7 Things Every Ohio Kid Circled in the Sears Wish Book
Play-Doh started in Cincinnati as a wallpaper cleaner.
If you grew up in Ohio, it might have been one of the toys you wanted for Christmas.
Here’s what every Ohio kid circled in the Sears Wish Book.
1. Etch A Sketch
Etch A Sketch made the 1988 Wish Book, and Ohio Art, the company based in Bryan, Ohio, brought it to life.
Ohio Art began in 1908 as a novelty and picture frame business in Archbold.
It put $25,000 into licensing rights for a French-invented drawing toy and renamed it Etch A Sketch.
A new factory was built in Bryan in 1912.
By December 1960, demand was high enough that Ohio Art employees worked until noon on Christmas Eve.
The catalog called it a classic drawing game that was back, and it said children could draw line pictures by turning the knobs.
That was the whole pitch.
If you circled it, you were asking for a toy from a Bryan company.
2. Easy-Bake Oven
Easy-Bake Oven, a 1960s hit for the Cincinnati toy company Kenner, still had a spot in the 1975 Wish Book.
Kenner’s office and one of its factories were on Sycamore Street downtown, a site that is now the Hamilton County Justice Center.
On the same page, a listing sold Betty Crocker mix sets and bake utensils, including a pan, a spoon, a bowl and four cookie cutters.
Dessert was the plan.
If you circled the oven, the mix sets were right there on the page.
If you wanted cookies, you’d want those four cutters.
3. Play-Doh
Play-Doh turned up in the 1975 Wish Book, and it started in Cincinnati, Ohio, where a soap company made it as a wallpaper cleaner.
The recipe was water, salt and flour.
The National Toy Hall of Fame inducted Play-Doh in 1998.
It became a children’s toy in 1955, according to the Strong National Museum of Play.
One set came with modeling compound, a ladder, decals and two toy firemen.
The crew was included.
If you wanted firemen for your Play-Doh, you circled that page.
4. Pong
Pong reached living rooms through Sears, which started distributing a home version in late 1975.
Atari had introduced the game as an arcade game in 1972.
A Super Pong unit in the Smithsonian’s collection has Sears marked on each controller.
The 1975 catalog listed a TV table tennis game with the action and sound you’d find in commercial games.
You didn’t need quarters.
Psst! How much do you know about classic toys and Christmas shopping? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Wish List IQ
Answer these questions on toy makers, department stores and Christmas shopping history. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
In 1977, Kenner couldn’t make enough Star Wars figures to meet demand. What did it sell in their place?
5. Cabbage Patch Kids
Cabbage Patch Kids had a long list of items in the 1984 Sears Christmas catalog.
Sears sold a clubhouse with a front Dutch door, a power cycle and a 25-piece baby care set for the adoptive parent.
Preemies had arrived, too.
Crawling Babies, a Gumball Machine and an Activity Set were listed as well.
That's a long list.
Xavier Roberts first made fabric sculptures he called Little People in the 1970s.
Coleco's design team created the first plastic-headed dolls in 1982.
Those dolls were ready for the 1983 holiday season.
Each doll came with a birth certificate and adoption papers.
If you circled a doll for your list, the paperwork came with it.
6. Transformers
The 1985 Sears catalog sent shoppers to pages 438 and 439 for Transformers.
You could also buy Transformers boots and slippers, plus Cabbage Patch Kids clothing and sleepwear.
So you could circle the robot, and then circle the slippers.
A robot carrying case held eight GoBots or Transformers.
Both lines fit.
If you owned both lines, the catalog had a case for them.
7. Nintendo Action Set
The Nintendo Action Set was in the 1988 Wish Book, described as everything you need to start a system.
It came with a Zapper light gun that worked from up to 16 feet away.
It also had one cartridge with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.
Another listing sold a cabinet that fit Nintendo, Sega or Atari video games.
All three fit.
You could circle the console, then circle the cabinet to hold your games.
When the Sears Wish Book Stopped
By 1968, the 605-page catalog was officially named The Wish Book, according to a Kansas museum.
Sears hadn't mailed a full-fledged catalog since 1993 when a new edition arrived 14 years later.
The returning edition had 188 pages, compared with 832 for its predecessor.
Sears planned to give half of the new catalog to toys.
Marking the Pages
Many families went through the Sears Wish Book with a pen long before anybody placed an order.
A Kansas historical museum describes page corners turned down and items circled in red in the Sears and JCPenney catalogs, so parents or grandparents knew what to order.
Those catalogs arrived in the mail in mid-August, so the marking could start months before Christmas.
A 2007 news report on the catalog's return described copies dog-eared and circled by generations of children.
Many Ohio kids likely did the same.
The pens came out early.
If you grabbed a red pen, you were ready to mark the page.
Ordering by Phone
Ordering from the Sears Wish Book could start with a red pen and end with a phone call.
Circling was step one.
The 1975 catalog told you to just call Sears and say you wanted to place a catalog order.
Page after page told you that ordering by phone was the easy way to buy it.
Sears also offered an Easy Payment account and called opening one easy.
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