Constructor: Randolph Ross
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (9-something)
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THEME: AIM LOW ... just kidding, it's actually "Toy Story" — popular toys of yore, such as one might have received on CHRISTMAS (65A: Day to play with new toys)
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Theme answers:
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What a depressingly unambitious puzzle. I am once again stunned with what veteran constructors can get away with. Must be nice. There's nothing here. It's a bunch of old toys. The. End. "Toy Story" is a wildly inaccurate name, as there are only the faintest hints of "stories" about these toys, in the clues. And then the revealer is just ... CHRISTMAS? And then on top of all of that, the fill is weak all over the place. This puzzle could've run 20 years ago, with almost no changes, and it would've been sub-remarkable then, too. This is a shrug. It's an insult. Again, I say: this is just a list of popular toys. The revealer is a total thud. The fill is bad. How much do you have to hate Christmas to make let alone publish this? I don't know. This is either the worst kind of cronyism or astonishing editorial malpractice or both. Either way, yikes. The frame of reference is very old, and not just because the toys are old (though that is a lot of it). The creaking quaintness of the fill isn't helping. APEDOM? IRENIC? "ETTA KETT"? Then there's awkward stuff like AT STORES (we say "in stores") and AT A RISK (the "A" was giving me fits, ugh). Also, who cares who founded Investor's Business Daily, what even is that? There are really good O'NEILs in the world! Pick one of them! From stem to stern, this puzzle is just a heap of bad decisions. I love CHRISTMAS! I love toys! I'm sure it's fun to reminisce about toys, but, you know, run a little feature in the Arts section if that's what you want to do. If you want to turn the concept of "Toys through the years..." into a crossword, you need a hook, an actual *puzzle* concept, something ... well, something more than this.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (9-something)
Theme answers:
- BARBIE DOLL (22A: She debuted on March 9, 1959, in a black-and-white striped swimsuit)
- TAMAGOTCHI (24A: Virtual pet simulation game that won an Ig Nobel prize for its Japanese creators)
- ETCH A SKETCH (39A: Toy that was originally called "L'Écran Magique" ("The Magic Screen"))
- TWISTER (57A: Game that got a big boost when Johnny Carson demonstrated it with Eva Gabor on "The Tonight Show")
- PLAY DOH (78A: Toy that was derived from a wallpaper cleaner)
- CHATTY CATHY (95A: Toy with 18 spoken phrases, including "I love you" and "May I have a cookie?")
- RUBIK'S CUBE (111A: Puzzle toy solved in a record 3.47 seconds in 2018)
- SILLY PUTTY (114A: Toy that astronauts brought to space to secure tools in zero gravity)
- MR. POTATO HEAD (38D: First toy to be advertised on TV)
- CANDYLAND (46D: Its box once read "A sweet little game for sweet little folks")
- COZY COUPE (!?!?!?!?!) (48D: Toy that sold more cars in American in 1991 than the Honda Accord or Ford Taurus)
- TICKLE-ME ELMO (33D: By the end of 1996, one million of this toy was sold in a shopping frenzy)
The Cozy Coupe is a red and yellow toy car manufactured and distributed by Little Tikes, an American manufacturer of children's toys based in Hudson, Ohio. [...] First sold in 1979 as one of the first molded-plastic toy cars sold in the United States, it was called the "world's best-selling car for much of this decade" by The New York Times in 1998, outselling the Honda Accord and Ford Taurus. By 1991, the Cozy Coupe was selling 500,000 units per year, making it the top-selling model in the United States, outselling the 399,000 Accords and 299,000 Taurus vehicles sold that year. By 1997, its sales of 313,000 units in the US and another 100,000 sold in the United Kingdom in 1997, would have made it the fifth-best-selling car in the US among real vehicles. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)
• • •
What else to say? Not much. The biggest "??????" of the day by a long shot was COZY COUPE, which I first heard of ... today. Never ever heard of it. Ever. I get that the wikipedia page told you that COZY COUPE outsold Accords and Tauri in the U.S. but I have to insist that as far as Iconic Toys go, this one isn't anywhere near the others on the list. Also, the phrasing on the clue is bizarre: "Toy that sold more cars ..."???? The toy ... *is* the car. The COZY COUPE is not a car salesman. It's a car. [Toy automobile that outsold etc.], that might work. Anyway, not iconic, bad clue, clue language lifted from wikipedia (so, lazy clue). COZY COUPE is the biggest theme loser of the day. I didn't know what IODATE was, but that's pretty typical for me (98A: A halogen-containing salt). Had "I HOPE" for "I'M DUE" (101A: "My luck has to change at some point"). Balked / winced at the -AED ending of SAMBAED, but I guess you gotta spell it that way (107A: Performed a Latin ballroom dance). I'm gonna stop. Gonna go answer the question "Where are the CATS AT?" (96D: Took care of a tabby, say). Gonna ask Santa for much, much better puzzles this week. Take care.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Peter Gordon's Fireball Newsflash Crosswords will be starting a new season in 2021—twenty crosswords over the course of the year with content taken directly from current events. It's a great way to keep abreast of new, potentially crosswordy names before they go mainstream, and Peter's puzzles are always really professional and polished. Get a subscription for yourself or *give one* as a gift to a crossword-lover you know this holiday season. Go here for more details.
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