Bouncin’ #ThrowbackThursday

They will move into your heart, and give love right from the start, Throwback Thursday! Throwback Thursday!

File today’s commercial – and it’s jingle – under Repressed Childhood Memories, in the subfile where sugary sweet commercial jingles reside. This one seriously pushed its way back into my consciousness after so many years buried away.

And now, my torture is your torture. Because love.

Today’s commercial comes to us from the magical years of 1988-1989, and for a series of small dolls by Galoob that did cute things when you put batteries in their back and do a specific motion to activate their Secret Baby Powers. But the commercial doesn’t tell you that; instead, they throw this earworm at you, sung by a trio of party dress-wearing girls with perfect hair. Seriously, did toymakers think we all dressed like this when we played with dolls? I mean, I wore stuff like this to Kindergarten, but when it came time to play with my dolls, I didn’t wear dresses, my dolls did.

But hey, follow the bouncin’ ball, and sing along!

It’s a happy song, trust me!

From Galoob!

Help me please!

Bouncin’ Babies were manufactured by Galoob between 1988 and 1990, one of several versions that included Bouncin’ Kids, Princesses, Big Sisters and Ponies.

Bouncin’ Babies stood between 6-7 inches tall, came fully dressed, and with a small playset. There were four original dolls – Crawlin’, Cuddly, Fussin’, and Walkin’, with three additional Babies added – Roll Over, Peek-A-Boo, and Bouncin’ Twins, which was the pre-existing Walkin’ Baby accompanied by a new addition, Playful Baby.

To activate their Secret Baby Powers, you tilted the head on the Crawlin’ Baby, Pull the pacifier out of Cuddly Baby’s mouth to get her to turn her head, pull the pacifier out of Fussy Baby’s Mouth to make her fuss, and tilt Walkin’ Baby’s head to get her moving in her walker.

In addition to these, three more harder-to-find additions included Drink ‘n Wet, Drink ‘n Cry, and according to Ghost of the Doll, an unknown baby. The four original dolls in the series are covered, but I’ve seen variants of this commercial that show the separate playsets.

Bouncin’ Babies, and all of its associated lines, ended in 1990. Commercials are incredibly difficult to find for the majority of the lines, but the ones I’ve been able to find have this sugary sweet, somewhat unintelligible song that I’ve been trying to decipher for several hours over the course of several days.

I didn’t actually own any of these dolls, but in the course of my research, it turns out that I did, in fact, own a “Bouncin'” doll from one of the variant lines. It turns out I actually owned one of the Bouncin’ Princesses.

I’ll explain.

So I’d been looking at one point for a small doll I had, whose tiara lit up if you brushed her hair. Every Google search I made turned up nothing…until this chance occurrence that I wanted to write an article about Bouncin’ Babies.

I believe this was the one I had – Princess Pearl. I remember that brown hair!

Image: Ghost of the Doll

She just looks so familiar, right down to the light up crown. I remember having a doll like this, and losing her in either a bedroom cleanout or move. I don’t remember which, but I remember not having this doll for that long. I think I got a replacement, though. It’s been over thirty years, so it is hard to remember, but I just remember brushing the hair and loving the tiara lighting up!

I tried looking for a commercial on Bouncin’ Princesses, but that’s a strange rabbit hole no one wants to go down. Let’s just say weird Disney Princess videos pop up on YouTube, and not all of them have to do with “Disney Princess Inflatable Bounce Houses.”

However, my search through my own archives turned up an additional “Bouncin'” doll variant, the subject of…tomorrow’s commercial!

Until then…everybody sing!

NOOOOOOOOOO!

Have a great Throwback Thursday!

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