An 80s Girl's Toy Land

I've been going through that Ghost of the Doll doll-identification site. I remember having so many of these, either me or one of my sisters...

Strawberry Shortcake - I loved my Strawberry Shortcake rag doll who really smelled like strawberries! Rose had Lemon Meringue. We received both for Christmas 1983. Mom has a picture of us unwrapping them at her place.

I know I had at least one of the actual Strawberry Shortcake vinyl dolls. I remember having her ride around in the little tricycle with the basket on the back! We had an Apple Dumpling figurine, too. All three of us chewed on poor Apple Dumpling at least once.

Care Bears - Oddly enough, despite all of us being big Care Bears fans, the only stuffed Care Bears I ever remember having in the 80s were the printed pillow dolls Mom sewed for us. I had Good Luck Bear. Rose had Funshine Bear. They were wonderfully comfortable to sleep on (to the point where I wish I still had Good Luck).

We did, however, have several of the poseable figurines. Wish Bear, Bedtime Bear, and Lotsa Heart Elephant ring bells. We had a bunch of the miniatures, too: Bedtime on a pillow, Funshine Bear as a majorette, Tenderheart with the balloons, and Gram Bear.

Oooh, we loved the Care Bear Play Dough set! We had the plastic molds, Cloud Car, and plastic placemat long after the dough itself was gone (or squished onto the floor, much to Mom's chagrin).

My Little Pony - I lost count of how many of these we had over the years. Mom gave us the Shower for Christmas one year. We used the Pegasus that came with it, Sprinkles, as the shier twin of feisty Firefly for nearly a decade. (They had exactly the same mold and electric blue hair color, but different body colors and markings. Sprinkles was lavender with ducks on her rump. Firefly was pink and had lightning bolts.) A friend of my parents' gave us the Show Stable, which was used as the Ponies home base later in the 80s and in the early 90s.

Others I remember:

Moonstone, the lovely rainbow-haired unicorn, was one of the earliest ponies we had and a favorite of Rose's. She was usually played as a gentle mystic.

Ember, a mail-in order, was the first Baby Pony. For years, she was the only baby we had, often played as the sweet naive child whom the others protect.

We had both Megan and Sundance and Molly and Baby Sundance. The two sisters were friends to many dolls in addition to the ponies. Sundance mere and fille were their two beloved favorites.

Though Morning Glory's Flutter wings broke off early, we still let her fly as a lead scout.

We had quite a few of the So-Soft (flocked) ponies - Lofty (a rather ditzy mane stylist), Buttons (a bossy teacher), North Star (a fair-minded motherly type), Surprise (a partier), Cupcake (a baker), Cherries Jubilee (goofy jokester), Shady (beach lover), and my personal favorite for many years, the sassy Paradise. I loved Paradise so much, I had her long after we'd gotten rid of or given away most of the others.

(I was also fond of fancy-printed Sugarberry and scented Strawberry Surprise. Gee, can you tell what fruit and color I've always loved? ;) )

Pretty lavender Spring Song was our sole Sweetheart Sister Pony, the graceful elder sibling of most of the Ponies.

Anny's favorite Pony for ages was our only Twinkle-Eyed Pony, Sweet Pop. She was also crazy about her baby Ponies Shaggy and Tappy and glittery Sunspot, one of the later sparkle-themed Ponies. 

We even had boy Ponies! In fact, my other favorite Pony besides Paradise was our only large Boy, Barnacles, who had a bright red mane and a pirate theme. (Anny had our only other Boy pony, a baby named Leaper.) A few other Ponies who were originally female were later re-characterized into males.

We were so crazy about My Little Pony, Mom found us a few other similar lines in the late 80s. Fairy Tales were birds with long brushable tails and feet you could clip onto your finger. Little Pretties was a similar concept, but with cats and dogs with fancy hair replacing the birds. (I definitely recognize Rosebud and Mimi on the latter.)

Keypers - These cute animals had backs you could open with a key and use to hold teasures. I had Tango the bright orange LadyBug, her cute change-holder pal Taps, and their matching orange Twist Finder. Taps vanished quickly, but Tango was around for ages as slow-but-sweet transportation for other toys. The huge key, which I put on a long shoe string so I wouldn't lose it, outlasted the toys. My brother had that in his room well into the 90s.

Fashion Star Fillies - Normally, Rose the Tomboy wouldn't be caught dead near a line with a title like this...but she was also a horse fanatic. I remember Cloe mainly because we used her pink fur-trimmed cape as a wrap for Barbies, My Little Ponies, and Disney Princesses.

We had at least one doll each from short-lived lines like Hollywoods (the one with the purple and yellow hair), Rose Petal Place (we had more of the books for that line than the dolls!), and Smooshees.

Anny was crazy about Wee Wild Things in the late 80s. She had all of the dolls but one and one of the sets, the one shaped like a hamburger.