1980's and 1990's Color Palettes

Long time no post! Let's get back into the blogging habit with some color palettes! Personally, I really love the colors that were used a lot in the 80's and early 90's. It's not all just dayglo neons, but also a lot of really charming pastels. These color swatches were inspired from a variety of different advertisements, clothes, and toys that were available in the 80's and 90's.

It's hard to put your finger on what exactly makes the color schemes popular in the era so special. I think perhaps that the girly colors aren't the traditional pastel rainbow but are instead filled with salmon pinks, turquoise blues, aqua greens, and peachy oranges. An so often they're combined with bold black an white or some other vivid color!

Retro Push Button Japanese Pencil Cases

Note: This post was moved from my Hail Kawaii blog to this one

Pretty exciting on the outside.

I know that pencil cases probably aren't the most exciting thing in the world, but I'm secretly sort of in love with them. You see, when I was little in the early-to-mid 90's, it was all the rage at my elementary school to have a really ridiculous pencil case that had buttons on them that made various gadgets pop out. The coolest cases were pastel colored and had blobby animal mascots on them. This trend was on it's way out by the time our grubby little hands got a hold on these pencil cases, so their popularity was quick lived amongst my age group.

But even more amazing on the inside! Photo from Flickr.

I, of course, was not one of these cool kids with the magic push button pencil cases, but these ridiculous cases sort of stuck with me over the years and I have been trying to hunt one down. Unfortunately they tend be outside of my pencil case budget since everyone else tends to be nostalgic for them as well and are quick to snap them up when they pop up on Ebay. Even the new ones ("Deluxe Pencil Case" they are often called) on Amazon are going to cost about $25 after shipping, which is probably twice the amount that I've spent on pencils in the last decade. 

Check out how deluxe this is! On Amazon.

I'm pretty content with just looking at them online though, as there are a number of retro pencil case collectors out there who share a pretty impressive Flicker pool, and push button cases are sprinkled throughout the pool. But I still do dream of the day when I happen to visit a flea market that has one of these excessive exorcises in pencil holding for a cheap price.

Some of them were a bit more deluxe than others. From Flickr.

Some were relatively simple. From Flickr.

For a change, have some mint green! From Flickr.

The more I stare at them in their dreamy pink push button wonderfulness, the more I talk myself into thinking that I need a crazy place to put my pencils and I'm honestly probably going to give into my nostalgia one day and and just spend the $30 one of these is going to cost me. As far as collections goes, it's not the most pocket-emptying one you could have, it's just the fact that I know that some of these weren't that expensive back when they first came out, and I'm sure there are hundreds the world over just gathering dust in the backs of closets just waiting to be discovered again!

That's one of those blobby pastel animals I mentioned. From Flickr.

Mattel's Spectra: Barbie's Distant Space-Cousin With More Awesome Fashion Sense

Note: This post was moved from my Hail Kawaii blog to this one.

Let's start this blog out with some rambling about some super old school cute toys! First though, let's side track a little bit so I can talk about myself: I love toys. Especially a) weird toys, b) plastic character toys and c) scifi stuff. I actually never really played with Barbies when I was little, and never really got into that whole thing even later but I was really excited to stumble across Mattel's Spectra online a few weeks ago because it fulfills all of my "OMG I really want this!" needs, it's weird, from outer space, and it's a little plastic person (Not too big into retro plush or animals really). A little plastic person to obsess over and pose goofily on a shelf or table somewhere. As an added bonus, as soon as I saw a picture of it, a great and ancient mystery was solved. The mystery of "WTF is up with this weird pink-bodied robot Barbie?" that either my sister and I, or one of our friends, used to have when we were little. Mystery solved, she's not Barbie's subservient robot friend, but rather some distant space-cousin!

My absolute favorite thing about this line of dolls is their amazing fashion sense. They're dressed in uber 80's outfits that look a bit like if Madonna (of that decade, obviously) descended from space. It's all glittery lace and iridescent organza in all the colors that didn't make the cut for Barbies various prom dresses. It's pretty much exactly like if we blasted a bunch of teens from the 1980's into distant space and then checked on them in a couple hundred years to see what sort of society they built. Obviously, it is a pretty awesome society, because, hey what could ever go wrong with a plan like that?

Photo from Flickr

One of the major bummers about this particular line is the second hand online price. I sincerely doubt that everyone is hurrying to the internet to buy these as fast as they pop up on ebay, but ebay seems to be loaded with a few sellers who've managed to get loads and loads of these still in box (complete with giant markdown stickers for $4 on them) and are selling them for around $60. I don't really have a problem with this normally, hey, it's their giant box of discount space Barbies, they can sell them for whatever they want, but checking out the sold listings, these are largely going unsold. There are a handful of them that ended up selling for about $30, and a ton that sold for $15, but all that remains are the overpriced boxes. Unfortunately, like most retro fashion dolls, the out-of-box ones tend to be pretty beat up and are generally nude, dirty, and have matted hair (Hey, Spectra, I'm not going to judge what you've been doing these past 25+ years...) and aren't exactly very appealing for the prices people are trying to sell them for. I guess I'm going to have to take my search to yard sales and Goodwills for Lacy Spacy Out-of-this-World doll.

   

You can find some more info about Spectra and her futuristic friends here:

• Ghost of the Doll
• Mod Colors of Barbie (check out the awesome official Barbie space outfits too!)
• In The 80s