[YouTube] Play-Doh: Cowboy & Strawberry Shortcake Sets

https://youtu.be/q_EbkZtDs2w

Play-Doh is one of those toys that just about everyone knows of and has likely played with at least once as a kid and maybe as an adult too. I'm going to quickly summarize its history from an article you can find here: Smithsonian Magazine. It began life as wallpaper cleaner from Kutol Products, a Cincinnati-based company founded in 1912. During the '50s Kutol began struggling financially as the need to clean wallpaper declined thanks to oil, gas, and electricity replacing coal as a heating source in homes. That led to the idea of turning the wallpaper cleaner -- that some had already been using for crafts projects -- into a children's toy. As a subsidiary of Kutol, the Rainbow Crafts Company began selling Play-Doh in either 1955 (according to Kenner) or 1956 (according to the Smithsonian article). General Mills purchased Rainbow Crafts Company in 1965 and later merged it into Kenner which it acquired in 1967. After Kenner changed hands a couple more times, Play-Doh became a Hasbro property and still is today.

Although I believe I did own a Fun Factory and some other Play-Doh toys at one time, all I have remaining is my sister's Strawberry Shortcake set from 1982 and the Cowboy Set that was first sold in 1975 I believe. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have the Cowboy Set's mat any longer. I did find another mat though I'm not sure if it was part of a set; I'd guess it was simply sold with cans of Play-Doh. The yellow tool has multiple names, sometimes the packaging refers to it as a trimmer and other times it says trim knife, and the wooden cylinder is a roller. Play-Doh sets have featured a variety of licenses in addition to Strawberry Shortcake, such as Star Wars, M.A.S.K., Care Bears, Sesame Street, The Flintstones, and the Real Ghostbusters. As you can see on the items I'm showing, there was a blond boy featured on most Play-Doh products. He became the mascot in 1960 and was known as Play-Doh Pete but Hasbro phased him out in the early 2000s. 

1981 Cannister

1984 Cannisters

Cowboy Set

This set included three cans of PlayDoh, six molds, a wagon, trimmer, roller, and 14" x 20" mat. The molds can be used to create three people, a horse, fence, hat, and cactus.

Strawberry Shortcake Play Set

This set included three cans of Play-Doh, two molds, a trim knife, mat, and what Kenner calls a vehicle. Kenner did produce another Strawberry Shortcake set before this one that has a lady bug vehicle instead of a butterfly and a strawberry scented mat. Strawberry Shortcake herself must have been a mold in the first set but also appears to be one of the characters here. I think the others are Lemon Meringue, Apricot, Hopsalot, and The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak.

Hopsalot!

Some old creations from the '80s that are now hard and discolored.

1976 Booklet Piece

1987 Booklet

Pee-Wee's Playhouse 1990 Calendar

Actor and comedian Paul Reubens passed away earlier this week at the age of 70. He's best known for playing the character Pee-Wee Herman that debuted in 1980 as part of a comedy show for adults. In 1985 he starred in the film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and the success of the movie led to Pee-Wee's Playhouse, a silly show for kids that featured actors and puppets. The series debuted in 1986 and aired on Saturday mornings until 1990. There were a variety of toys available based on the show but the only Playhouse merchandise that I have is this calendar that originally belonged to my sister who was the bigger fan. It's more of an entertainment piece rather than a traditional calendar as all of the dates contain artwork, making it rather difficult to write in.

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