Alvin and the Chipmunks. Oh those little critters have been in our pop culture conscious for quite awhile. I can't say that I am gaga over their latest turn at the movie multiplex, but I am very fond of their old cartoon from the 80's. Alvin and the Chipmunks lasted for quite awhile. The new cartoon aired in 1983 and lasted until about 1990 I believe. It was a fun show with a really great catchy theme song. However the most notable addition to this show that had me super thrilled was the Chipettes. As evidenced by this blogs title, I am a sucker for putting an "ette" at the end of things. The Chipettes were just great.
What was even better was the various toys and items that were made to celebrate this cartoon. At the end of the Chipmunks run, McDonald's released a very cool Happy Meal line up that was the perfect blend of Chipmunk mania and kitschy cool music. Let's look!
Simon with Video Camera
Here is the card that came with Simon. I really loved the paper cards that came with older Happy Meal toys. For junky gals like me who love packaging as much as the toy it is a nice additional piece.
So here is Simon. Each figure was a soft rubbery pvc and along with their usual sweater outfit, the figures also had some outrageous looking extra piece. Simon had a very interesting yellow jacket on. He was my second favorite Chipmunk. I loved his nerdy side and the glasses.
Theodore with Rap Machine
So Theodore came with a rap machine. And a really cute tuxedo.
The star glasses really let everyone know that Theodore was truly the hidden star of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Theodore was my favorite Chipmunk. I thought he was just the cutest. And as a fellow lover of food, I just feel that Theodore and I would be the best of friends in real life. If I ever wanted to be friends with a talking chipmunk.
Brittany with Juke Box
And here we have Brittany, the only Chipette that made it into the Happy Meal line. I personally would have loved to see the rest of the Chipettes getting their chance at figure form too!
Brittany was one of my favorite Chipettes. Actually all three Chipettes were my favorite, because I just thought they were the coolest. I mean as a dorkette, I totally realize that I am biased in my attitude towards the Chipettes, but they were just fantastic! They always seemed slightly more independent and interested compared to the Chipmunks. There guardian was kinda cruel and I always seem to remember them living on their own. I just have a lot of fond memories of that show and am glad to have these old toys.
Did anyone else like the 80's cartoon? What about the Chipettes? There were other items released during the span of this cartoon that were really fun, but also kinda hard to find. Anyways, I hope this Toy Chest Tuesdays sees you all well. And remember, there are just a couple more Toy Chest Tuesdays before a brief break. Then the new year starts and there will be all kinds of good stuff ahead! (I hope.) Take care everyone!
Great blog! I LOVED the Chipmunks and the cartoon show was awesome - I still have my Chipmunk Fan Club Membership Card and a few of the club newsletters floating around. Always surprised me there weren't more Chipmunk toys at the time considering how popular they were plus the number of licensed toys in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteThank you PC! I'm glad you found this place! And the Chipmunks totally deserved more merchandise. But then again, that is usually my answer to everything. lol
DeleteNever was a big fan of these guys or the California Raisins for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI was only mildly interested in the California Raisins. They were cute, but I was all about the Chipettes. lol
DeleteI loved the Chipmunks when I was young, I remember "The Alvin Show"--including the theme song--"it'ssssssss, theeeeeeeee, Alvin Show, the Alvin Show..." I'll stop!!! I think that was from the early 60's but it was on in the 80's. I also watched Alvin and The Chipmunks until it left the airwaves in the early 90's--there was some syndication if I remember correctly and re-runs ran a muck for a bit at the least.
ReplyDeleteBrittany, Eleanore and Jeanette were taken care of by Miss Miller after a lot of issues with them not having parents, but they had Miss Grudge in the orphanage who wanted to use them for their talents.
I remember their first episode well, they were going to perform as "The Chipmunks" at the same place as Alvin and his bros and so they had a challenge for the name and the girls won, then got booed off the stage until Alvin and the boys "saved" them.
I recall some figurines, dolls and a few other toys, but not much as you said.
"They" should put the entire series on DVD already, you'd think the crappy movies would have made that happen by now.
Oh well, what can you do?
Ya know I remember seeing the older show after the new one aired in the 80's and I remember it just blew my 4 year old mind that the Chipmunks already had another show before that. And there were some other toys, like some small pvc figures and some poseable figures like the CPK from last Toy Chest. But they are hard to find.
DeleteI did recently buy a Chipettes dvd that had like 5 or so episodes. There are some dvds with the cartoons, but I agree, there needs to be a full release on the show. I would love that!
