Everyone knows that the golden age for kid’s toys and action figures was the 1980s. Sure, we are recreating that time with a collector golden age right now, but NOTHING can compare to the variety and sheer quantity of toy offerings from the “Decade of Excess.” Even little premium figurines that came in our overly sugared cereals, or were sold as little impulse items at stores, achieved perfection during that time, and I am not afraid to admit that some of my favorite “little guys” (as I used to call them) came right out of a breakfast box (it was like the precursor to the current blind-box craze) or at the check-out aisle. However, while I had many favorites, nothing compared to the overall coolness of the Glow Ghosts by the Pineapple Corporation of Canada.
For the sake of full disclosure, this is like a joyful stroll down nostalgia lane for me because I was recently reunited with these little guys, and I am still beaming from it. I had this entire set as a kid, and even though I loved and cherished them, I cannot for the life of me recall how they came into my possession. For the longest time it seemed like I got them all out of cereal boxes, but after thinking about it, I am starting to recall that not being the case. I cannot recollect having them as “new,” so it is possible that I got them from and older cousin or friend as a bit of a hand-me-down, but I am not completely sure. I know they were definitely sold as individual items in packaging that gave them names and a bit of a background, but my usually impeccable toy memory is really failing me with this one. Not that it matters, though. What matters is I now own a set of them again, and they are all in great shape.
As kid, I was conflicted about which of these guys was my favorite: Broozer (pink), Baggs (bowtie), or BooHoo (orange). I love every little part of each of them, from the colors (especially Broozer) to the designs. Catcherpillar (the other green one, with the eye patch) was never my cup o’ tea, but he is required for a complete collection. For being simple little hollow rubber guys, there is a ton of personality to each one, and their designs are unique and pretty timeless.
In sharing these with my three-year-old daughter, I came to the realization that I always thought of these guys as friendly, good-guy ghosts. Sure Broozer looks a bit mischievous, but I never thought of him as “evil.” That was a relief to my daughter as, for some reason, she is very concerned about who is “nice” and who is “mean” in our action figure collections. So these nice ghosts are part of our usual play, and that is something I did not expect would be able to happen as these were lost to the ages in my memory bank for a long time.
As I said, the designs for all of these are great, and you can tell a lot about each personality just by looking at them. The little “stamps” on them have always been interesting to me, especially for BooHoo who carries a club card suit, but even as a kid, I did not really understand the meaning behind it, but hey – these are ghosts, and ghosts will do as they will. I have always found the colors to be very striking as well, and the fact that they glow was the icing on the cake. Towards that end, the glow power of these guys as not been diminished over the years, and they shine as brightly as they ever did.
I don’t know, I guess I should apologize for this rambling because it has not really been particularly informative, and maybe not even very interesting, but I was so excited to happen upon these again, I just wanted to share. I usually avoid the “hey remember these?” articles just for the heck of it, but I am so happy that these are back in my life and I can share them with my kid. I am sure we all have things like that, but these little ghost just make me smile, so I have to ask, do you remember these? If so, please share below! I would love to talk about them more with fellow fans.
