Recently I caught part of a radio report on trendy toys. The story was remembering he frenzy over Cabbage Patch Kids, the soft dolls that became so popular that demand outstripped supply for a couple of years. The story implied that the riots that erupted in stores over the purchase of the toys was one of the first examples of the Black Friday phenomena that has seen outrageous behavior on the part of shoppers. The frenzy over Black Friday television sets has been so extreme at times that people would spend the night waiting in line for retail stores to open on the day after Thanksgiving.

I remember Cabbage Patch Kids. The basic story of the dolls is that the originator and original manufacturers of the toy did not anticipate the demand. For the first few years, it was made by Coleco, a smaller manufacturer. Later the dolls were licensed to Hasbro and after that to Mattel. They are still available, but at least somewhere along the line, manufacturers dropped the signature of Xavier Roberts that was stitched on the backside of each doll. Roberts, the developer of the dolls used a German technique for fabric sculpture called “needle molding” to produce the original dolls. Each doll was distinct from every other doll and unique.

I know exactly when they became popular. It was Christmas of 1983. I remember because our daughter was born in September of that year. I was often up with her in the middle of the night and sometimes I would turn on the television set. I could not believe the furor over the dolls or the behavior of shoppers. There were instances of fights and riots breaking out in stores. One merchant was throwing the dolls at crowds in hopes of getting the aggressive and angry shoppers to leave the building. People were being injured by other shoppers.

I also know that our daughter got a Cabbage Patch doll. I am not exactly sure when that toy came into our household, but I know that we didn’t participate in a riot to get it. What I remember is that the doll was about the same size as our daughter was when we took her home. In fact we had a dress that our daughter wore as an infant that fit the doll.

Ever since Cabbage Patch Kids, toy developers and manufacturers have sought to come out with the current year’s must have toy at Christmas.

One of the next toys to take the holiday season by storm was Tickle Me Elmo. We had one of those in our house, too. Unlike the Cabbage Patch doll, Elmo required batteries. When the belly of the doll was squeezed he giggled in a captivating manner that was quite infectious. The doll also vibrated when it giggled. Our daughter also had a sweater that had a picture of Elmo on it and a hidden pocket that held a small device that made the sound. I had so much fun with that sweater that we kept the device and I used to enjoy putting a fresh battery in it and using it to entertain children for many years after our children were grown.

Somehow our house fortunately bypassed one of the next big fad toys to hit the market. In the late 1990s Furby was the hit for a few Christmas seasons. The radio program commented that Furby is back for Christmas this year. The fuzzy creatures, based on a character in a movie, would randomly begin making sounds that approximated speech, but could not be understood. They were supposed to be speaking “Furbish.” Their language never caught on. There were a lot of original Furbies that had their batteries yanked out in the middle of the night because they wouldn’t stop “talking.” I understand that the 25th anniversary edition of Furby has an on and off switch to address that concern.

Trendy toys continue to show up from time to time. Not every Christmas season produces a must have toy, but there have been several toys since that have netted a lot of profits for manufacturers and merchants. Our kids were old enough that we pretty much escaped the Pokemon craze that erupted about the time they were graduating from high school. A little later it seemed like every kid had to have a Razor scooter. Beyblades, Zhu Zhu Pets, and Hatchimals have all come and gone in popularity. I once read that merchandise based on the Disney film “Frozen” produced a half billion dollars in sales in a single season.

Not every season produces the one big toy that gets all of the attention. There are Christmases when no toy becomes a “must have.”

As parents and now as grandparents, we haven’t been very interested in which toys are the most popular and which are creating the most sensation. Rather we have tried to find toys for the children in our lives that have lasting value. Our grandchildren still play with Lego bricks that were purchased for our son four decades ago. Basic toys such as blocks, dolls, and bikes are a hit with each generation.

Our grandchildren range in age from 12 down to 1 and there are a few toys that have been played with by all five of them. Not long ago I spent some time with the youngest playing with a set of stacking cups that had been a gift to the first of our grandchildren on the occasion of his first birthday. There is also an activity cube in their home that has been played with by all of their children.

I won’t be buying a Furby for any of our grandchildren this year or any other year. I don’t think we’ve got a grandchild who would be interested in a Cabbage Patch Doll. I am, however, kind of hoping that one of our children would think it appropriate for grandpa to buy a Tickle Me Elmo for their child. Maybe that is the kind of toy that needs to live at grandpa’s house.