Two words: "Chipmunk Punk"-there was an actual album released of Chipmunk versions of New Wave,pop punk and power pop songs by bands like the Cars, Blondie, The Knack. I still need to get a copy of that on vinyl. That and "Christmas with Colonel Sanders" ..but that's..another story. "Turn around, tell me what you seeeee-eee" sorry, I digress. But isn't if funny how "the Never Ending Story" basically pretty much... ENDS! Kinda fell short of the title didn't it?... now I'm way off topic!
ReplyDeleteAnyway,hands down the funniest frickin' thing about these Happy Meal toys is that Theodore comes with a RAP MACHINE! How could you have written about these and not put at least a thousand exclamation points after you wrote "rap machine" ? I mean, I don't know a lot about rap, but aren't those called turntables? Do rappers refer to them as "rap machines" ? Like does Dr. Dre say, "I'm gonna school you mutha fuckuh's! Just let me get my rap machine!"
I will be laughing a good long time about that terminology. I'm going to start calling my guitar my "rock machine".
Ok so I need to search for this Chipmunk Punk music, because that sounds amazing. And the Neverending Story... I never really got into those movies. I saw them when i was little, but I dunno, they just never stuck with me. I know that I have angered the pop culture gods somehow, but maybe I need to rewatch them again. There were 2 right?
DeleteAnd I wanted to make a joke about the rap machine, but I really thought I'd let the picture do the work for me. I mean, that has got to be the silliest name ever. I guess McDonald's thought rap machine would make more sense to a child, but what better way to create musical awareness than by using the actual name. All I know is that Theodore has no street cred.
As far as anyone needs to know there are only two Never ending Story Movies- technically there are three, but the third one came out way later and when my friends and I watched it in high school our commentary was to throw the movie into my friends driveway and then run it over with his car. I shit you not.
DeleteMaybe it was just because I really, really like the first one. But beware if you watch it, because if you are a sensitive type, you may find yourself weeping uncontrollably at the infamous "horse scene."
Here is a link to "Chipmunk Punk" wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipmunk_Punk
I get that New Wave was kind of a way for record company's to sell punk to the masses-so I am OK with the cars, Blondie and the Knack being on a record with the punk label but I really don't get the inclusion of Queen and Billy Joel. That may be good music but it is certainly not punk music. I guess some people called Tom Petty New Wave when he came out so I will let that slide even though I never classified him as such.
The Shangri-La's huh? Do you listen to a lot of 60's music or just the girl groups? You have never really told us what kind of music you like.
Oh I really need to catch up on things with the Neverending Story. I also love that your idea of commentary for the third movie was to run it over. lol And I have never really thought of Queen and Billy Joal as new Wave. Maybe back then that is what folks thought would be New Wave, not really having a clue?
DeleteAnd I do listen to some 60's music, mostly the girl groups. The Crystals are probably my favorite from that decade. AS for my music tastes, I love a lot of music. It is really hard to pin point exactly what I like. It encompasses a lot. What about you?
Oh Miss M, you need to check out the first Neverending Story. I never saw the second one, I heard it sucked. If you watch it through the eyes of your 6 year old self - it would no doubt be even cooler.
ReplyDeleteI had all of the Chipmunk action figures. I don't remember who made them, but I do recall some of them had real cloth outfits. I guess that means I had even MORE girl toys than I confessed prior because I had the Chipettes too!
Well wow, I think I'm going to need to rewatch the Neverending Story. I need to see just exactly why I never geeked out over it.
DeleteAnd you are so lucky that you had some of the Chipmunk figures! That is awesome! And don't worry about being a guy and owning some girl toys. It was the 80s. I mean I made my parents buy me some boy toys. I think that just shows how awesome everything was back then. Ya know?
You must not have had the Disney Channel is the 80' because they were bound by law during that time period to air Never Ending story at least twelve times a week.
ReplyDeleteThe first one truly is worth geeking out over, with great lines like -"ATREEYYUUU!" and "they look like such big strong hands." (has to be seen to be appreciated)
but actually seeing it through the eyes of a six year old it's actually pretty scary. Basically the concept is that the world is being devoured by an all consuming "nothing" and it's servant is this terrifying wolf -but even the good characters are pretty freaky looking. Second one is OK, third one is the mouth of hell itself. I recommend everyone run it over with their car.
