{"id":1019,"date":"2013-12-16T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=1019"},"modified":"2013-12-16T13:14:03","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T18:14:03","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-benjs-1989-christmas-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/1019\/retro-scan-of-the-week-benjs-1989-christmas-list","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> Benj&#8217;s 1989 Christmas List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/benj_xmas_list_1989_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/benj_xmas_list_1989_small.jpg\" alt=\"Benj Edwards 1989 Christmas List Xmas List scan - 1989\" class=\"centered\"\/><\/a><span class=\"freecaption\"><em>An early example of the rustic illustrated Christmas list<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While sorting through my childhood papers and effects recently, I came across this amusing Christmas list from 1989.  I was eight years old then, and I apparently ripped out pictures of the toys I wanted from weekly newspaper advertisements and pasted them on a sheet of 8.5&#8243;x 11&#8243; wide-ruled notebook paper.  The result was a rare illustrated Christmas list that I don&#8217;t remember making before or since.<\/p>\n<p>(I&#8217;m not sure why there is a big chunk of the page missing in the upper-right corner, by the way.  Perhaps I changed my mind on some item and physically removed it from my list.)<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s notable for our purposes is the healthy contingent of video game related items on the list.  There&#8217;s a wireless remote for the NES, a Game Boy (which had just been released that year), and even a Sega Master System.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>My brother and I already had a NES at that time, so the presence of the Master System here confused me upon rediscovering this list.  But then I remembered that I always saw it in catalogs and wanted one because it looked cool.  I guess my love for collecting consoles extends back further than I thought.<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the Lobo IX RC car, which I am guessing is not pictured because it was only in the Sears or JC Penney toy catalog, and I didn&#8217;t want to rip that up.  The Batwing toy corresponded with the release of Tim Burton&#8217;s <em>Batman<\/em> during the summer of that year.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the full list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Acclaim Wireless Infrared Remote Controller for NES<\/li>\n<li>Lobo IX Remote Controlled Car<\/li>\n<li>Batwing toy<\/li>\n<li>G.I. Joe Figures<\/li>\n<li>Sega Master System<\/li>\n<li>Nintendo Game Boy<\/li>\n<li><em>Super Mario Land<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I received only two of those items for Christmas that year: the Batwing toy and some G.I. Joe figures.  My dad bought me a used Game Boy at a flea market during the summer of 1990, if I recall correctly, and I finally got my hands on a Master System during my early collecting years &#8212; somewhere around 1994-95.<\/p>\n<p>But I still don&#8217;t have a Lobo IX RC car, and I&#8217;m fine with that.<\/p>\n<p><center><em>[ From Benj&#8217;s Christmas List (Vol. 1, Chapter IX), 1989 ]<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong> Which game consoles have you received as Christmas presents &#8212; and when?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An early example of the rustic illustrated Christmas list While sorting through my childhood papers and effects recently, I came across this amusing Christmas list from 1989. I was eight years old then, and I apparently ripped out pictures of the toys I wanted from weekly newspaper advertisements and pasted them on a sheet of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,43,13,22,27,26,9,10],"tags":[247,722,721,719,303,718,162,723,724,143,720,60,198,725],"class_list":["post-1019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-info-and-history","category-electronic-toys","category-video-game-info-and-history","category-nes-famicom","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-retrogaming","category-computers","tag-acclaim","tag-batman","tag-batwing","tag-benj","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-list","tag-game-boy","tag-gi-joe","tag-master-system","tag-nintendo","tag-remote-controller","tag-retro-scan","tag-sega","tag-super-mario-land"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}