Monday, January 23, 2017

Retro Revival Challenge: Toys

This week Retro Ramblings has tasked all Retro Revivalers to talk about toys! Our favorite toy or toys of all time, toys we collected, new toys, toys in movies, or whatever else we felt like sharing about toys. I could talk forever about Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, Voltron or Thundercats, but I decided to go a different route and write about Nerfuls! Remember them? Back in the mid 80s I owned one single Nerful toy and his name was Frankie. I loved him!
Let me start out by telling you a little bit about the Nerfuls. According to their original marketing, Nerfuls are a group of bouncy, colorful little creatures who love fast action and great fun! They've traveled far from their tiny planet, Erf, just so they can roll around, bounce around, and always be around children. They were released around 1986 by Parker Brothers as a toy line loosely connected to their popular Nerf sports balls. The characters themselves came in three pieces, a hat or ears, body and a head. The head was to be used as a bouncy ball or a top you could spin on the nose.
They weren't really great at bouncing, but they were still fun characters to play with. My original Frankie that I owned as a kid may still be packed away somewhere in my Mom's attic. I purchased this boxed version off ebay years ago for around $10 and he is now featured prominently on one of my toy shelves.
Obviously these guys were not as popular as some of the toy lines released in the 80s, but they were still able to snag a coveted Burger King Kids Meal promotion.
I really did enjoy these toys as a kid, even if it was a challenge to try and not lose any of the parts. The concept was fun, it was different than all the other action figures on the shelf and the sculpts were great. I remember Frankie having a frog popping out of his back pocket that was fully painted! The Nerfuls really were "a ball to be around!"
Don't forget to check out these other challenge posts:
Construx:  A Great 80’s Toy – Retro Ramblings

4 comments:

  1. I seem to vaguely remember having one of these, but which one eludes me. I'm gonna have to look for more info on these now. Good read. Thanks.

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  2. Wow. I don't recall these at all.
    Excellent find!

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    1. I only had the one figure growing up, but I really enjoyed playing with these guys!

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