Back in my junior high and high school days, I made a lot of mistakes. While I paid for most of them, one for which I escaped judgment was shoplifting. We had a small store in my hometown called Sprouse-Reitz, and obviously, the only reason I ever went in there was to check out the toy aisle. I was a Transformers kid through and through, but there was one line of toys that always caught my attention for their size, as I could jam them in a pocket once I tore them from the packaging. I swear I only did it a few times before an employee stalking me through the store scared me off, but I did make off with a few Pocket Power toys.
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| (Photo Courtesy: Facebook.com -NOTE: Not the one in my hometown.) |
Pocket Power was a line of toys created in 1988 by Sega and distributed by Tyco. The allure of Pocket Power was its size: roughly the dimensions of a stack of credit cards. Some were thicker than others, but they all fit easily in just about any pocket. While the card shape mainly acted as a case for the actual toy, the variety of toys inside made sure any kid could find a favorite.
The first wave included two different guns that shot rubber bullets, four rip-cord vehicles, a top spinner, a car launcher with barrels to crash into, a military weapon system, and a posable glow-in-the-dark skeleton with armor and weapons. Included in the second wave were a baseball game, a pull-back motorized speedboat, two more rip-cord vehicles, a squirt gun that could spray in three different directions, and a survival tool. The final wave featured a bowling game and three pullback vehicles: a car, a submarine, and a skateboard with a little figure. The Pocket Power Toys website has images and descriptions of each of the toys, along with video reviews for some of them. Images for this article all come from there, and I appreciate all the work that was done to document them.
My favorite thing about them is how multi-functional some of them were. The military-themed playset included spring-loaded missiles but was actually a stationery set in disguise. The missiles were tipped with erasers; the launcher housed a pen; the base hid a combination stencil and ruler. It even included a grenade-shaped pencil sharpener. Sega could have easily just kept the set as a buildable missile launcher, but hiding all the writing tools in there was a real surprise.
The survival tool was also impressive. It managed to fit in an adjustable telescope, a compass, a whistle, a light reflector, a small ruler, and a level gauge. The reflector is a somewhat mirrored surface for Morse code signaling, and on the back of the device, there’s a reference sheet. I don’t know if I’d want my life to depend on this device in the wild, but as a Cub Scout, I could appreciate all it could do. Yeah, that’s right, I was a Cub Scout, but I dropped out way before I turned to a life of crime.
I do remember nabbing both of these sets and one of the rip-cord toys, most likely the helicopter in the first series, along with one of the guns, though I can’t remember which. I am not proud of how I attained them, but I really enjoyed trying these toys out. They would have absolutely been worth the money if I had just paid for them. Toys are a lot more fun guilt-free, let me tell you.
Unfortunately, I can’t formally apologize for my teenage actions. The Sprouse-Reitz chain of stores went out of business in 1993, but I don’t think the Fallon store lasted even that long. After its closure, a JCPenney opened and closed in that location in quick succession. Next, it became a clothing store called The Hub, which was famously linked to John Wayne Bobbitt (you know the one) when he and four other men were caught stealing $140,000 worth of merchandise. At least I can say I wasn’t the worst offender at that particular location.
If you ever want to find one of the Pocket Power toys now, they go for a decent amount on the secondary market. One of the most sought-after is Glo-Bones, especially if you want a complete set. Right now, even missing a few accessories, one set is going for $170! I’m not sure what happened to the sets I stole, but the idea of selling those on eBay makes me feel even worse than I already did.
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