Topic: Never grow up! :)
Today I joined e-bay and participated in my first ever auctions..........all just so I could win several vintage Strawberry Shortcake dolls from the early 80's. 
Now I finally get to have the dolls I didn't get for my collection back when I was a kid. haha I'm 30, and here I am, buying Strawberry Shortcake dolls. 
When I was a kid and they stopped selling them I thought that was it, I was out of luck. 
I figured I would never get the ones that I was missing. So I love the internet! E-bay rules! Seriously, these were my all time favorite toys, ever when I was a kid. I remember watching the commercials for them throughout 1979, when I was 4. I was mesmerized by the t.v. screen.........scented dolls??? I HAD to have them!! When Christmas came and I had to make out my wish list to Santa that was the only thing I asked for. "Strawberry Shortcake dolls." My mom had to nudge me to think of something else. "There must be something else you want...." I didn't want anything else though. I wanted Strawberry Shortcake dolls. That's it!
Two years ago at a job in Florida, a female coworker of mine found out that I still had all my SSC dolls and her whole face just lit up. I told her I would bring them in so she could see. She was like, "YES! Cool!" The next day when she opened the lid to the container it was like magic and happiness in a box! Seriously, she became someone else. She was a little kid again. It was neat.
Anybody else still have their all time favorite childhood toys? Or ever try to track them down and get them back, like on the internet? Buying these dolls today on e-bay made me realize that there just aren't any dolls out there nowadays like the SSC dolls, (or ANY of the 80's dolls.....Rainbow Brite, Herself the Elf, and all that cool 80's toy madness.......) Now when you go to the toystore they have these horrid dolls called 'Bratz'. Yes, with a z. 
They're these ghetto fabulous bling bling wearing materialistic rap gangsta hoochies. I don't know how else to describe them. Awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In comparison, SSC dolls were all cute and pure and innocent. Freckles, little pets, the cutest outfits you've ever seen, cute hair with all different colors and styles.
Yes!
NO!!!
Times have certainly changed.
(btw, I'm not one of those crazy doll collector women peoples.......I just want a couple of more SSC dolls because I didn't get them all as a kid. )
Oh yes, and thanks to the wonders of the internet and Amazon.com, I also tracked down some of my favorite books from when I was a kid. Rounded those back up.
And today I bought "The Goonies" on DVD. THE all time fave childhood movie of mine.
I wonder, as the world gets crazier and crazier, am I burying my head in the sand or what?? hehe Seriously. Maybe it's a good thing though. Sure beats the fear frequency.
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"I get by with a little help from my (higher density) friends."
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It's interesting that you talk about the punk rich kid down the block being all into them while you were repulsed by them. The neighbor kids where I lived for 9 years in prison hell, I mean Connecticut, were WAAAAAY into these cards. They all had them, which is how I was able to see them. These kids were nasty kids too, some of the nastiest people I've ever known in fact. The level of hate and nastiness eminating from them was astounding. ! So they were collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards and there I was collecting E.T. cards, (you know, from the movie "E.T.") Think that says a lot. We moved to CT when I was 7; by the time I was 9 I had the major falling out with those kids. In retrospect, I take it as a compliment that they hated me. 
Great thread lyra!