Mattel Story Maker Rediscovered

"The Turkey danced with a slimy monkey in my spaghetti."

If you were to punch the words "Mattel Story Maker" into Google.com, you would get 29,800 hits. If you were peruse through the first ten pages however, you would not find what I was looking for and it is a safe bet that looking further into the search results would turn up nothing either . It is as if the toy simply disappeared out of every toy box on this planet. Usually, the toys that disappear are usually the ones which are considered as a poor investment for the company coffers but the one which I was looking for in Google was nothing but great.

Back in 1991, Mattel created the Story Maker electronic toy. This toy was well designed and simple enough for all ages to use and enjoy. It comprised of seven buttons and hundreds of hours of fun for my then one year old daughter. The actions were simple… press six buttons and if that was too difficult, simply press one. I could spend the next paragraph explaining the way to use it but my video should make that task simpler and much more interesting.

I recently rediscovered this toy in my basement while going through some old dusty stuff to donate to the weekly trash truck. I had forgotten that I put this toy in a safe place and there it had sat for over the past ten or so years. Growing up, my daughter and son must have spent countless hours laughing at all the different sentences that this toy produced. It not only produced belly laughter but it also taught them proper sentence structure.

Finding this Story Maker toy also reminded me of the good times I had watching my children playing in the living room while I sat there and relaxed. I bet that, over the years the buttons were pushed, I must have heard every one of the nine thousand plus sentences that this toy spoke out.

Memories of my children always get me somewhat nostalgic. I miss those days where my kids thought of me as "cool," "great" and the "smartest of all Daddies who loves them more than anything else in the world…" One thing that time has taught me is that things change when children get older. "Cool" has turned into "geeky," "great" has lovingly turned into "retarded" and "smartest" has evolved into “not too swift.” One thing that will never change however is that they will always know that I love them more than anything else in the world.

Great toys, great memories and great feelings…