I play in a power pop/punk pop band and I listen to a lot of that kind of stuff -if it's catchy and simple and melodic rock n roll I like it(especially if it has a sense of humor) most of my tastes revolve around that basic concept so I like stuff like the Ramones,Cheap Trick, Undetones, Buzzcocks the knack etc. and all the bands in the power pop or poppy punk vein. I could go on for years naming bands but a lot of the ones I like are pretty obscure. My favorite band is called the Mr. T Experience -they started in Berkely in the 80's-very poppy punky three chord songs about girls. Literally nearly every song they did was about a girl which inspired my band to only write songs about girls. I think I'm going solo now though because the other band members have wives kids etc. now.
I still only write girl songs though! You would think it would be tough to be confined to one topic like that but I never seem to run out of material.
I don't think we had Disney Channel growing up. I watched shows like Ducktails and Darkwing Duck, but I think that was regular tv. Your band sounds cool though! And writing about girls, well I mean that makes sense. I mean I could see how the well would never run dry. That is really cool though. So on top of your art, you will have to also share your music on your new blogsite too!
DeleteDarkwing and Ducktales and talespin , chip n dale etc. were part of a block called the "Disney Afternoon" it was a syndicated block of Disney animated shows. Ours aired on our local channel 43-and it later on had shows like Goof Troop and Bonkers.
ReplyDeleteI might save the music for a different site-the comic thing is so vast I have to compartmentalize the different things I do.I'll make a site for the music and a site for the comics.
Now-not to be offensive, but I just thought of this a bit ago-I have only seen just the one pic of you, but from what I have seen you kind of look a bit like Brittany Chipmunk! That is not meant as an insult-if you are going to look like one of the Chippettes Brittany is the one you would want to look like. She is a very pretty chipmunk-now I may be wrong because I've only seen the one pic - maybe if you do that vid of you talking about She-Ra and then getting the hook I will be able to judge better ,anyway, interesting I just made the Brittany connection now and you've had this chipmunk post up for like a week!
Ok so that makes sense. In that case, I did not have the Disney channel, but I did watch those shows on regular tv. I feel like my parents did have cable, but for some reason I just never really watched the disney channel.
DeleteAnd a music site sounds really good! You will be busy!
And I don't find that offensive that you think I look like Brittany. Back in the day when I used to wear really big glasses I probably looked more like Jeanette. And I do have another picture of mine on my twitter profile. Which can be seen here- https://twitter.com/dorkettetweets And I have posted other pictures of myself in a couple posts, but I'd need to go back and remember which ones those are. I have also been thinking more about a video, but I just havent done it yet.
oh and one more thing-I finally got my first issue of Justice League in the mail! I have never subscribed to a comic book in my life-because when I was a kid it cost too much money,but I am all grown up now! I can drink beer and subscribe to comics! it's a good feeling. the new issue is about Cheetah and there are some really cute moments between Superman and Wonder Woman. I am really liking that couple!
ReplyDeleteOh I know! I am actually really enjoying this story. I can't believe I am liking it so much. I am very curious to see what happens with Superman and Wonder Woman. It makes for a very interesting relationship. I haven't read the latest issue yet, but it is on my list.
DeleteLove Alvin and the Chipmunks, they were always a favourite of mine as a child and now I watch them again with my 5 year old cousin and he loves them too.
ReplyDeleteI know! I just recently bought the Chipette Diaries on dvd and it has about 5 episodes or so on it. So I am looking forward to watching it. I loved those old episodes.
DeleteYeah the Chipmunks! Great memories watching the Chipmunks cartoons! Didn't know they're on a Happy Meal. Sorry can't remember the Chipettes, I think they're never been released in Spain. Good one Miss M!
ReplyDeleteHey Nastyroker! Oh you have got to watch some of the old shows with the Chipettes. They were the best. And these toys were released in 1990 at the end of the popularity of the Chipmunks from that era. I hate that they weren't released in Spain! These would have been great to add to your collection.
DeleteFunny I ran across your website, I just found a Simon with camra still in original package. How much is it worth if I sell it.
ReplyDeleteWell welcome Danny! Glad you ran across this little spot on the Internet. And in terms of selling the Simon with the camera in package, that has been a fairly common one to find. I mean this whole set is rare regardless, but I feel like I have come across more Simon and Alvin sets than the other two offerings. I would say, depending on the shape of the bag, I'd sell it from 5 to 15 dollars. I think I paid 14.99 for the set of three above, but the bags were crinkly and they may have been stored in a heated area. However, these are really rare in new condition. If someone is willing to pay that much then go for it, but if you find that it is just too much, than maybe a lower price will do.
DeleteI tried looking around on ebay, and I could not find any as a price reference. But I have usually seen them in the 5 to 15 dollar range.