Maybe I’m just a cynic, but I’m never convinced that ‘this year’s Must Have toy’ is actually a thing. Much more likely, I suspect, it’s shrewd advertising by the toy company in question on the basis that (a) suddenly your kid will want it and therefore (b) there’s bound to be a huge increase in demand from parents leaping in early to buy one, thus ensuring they’re not (c) in for a long, grumpy Christmas.
I certainly don’t remember hearing the phrase in my youth when it could be said I was in the key toy-buying demographic (well not so much ‘buying’ but, you know, nagging…). If it DID exist back then, presumably the Palitoy cardboard Death Star was 1978’s ‘Must Have’ and 1980’s was the Kenner Millenium Falcon. (Much as I loved the Cantina Playset I got in 1979, I would be reluctant to put it in the same league.)
The first time I can really remember hearing about ‘must haves’ was Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear in the mid-90s, but it didn’t bother me because I didn’t want one. (Er, I mean because we didn’t have any children who wanted one.). A few years later it was the Teletubbies, by which time we DID have a child. At the risk of sounding smug, without having to wrestle anybody to the floor of our local Woolworths we managed to get all four.
Within twelve months the fad had changed, and I can’t honestly recall my daughter playing with her Teletubby toys for very long. But then I guess we’ve all been like that, obsessed with something one minute, only to lay it aside and never play with it again the next.
I’ve certainly done that, and I surely can’t be the only one. Come on, admit it: you must have!
Andrew Curnow's Ramblings 