Customer Reviews

Boys' Toys of the 70's & 80's: Toy Pages From the Legendary Sears Christmas Wishbooks 1970-1989

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this book last weekend at the Universal Citywalk (L.A.) in one of their stores. As an 80s kid (DOB 1970) and a terminal 80s freak, you best believe I snatched this book up like a Rubik's Cube. I was ready for heaven.

Now the cool thing is, someone out there took their time to compile images from actual Sears catalogs, which is awesome. Sears was a total icon of my childhood in the 70s and 80s, and page after page was filled to the rim with all the toys I had and wished I had back then. Millenium Falcons, BMX bikes, tanks and trucks...*sigh*

But the sucky thing is, someone out there took their time to compile images from actual Sears catalogs and DIDN'T print them in COLOR like they originally were...which ultimately led me to leave the book behind. The whole darn book was in Black & White, and not of the best print quality. I mean, c'mon, they even show a sample page from a Sears catalog on the back of the book, in all its full-color glossy glory. Why couldn't they bring that color and gloss into the book itself?

It was quite odd to see a book done with a slick, heavy full-color cover, with cheap and poorly printed pages within. Trust me, at 34 years old, I'm still a tremendous kid at heart and go on constant nostalgic rampages. You'll still find my dear wife dragging me from Toys R Us aisles with me going "But you said I could have one! Please please pleasse? Just one toy!!" So one would think that this book would've been the ultimate treasure for someone like me.

Well, it would've. If only it was in living color! DANG!!

Upon finding this book on Amazon, I was estatic!...having been a child of the 70's, but when I went "inside" the book was in black & white!. What a disappointment. I hope the author will consider re-releasing it in color, he would sell more copies.

I ordered this on Amazon, just received it, and was very excited until I opened the book and saw that all the pages were in a very low quality black and white print(more like a grey and white). My guess is that they didn't want people scanning or photocopying the pages. Maybe they thought this would cut down on people copying the pages, but what a let down! It is also incomplete! I do have some original Sears Christmas Catalogs that I ordered on Ebay and that is a much better way to go. Would have gotten five stars if it had color pages and was more complete! I DO NOT recommend this book. Buy the Totally Tubular 80's Toys book instead!

I bought this book to reminisce about my child hood - and to get more material about for a price guide I did for Aurora Postage Stamp Train collectors. This book is a great reference for the model train collector showing some of the train sets that where exclusive to Sears.

I agree with the comments above. Book is decent and somewhat informative but everything being in black and white was a big letdown. Also, they tend to focus just on Star Wars. Maybe the author was a fan? It's an "ok" book, it may be worth seeking out old Sears catalogs on Ebay though.

I just saw this book and was freaking out thinking i had found the ultimate time machine to my childhood, then i read the reviews to see the pictures are in black and white and not color as they appeared in the catalog!Why would any company take the time to do such a cool book and print in black and white?Hopefully there is a master copy of the book out there somewhere and another company will purchase the rights and print it in color!