Toys have evolved, yes and no.  I think that “Stinky the Garbage Truck” is a toy that was invented during an alcoholic binge.  I just don’t get the concept of what the designers were thinking during their ‘toots’ of Skye Vodka.  I give it a FAIL.  “Bigfoot”, on the other hand, looks kinda fun.  If he can actually move around like that and cause some mayhem, he’s a definite WIN!  A lot more fun than “Garloo”, sorry, pal!

Next Time: Toys I had or wanted