FAO Schwarz: The Holiday Book 1999

I typically scan an old video game holiday catalog near the end of each year but this time I'm going with a toy catalog from FAO Schwarz. This 1999 holiday book features Stuart Little on the cover and is just over 100 pages when counting the front cover and foldout. However, I only scanned 39 pages, focusing mostly on holiday items, electronics, and popular brands, such as G.I. Joe, Star Wars, and Barbie. Skipped items primarily include toddler toys and plush. Also, one page is out of order as I placed page 50 at the end because it helped make the side-by-side pages match better and it made more sense to have the Furby product scans next to one another. If you're not familiar with FAO Schwarz, it is a toy store founded in 1862 with a flagship store in New York City, which can be seen in the film "Big," where Tom Hanks dances on the floor piano. It sells a variety of toys, some on the pricey side, and numerous exclusives with many marketed as limited edition collectibles. 

Barbie (White's Guide to Collecting Figures 1996/97)

I wrote in the July update yesterday that I was going to check if I had anything related to Barbie that I could post and so I scanned some pages from three issues of White's Guide to Collecting Figures. Although the magazine's title may give the impression that it was only about action figures, it actually covered a wide range of topics with monthly columns about things like Disney, Coca-Cola, Hallmark, and Barbie. The scans include each issue's monthly Barbie column as well as a couple of other articles. While I didn't take the time to re-read what I'm posting and am not too interested in the subject matter, I'm somewhat familiar with Barbie toys since my sister had them, my mother collected them, and I worked in a couple toy stores during the '90s.

November 1996 (#23)

February 1997 (#26)

July 1997 (#31)

Year 7: July Update

I probably should have come up with something related to Barbie toys in regards to the Barbie film being in theaters. However, I'm not sure if I have anything though I did find that I own one issue of a Barbie comic book from Marvel. The cover isn't great so I scanned an ad for it from inside the issue as you can see to the right. My sister had a lot of Barbie toys and my mother used to collect them but I know I don't have any of the toys and I don't think I have any of the booklets included with the toys either. Here is some related, old news that was new to me when I recently learned of it: Mattel, the maker of Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Masters of the Universe toys, has a theme park under construction in Glendale, Arizona. Epic Resort Destinations is leading development of Mattel Adventure Park and the plan now is to open in 2024; last year's press release had it opening this year. 

As I mentioned in the April update, E3 2023 was canceled but there were still plenty of game announcements made that second week of June and throughout the month. Not a whole lot grabbed my attention but we did get to see the Star Wars game Ubisoft has been working on. It's titled Star Wars Outlaws and puts players in control of a female rogue type, not unlike a Han or Lando, and it's set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Last month Sega unveiled Sonic Superstars, a new side-scroller that supports up to four players, Sony revealed Spider-Man 2 is releasing October 20th, and Ubisoft is developing a side-scrolling Prince of Persia adventure currently scheduled for release January 18th. Nintendo announced Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a sequel to Detective Pikachu, WarioWare: Move It!, Pikmin 1 + 2, and new versions of the original Super Mario RPG and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.

The publishers that largely focus on licensed products have been trickling out announcements of new games as well. Outright Games, which primarily releases family-friendly games, has its 5th PAW Patrol game on the way, as well as another Jumanji one that, like its previous Jumanji title, appears to be based on the Welcome to the Jungle film. Outright will also be publishing The Grinch: Christmas Adventures, Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party, Rainbow High: Runway Rush, and Transformers: EarthSpark -- Expedition. GameMill Entertainment has at least three games coming this year, including Avatar: The Last Airbender -- Quest for Balance, NASCAR Arcade Rush, and Skull Island: Rise of Kong. 7/30/23 UPDATE: Shortly after posting this GameMill unveiled DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing, DreamWorks Trolls Remix Rescue, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, and Pickleball: Smash.

This morning I added a message to the Vault 1541 YouTube community page discussing the loss of monetization on the channel. It took five years to qualify and so I only had monetization for about a year and it didn't make much. I only mention it because if I choose to fix the problem, which is likely the television commercials, I'd need to delete content from the channel. However, even if I did that I may not be able to qualify for monetization again due to the number of hours being watched falling below the minimum YouTube requires. They won't simply restore monetization, I'd need to requalify and I'm not as active now which means not enough views. Even if it's only $50/year of income, it's still a nice bonus and gives me some motivation to keep making videos. I'll have to make a decision this month. 

Thanks for visiting,
Jonathan