Ghost of Christmas Wishbooks Past - 1979

Turns out that the 1982 Sears Christmas Wishbook is not the only volume to be scanned and provided online, so today we'll continue our trip down memory lane be going back a few years see what nostalgia comes welling up from 1979, when a 4-year old Cap'n Neurotic was enjoying his first few blissful years of consumerism.

• Item #10 was one of my favorite toys as a kid; have no idea what happened to all of the firefighter figures, but that treehouse would work its way into many a imaginary scenario over the years; I think the collapsible top played into my youthful obsession with secret passages and hidden doorways and the like.
• Wow, did the memories come back thanks to this page: the Fisher-Price Houseboat is familiar, but not as much as the Fisher-Price figures on it. I also have strong memories of parts of Item #4, particularly the helicopter and the black chains you can barely see on the front of the small blue boat; the designs of the chain made it look like a face with two dangly, hooked limbs hanging off, causing it to become some sort of creepy alien creature in my imagination. And then of course there's Item #6, the faux doctor equipment; again, parts of this would outlive others, and be put to uses other than what they were intended -- the thermometer, which had a little twist knob that turned it's center line from white to red, became some sort of laser pen or tricorder or whatever I wanted it to be at the time. Did I mention I spent a lot of time playing alone as a child?
• More familiar items on this page: Items 8 and 10 are familiar, but may have belonged to our church's nursery rather than to me, but I know #13 was mine because I remember using the silo to transport other toys around with me. I also remember how the barn doors would make a mooing sound every time they were opened; bet my parents loved that.
• Item #4: the Hornetroid. LovedlovedLOVED my Hornetroid. I mean, look at it; how could I not?
• Star Wars! Had quite a few of these figures: Snaggletooth and Walrus Man, Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper*, a Jawa and a Sand Person, and the Patrol Dewback as well. Oh, and Boba Fett, but I don't think I got him until after Empire came out.
• One of my other favorite toys: The Millenium Falcon. I also wanted the Tie Fighter and X-Wing, but the Falcon last me a good long while. Oh, and I once knew someone who had that Shogun Warrior figure which is crammed into the bottom corner.
• Item #2: Skedoodle. Had totally forgotten about Skedoodle. Many hours of mindless entertainment with this obscure drawing toy.**
• And finally, while I never owned anything from this page, I had to share because the kids' poses crack me up.

*Both of which wound up becoming part of my legless legion as I mentioned in my post about weird things about me as a kid.
**While it wasn't the exact same set as Item #3, my childhood best friend Ol' Vick had a similar mix-and-match super-hero creating toy which occupied many hours of my youth.