Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Toy Chest Tuesday! Sweet Secrets!

Cue the music! Let in the marching band! Light the fireworks! It is time for an all new Toy Chest Tuesday! The New Year is bringing forth all new toy flashbacks that will make your head spin! So let's get started. Today's Toy Chest deals with a toy line that I just loved collecting as a kid. Sweet Secrets was one of those lines that had everything: packaging I could look at for hours, cute looking toys that went from humans to cute little animals, and a world of imagination at my fingertips. I mean there was just so much to like.

Released by Galoob in the 80's, Sweet Secrets were called "adorable transformables." They were basically Transformers for girls. Unlike Transformers though, Sweet Secrets were all about various themes. Like there was a stationary wave where notepads turned into cute little play sets while the accompanying pen would turn into a fun character. Most of the waves involved toy jewelry becoming a cute figure to play with. One such wave of Sweet Secrets was the Electronic Rock 'n Lockets set. So let's check out some pictures!

The Rock 'n Lockets came out towards the end of the Sweet Secrets run and each character transformed into a musical instrument that played music and could be worn as a necklace or bracelet. Oh and the best part was that the characters looked like a fun New Wave band. But let's just check out the packaging. It was very simple. I find it so funny how toys are packaged these days. Now there are so many layers of plastic and other deterrents from actually removing the toy and back then it was just a simple bubble. Nothing else. And aside from that, I do have to say that the font for Sweet Secrets is one of my favorites. I love the way the letters look with the pink and yellow outline. Of course all the pink doesn't hurt either.

This gal's name was Beata Drum, a very clever play on music fun. She had "loud" makeup but her hair was the best. It was hard to capture a picture of it, but there is this big mane of purple hair with some lighter purple tufts of hair at the sides. It had a very Jem and the Holograms feel to it. And as for the song that Beata Drum played, well don't get too excited, it was just a simple rendition of Happy Birthday. Totally rock 'n roll.

The other items to collect in this series were equally cool. There were only three toys to collect and I wish there had been more. The possibilities could have gone on and on. There could have been a cool sound stage play set along with other types of transformable musical equipment, like speakers or a microphone.

This picture shows a slight better version of Beata's hair. There was also a little diagram that explained how Beata Drum's transforming feature worked. The other two characters were slightly different. Struma Guitar and Tickle A. Keyboard each had a cool star on their cheeks as opposed to the different hair like Beata Drum. Each instrument also had a wild and zany design sticker too. I just love how these look. If Tickle A. Keyboard seems familiar, she should be. She has been featured as part of a "Best of" Toy Chest Compilation in the past.
 
Tickle A. Keyboard has a very interesting story. I had a good number of Sweet Secrets. I loved these and thought they were so much fun, but many of them have been lost through the course of time. (Damn time.) So a few years ago I stumbled upon Tickle by strange coincidence.  I had long searched for this old toy, but had basically given up on it. Anyways, this story occurred a few years ago. (Isn't there always a story involved with one of my old toys?) So I was helping my mom in the kitchen. We were going through the kitchen cabinets and trying to find old antique plates and all kinds of other stuff at the very top kitchen shelves that had not been used in a long while. Well I was taking some old plates down and low and behold, Miss Keyboard was just loungin' around on a plate! She had been there for a very long time.

Apparently ages ago I did something incredibly rotten to annoy my mom and as punishment she took the Sweet Secret and placed her in the cabinet! We must have both forgotten about her when I finally decided to act better! Who would have thought I'd find her so many years later? This makes me wonder what else I have owned that got taken away and hidden somewhere. What a mess. The saddest thing of all is that I have so much old crap on my check list that there is no telling where everything could actually be. (I mean I'm not the only one with a check list right? The old toy check list wherein I have to find certain things that are still missing from my convoluted youth? You all do this, right?)

Here is what Tickle A. Keyboard looks like all folded up. I'm missing the string to loop through on the back, but I think it is a fun little toy. One of the keys is the button for the music. I need to purchase some batteries to see if the music still works.
 
The history of this line was very interesting as well. Galoob ended the Sweet Secrets line by the end of the 80's, but from my searches on the secondary market, it appears that there was a toy company that reissued some of the older Sweet Secrets items in the mid to late 90's, but I have not found much information on that. Nor do I even recall seeing this line of reissues in stores. And Sweet Secrets were brought back in an updated sort of way about four or five years ago. They were not able to hold the same charm as these older and far superior Sweet Secrets though!
 
So that is about it for talk of Sweet Secrets. They will more than likely make another appearance in a future Toy Chest Tuesday, but for now just enjoy the Sweet Secrets Rock 'n Lockets! Did anyone else have these or remember them? Let the toy talk commence! And be sure to keep it here, there is more fun right around the corner!
 
 

14 comments:

  1. I remember these again something i think my sister might of had or perhaps even one of our cousins. Never thought of them as "Transformers for Girls" but it does make them that much cooler to me now lol.

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    1. Well and I guess I should be careful with calling it Transformers for girls, because there are plenty of girls who love Transformers. but it had that transforming element that was marketed for girls. I mean I liked Transformers too, but Sweet Secrets was so much fun.

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  2. Oh my GAWD I remember these things! You just dropped a huge nostalgia bomb on me. I'm pretty sure I had some of these as a little girl. I seem to remember ones that had plastic jewels on their round tummy-parts that opened up to reveal...something. I don't remember. o_O I just love the fact that one chick with the hot pink hair is rocking a keytar. If that is not the essence of the 1980s, I don't know what is.

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    1. Yes some did have the plastic jewels on their tummy parts. I think that some had secrets while others just had the jewel, like the pens and stationary sets. And the keytar toy is totally full of the 80's essence!

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  3. Pretty cool ! Just not a fan of the eyes .... they look baked ! Awesome story about finding the one on the shelf, that is a claasic memory !

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    1. The eyes do sort of have that baked expression. And classic toy memories are always the best! lol

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  4. Haha, she does look baked. How funny. I don't know about checklists Miss M, but I have a spreadsheet for every collection I have. I'm in the process of hyperlinking in photos of my figures to their respective lines in each spreadsheet. I'm really not as nerdy as that sounded. Well, let's just say I can hide my nerdside when I need to >.> These toys look very cool, I'm with JBoy - associating them with Transformers ups the cool factor, but reading about how passionate you were (and are) about them is what's really cool. I love the passion in collecting! Take it easy Miss M!

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    1. Oh wow! That spreadsheet idea sounds really cool! I would love to do something like that, but I need to have things more organized first. And I have some very fond memories of Sweet Secrets. Pretty much everything in my collection stirs up something passionate in me, so I am not really sure what to make of all that. lol

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  5. Yeah Toy chests are back!!! I never heard about them, but those Rock 'n Lockets looks pretty cool!! And the "plates" story is great it reminds me when i found an old Superman action figure inside my dad's old coat pocket.
    Another great post Miss M!!!

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    1. Oh my goodness Nastyroker! Now your story sounds like a cool story! I love that you found your old Superman action figure! I hope you are doing well.

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  6. Youre gonna make me want one for my 80s collection...

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    1. Oh you must have one to add to your collection! These are truly the best.

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    2. I must! But I don't even have a Wee Wild Thing yet, LOL!

      (And truth be told, I always thought Sweet Secrets were kinda cute even as a kid...)

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    3. Sweet Secrets were so cute. And we have got to find a way to get you a Wee Wild Thing! Those were the best too! : )

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