The company limped along for a few more uninspired years, trying to keep up in the cheap, plasctic future of color TV & Rock'em Sock'em Robots. But if there was a single product that marked, by the laws of toy design physics, that Creative Playthings was not gonna be able to pull out of their accelerating nosedive, it was probably the Shopping Center game.
A board game where you move around to 26 different shops and name a product that starts with whatever letter. And which looks like it was collaged together using the illustrated ads in a 1960s Family Circle magazine.
Which, in a way, technically makes a sealed-in-box version of the game a historical artifact. A Christmas must-have for your American Studies graduate student brother who moved back into your parents' house while he finishes his thesis on Idiocracy.
Very Rare Vintage Game "Shopping Center" imported, W. Germany,1972, New Sealed, first bid, $24.95+7.97 s/h, auction ends Nov. 20 [ebay]
Previously: Oh, wait, I forgot about the Creative Playthings toy executive briefcase